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Description

Large and highly detailed dpeiction of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, from central North equatorial pole to 38th degree South, based upon Johann Elert Bode's map dated 1787

Bode's chart illustrates the constellations in figures according to classical mythology, as well as 18th-century additions created by Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille such as The Sculptor's Workshop and The Pneumatic Pump, which was derived from a recent invention by Robert Boyle.

German astronomer Johann Elert Bode was the astronomer of the Academy of Science in Berlin and director of the Berlin Observatory. Uranographia was his most noted contribution to astronomy, contained 18 celestial maps of constellations, stars, and nebulae. Over17,000 stars (12,000 more than had appeared in earlier charts), 2,500 nebulae (which had been catalogued in the late 1700s by William Herschel), and the constellations delineated over the past three centuries were depicted with attention to accuracy. He also included original constellation designs based on scientific instruments, including a tribute to Herschel called Herschel's Telescope, as well as reinterpretations of the traditional constellations that diverged from conventional depictions.

After Bode, major celestial atlases became less artistic and more utilitarian, dispensing with pictorial representations of constellation figures and replacing them with lines that defined their boundaries. Bode is also known for devising a formula to express the relative distances of the planets in our solar system from the sun, which is known as Bode's Law.

Condition Description
Minor discoloration in corners
Reference
Ref: Warner, p. 37.
Franz Anton Schraembl Biography

Schraembl was born and worked in Vienna, where he was a mapmaker in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He began his business in 1787, partnering with Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly. He is best known for his large format atlas, the Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas. The atlas was finished in 1800, after twenty years of compilation and composition--it was the first Austrian world atlas. While a notable work, the atlas did not sell well, plunging Schraembl into financial difficulty. In response, Schraembl expanded his offerings to include literature and art. Upon his death, Schraembl's firm was taken over by his widow, Johanna, and her brother, Karl Robert Schindelmayer. From 1825, it was run by Franz Anton's son, Eduard.