Jamieson, Alexander. A celestial atlas: comprising a systemic display of the heavens in a series of thirty maps. London, 1822, pl. 25.

Further Out: Recent Acquisitions of Celestial Atlases

An Exhibition of Rare Books from the Collection of the Linda Hall Library And a Supplement to Out of This World

Reissig, Kornelii Khristianovich. Sozviezdiia predstavlennyia na XXX tablitsakh. St. Petersburg, 1829.

This appears to be the earliest Russian star atlas ever published, compiled by the director of the military academy at St. Petersburg. As a basis for his thirty engraved plates, Reissig used the 1805 Flamsteed edition published by Bode, under the name Vorstellung der Gestirne (Out of This World, item 32). Most of the plates here are copies of those in Bode, but there are some interesting differences. First, Reissig made his plates square (Bode’s had been rectangular), and within this border Reissig placed the constellations in a circular roundel, as if he had used a round cookie cutter on the Bode originals. The effect is quite attractive. Then, Reissig rearranged some of the constellations. Whereas Bode (following Flamsteed), had placed Perseus and Andromeda on the same plate, Reissig gave each a separate plate, making this one of the most striking Perseus images in the literature (below), since it does not have to share billing with anyone else except the Triangle and the Northern Fly.

Perseus. Image source: Reĭssig, Kornelius. Sozvi︠e︡zdīi︠a︡ predstavlennyi︠a︡ na XXX tablit︠s︡akh. St. Petersburg: Tipografīi︠a︡ Kh. Gint︠s︡a, 1829, pl. 4.

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Reissig must also have had a special fondness for the Lynx, for he gave it its own plate as well, and he completely redrew the figure, turning its face toward the viewer. There has been no lynx quite like it, before or since.

Lynx. Image source: Reĭssig, Kornelius. Sozvi︠e︡zdīi︠a︡ predstavlennyi︠a︡ na XXX tablit︠s︡akh. St. Petersburg: Tipografīi︠a︡ Kh. Gint︠s︡a, 1829, pl. 6.

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