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Description

A fascinating series of charts which include several hemispherical maps. On two of the hemispherical world maps, the mythical portrayal of California as an island is included, Australia is starting to take shape, and, most surprisingly, Europe is grossly misshapen. An additional map focuses on the Pacific, while four more figures cover astronomical topics.

The large central map is particularly curious. The map evidently shows the visible objects in the solar system alongside times relating to when they reach their apex in the sky. For the sun, this is taken to be at noon and midnight. For other objects, it is less clear what these times mean or how they were calculated. Additionally, the highest ecliptic positions of the objects are shown. Again, the meaning of this is obvious for the sun, where this position is at the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, but less clear for the rest of the objects.

Two additional figures are just as enigmatic as the center one. The first shows an object, perhaps the moon, in what might be an orbit. The second shows the various Tropics, alongside several crisscrossing dashed lines, of unknown meaning. The final figure is more simple: it shows the Tropics, polar circles, equator, and several other celestial lines, each associated with the ecliptic positions of the objects in the center image.

This work would have been included in a book alongside text describing these figures.