Born in rural Scotland in 1710, James Ferguson’s formal education consisted of a mere three months in grammar school. From these modest beginnings, the self-taught polymath became one of the most popular lecturers of the period on scientific subjects. Published in 1756, Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles helped to popularize amateur astronomy with explanations for celestial movements that did not require mathematical expertise and included simple instructions for using a mechanical model of the solar system known as an orrery. The book earned Ferguson election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

The copy open to the title page is a later 1773 edition (not 1663 as erroneously printed in Latin numerals). The other edition on display is the third volume of plates from an 1817 set printed in the United States entitled Ferguson’s Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles with Notes and Supplementary Chapters by David Brewster. An important scientist and editor in Scotland, Brewster would spend decades writing a biography of Newton eventually published in 1855.