Bayer, Johann

Uranometria, omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aereis laminis expressa.  Ulm: Johann Goerlin, 1661



Oblong folio (12 x 16 in.; 305 x 406 mm).  Handcolored engraved title with figures of Ptolemy and Hercules, and 51 vividly handcolored copper-engraved plates by Alexander Mair; margins browned, right margins of leaves extended, lower margin of title repaired.  Treed calf; spine renewed, backstrip laid down, worn, scuffed.

An exuberantly colored copy of the 1661 edition of the first atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere.  Uranometria, originally published in Augsburg in 1603, contains 51 star charts, the first 48 represent the 48 Ptolemaic constellations.  Plate 49 introduces twelve new constellations in the deep southern sky which were unknown to Ptolemy.  The final two charts are planispheres of the northern and southern hemispheres.  This influential atlas introduced the Bayer star designations, still used today.  It also introduced several of the modern constellations.