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This is a treatise on European astronomy as practised among the Chinese under the Tartar emperor, Cham-hy (K’ang hi).

The Flemish Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–88), was invited to China to work on the reform of the Chinese calendar, and constructed the instruments shown here for the imperial observatory,  based on those of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Verbiest, who died in Peking in 1688, was sufficiently fluent in Chinese to write a collection of works explaining the construction and use of the instruments. He also compiled astronomical tables showing predictions of planetary movements and solar and lunar eclipses.

Citation:
12. Ferdinand Verbiest, Astronomia Europaea sub Imperatore Tartaro Sinico Cám Hy’. (Dillingen, 1687),
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/567