Astronomy
In 1865, Rylands built a two-storey observatory at his home in Warrington. From here, he sent regular astronomical observations to the Royal Astronomical Society (he also made notable meteorological contributions to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich).
In 1859 he gave a lecture to the Warrington Mechanics Institute entitled "The moon: its influences real and supposed", in which Radcliffe tells us "he gleaned from the works of old writers" (29). Here again, Rylands was concerned to understand his own studies within the context of a thorough mastery of the history of his subject. And in this endeavour his books were his most important tools. What you see here, is a sample of the early printed books on astronomy and astrology owned by Rylands:
Aristotelian cosmology, which contrasted a central terrestrial region - comprised of the four elements, where there was coming to be and passing away; and an outer celestial region - comprised of imperishable aether, whose spheres generated the cyclic movements of the fixed stars and planets – long dominated Greek, Islamic, and Latin thinking concerning the nature of the universe (Hoskin: 13).
Ptolemy (approx 100-170 AD) later developed a more mathematocal approach to Astronomy. His work, The Almagest - which included a catalogue of over 1000 stars, in 48 constellations, giving the lattitudes and longitudes and brightness of each - was the dominant text in Astronomy well into the medieval period:
