Virgo. Image source: Bode, Johann Elert. Uranographia. Berlin, 1801, pl. 14.

Out of This World

The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas

Flamsteed, John. Atlas celeste. Ed. J. Fortin. Paris, 1776.

Fortin was not an astronomer but an artisan, a globe maker for the French royal family. It is not known how or why he was commissioned to produce a revised edition of Flamsteed's star atlas, but it turned out to be a very successful enterprise. All of Flamsteed's twenty-six plates were re-engraved on a much smaller scale, so that they now measured only 23 by 18 cm. (One of Flamsteed's original plates, depicting Hydra, was a double-page folding plate, and in Fortin's editions it was divided in two, increasing the number of plates to twenty-seven). In the process, the engravers greatly improved the aesthetic appeal of Flamsteed's often awkward figures.

Libra and Scorpio. Image source: Flamsteed, John. Atlas celeste. Seconde edition. Ed. J. Fortin. Paris: Chez F. G. Deschamps, 1776, pl. 19.

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The illustration shows a detail of the Orion/Taurus region. When one compares the Orion/Taurus region to the corresponding region in the original 1729 Flamsteed atlas, we can see that Fortin's plates were aesthetically a great improvement.

Orion and Taurus. Image source: Flamsteed, John. Atlas celeste. Seconde edition. Ed. J. Fortin. Paris: Chez F. G. Deschamps, 1776, pl. 14.

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Orion and Taurus. Image source: Flamsteed, John. Atlas Coelestis. London, 1729.

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