Cunitz (Cunitia), Maria (c. 1604-1664).

first edition. A remarkable and very rare work by Maria Cunitz, an early female scientist, on the Rudolphine tables. Her husband, Elias von Leuwen (d. 1661), a physician, wrote the preface to this work, in which he was at pains to stress that the work was indeed by his wife rather than him. Her tables are accompanied by a description of their use in both Latin and German.

Maria Cunitz and her husband corresponded with Hevelius, Ismael Boulliau, the French astronomer, and Pierre Desnoyers, amongst others. All her letters to and from these people were destroyed in a fire on 25 May 1656, in which her home, library and equipment, as well as some 200 astronomical observations were also lost.