Mapping the Stars and Constellations

The manuscript begins with a unique sequence of celestial maps preceding the text of the Aratea. As apparent from their diverging iconography, they were made by a different illustrator than the one responsible for the constellation pictures. While attesting to a strong cosmological interest in the structure of the universe as a whole, the maps represent an effort to advance astronomy as an exact science. Thus, the sequence of the maps begins with an illustration of the two hemispheres showing a largely uniform distribution of the constellations. On the following folio the constellations are traced again in outline, here sketched more in accordance with their proper astronomical distribution. Inserted on fol. 4v(photo below), we find a (first) representation of the planisphere.

Demon flying over the Caucasus by Mihály Zichy

The Severed Head of Medusa, 1913

Paul Darde