This is a magnificent double hemisphere map of the surface of the moon. Both spheres depict the same side of the moon and are filled with topography, using place names following the nomenclature of Riccioli (on the right) and Hevelius (on the left). Riccioli named the features of the moon for famous people and scientists, while Hevelius named them after geographical features on the earth. Between the two spheres is a scheme of the phases of the moon and different lunar phases are represented in the four corners. The map is decorated at top with cherubs using a telescope and Diana, the goddess of the moon.

If you turn the map 90 degrees counter-clockwise and examine the sphere on the left, notice that the shaded area dominating the lower center of the sphere resembles the Mediterranean Sea. Hevelius named the landform in the middle of this region Sicilia and the crater in its center M. Aetna. For some 140 years, the two systems of lunar cartography competed with each other. Although Hevelius' system was influential, the cumbersome Latin names gave way to the easier to remember and more popular system devised by Riccioli - the system that left the possibility for scientists to someday have a lunar feature named for them!

Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr was a professor of mathematics at the Aegidien Gymnasium in Nuremberg. Doppelmayr and Johann Baptist Homann were frequent collaborators in producing celestial and astronomical charts for atlases. This chart was engraved between 1735 and 1742 and appeared in the two major compilations of Dopplemayr’s works published by Homann Heirs; Atlas Coelestis in quo Mundus Spectabilis... in 1742, and the revised edition Atlas Novus Coelestis... in 1748. Read more about Doppelmayr's life and accomplishments here.

References: Kanas #7.8.3.

Condition: B

A nice impression with light toning, soiling and foxing. There is non-archival tape along the edges of the sheet on verso, and two old stamps from "Radcliffe Observatory Oxford" also on verso.