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Title: Corona
Format: print: engraving
Date: 1603
Description: From Johann Bayer’s “Uranometria” (1603), the first ‘true’ star-atlas. This and other copper-engraved images from the book demonstrate a notable feature of this atlas: the sheer beauty of the plates. Alexander Mair, the artist, clearly found some inspiration in the De Gheyn engravings in the Aratea published by Hugo Grotius in 1600, but most of Bayer’s constellation figures have no known prototype. Significantly, each plate has a carefully engraved grid, so that star positions can be read off to fractions of a degree. These positions were taken, not from Ptolemy’s catalog, but from the catalog of Tycho Brahe, which had circulated in manuscript in the 1590s, yet not printed until 1602. Another important feature of the atlas was the introduction of a new system of stellar nomenclature, Bayer assigning Greek letters to the brighter stars, generally in the order of magnitude.

Title: Drawing Room, St. James’s
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. III, London 1809-1810 Plate no. 76

Title: Ursa Major
Format: print: engraving
Date: 1603
Description: From Johann Bayer’s “Uranometria” (1603), the first ‘true’ star-atlas. This and other copper-engraved images from the book demonstrate a notable feature of this atlas: the sheer beauty of the plates. Alexander Mair, the artist, clearly found some inspiration in the De Gheyn engravings in the Aratea published by Hugo Grotius in 1600, but most of Bayer’s constellation figures have no known prototype. Significantly, each plate has a carefully engraved grid, so that star positions can be read off to fractions of a degree. These positions were taken, not from Ptolemy’s catalog, but from the catalog of Tycho Brahe, which had circulated in manuscript in the 1590s, yet not printed until 1602. Another important feature of the atlas was the introduction of a new system of stellar nomenclature, Bayer assigning Greek letters to the brighter stars, generally in the order of magnitude.

Title: The great quadrant constructed near Augsburg, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica. The quadrant was constructed in 1572 and was no longer standing when Tycho published the description of it in 1598.
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Galileo, portrait of three astronomers, frontispiece from Systema Cosmicum, Augustae Treboc. [Strasbourg], 1635
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1635
Description: In the first Latin edition of the Dialogo, the portrait has been reengraved and significantly altered from the Italian original. Two columns have been added, and above them the curtain with the dedication to Galileo’s patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is held not by Italian putti but by little angels, who also support the Medici crest. The astronomers’ poses are similar to the original, but Copernicus looks out toward the reader and holds his model of the heliocentric system in a more prominent position. The names of the astronomers are engraved in the ground rather than on their garments. The arrow points more clearly to Copernicus. The small stones on the ground, much more than in the Italian version, appear to represent the the configuration of sun and planets.

Title: St. Martins, in the Fields
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. III, London 1809-1810 Plate no. 79

Title: Royal Circus
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. III, London 1809-1810 Plate no. 66

Title: Leaden Hall Market
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 50

Title: Great steel quadrant, inscribed in a square, also of steel, and revolving in azimuth, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: St. Paul’s Cathedral
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. III, London 1809-1810 Plate no. 80

Title: Scorpio
Format: print: engraving
Date: 1603
Description: From Johann Bayer’s “Uranometria” (1603), the first ‘true’ star-atlas. This and other copper-engraved images from the book demonstrate a notable feature of this atlas: the sheer beauty of the plates. Alexander Mair, the artist, clearly found some inspiration in the De Gheyn engravings in the Aratea published by Hugo Grotius in 1600, but most of Bayer’s constellation figures have no known prototype. Significantly, each plate has a carefully engraved grid, so that star positions can be read off to fractions of a degree. These positions were taken, not from Ptolemy’s catalog, but from the catalog of Tycho Brahe, which had circulated in manuscript in the 1590s, yet not printed until 1602. Another important feature of the atlas was the introduction of a new system of stellar nomenclature, Bayer assigning Greek letters to the brighter stars, generally in the order of magnitude.

Title: Galileo, illustration of the use of the compass, from Le Operazione del Compasso Geometrico et Militare (The Operation of the Geometric and Military Compass), Padua, 1606
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1606
Description: Galileo designed his geometric and military compass (“compasso geometrico e militare”) in 1597. Known in English as the sector, the compass was widely used until the invention of logarithmic tables. In Galileo’s model, an arc could be inserted between the two arms of the compass to make the instrument into a quadrant. A plumb bob could be attached.

Title: Plate from “Ansei kenbunshi”
Format: photograph: print
Description: Fire following the great earthquake of 1855 near Tokyo (the “Ansei earthquake”). Accounts of the disaster were suppressed by the government, making them today extremely rare. This plate is from “Ansei kenbunshi” (Observations of the Ansei Era), printed in Tokyo, 1856. George W. Housner book collection.

Title: An early observation of weather conditions in Siena
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1798
Description: An early observation of weather conditions at the time of an earthquake in Siena, Italy, May 26, 1798. The published account of this earthquake is one of the first such to adopt an empirical approach to understanding the phenomenon. George W. Housner Rare Book Collection.

Title: Plan of the Uraniborg observatory and premises, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Great azimuth semicircle, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Galileo, the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: An engraved illustration of features of the moon’s surface, as seen by Galileo with his telescope. He was able to describe the roughness of the moon’s surface and the position of spots and prominences on the light and dark sides.