A DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD, OR A DISCOURSE Tending to prove, That 'tis Probable There may be another Habitable WORLD in the MOON.

London, printed by J. Rawlins for John Gellibrand at the Golden-Ball in St.Pauls Church-yard (MDCLXXXIV) 1684.. TITLE CONTINUED: With a Discourse concerning the Probability of a Passage thither. Unto which is Added, A Discourse Concerning a New Planet. Tending to Prove, That 'tis Probable Our Earth is one of the Planets. IN TWO PARTS. FIFTH EDITION 1684, corrected and Amended. This fifth edition was published without a frontispiece. 8vo, approximately 180 x 110, 7 x 4¼ inches, 17 woodcuts in the text, pages: [8], 1-160; [8], 1-184, bound in full contemporary speckled calf, gilt lettered label to spine, blind decoration to covers, original endpapers with watermark. Binding reback with original spine relaid, new leather visible at head and tail of spine, slight rubbing to covers with slight loss of colour, small narrow repair on blank side to outer edge of title page, small neat repair to tip of lower corner, not affecting text, age-browning to pastedown front and rear, occasional small spot or stain, otherwise a very good clean copy. ESTC R22749; Wing, Volume 3, page 481, No. 2186; George Locke Voyages in Space, page 11 listing the first edition. The earliest work in English to consider the mechanics of space travel. First published in 1638 as 'The Discovery of a Worlde in the Moone' in 1638, Wilkins discusses the controversial question of the motion of the earth and supports the arguments of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo that the earth behaved as other planets, and that the moon is not a shining disk but a world with natural features and the possibility that it might be inhabited. There is a fifth edition copy recorded at auction with a portrait frontispiece and additional engraved title, as in the fourth edition, but ESTC does not state these to be present in this fifth edition. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.