Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account

Thomas was a Benedictine monk from Salzburg, who published a remarkable work on the heavens entitled Mercurii Philosophici Firmamentum Firmianum Descriptionem et Usum Globi Artificialis Coelestis.

As noted by the Linda Hall Library:

Little is known about Corbinianus Thomas, a Benedictine monk at Salzburg, but his Firmamentum is one of the unsung treasures of celestial cartography. It contains 54 modestly-sized etchings of individual constellations, but the small plates exude considerable charm. The plate of Andromeda is the most successful, with the billowy Baroque drapery interacting dramatically with the differently shaded rock behind. Some of his other constellation figures are also quite unusual. His Capricorn is severely truncated, indicating in a striking visual fashion that Capricorn is sandwiched in the sky between Sagitarius and Aquarius. Thomas also banded the region of the zodiac, which is quite an improvement over the uniform darkening of Bayer.

Thomas was one of the first celestial cartographers to devote a separate plate to Camelopardalis, a constellation that first appeared on globes around 1600, but which usually in star atlases had to share billing with Cepheus or Cassiopeia. And Thomas was the first cartographer to provide individual plates for some of the southern constellations, such as Indus and Pavo which customarily were shown only as a small part of a single plate or planisphere centered on the south celestial pole.

As we see in a detail of Andromeda on the right, Thomas used an interesting nomenclature system: Bayer Greek letter, Roman numeral for magnitude, and Arabic numeral for reference to a star catalog. This system originated on the large globes of Coronelli, as indeed did many of Thomas's figures.

Thomas did invent one new constellation of his own, Corona Firmiana, to honor his patron, the archbishop of Salzburg, but it was never used again. Nor, alas, was most of the rest of Thomas' charming atlas.

Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74070
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
8 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
74171
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
8 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74248
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74318
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74396
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74494
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
8 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74533
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
7.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74601
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74741
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
8 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74775
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74857
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74892
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74928
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
74945
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74969
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75645
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75678
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75830
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
75989
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
7.75 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76134
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76310
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76368
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76416
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
9.3 x 5.2 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76506
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76671
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
76729
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76778
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76829
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76861
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
76911
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
5 x 5.25 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
77019
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
6 x 6.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
77853
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
78076
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
78870
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
4.75 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
79601

Archived

Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73673
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73706
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73736
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74002
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
8 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74037
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74111
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74201
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74279
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74346
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74471
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74580
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
9.8 x 4.8 inches
Condition:
Stock#:
74699
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
10.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
74822
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75707
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.25 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75751
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75796
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
Stock#:
75899
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5.5 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75953
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
6 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76072
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76198
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76242
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
76358
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76482
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
6 x 5.25 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76968
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
77001
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
77583
Place/Date:
Frankfurt & Leipiz / 1730
Size:
5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
78013
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
4.6 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
79650
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1730
Size:
5 x 4.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
79948