A Superb Example with Rich Original Hand-Coloring.
Engraved allegorical additional title by J.C. Reinsperger after J.J. Preisler, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, letterpress index, 30 double-page engraved plates all of which in beautiful original hand-color.
"Besides being a star chart and a selenographic map, the Atlas includes diagrams illustrating the planetary systems of Copernicus, Tycho, and Riccioli; the elliptic theories of Kepler, Boulliau, Seth Ward, and Mercator; the lunar theories of Tycho, Horrocks, and Newton; and Halley's cometary theory." - DSB IV, page 166
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr was born in Nuremberg, the son of the merchant Johann Siegmund Doppelmayr. He entered the Aegidien-Gymnasium in Nuremberg in 1689, then the University of Altdorf in 1696. His studies included mathematics, physics, and jurisprudence. Later he continued his studies in Halle and graduated in 1698 with a dissertation on the Sun.
During studying at the University of Halle, he also learned French and Italian. After giving up his legal studies he then spent two years traveling and studying in Germany, Holland, and England, spending time at Utrecht, Leiden, Oxford, and London, during which time he learned to speak French, Italian, and English. He continued to study astronomy and learned to grind and figure his own telescope lenses.
His career was academic, and he became Professor of Mathematics at the Aegidien-Gymnasium from 1704 until his death. He is not noted for any discoveries, but he did publish several works of a scientific nature. His publications covered topics on mathematics and astronomy, including sundials, spherical trigonometry, and celestial maps and globes. One of his works also included useful biographical information on several hundred mathematicians and instrument makers of Nuremberg.
Nick Kanas says of Doppelmayr and his celestial atlas:
Johann Doppelmayr (1677-1750) was a Professor of Mathematics at the Aegidien Gymnasium in Nuremberg. He wrote on a number of topics, including astronomy, geography, cartography, spherical trigonometry, and scientific instruments, and he collaborated in the production of terrestrial and celestial globes. He was a member of the Royal Society of London and the Berlin and St. Petersburg Academies of Sciences. In the early 1700s, Doppelmayr prepared a number of astronomical and cosmological plates that appeared in several works by cartographer Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724), who founded a famous cartographic publishing firm that continued through his heirs until 1848. In 1742, these plates were collected and issued as the Atlas Novus Coelestis in quo Mundus Spectabilis…. This atlas had a total of 30 plates, 20 that dealt with various astronomical themes (e.g., cosmological systems of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, planetary and other bodies in the solar system), and 10 that were constellation maps showing the positions of the stars and the paths of comets.
In December of 2019, an example of the atlas sold for 40,000 GBP at Christie's London.
Provenance
Bookplate of British antiquarian Thomas Edward Amyot on front pastedown. With his signature dated August 8th, 1862 on early blank.