ITER EXTATICUM CŒLESTE, quo mundi opificium, id est, coelestis expansi, siderumq[ue] tam errantium, quàm fixorum natura, vires, proprietates, singulorumq[ue] compositio & structura, ab infimo Telluris globo, usq[ue] ad ultima Mundi confinia, per ficti raptus integumentum explorata, novâ hypothesi exponitur ad veritatem, interlocutoribus Cosmiele et Theodidacto. In-4, [12] ff.. (incl. frontispiece), 689 pp., [9] ff., engraved title-page, full-page coat of arms of the dedicatee on the verso of the title, 12 copper-engraved plates; contemporary vellum, ms. title stamp, one clasp remaining, blue edges (tiny stain touching some margins, very rare sporadic browning, small cover defects). Genuine beautiful copy. Second edition of this treatise on astronomy, edited by Gaspar Schott (1608-1666), Kircher's disciple, who enlarged it with two of his own writings: Iter exstaticum terrestre, and Synopsis mundi subterranei. The contributions of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) to astronomy are numerous. The first to depict Jupiter and Saturn, he was particularly interested in eclipses and comets, thus providing useful information to J. Hevelius, G. D. Cassini or G. B. Riccioli who gave the name of Kircher to one of the craters of the Moon. The Itinerarium exstaticum, Theodacte’s heavenly ecstatic journey led by the Cosmic Angel into the solar system, first published in Rome in 1656, is a defense of Tycho Brahé’s geocentric system, which reconciles geocentrism and the primordial role accorded to the Sun. Kircher, who tries to accord celestial mechanics to the biblical text, refuses to envisage the real existence of inhabitants on other planets. Therefore, he describes such inhabitants in the allegorical manner: "melancholic" on Saturn, "admirable" on Venus and genius finally reveals that these "inhabitants" are angels. The frontispiece shows the celestial traveller accompanied by his guide in front of Tycho Brahe’s system. Bibliography: Merrill 12 & 14; Caillet 5775; De Backer-Sommervogel IV, 1056-57.14.