Illustrating the Phaenomena: Celestial cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The introduction of the moving sphere as a model for understanding the celestial phenomena caused a great breakthrough in scientific thinking about the structure of the world. It provided the momentum for making celestial globes and mapping the stars. Celestial globes were produced first by Greek astronomers, and soon became greatly appreciated in antiquity as decorative objects (3 antique globes). The design and construction of the globe varied greatly as it passed through the Arabic (10 scientific globes made before 1500) and Medieval European cultures (3 scientific globes made before 1500). It was the starting-point for the design of many maps in antiquity and later in the Middle Ages (33) serving to illustrate books such as Aratus's Phaenomena. In the early fifteenth century scientific celestial maps (5) were constructed in their own right, independent of globes. In this book all extant celestial maps and globes made before 1500 are described and analysed in detail. This prestigious study will appeal to academic historians of science and astronomy, and art historians alike.

Table of Contents:
1: Preliminaries 2: Celestial Globes in Antiquity 3: The descriptive tradition in the Middle Ages 4: Islamic celestial cartography 5: The mathematical tradition in medieval Europe 6: Epilogue

About the Author :
Elly Dekker is an independent scholar studying the history of astronomy and of scientific instruments. She was awarded the Sackler Fellowship and the Caird medal for cataloguing the collection of globes and armillary spheres of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Review :
A book that will have many uses and a long life. It is beautifully illustrated, with numerous high-quality black-and-white photographs and eight color plates. Anyone interested in the representations of the heavens before the modern period will inevitably need to dip into this important book. An impressive and thorough account of 16 extant celestial globes and 40 celestial maps â There is no doubt that Dekker's volume will become a standard reference book on globes and maps from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and will be the starting point for scholars who want to study such artifacts further. â Dekker has delivered a great piece of work on celestial cartography, which together with her study on Globes at Greenwich is bound to become a classic. To sum up, the expositions are very thorough and are repleted with footnotes and appendices. The research that spans from Antiquity to Medieval Europe seems exhaustive ... kudos to the author for her generosity in providing the difficult-to-access photographs, including the colour plates, which would be most useful to serious readers. ...a splendid book that will be treasured by every serious student of the subject. This impressive study is the first comprehensive history of ancient and medieval celestial globes and maps based on the artifacts, most of which Elly Dekker has examined directly. Its greatest virtue is to combine mathematical and theoretical expertise with a practical approach to its objects. Behold! An astonishingly thorough account of how observers from ancient Greece to fifteenth-century Vienna and Nuremberg envisioned the star patterns. It is hard to imagine that any celestial globe or manuscript from this period has escaped Elly Dekker's meticulous sleuthing and analysis. The result is this admirable and beautifully illustrated tour de force of scholarship.