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A luminous example of Enlightenment-era cosmography, this engraved chart by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr visualizes the apparent motions of the inferior planets, Venus and Mercury, according to the geo-heliocentric model devised by Tycho Brahe. The system shown here, which places the Earth at rest at the center of the universe with the Sun and Moon revolving around it, permits the remaining planets to orbit the Sun, reconciling Copernican elegance with theological orthodoxy. The result, as this chart makes vividly clear, is a complex but geometrically coherent explanation of planetary motion.
The spiraling paths at the heart of the diagram trace the daily longitudinal positions of Mercury (in green) and Venus (in red) for the years 1712 and 1713, plotted against a circular orbit of the Sun (in yellow) about the Earth. These epicyclic loops represent the apparent motion of the inferior planets when viewed from Earth under the assumption that the Sun carries them along in its own orbit, which was an elegant but increasingly obsolete hypothesis by the 1740s.
The graphic center of the plate is occupied by a radiant allegorical engraving of the Sun, personified and surrounded by clouds, holding two putti suspended on ropes, visualizing the solar suspension of the inner planets. The outer rings are annotated with dates marking the daily positions of the planets. Inset diagrams to either side reduce the curves into geometric schemata, and two cartouches in Latin (lower corners) explain the observational and philosophical context of the system. The entire composition is a testament to the clarity and harmony Doppelmayr sought in his visualizations of the cosmos, even as he acknowledged the growing supremacy of heliocentrism.
Doppelmayr (1677–1750), a mathematician, astronomer, and educator, was one of the chief scientific collaborators of the Homann map publishing firm. This chart was issued in his Atlas Novus Coelestis, published in Nuremberg around 1742. That celestial atlas sought to make contemporary astronomical understanding accessible to a broader public through high-quality engraved plates combining scientific rigor with engaging visual design.
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