Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa. [bound with:] Explicatio characterum aeneis uranometrias imaginum, tabulis, insculptorum, addita,   commodiore hac forma tertium redintegrata.

Bayer

Published by Bayer, 1639

About this Item

Bayer / 1639 and 1640 / Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aeris laminis expressa. [bound with:] Explicatio characterum aeneis uranometrias imaginum, tabulis, insculptorum, addita,   commodiore hac forma tertium redintegrata. (Safe 6, 70736) Large Octavo. Full 17th- or 18th-century vellum. Engraved title dated 1639, 51 engraved plates. Text collates as A4-I4, K4, L4-N4, O2. Second Edition in Early Vellum, Bound With the Extremely Rare Text. First published in Augsburg in 1609, Bayer's Uranometria was one of the great celestial atlases of the 17th century, a veritable golden age for start chart production. This is the second edition, published in Ulm in 1639. And bound with it is the extremely rare 1640 accompanying text also published in Ulm. Of the 51 engraved plates in the atlas, 48 are Ptolemaic constellations, 1 is a chart of the 12 new constellations unknown to Ptolemy, and 2 are of planispheres showing the northern and southern hemispheres Each plate has a carefully engraved grid, so that star positions can be read off to fractions of a degree. These positions were taken from the catalog of Tycho Brahe. Brahe's catalog had circulated in manuscript in the 1590s, but was not published until 1602. Another important feature of Bayer's atlas was the introduction of a new system of stellar nomenclature. Bayer assigned Greek letters to the brighter stars, generally in the order of magnitude, so that the bright star in the Bull's eye became alpha Tauri (and the brightest star in the Centaur became our familiar Alpha Centauri.) These letters were placed on the charts themselves, and also in a table that accompanied each chart. Bayer's charts are rarely offered separately on the market. Text This volume includes the extremely rare 1640 text to accompany the 1639 plate volume. We record one example having come to auction in the last 50 years, at Sotheby's in 2004 (sold for 1,440): "We have traced only one other copy, in the Royal Library in Stockholm." This is particularly desirable as Bayer's atlas almost always appears without accompanying text. The text has early marginal ink annotations in Latin. Provenance Ex-libris of Philip M. Chancellor, with the coat of arms and motto of the Chancellor family. Seller Inventory # 70736

Bibliographic Details

Title: Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens ...

Publisher: Bayer

Publication Date: 1639

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: VG

Book Type: Book