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Doppelmayr & Copernicus’ Orbits of Earth, Mercury & Venus

SKU: 8566
£400.00
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Title:
Doppelmayr & Copernicus’ Orbits of Earth, Mercury & Venus

Date of publication:

  • c.1730
  • Printed Measurement:

  • 49.5 x 58.5 cm
  • Colour:

  • original
  • Phaenomena Motuum Irregularium quos Planetae inferiores Venus et Mercurius ad annum Salutis 1720

    This celestial chart shows the orbits of Earth, Mercury and Venus on the Copernican model for the year 1710. Along the left and right edges of the sheet are linear charts depicting the transit of Mercury across the Sun on November 5, 1710 and the predicted transit of Venus across the Sun on June 6, 1761. The elaborate allegorical scene represents the planets orbiting the sun with ‘mother earth’ being pulled through the heavens in a chariot; the wheel of the chariot visible to us contains a map of the South Pole.
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    Doppelmayr became professor of mathematics at the Aegidien-Gymnasium in Nuremberg in 1704, and enjoyed a close working relationship with the founder of the Homann firm, Johann Baptist Homann. Astronomical plates prepared by Doppelmayr appeared in early editions of Homann’s general atlases before being collected together and published as the ‘Atlas Coelestis’ by the Homann Heirs in 1742.

    Condition & Materials

    Copper engraving, 49.5 x 58.5 cm, original hand-colour, blank verso. Read less