Decorative Items

[Illustration of the Creation]

Sebastian Munster
[Della Cosmografia uninversale in un volume raccolta...]

Basle, c.1560, Italian text. Coloured woodcut, 115 x 155mm, set in text. Old repaired tear in lower margin, the guard still glued on.
The first page of text an Italian edition of Munster's 'Cosmography', with an account of the Creation, with an illustration with God in the upper centre, angels in the top corners and dog-headed men in the bottom corners. With a capital of a putti with the letter 'H'.
MUNS0033

[Globes]

George Louis Le Rouge.
Globe Terrestre. Globe Celeste.

Paris, 1748. 210 x 280mm. Coloured. Trimmed close bottom left, losing part of the printed border.
Illustration of terrestrial and celestial globes, with a compass rose and two diagrams of eclipses.
LERO0007

[Diagrams of the position of different peoples of the world.]

Louis Brion de la Tour.
Position respective des Peuples de la Terre.

Paris: Desnos, 1766. 355 x 420mm. Original colour.
Africa south of the Equator, within a separately-printed decorative border.
BRIO0002

[Various Geometrical Diagrams of the Earth]

Louis Brion de la Tour.
Démonstrations Géométriques des Sphères Driote, Paralelle, et Oblique.

Paris: Desnos, 1766. 355 x 420mm. Original colour.
Within a separately-printed decorative border.
BRIO0003

[Various Geographical Diagrams of the Earth]

Louis Brion de la Tour.
Suite de la Planche précédente.

Paris: Desnos, 1766. 355 x 420mm. Original colour.
Within a separately-printed decorative border.
BRIO0004

[Globes]

Crépy
Globe Terrestre. Globe Celeste.

Paris, 1767. 210 x 280mm. Original colour,
Illustration of terrestrial and celestial globes, with a compass rose and two diagrams of eclipses.
CREP0004

[Geographical terms]

Middleton.
The Terms and Principles of Geography with their Astronomical Connections.

London, c.1780. 320 x 200mm. Coloured.
The diagrams 'Nominal Parts of the World'; 'Geographical Circles'; the Solar System; and an Orrery. Published in 'Middleton's Complete System of Geography'.
MIDD0003

[Armillary Sphere]

Alain Manesson Mallet.
De La Sphere.

Paris, 1683. 150 x 110mm. Coloured.

MALL0071

[Miniature double-hemisphere celestial chart.]

Petrus Bertius.
[De Sphæra Cælesti.]

Amsterdam, c.1602, Latin text edition. 90 x 135mm. Coloured.
Untitled miniature celestial chart within an ornate strapwork cartouche, engraved by Pieter van den Keere. This is the earliest of two plates used to illustrated the Bertius atlas, without longitude and latitude scales. It was replaced by a new plate by Jodocus Hondius in 1616.
BERT0101

[Pair of celestial charts]

Alain Manesson Mallet.
La Voye Laictee. Pole Arctique. [&] La Voye Laictee. Pole Antarctique.

Paris, 1683. Two plates, ea.150 x 105mm. Coloured.
A pair of celestial spheres, with the constellations depicted in their classical shapes. Published in Mallet's 'Description de l'Univers'.
MALL0096

[The Zodiac]

Alain Manesson Mallet.
Zodiaque.

Paris, 1683. 150 x 105mm. Coloured.
A putti holding an illustration of the Zodiac, pointing out the Zodiac on an armillary sphere, under which is a double-hemisphere world map. Published in Mallet's 'Description de l'Univers'.
MALL0100

[An armillary sphere and globes.]

Alain Manesson Mallet.
Equateur.

Paris, 1683. 150 x 105mm. Coloured.
An armillary sphere, celestial and terrestrial globes and a double-hemisphere world map, to illustrate the equator. Published in Mallet's 'Description de l'Univers'.
MALL0101

[Diagram of the Solar System.]

Nicolas De Fer
Correspondance du Globe Terrestre a la Sphere Celeste. Situation des Habitans du Monde, Des Circles de Longitude et de Latitude, et des Diverses Positions de la Sphere.

Paris, c.1700. 135 x 165mm. Trimmed to printed border, new margins on all sides.
Diagrams of the world illustrating geographic terms.
DEFE0030

[Chart of the Solar System predicting the return of Halley's Comet in 1758.]

Emanuel Bowen.
The Solar System, with the Orbits of 5 remarkable Comets.

London, c.1750. 335 x 235mm.
The solar system out to Saturn. One of the five unnamed comets is Halley's Comet, which the chart predicted would return in 1758.
BOWE0020

[View of the Imperial Observatory at Peking.]

Jacques Nicolas Bellin.
Observatoire de Peking. tiré du Pere le Comte.

Paris, c.1750. 190 x 265mm.
Showing globes, astrolabes and armillary spheres. The Peking Observatory was equipped by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish Jesuit missionary in Peking in the late 1660s. Rather than building the latest models he worked from Tycho Brahe's 'Mechanica', published eighty years before.
BELL0113

[An Armillary Sphere]

William Guthrie
The Artificial Sphere.

London, c.1770. 195 x 120mm. Coloured.
An armillary sphere, within a rococco border with a putti. Published as the frontispiece to an edition of Guthrie's 'Geographical Grammar', one of the standard reference books of the 18th century.
GUTH0001

[Celestial diagrams including the Zodiac.]

John Walker.
[Untitled celestial diagrams.]

London, 1802. 210 x 240mm. Coloured. Narrow top margin .
Published in 'Walker's Geography'.
WALK0001

[Set of Six Celestial Maps.]

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
[Six Maps of the Stars.]

London: Baldwin & Cradock, 1830. 6 steel engravings, printed area c.310 x 330mm. With titlepage and 2pp. descriptive text. Occasional spots.
A detailed set of celestial charts on the Gnomic Projection, projected on the map in perspective. Thus the sheets form a rough cube. Each star is marked with its apparent magnitude and is shown within its classical constellation. The text contains an extensive quote from Flamsteed discussing his research on the originators of these constellations.
SDUK0062

[Early diagram of the world.]

Sebastian Munster
[The World.]

Basle, c.1600. Woodcut, 175 x 165mm, set in text.
Early geographical illustration, showing the horizon and tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
MUNS0029

[Wind Rose]

Alain Manesson Mallet.
[Untitled illustration of a Wind Rose.]

Paris, 1683. 150 x 105mm. Coloured.
A decorative wind rose, published in Mallet's 'Description de l'Univers'. The example illustrated by Mallet is one devised by Nicolas DuBuc, a publisher of sea charts from Dieppe.
MALL0099