Pardies, Ignace Gaston, S.J. (Jean de Fontenay, ed.)

Globi Coelestis in Tabulas Planas Redacti descriptio ... opus postumum. [col: Paris: Sebastien Mambre-Cramoisy, 1674]



Folio (20½ x 30 in.; 520 x 762 mm). Half-title, engraved portrait of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg the dedicatee by Nanteuil after Michelin, engraved head-piece on preface leaf, 6 double-page star maps engraved by G. Vallet and colored in a contemporary hand surrounded by text in Latin and French in parallel columns on either side; upper-right blank corner and extreme lower corner of half-title renewed, upper outer corner of portrait leaf mended without loss, small tear in image and right margin text of plate 5 mended, a few mended marginal tears entering platemark only in lower margin of plates 1, 2 and 6. Antique three-quarter calf and marbled boards.

DeBacker-Sommervogel VI, 203, 14; see DSB X:314-315; Pastoureau 365; Warner, Sky Explored, p. 196-198;

First edition of this rare star atlas, handcolored.

Pardies (1636-1673), who taught at La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and the Collège Clermont in Paris, is known for his contributions in horology and physics though most of his work remains in manuscript. His star atlas was published after his death by his colleague Jean de Fontenay (the dedication is signed "J. de F. S. J." [Jean de Fontenay, of the Society of Jesus]).

The constellation figures are based on those of Bayer but the engraver Vallet had to combine them from the separate plates in that source and the result is a series of masterful compositions. The author also includes the paths of historically important comets (1577, 1607, 1619 and 1664-1665). The accompanying text states that the positions of the 1,481 stars shown were derived from various globes and the catalogues of Riccioli, Bayer and Kepler.