Virgo. Image source: Bode, Johann Elert. Uranographia. Berlin, 1801, pl. 14.

Out of This World

The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas

Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel. Atlas coelestis. Nuremberg, 1742.

The Doppelmayr atlas, like the volume by Cellarius (see exhibit item 14), is not really a star atlas, in spite of its title, but rather a collection of astronomical and cosmological diagrams. However, it does contain ten star charts: two planispheres centered on the ecliptic poles, two more centered on the equatorial poles, and six gnomic or sectional charts that follow the model of Ignace-Gaston Pardies (see exhibit items 17  and 18).

Perseus. Image source: Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel. Atlas coelestis. Nuremberg: Heredum Homannianorum, 1742.

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In fact, Doppelmayr's charts appear to have been copied from those of Pardies, with the curious exception that Pardies' constellation figures, taken from Blaeu and ultimately based on Bayer, are replaced with figures modelled on those of Hevelius. So the Pardies crab molts into a Hevelius lobster, and the twins trade in their skullcaps for feathers.

L: Cancer and Gemini. Image source: Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel. Atlas coelestis. Nuremberg: Heredum Homannianorum, 1742. View Source »

R: Cancer and Gemini. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Second edition. Paris: Chez Guillaume Vallet, 1690. View Source »

To discover Dopplemayr's dependence on Pardies, one must look past the figures to the stars, and more especially, to the non-stellar objects. The Pardies maps were notable for including the paths of many historical comets. The Dopplemayr maps include every Pardies comet. But they also add in the comets that had appeared since Pardies time. So if we look at the region around Bootes' foot in the two atlases, we see that Doppelmayr has drawn in the comet of 1684 as observed by Bianchini, and the comet of 1706 as observed by Cassini. Notice also that Bootes, foot is resting on Mons Maenalus, a new constellation introduced by Hevelius.

Bootes and Virgo. Image source: Pardies, Ignace Gaston. Globi coelestis. Second edition. Paris: Chez Guillaume Vallet, 1690.

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The Bootes and Mons Maenalus constellations, with comet paths. Image source: Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel. Atlas coelestis. Nuremberg: Heredum Homannianorum, 1742.

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