Phaenomena: Doppelmayr's Celestial Atlas

A beautiful showcase of Johann Doppelmayr’s magnificent and influential Atlas Coelestis (1742) that deconstructs the intricately drawn plates and traces the ideas of the famed astronomers featured.

This superb introduction to the fundamentals of astronomy showcases Johann Doppelmayr’s magnificent Atlas Coelestis, first published in 1742. An extraordinary exposition of the heavens, charting constellations, planets, comets and moons, the Atlas presents the ideas and discoveries of many famous and influential astronomers, including Copernicus, Riccioli, Kepler, Newton and Halley, in beautifully illustrated and richly annotated colour plates.

In this lavish volume, the exquisite and intricate astronomical and cosmographical plates are reproduced in their entirety and also presented in logical deconstructed form, inviting you to examine every figure more closely. Astronomer Giles Sparrow eloquently elucidates the scientific ideas inherent in each plate, expertly decoding and analysing the complex information and placing Doppelmayr’s sumptuous Atlas in the context of the ground-breaking discoveries made during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. Phaenomena expands on Doppelmayr’s original, awe-inspiring Atlas and reflects upon its influence on the development of the science of astronomy to the present day. It is a spectacular, revelatory celestial compendium to the cosmos that every star gazer in the galaxy will covet.