Handsome prize binding. Sixth edition of one of the most influential books by astronomer John Herschel, in a handsome calf prize binding. This copy was awarded as a junior first class prize for the Oxford local examination by a school in Liverpool.

Author John Herschel (1792-1871) was the son of astronomer William Herschel and himself a respected polymath. Outlines of Astronomy 'was based partly on his earlier and shorter Treatise on Astronomy. Hailed as the definitive presentation of astronomy available in English, Herschel's Outlines had by 1871 gone through eleven editions and also translations into Chinese and Arabic. Changes in these later editions record the evolution of Herschel's thought. For example, in the first edition Herschel, aware of the resolutions of nebulae into stars achieved by Lord Rosse and others, inclined to the view that all nebulae are composed of stars, but in the 1869 edition of Outlines, by then aware that William Huggins had spectroscopically shown the gaseous nature of at least some nebulae, Herschel returned to his father's notion that true nebulosity can and does exist' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Sixth edition; 8vo (21.5 x 13.5 cm); frontispiece and 8 stipple-engraved plates by Henry Adlard, folding chart, numerous engravings within the text, bookplate removed from front pastedown, front free endpaper lacking; contemporary tan calf prize binding, spine elaborately gilt in compartments, red morocco label, double gilt fillets and titles to upper board gilt, marbled endpapers and edges; 714pp.