A Treatise of Blazing Starres in Generall.

halley's comet

The rare English language translation of a work mentioning the 1531 appearance of Halley's comet, by the German theologian and Bishop of Vienna Friedrich Nausea (1496-1552) and originally titled Super huis anni post Christus natum M. D. XXXI & quo libet alio cometa exploratio. Only two other copies appear in auction records, sold in 1932 and 1975, and around seventeen are listed in the English Short Title Catalogue (with the imprint in two different states).

The majority of the text is an analysis of comets as portents, including a list of occurrences from the death of Julius Caesar forward. Halley's comet of 1531 is mentioned in the penultimate chapter: 'A questions is asked, what that Blazing starre which was sene in the year 1531 might signifie and to whom it is a foretoken of some evil to ensue. In answering whereunto, I would to God I might not tell the truth so directly... The Blazing starre which appeared, 1531, betokens a heavie burthen of vengeance, not only to the state temporall, but also ecclesiasticall: yea it threatens a plague to the whole world...'

The translator of this work, Abraham Fleming (1552-1607) was a clergyman, author, and literary editor who was associated with at least fifteen printing houses and fifty-seven different works, most notably the second edition of Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

18-leaf pamphlet; woodcut comet to title, woodcut headpiece and initial, loss from the upper corners of the first 3 leaves just touching the text on the verso of the third leaf, dampstain, marks, spotting, and tanning, and creases from folding, and some wax spots to the final leaf of text; later grey paper wrappers, rubbed, marked and worn at the edges, good condition.