Star Maps: History, Artistry, and CartographyUntil the publication of the first edition of 'Star Maps,' books were either general histories of astronomy using examples of antiquarian celestial maps as illustrations, or catalogs of celestial atlases that failed to trace the flow of sky map development over time. The second edition focuses on the development of contemporary views of the heavens and advances in map-making. It captures the beauty and awe of the heavens through images from antiquarian celestial prints and star atlases. This book uniquely combines a number of features: 1) the history of celestial cartography is traced from ancient to modern times; 2) this development is integrated with contemporary cosmological systems; 3) the artistry of sky maps is shown using beautiful color images from actual celestial atlases and prints; 4) each illustration is accompanied by a legend explaining what is being shown; and 5) the text is written for the lay reader based on the author's experience with writing articles for amateur astronomy and map collector magazines. This updated second edition of 'Star Maps' contains over 50 new pages of text and 44 new images (16 in color), including completely new sections on celestial frontispieces, deep-sky objects, playing card maps, additional cartographers, and modern computerized star maps. There is also expanded material about celestial globes, volvelles, telescopes, and planets and asteroids. |
Contents
1 What is a star map? | 1 |
2 NonEuropean cosmology and constellation development | 17 |
3 European cosmology | 49 |
4 European constellation development | 107 |
5 Early European star maps | 133 |
6 The Big Four of the Golden Age of pictorial star maps | 150 |
7 Other important star maps of the Golden Age | 191 |
8 Special topics | 225 |
10 The transition to nonpictorial star maps | 337 |
11 Color plate gallery | 373 |
Appendix A Collecting celestial maps and prints | 465 |
Appendix B Supplementary reference catalog | 473 |
Appendix C Indices of major constellation atlases | 499 |
Appendix D The British Library Kings edition | 508 |
Appendix E Glossary | 511 |
519 | |