BAYER, Johann (1572-1625). Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa . Ulm: Johann Gorlinus, 1639.
BAYER, Johann (1572-1625). Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa . Ulm: Johann Gorlinus, 1639. Broadsheets (387 x 294 mm). Engraved title and 51 engraved plates, each unfolded, pressed and mounted into a 19th century binding of half calf (spine perished). (Some areas of folds reinforced on verso.) Second edition of Bayer's landmark star atlas, after the first edition of 1603. That edition contained a dedication, preface, preliminary verses and corrigenda that are not present in this edition. Bayer's was THE FIRST ACCURATE STAR ATLAS . Earlier star catalogues followed Ptolemy's Almagest in using verbal descriptions to describe the location of stars within the 48 northern constellations of classical astronomy, an awkward system that occasioned constant errors and misapprehensions. Bayer, a lawyer and amateur astronomer, was the first to identify the location of stars within a constellation by the use of Greek letters (with the addition of the Latin alphabet for constellations with more than 24 stars). This simple innovation greatly facilitated the identification of stars with the naked eye, just five or six years before the invention of the telescope, and Bayer's stellar nomenclature is still in use today. Bayer used Brahe's recent observations for the northern sky, and included, in chart 49, twelve new southern constellations observed by the Dutch navigator Pieter Dirckzoon Keyzer and reported by Pedro de Medina To simplify identification of the stars Bayer included in his typographic descriptions both the traditional star numerations within each constellation and the many names for the constellations employed since Ptolemy. The graceful figures of Mair's charts were based on those of Jacobo de Gheyn in Grotius' edition of the Syntagma arateorum (1600). The Uranometria was reprinted again in 1655 and 1661. Copies of this second edition are SCARCE : only two others have sold at auction in the last 35 years according to American Book Prices Current . See Norman 142; Deborah Warner, The sky explored: celestial cartography 1500-1800 pp. 18-19; Zinner 3951.
BAYER, Johann (1572-1625). Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa . Ulm: Johann Gorlinus, 1639.
BAYER, Johann (1572-1625). Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa . Ulm: Johann Gorlinus, 1639. Broadsheets (387 x 294 mm). Engraved title and 51 engraved plates, each unfolded, pressed and mounted into a 19th century binding of half calf (spine perished). (Some areas of folds reinforced on verso.) Second edition of Bayer's landmark star atlas, after the first edition of 1603. That edition contained a dedication, preface, preliminary verses and corrigenda that are not present in this edition. Bayer's was THE FIRST ACCURATE STAR ATLAS . Earlier star catalogues followed Ptolemy's Almagest in using verbal descriptions to describe the location of stars within the 48 northern constellations of classical astronomy, an awkward system that occasioned constant errors and misapprehensions. Bayer, a lawyer and amateur astronomer, was the first to identify the location of stars within a constellation by the use of Greek letters (with the addition of the Latin alphabet for constellations with more than 24 stars). This simple innovation greatly facilitated the identification of stars with the naked eye, just five or six years before the invention of the telescope, and Bayer's stellar nomenclature is still in use today. Bayer used Brahe's recent observations for the northern sky, and included, in chart 49, twelve new southern constellations observed by the Dutch navigator Pieter Dirckzoon Keyzer and reported by Pedro de Medina To simplify identification of the stars Bayer included in his typographic descriptions both the traditional star numerations within each constellation and the many names for the constellations employed since Ptolemy. The graceful figures of Mair's charts were based on those of Jacobo de Gheyn in Grotius' edition of the Syntagma arateorum (1600). The Uranometria was reprinted again in 1655 and 1661. Copies of this second edition are SCARCE : only two others have sold at auction in the last 35 years according to American Book Prices Current . See Norman 142; Deborah Warner, The sky explored: celestial cartography 1500-1800 pp. 18-19; Zinner 3951.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
