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THE MOST INFLUENTIAL STAR ATLAS OF ITS TIME
BAYER, Johann. Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, series laminis expressa. Augsburg, Christophorus Magnus, 1603.
Folio [36.3 x 12.5 cm], (8) pp. (engraved title, dedication, preface, verses, corrigenda) and 51 double-page engraved celestial maps, all with letterpress on rectos/versos, plates lettered A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Ccc (with VV and VVvv) and mounted on guards. Total 106 ff. Imprint details in colophon. Contemporary mottled lined sheep with spine in six decorative gilt compartments, author and title gilt on letterpiece, marbled pastedowns. Very light marginal soiling to title, re-margined at gutter but genuine, faint waterstain in far right margin of first 3 leaves; occasional scattered foxing. Otherwise impeccable.
$65,000 Rare first edition of the most influential star atlas published in the first half of the seventeenth century and the first to represent the stars of the southern latitudes. It is also the first star atlas based on observations which can be traced to an actual voyage of discovery—that of Houtman’s first voyage to the East Indies in 1595-97. According to Elly Dekker, the Uranometria substantially influenced Schiller’s Coelum Stellatum and Kepler’s Tabulae Rudolphinae.
The work contains 49 charts of constellations, many expressed as familiar mythological figures, and two charts of the northern and southern hemispheres. Bayer estimated the magnitude of each star, from first to sixth magnitude and initiated the method of distinguishing the stars in each constellation by Greek letters—a practice still in use by astronomers today.
Art historians acclaim Bayer’s work for the beauty of figure design and the quality of the engraving. Historians of science are still bringing to light its influence on later developments in celestial cartography. Publication of the Uranometria virtually shaped the way the heavens would be perceived for more than two centuries.
* Warner, The Sky Explored pp. 18-19; see Dekker, Elly, “On the Dispersal of Knowledge of the Southern Celestial Sky” in Globus Freund; Edward Rosen, DSB I.530-31.
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