|
||
|
|
|
|
Rare (?) French language map of the Solar System, from an unknown source.
The map provides a detailed depiction of the solar system, based upon a depiction first prepared by William Whiston in 1712 and published by John Senex in London.
The map illustrates the orbits of the comets known to Edmund Halley and Whiston at the beginning of the 18th Century, based upon Newton's model. Each comet is illustrated by its orbit.
William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician, who succeeded Isaac Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things (1696), articulated Whiston's belief that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet, a position which won him praise from Newton. Whiston and Halley were both advocates for the periodicity of comets, although Whiston also believed that comets were responsible for past catastrophes in earth's history.
The original map was first prepared by Whiston in 1712, likely to illustrate his public lectures on Newton's astronomical teachings, and thereafter copied and modified for most of the 18th Century.
The map notes:
L'Impr. n'ajant pas les caract des signes celest on les a omis dan l'Impr. au noeud asc de chaq Comete les voici selon l'ordre des chifr.
(The Imprint not including the characters of the celestial signs, they were omitted in the Imprint at the asc node of each comet here they are in the order of the numbers.)
![Ursa minor [The Little Dipper and Polaris]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/74396.jpg)
![[Cassiopeia]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/83200.jpg)
