ARGELANDER, Friedrich Wilhelm August Uranometria Nova. Stellae per mediam Europam solis oculis conspicuae secundum veras lucis magnitudines e coelo ipso descriptae. [German title:] Neue Uranometrie... Berlin, Simon Schropp, 1843
Oblong folio (277 x 416 mm), with engraved title and 17 engraved star maps printed in red and black; a fine copy in original publisher's cloth, gilt decoration on front cover featuring a burst of stars within a cartouche frame in blind. £1750
First edition of Argelander's star atlas (without the separate star catalogue). Argelander had been appointed professor of astronomy at the Prussian University of Bonn in 1836, but had to make do with very limited resources. 'Under these limitations Argelander again showed himself to be the ingenious improviser who, even with modest resources, could achieve lasting results. Although without measuring instruments, he created in these years one of his finest works, the Uranometria nova (1843). The main feature of this work was not the determination of exact positions, but the recording of all stars visible to the naked eye and a settlement of the nomenclature that had been used arbitrarily up to that time, as well as a demarcation of the constellations of the stars. At the same time, this atlas and the accompanying catalog fulfilled the task of a reliable representation of the magnitudes of the stars' (DSB, q.v. for a detailed discussion of the techniques Argelander used to estimate stellar magnitudes).
NUC: DLC DNO ViU NN NjP CtY PU MdBJ RPB ICJ NPV NCH WU (all listing the atlas only); OCLC gives several further locations, mostly of the atlas only
£1750
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