Paris, chez Lamarche, 1795.
Small 4to [225 x 152 mm], ix pp., (1), 47 pp. and 30 double-page maps. Bound in contemporary half-roan, edges mottled.
Precious enlarged edition of John Flamsteed’s famous celestial atlas, illustrated with 30 double-page maps. Brown, Astronomical Atlases, Maps & Charts, p. 47; Lalande 553; Brunet II, 1280; DSB V, 22 – 26 ; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, p. 593.
John Flamsteed is an English astronomer who was born in Derby in 1646. He died in Greenwich in 1719. He is the first astronomer of King Charles II (1657) and the manager of the Observatory of Greenwich that he founded.
Two new maps were added to the work for this French edition: the one showing the boreal celestial hemisphere and the one of the southern planisphere, both drawn by La Caille.
The present edition is the second French edition. It is of the utmost interest for astronomy because it contains very interesting additions and important modifications provided by the discoveries of the French astronomer Lalande. Numerous stars and constellations were added to this edition.
“This edition is preferred to the original” (F.A. Ebert, A General Bibliographical Dictionary, n° 7618).
It is illustrated with 30 detailed double-page maps by C.E. Voisard after Flamsteed, showing all the astronomical constellations. All the maps were handsomely contemporary hand-coloured.
A precious copy of this sought after celestial atlas with all the maps contemporary hand-coloured. No copy of this work in contemporary colouring is recorded in ABPC.
