Captain
A.W.Drayson, The Common Sights in the Heavens London
1862 (selected plates)
There are
several excellent books on the subject which is highly pictorial. One
of the best is Carole Stott's Celestial Charts - Antique maps
of the Heavens, published by Studio in London 1991 and 1995.
There is a rich selection of plates from the collection of the National
Maritime Museum in London.
TOP
ROW
01 from Apianus' Cosmographia, this edition the third
Spanish but published in Antwerp in 1575
02 The first printed Star Atlas, Alessandro Piccolomini, De la
sfera del mondo.... Venice 1540. The author, writing just before
Copernicus' De revolutionibus , was a great and effective populariser
of science.
03 Andreas
Cellarius, Harmonia macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus,
Amsterdam 1708.
04 from
the Royal Encyclopedia 1788 -90
MIDDLE
ROW
01 The Constellations
drawn on the celestial Globe in a Soma version from an ancient Indian
document. From the Hon. Emmaline M.Plunkett, Ancient Calendars
and Constellations, John Murray, London 1903.
02 from
the Royal Encyclopedia 1788 -90
03 Joannes
de Sacrobosco, Sphera volgare ,Venice 1537 translated
by Marco Mauro; a fine production of the classic book, with a good balance
of text and image and a high standard of typography.
04 illustration
from Christopher Cattan, The Geomancie of Maister Christopher
Cattan, Gentleman, Wolfe, London, 1591. From the continents of
Earth through the planets to the Firmament of Stars and to the Crystaline
and First Moveable heaven to the Band of the Blessed Elect.
BOTTOM
ROW
01 from
the Royal Encyclopedia 1788 -90
02 Joannes
de Sacrobosco, Sphera volgare ,Venice 1537 translated
by Marco Mauro; a woodcut of the author with globes and instruments. The
frame is studded with arcane references to the characteristics of the
planetary personifications - Mars and Saturn at the bottom corners for
instance.
03 from
Sebastian Munster, Erklerung des Newe Instrvments...
printed in Worms by Pewter Schoeffer in 1529.
04 from
Sacrobosco's Berrimum Sphere Mundi published by Petit,
Paris 1508.
05 David
Gregory, Astronomiae Physicae & Geometricae Elementa,
Bousquet and Socios Geneva 1726.
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