The Rediscovery of Two Celestial Maps from 1537

Abstract

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ben Weiss, Manager of Adult Learning Resources, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Harvard Art Museum/Fogg, and Tom Harper, Curator of Antiquarian Maps, British Library, for their help with the technical aspects of these maps.

Notes

Notes and References

1. British Museum [now British Library], General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1955 (New York, Readex Microprint, 1967), 331.

2. I searched COPAC, WorldCat, The European Library, Library of Congress, Catalogue collectif de France, Catalogus Stadsarchief en Athenaeumbibliotheek, and VD-16. I verified with the Sorbonne, the Athenaeumbibliotheek, and with Dr. Ulrike Bayer of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Handschriften/VD 16 that their copies did not contain the maps. Copies verified in person were those held at The Wellcome Institute and the British Library.

3. L'Uranie ou muse celeste, 1589; A comparison of the English and Spanish nation, 1589; Of the interchangeable course, 1594; Almansor, 1627; Cochin-China, 1633; Il Davide perseguitato, 1637.

4. The DNB claims Ashley left 5,000 titles, but as shown by the 1680 MSS catalogue, this can not be accurate, since only 3,913 titles are listed, of which 193 were printed after 1641. See John Ferris in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), 2: 656.

5. The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple MT.9/LCA/5, fol. 10–11.

6. Claudius Ptolemy, Claudii Ptolemaei Pelusiensis Alexandrini Omnia, quae extant, opera, Geographia excepta : quam seorsim quo[que] hac forma impressimus. . . . Item omnium constellationum figuras graphice, propter singulare studiosorum comodum, depinximus (Basle, Henricum Petrum, 1541).

7. Although the 1541 Omnia Opera by Ptolemy has two celestial planispheres, they were originally cut by Johannes Honter in 1532. They are entitled ‘Imagines Constellationum Borealium’ and ‘Imagines Constellationum Australium’.

8. Nick Kanas, Star Maps: History, Artistry, Cartography (Berlin and New York, Springer, 2007), 140.

9. Deborah Warner, The Sky Explored: Celestial Cartography, 1500–1800 (New York, Liss, 1979), 74.

10. Olaf Pedersen, A Survey of the Almagest (Odense, Odense Universitetsforlag, 1974), 21.

11. Robert Hues, Tractatus de Globis et Eorum Usu (London, Hakluyt Society, 1889), 199.

12. William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology (London, Taylor, Walton and Maberly, 1849), 3: 571.

13. Warner, Sky Explored (see note 9), 74.

14. Bede, Bedae . . . Opuscula cumplura de temporum ratione . . . authore Iohanne Nouiomago (Cologne, I. Prael and P. Quentel, 1537); and Claudius Ptolemy, Libri VIII de Geographia e` Graeco denuo traducti (Cologne, I. Ruremundanus, 1540). See Valeri Andreae, Bibliotheca Belgica: de Belgis Vita Scriptisq. Claris. (Louvain, J. Zegers, 1643).

15. Joseph Michaud and Louis Gabriel Michaud, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne ou histoire, par ordre alphabétique, de la vie publique et privée de tous les hommes qui se sont fait remarquer par leurs écrits, leurs actions, leurs talents, leurs vertus ou leurs crimes (Paris, Michaud frères, 1811–1862), 6: 22.