JF Ptak Science Books  Post 2783

I’ve written a number of posts on poetry found in unusual places: title pages of antiquarian books, technical manuals, unruly translations of commonplace literature, and so on. Here’s another, found in the table of contents for chapter 13 of a translation of Jean-Pierer’s Rambosson’s Histoire des Astres, Astronomie pour Tous. The edition I’m working from here is the illustrated edition of Paris, (1874) with its table of contents printed after the index at the rear of the text; the English translation’s table appears up front, and is pretty much the same as the French original (though the French sounds better).  I’ve got to say that there are some beautiful illustrations in this volume, not the least of which is a bright cross section of the Earth–it has exaggerated surface features out of scale to the rest of the planet to make a point in the text. (If this scale was correct then Vesuvius would be 500 miles in height.)

So, the poetized chapter contents (and the original, at left):

THE STARS. 

Fixed stars, Wandering stars, Number of stars;
The stars seen 
through the telescope, Illusion,
caused by the aspect of the celestial vault.
 
Distance of the stars from the Earth,
Bewildering calculation.
The stars nearest to the Earth, Stars of different 
sizes 
The method of classifying and calculating them;
Number of stars of each order.

The Milky Way,
Its nature and shape from one surprise to another.
The rank occupied by our Sun 
in the creation Incalculable number of suns,
Ideas formerly entertained concerning fixed stars,
General-motion of the whole 
solar system in space.

The laws of attraction in the most remote 
regions of the sky,
Planetary system of the stars,
Double and 
treble stars.
Splendid revelation of spectrum analysis,
Elements of which the stars are composed;
Types to which they appertain Ideas concerning immensity, 
and the stellar bodies which it 
contains. 

Division of the stars into 
constellations 
the constellations in ancient times,
Historical and legendary ideas
Northern constellations situated above the zodiac
Constellations of the 
zodiac, 
Constellations situated below the zodiac ....  

--Full text in English available from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/astronomy00rambiala/astronomy00rambiala_djvu.txt