john c. barentine

ASTERISMS, SINGLE-SOURCE AND REBRANDS Uncharted Constellations Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands

John C. Barentine

Uncharted Constellations

Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands

123 John C. Barentine TUCSON, AZ, USA

SPRINGER PRAXIS BOOKS IN POPULAR ASTRONOMY

Springer Praxis Books ISBN 978-3-319-27618-2 ISBN 978-3-319-27619-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9

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Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: “Lacerta, Cygnus, Lyra, Vulpecula and Anser”, plate 14 in Urania’s Mirror, a set of celestial cards accompanied by A familiar treatise on astronomy...byJehoshaphatAspin.London. Astronomical chart, 1 print on layered paper board : etching, hand-colored. Available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g10063.

Printed on acid-free paper

Praxis is a brand of Springer Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www. springer.com) For my grandparents, Gerald and Verne Anne Danley

Preface

During the writing of this book’s companion volume, The Lost Constellations,it became clear that the entire project would not fit conveniently into one book of reasonable length. While the original pitch for the project involved only a single book, the editorial staff at Springer-Praxis offered to publish two books covering the project’s complete contents, provided a sensible division into two parts existed that would make for acceptable lengths of the resulting books. My initial reaction was to simply split the assortment of roughly 40 lost constellations into two halves, but on further consideration I found the contents could be naturally divided into two groups based on the answers to a series of questions of the nature of any given figure: • Was it original? • Was it ‘popular’? • Was it a constellation? The last question isn’t at all rhetorical: some figures that came and went from historical maps and charts were merely fragments of larger constellations that took on lives of their own. Their status as asterisms ranks them somewhat below the fully-fledged inventions related in The Lost Constellations. While many figures regularly appeared on charts and globes over several cen- turies, others found only limited circulation. They came and went over much shorter periods, and some only ever appeared on a single map. In the most extreme cases, enterprising cartographers simply poached the creations of the past, appropriating their stars for new constellations that suited their own motives. These historical curiosities enrich our understanding of astronomy as a human enterprise, as much as astronomy is a reflection of both our aspirations and our shortcomings as a species. The result of this sorting is a set of 16 diverse figures with complex and distinct stories that do not quite fit the mold of The Lost Constellations. This volume tells those stories, in many cases for the first time. In addition, two complete families of constellations are described in appendices to the main text: the inventions of the sixteenth century German mathmatician Petrus Apianus and the eighteenth century

vii viii Preface

English botanist John Hill. Hill’s constellations are reproduced here in their entirety for the first time since their original publication in 1754. It is my hope that readers will find among these pages a garden of celestial delights that will challenge both casual stargazers and serious amateur astronomers alike to find something new and interesting among the familiar figures of the night sky.

Tucson, AZ, USA John C. Barentine August 2015 Technical Note

Sources

The goal of this book is to be comprehensive without being exhaustive. Original sources of the works referenced herein were preferred in every possible situation. Where the primary works were unavailable, secondary citations were used; I have endeavored to make this distinction clear.

Illustrations

In addition to consulting original written works, I have preferred first printed editions of various charts and atlases as the source of most illustrations in this book, an approach taken in order to show as many interesting depictions of lost constellations as practicable without reproducing every known instance. Depictions from certain seminal works, such as Johannes Hevelius’ Prodromus Astronomiae (1690) and Johann Elert Bode’s Uranographia (1801b), are included in every appropriate case; otherwise, the choice of illustrations is made to adequately trace the origin and evolution of constellations in as straightforward as possible a manner. I have employed a limited amount of manipulation of images from historical atlases, strictly for the purpose of improving the clarity and legibility of those images while never altering the figures therein contained. Mild enhancements, such as those undertaken to increase contrast and reduce the background “noise” of discolored or damaged paper, are not generally noted. Any instances of significant image processing that fundamentally alters the source material, such as digitally joining globe gores to produce a seamless map, have been noted in the text. Photographs of nonprinted works such as paintings and other illustrations have been reproduced with image density adjustments for clarity only. I have made an effort in every case to try to include in image captions information about

ix x Technical Note the dimensions of the original, the medium, and current location and/or catalog information where obtainable. For works not in the public domain, credit is given to the creator along with usage information such as Creative Commons licenses.

Translations

As a result of preferring original sources, I have often confronted passages in original Latin, German, and French. I render these in English as best as I can, being fluent in none of those languages; wherever possible, I have checked with native speakers or those with extensive formal training in Latin. Sometimes the renderings are imprecise, but I have tried to retain some of the flavor of the original and always the essence. In every instance, I have quoted passages in their original (non-English) languages as footnotes throughout the text such that the reader can decide if my translations are good. Any deficiency in the essence of the translations will be corrected in a future edition. Otherwise, when using others’ translations, I have indicated the translator’s name and corresponding bibliographic information when known.

Nomenclature

Since by definition the constellations described in this book had fallen into complete disuse by the time of the first International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly, where the canon of modern constellations was decided by the international governing body of professional astronomers, they were never subjected to the process by which the IAU formalized a set of genitive cases and three-letter abbreviations (see Chap. 1). There is also the issue of the names of the constellations themselves; as they passed in and out of fashion and were rendered by authors writing in, variously, Latin, English, French, German, and other languages, a variety of spellings often ensued. I describe here how I settled on a means of standardizing names, cases, and abbreviations across the chapters corresponding to individual constellations.

Constellation Names

The names of constellations adopted by the IAU are a mix of Latin and Greek words; the latter generally derive from the names in circulation at the time Ptolemy wrote the Almagest in the second century A.D. Others were Roman inventions, but the names of all constellations in the Ptolemaic canon were Latinized. Some of the first new constellations added since the time of Ptolemy referred to discoveries made Technical Note xi by explorers to southern hemisphere destinations and the New World. Latin had no native word for the toucan, for example, so when the native name “tukana” came from the Tupi language of Brazil via Portuguese, it was appropriately Latinized as “Tucana.” Petrus Plancius suggested a constellation representing the toucan in 1598, labeling it according to the borrowed Latin. Constellations created in the eighteenth century to celebrate the apparatus of the arts and sciences often required contrived Latin names for concepts unknown to the ancients (e.g., “Globus Aerostaticus” for the Hot Air Balloon and “Machina Electrica” for the Electrical Generator). Sometimes they repurposed ancient words for similar devices such as “Antlia Pneumatica” (later shortened to “Antlia”) to describe a mechanical air pump, whereas the word “antlia” referred to a water pump in ancient sources.1 I have retained the preference for Latin names in this book in all practical cases; fortunately, many of the extinct constellations here discussed were introduced by their creators with native Latin (or Latinized) names. In isolated cases, constellation names were never Latinized by their creators or involve words that have no obvious Latin equivalent. An example is the Battery of Volta. Since an electrical battery has no conceptual expression in Classical or Medieval Latin, I borrowed the Latin word “pila,” meaning a pillar or column, as of stone, to indicate the original sense of a battery as a “voltaic pile.” Thus, while I use “Battery of Volta” as the formal name of the constellation, I render its genitive as “Pila Voltae” and its three-letter abbreviation as “PiV.”

Genitives

The genitive grammatical case is used to indicate possession, in the sense that a particular star “belongs” to the constellation inside whose boundaries it falls. The widespread use of this convention originated in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria (1603); Bayer devised a system of cataloging the stars in a particular constellation visible to the unaided eye by the use of Greek letters. According to this scheme, the brightest star in a constellation was labeled “˛,”thenextbrightest“ˇ,”andsoforth through the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. However, most constellations had more than 24 visible stars; when he ran out of Greek letters in a particular constellation, Bayer ran through the lowercase Roman alphabet starting at “a,” among which he omitted the lowercase letters “j” and “v.” That brought the total number of available letters to 48. Bayer never exceeded this number in any constellation, but later astronomers sought to extend the series using upper case Roman letters beginning with “A” following “z” and finishing at “Q,” inclusive of “J.” Within any given constellation, Bayer proceeded from one whole magnitude to the next in half- magnitude intervals; for example, a “third-magnitude star” is any having a visual

1For example, Martial, Epigrammata 9, 14, 3; C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Tiberius 51. xii Technical Note

Table 1 Modern constellations whose names consist of two words: nominative case, genitive case, and meaning Nominative Genitive Meaning Canes Venatici Canum Venaticorum The hunting dogs Canis Major Canis Majoris The greater dog Canis Minor Canis Minoris The lesser dog Coma Berenices Comae Berenices Berenice’s hair Corona Australis Coronae Australis The southern crown Corona Borealis Coronae Borealis The northern crown Leo Minor Leonis Minoris The lesser lion Piscis Austrinus Piscis Austrini The southern fish Triangulum Australe Trianguli Australis The southern triangle Ursa Major Ursae Majoris The greater bear Ursa Minor Ursae Minoris The lesser bear magnitude between C3:5 and C2:4. He further proceeded in an overall north-to- south pattern, then repeating the process for the next-faintest magnitude bin. In other cases, Bayer changed the order of the letters for historical or other considerations. To complete the designation, Bayer added the classical constellation name in the genitive case; for example, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major became ˛ Canis Majoris (“alpha of Canis Major”). This convention followed the rules of Latin noun declension, which in some cases required the Latinization of constellation names originally derived from ancient Greek. For instance, Orion became “Orionis” in the genitive case, and the star Betelgeuse, which appeared to Bayer as the brightest in that constellation, became ˛ Orionis. Among extinct constellations, a variety of names occurs in more than one language. For the purposes of standardizing their genitives as closely as possible to the convention implicitly adopted by the IAU, I constructed genitives based on Latinized forms of the constellation names as described above. Naturally there are some special cases. Modern constellations whose names contain a noun and a modifier, like Ursa Major and Corona Borealis, appear Table 1. Thus, in the “Name/Modifier” paradigm, both words take the genitive case, so the above examples become Ursae Majoris and Coronae Borealis, respectively. Often the modifier is itself already rendered in the genitive, such as in the case of Caput Medusae. In these situations, the modifier remains unchanged in the genitive, while the name changes case, so “Capitis Medusae” (“of the Head of Medusa”). There are a few instances of unusual Latin declensions, such as Argo Navis, which becomes Argus¯ Navis in the genitive. In that singular example I have kept the macron over the “u” in order to specify the genitive as completely as possible. Technical Note xiii

Abbreviations

At the first IAU General Assembly at Rome in 1922, the Union approved a list of 88 constellations which remain with us today as a modern canon used by professional and amateur astronomers alike. To simplify written references to the constellations, a three-letter abbreviation was devised for each after delegates expressed dislike of a proposed four-letter scheme. The convention determining how a three-letter abbreviation is rendered depends on whether the approved constellation name consists of one or two words. For one-word constellations (e.g., Orion, Taurus, Sagittarius), the word is contracted so as to make each distinct from any other with a similar spelling. So Orion becomes “Ori” and Taurus becomes “Tau,” but Sagittarius becomes “Sgr” rather than “Sag,” as the latter was reserved for the constellation Sagitta. Therefore, the preferred rendering is the first three letters of the Latinized name, unless some other constellation exists for which those initial three letters are the same. In all cases, the first letter only of the three is capitalized. If a constellation consists of two words, the format for the three-letter abbrevi- ation is capital-lowercase-capital, where the first capital and lowercase letters refer to the first word in the name (typically Name in the “Name Modifier” paradigm) and the final capital letter refers to the second word. So Corona Borealis becomes “CrB” and Piscis Austrinus becomes “PsA.” However, there are many irregularities. In some cases, the abbreviation is formulated capital-capital-lowercase, as “CVn” for Canes Venatici and “UMa” for Ursa Major. Then there is the completely inexplicable “Com” for Coma Berenices, ignoring entirely the second word. Rather than explicitly naming a formula for making these determinations, the IAU simply published the abbreviations as a list. I have attempted to impose a set of rules in creating abbreviations for extinct constellations: • For three-letter abbreviations of constellations containing two words, I followed the predominant IAU convention of capital-lowercase-capital. When “Major” or “Minor” is the modifier, I follow the form capital-capital-lowercase except if the result is identical to an existing IAU abbreviation. So, e.g., Cancer Minor cannot be shortened as “CMi” because Canis Minor already holds that abbreviation. So, Cancer Minor becomes CnM. • In a few situations, there are totally unique combinations such as “Cerberus et Ramus Pomifer.” This I rendered as “CeR” (“Cerberus et Ramus”). • For names consisting of three words, each word receives one capital letter. So, e.g., Gladii Electorales Saxonici becomes GES. • There are two names consisting of three words where the last word is a modifier, and the names differ only by that modifier: Telescopium Herschelii Major and Telescopium Herschelii Minor. Since there is no proper way to reduce these names to three-letter abbreviations without losing essential elements, I opted for four letters: THMa and THMi.

Contents

Part I Celestial Odds and Ends 1 What Is a Constellation?...... 3 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands” ...... 15

Part II The Lost Constellations 3 The Battery of Volta ...... 27 4 Caput Medusae ...... 35 5 Corona Firmiana ...... 49 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici ...... 57 7 Leo Palatinus ...... 67 8 Lochium Funis ...... 77 9 Marmor Sculptile ...... 85 10 Norma Nilotica ...... 93 11 Phaeton ...... 101 12 Polophylax ...... 109 13 Pomum Imperiale...... 115 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae ...... 125 15 Sciurus Volans ...... 137 16 Solarium ...... 141

A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536).... 147

xv xvi Contents

B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ...... 165

C The Modern Constellations ...... 199

References...... 203

Index ...... 207 Part I Celestial Odds and Ends Chapter 1 What Is a Constellation?

[A]ncient customs are difficult to overcome, and it is very probable, that, except the recently-named groups, which we may now suppress, the venerable constellations will always reign. Camille Flammarion, Astronomie Populaire (1880)

The Construction of Our Galaxy

From a dark location on Earth, far from sources of artificial light pollution, a few thousand stars are sufficiently bright to be seen by the unaided human eye. One popular misconception about the stars is that brightness indicates distance, fainter stars being located further away from Earth than the bright ones; were it the case that all stars had identical intrinsic brightnesses, this would be true. But by the twentieth century, astronomers realized that the luminosities of stars spanned an enormous range of values, from those many thousands of times intrinsically brighter than the Sun to those just a fraction of a percent of our own star’s luminosity. The brightness of stars, then, does not tell us much about the immediate volume of space we inhabit. That some stars are brighter and others are fainter is also only part of the story by which certain ones come to form recognizable patterns to humans. The main influence on the distribution of stars in the night sky has to do with our location in (and the structure of) the Milky Way galaxy. Our home galaxy is a common type known a “disk spiral” in which a set of spiral arms, regions dense with stars and the materials from which they form, unwind from the center to the edge. Since we live inside the Milky Way’s disk, our understanding of the geometry of the Galaxy comes from the structures we can infer from our vantage point, supplemented by studies of other galaxies seen from the outside that we think resemble the Milky Way. Combining information from both sources, we can make an educated guess as to both the shape of our galaxy and the location of our Solar System within it.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 3 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_1 4 1 What Is a Constellation?

Fig. 1.1 An artist’s rendering of the Milky Way as it might appear viewed face-on from several hundred thousand light years above the midplane. The solid white circle indicates the location of the Sun. Illustration by R. Hurt (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

An artist’s conception of the Milky Way is shown in Fig. 1.1, illustrating what a viewer situated high above the plane of the galaxy might see looking down at it. The Sun, whose position is marked by a white circle, makes a leisurely orbit around the Galactic center once every 225–250 million years. Our motion through the Galaxy ensures that the Earth’s night sky is never static, and that the stars of tonight’s sky differ from those of the distant past and future. Humanity’s first view of the Milky Way as a single stellar system emerged in the eighteenth century. While the Galaxy has been known since time immemorial, an understanding of its composition awaited the invention of the telescope. In 1610, Galileo Galilei turned one to the Milky Way for the first time, resolving its luminous clouds into innumerable faint stars. A century later, philosophers and scientists began to devise ideas about what the Galaxy physically represents. The English The Construction of Our Galaxy 5

Fig. 1.2 William Herschel’s model of the Milky Way based on his star counts. The model is essentially a longitudinal slice through the Galaxy, reflecting the Solar System’s position within its Disk. Figure 4 from “On the Construction of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 75, pp. 213–266 (1785) astronomer Thomas Wright published An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe in 1750, in which he posited that the Milky Way was a large, rotating body composed of individual stars held together by gravity. He deduced it was a scaled-up version of the Solar System, by then describable with relatively simple physics under Isaac Newton’s universal theory of gravitation. In 1755, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant elaborated on Wright’s hypothesis, suggesting that the Milky Way might have begun as a spinning cloud of gas that somehow condensed into stars. He further speculated that other similar systems might exist and that the faint and featureless nebulae seen in contemporary telescopes could be such “island universes” unto themselves. Based on his careful telescopic counts of stars toward various directions in the night sky, the Anglo-German astronomer William Herschel made probably the first attempt at a structural model of the Milky Way (Fig. 1.2), correctly concluding that the Solar System was embedded inside it. From this vantage point, Herschel wrote, the heavens will not only be richly scattered over with brilliant constellations, but a shining zone or milky way will be perceived to surround the whole sphere of the heavens, owing to the combined light of those stars which are too small, that is, too remote to be seen. Our observer’s sight will be so confined, that he will imagine this single collection of stars, of which he does not even perceive the thousandth part, to be the whole contents of the heavens. Historical interest in the makeup of the Galaxy here is not about appreciating Galactic structure as a subject in its own right; rather, it is in understanding how the bright stars are scattered about our night skies. The bright stars that mark the familiar constellations tend to be remarkably close to Earth, and many are intrinsically faint. Given the rapid drop-off of observed brightness with distance, it is clear that most of the stars visible to the naked eye are within a relatively short distance of Earth; in order to see such low-luminosity stars, they cannot be very far away from us. We do not live in a part of the Galaxy particularly close to where stars are actively forming; this point is important because such clustered environments are the only places where the distribution of stars in small volumes of space is relatively uniform. Once stars leave their natal clusters, they drift away in random directions until their orbits around the Galactic center are no longer distinguishable from the myriad others. For all intents and purposes, the bright stars in Earth’s night 6 1 What Is a Constellation? skies are distributed (semi-)randomly, and do not lend themselves to any apparent positional hierarchy imposed by the laws of nature. The constellations, therefore, are a distinctly human invention dictated by culture and imagination rather than being the result of any physical process. How and why we ended up with a sky full of mythical heroes and fantastical beasts says much more about the human condition than it tells us anything useful about how the heavens are constructed.

History, Mythology, and Pattern Recognition

The tendency of the human brain to detect regular patterns has served our species very well in the realms of science and technology; the assembly of taxonomies is often the first instinct of scientists when confronted with new and unfamiliar data sets. We look for similarities and bin them together in a form of intellectual stamp collecting (hopefully) before speculating on the underlying natural laws and principles that make for different categories of phenomena. This approach exploits the superior capacity of the human brain for pattern recognition, of sensing a signal buried within the noise and applying that capacity to problem solving. Recognizing patterns in the locations of certain stars in the sky, and the seasons in which they rose and set at particular times of night, became indispensable to early humans dependent on the cyclical population dynamics of various plants and animals. Understanding calendric cues in both the day and night sky was crucial to both the survival of our nomadic ancestors and the transition to settled cities after the invention of agriculture some 12,000 years ago. Constellations are among the oldest human cultural inventions, certainly pre- dating writing and, in all likelihood, civilization itself. The presumably oldest figures still in existence, such as the Hunter and the Bull (Fig. 1.3), refer to a time in human history before the emergence of settled agricultural communities. It is probably no coincidence that Orion and Taurus reflect themes in the oldest extant works of art: the human form and game animals. Furthermore, it is likely that well-developed oral traditions about these figures long predate the development of written proto-language in the early Neolithic period, perhaps as long ago as the seventh millennium BC. Around 10,000 years ago humanity began a journey in folklore associated with a religious tradition, developed it for practical purposes and ultimately refined it in the empirical interest of science. The earliest surviving written record of constellations comes from Mesopotamia and is found in a text called “Prayer to the Gods of the Night” (Cooley 2011), dating from about 1700 BC, which references the Arrow (the star Sirius), the Yoke Star (the star Arcturus), the “Stars” (the Pleiades star cluster), the True Shepherd of Anu (Orion), the Dragon (possibly the constellation Hydra), the Wagon (the “Dipper” stars of Ursa Major), the Goat Star (Vega) and the Bison (the composite figure depicted in the constellations Ophiuchus and Serpens). A more detailed account, consisting of lists and observations of nearly all the Mesopotamian constellations, was carefully recorded in cuneiform script in the so-called “MUL.APIN” tablets (Watson and Horowitz 2011) whose oldest dated version was written in the eighth History, Mythology, and Pattern Recognition 7

Fig. 1.3 Paleolithic depiction of an aurochs (Bos primigenius) on a cave wall near Lascaux, France, dating to c. 15,000 BC. The figure is thought by some (Edge 1997; Rappenglück 2004)to represent the constellation Taurus, with a series of dots on the bull’s face standing for the Hyades star cluster. The six dots above the bull may refer to the Pleiades star cluster century BC but is based on observations from before 1000 BC. The figures of the classical zodiac were established in the Old Babylonian period of the Near East and cast in their final form during the Neo-Babylonian era around the sixth century BC. The folklore that originated in the earliest societies of the Fertile Crescent was transmitted widely across the region. Around the time of the rise of classical Greek culture, the author of the Biblical Book of Job referred1 to several asterisms, including Ursa Major (the Great Bear), Orion (the Hunter), and the Pleiades. Expanding on earlier work by Hunger and Pingree (1999) on the MUL.APIN tablets, Schaefer (2006) recently concluded, somewhat controversially, that “most of the Mesopotamian constellations and observational data were made from near a latitude ı of 33–36 between 1300 and 1000 BC, by people we would call Assyrians.” Adding additional constraints in the fourth century BC works of the Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus (408–355 BC), he further narrowed the time and place of the ı classical constellations’ origin to 1130 BC and 36 north latitude. This work suggests that the figures in the Western tradition that occupy the night skies of the northern hemisphere were essentially in place as we now know them around 3000 years ago and originated in or near the northern half of Mesopotamia.

1Job 9:9, 38:31–32. 8 1 What Is a Constellation?

Fig. 1.4 Detail of the Farnese Atlas, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. The discarded constellation Argo Navis (see Volume 1) is most prominent near the center of the globe. Photo by Flickr user virtusincertus, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Textual evidence indicates that the Greeks came into possession of these constellations in the century or so preceding Eudoxus, and their cultural influence spread the ideas into Europe by the Roman era. In the second century AD, Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 90–c. 168), a Greco-Egyptian writer in Alexandria, codified 48 constellations from the Middle Eastern canon in his Almagest,aworkthatsetthe Western standard of astronomy for nearly 1500 years. The oldest extant depiction of Ptolemy’s constellations is preserved on the Farnese Atlas (Fig. 1.4), currently housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy.2 It is a second century AD Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic Greek original possibly cast in bronze. The sculpture shows the god Atlas, a primordial Titan, bearing the celestial globe on his shoulders; the globe depicts 42 of the 48 classical Greek constellation figures. The classical constellations, wrote Richard Hinckley Allen in Star Names: Their

2Its modern appellation is the result of its purchase in the early sixteenth century by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589) and public exhibition in the Palazzo Farnese. The Atlas was first studied in detail by the Italian astronomer and historian Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) around 1694. A “Modern” Night Sky 9

Lore And Meaning (1899), “in ancient times were confined within the outlines of the forms that they were supposed to represent, although any resemblance was only occasionally noticeable.” Even as Ptolemy’s constellations held sway for some 1500 years, the figures be- lieved to be represented by stars in the night sky were not entirely static. As Europe emerged from its intellectual dark ages and embarked upon audacious new voyages of exploration, it opened a new “discovery space” in the southern hemisphere. Upon encountering previously unknown stars, sailors drew their own patterns on the night sky as much for the practical needs of navigation as the expression of imagination. They brought their culture and history to newly-conquered lands, spreading European sky lore across the globe. Their maps of Earth and sky present the world as knowable, with each continent and each constellation in its respective place. Finally, science emerged with its emphasis on structure and function. While human knowledge of the universe expanded, the familiar night sky remained the user interface to the cosmos. Inevitably, it called for some standardization among the people trying to understand it. With a sense of what a constellation is in hand, the question remains: who decides? From a literal world of interpretations of the patterns of the night sky emerged a set of 88 figures to be found on every star map today used by amateur and professional astronomers alike. That some constellations are considered “official” by astronomers implies that others are (or were) not, and that a history of night sky folklore existed that is now lost.

A “Modern” Night Sky

The problem of what a constellation is—and on whose authority—proved to be a vexing question in historical astronomy for reasons that transcended mere aesthetics. The pursuit of certain topics in astronomy research, and in particular those whose studies were bolstered by the emerging technology of the photographic process, required a consistent nomenclature framed in part by being able to distinguish the membership of stars in one constellation or another. Before those memberships can be established the boundaries separating them must be demarcated, and that implies astronomers agree on a fixed canon of constellations to which none would be added or subtracted. But the problem at the end of the nineteenth century was that no such general agreement among astronomers existed. Its solution has much to do with the phenomenon of “lost” constellations in the first place. A full account of the process by which a set of 88 constellations considered official by the world’s professional astronomers is given in Volume 1; that history is abstracted here. 10 1 What Is a Constellation?

Constellation Counts in Disagreement

Looking carefully at the number of constellations listed in various nineteenth century textbooks gives a variety of totals. James Ryan counted as many as 104 constellations in The new American grammar of the elements of astronomy (1827). He found a minimum of 94 constellations from his main lists considered in common circulation and a maximum 104 by adding ten figures from “modern astronomers” and others made “out of the unformed stars, and those stars in the southern hemisphere that were invisible to the ancient astronomers on account of never appearing above their horizon.” George F. Chambers wrote a history of the constellations and presented a suggested canon of 109 constellations in his 1877 Handbook of Descriptive Astronomy. He had all of Ryan’s constellations plus two figures of telescopes honoring William Herschel, and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds; Chambers also counted the star Cor Caroli (˛ Canem Venaticorum) as a constellation unto itself. However, Ezra Otis Kendall counted only 89 constellations in Uranography (1845) in part because he doubled up: “Perseus et Caput Medusae” were one constellation, not two, as were “Vulpecula et Anser” and the “Triangula.” “In our day,” wrote Richard Hinckley Allen, there is discrepancy in the number of constellations accepted by astronomers, few of whom entirely agree in recognition of the modern formations. For, although Ideler3 described 106, with allusions to others entirely obsolete, or of which nearly all traces had been lost, Argelander4 catalogued only eighty-six, Vela, Puppis, and Carina being included under Argo; and the British Association Catalogue of 1845 only eighty-four. Professor Young5 recognizes sixty-seven as in ordinary use, although he catalogues eighty-four, Argo being divided into Carina, Puppis, and Vela; Upton’s Star Atlas,6 of 1896, eighty-five; and the Standard Dictionary7 eighty-nine, but the latter’s list of 188 star-names is disappointing. Yet, at the end of the nineteenth century, Allen contended “From eighty to ninety constellations may be considered as now more or less acknowledged.” In each of these cases recall that only 48 were agreed upon by all writers, having descended from classical antiquity; all others, having been suggested since the beginning of the early modern period, were a matter of individual taste. Certain cartographers—Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687) and Johann Elert Bode (1747– 1826), in particular—were highly-influential tastemakers whose figures were copied by scores of other mapmakers in succeeding generations. But until well into the

3Christian Ludwig Ideler (1766–1846) was a German chronologer and astronomer. 4The German astronomer Friedrich W.A. Argelander (1799–1875) published his atlas Uranometria Nova in 1843. 5Charles Augustus Young (1834–1908) was an important early solar spectroscopist and author of the popular astronomy textbook Manual of Astronomy (1902). 6Winslow Upton (1853–1914) was an American astronomer best known for his Star atlas, containing stars visible to the naked eye (1896). 7It is unclear to which work Allen refers here. A “Modern” Night Sky 11 twentieth century, there was no list of “official” constellations recognized by the world’s astronomers, and a lack of consensus presented a genuine obstacle to scientific research.

Precession of the Equinoxes

The authority of historic charts still held sway at the turn of the century, but astronomers realized their crucial fault: any attempt to fix definite boundary lines on a chart would inevitably pin the constellations onto a shifting sky. The reason for this has to do with human attempts to superimpose a set of coordinates onto the sky. To fix positions of objects on the celestial sphere, astronomers use a set of orthogonal coordinates known as right ascension and declination. These coordinates have their analogs in terrestrial longitude and latitude, respectively. Lines of constant right ascension, numbered in hours from 0 to 24, have their origin and termination points on the north and south celestial poles, the two points on the sky marking the projection of the Earth’s rotation axis onto the celestial sphere. Lines of constant declination, like terrestrial latitude lines, have no origin but trace out circles around the sky parallel to the celestial equator, the projection of the Earth’s equator onto the celestial sphere. If that were the end of the story, then any set of arbitrary constellation boundaries would suffice indefinitely. To remain constant in time with respect to this geocentric coordinate system, the orientation of the poles must remain fixed with respect to the stars whose distance is taken to be infinite. But the Earth’s rotation axis is not fixed; rather, like a slowly-spinning child’s toy top, the direction of the axis executes a slow, circular precession with a period of about 25,700 years (Fig. 1.5). Again in the fixed coordinate frame of a stationary Earth, the poles appear to execute circles around the imaginary fixed point in the center of the figure of precession over this period of time. Lines of right ascension remain tied to the poles, and declination to the equator, but the position on the celestial sphere of any particular “fixed” star appears constantly in motion. This creates an obvious problem if one astronomer wants to communicate the position of an interesting object to another: right ascensions and declinations are periodic functions of time. Astronomers therefore attach a date known as an “equinox” to a set of coordinates to indicate the time for which the quoted coordinates are valid. To compute the corresponding position on another date, allowing for precession, an astronomer specifies an “epoch.” The equinox and epoch of a set of coordinates are inputs to transformation equations that yield an object’s position corrected for precession. The standard equinox is traditionally updated every 50 years because inaccuracies in calculating the precessed position of objects after several decades can result in significant positional errors. The need for professional astronomers to settle on a final set of constellations recognized uniformly was born of an urgent need in early twentieth century observational astronomy. The field of variable star research was fashionable at the 12 1 What Is a Constellation?

Fig. 1.5 The path of the north celestial pole through the sky during one complete period of precession. Numbers along the circle show dates in BC (negative numbers) and AD (positive numbers) including an artificial year “0.” Two coordinate origins are shown: one for the position of the pole in AD 2000 near the star Polaris (top) and another at the “pole” of precession itself in the constellation Draco (center). Figure by Wikimedia Commons user Tau’olunga, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 time, but a quirk of nomenclature created a problem in keeping proper track of any particular star. Newly-discovered variable stars are traditionally given designations including the name of the constellation in which they are found. To assign names to objects according to the constellations to which they “belong” implies there are clear demarcations establishing the thresholds at which one constellation transitions to its neighbor. By about 1900 most professional astronomers agreed that such boundaries existed between constellations, but no clear consensus existed as to the exact location of these lines. Furthermore, precession of the equinoxes had the practical effect of causing stars near constellation boundaries to drift from one A “Modern” Night Sky 13 constellation’s defined area into its neighbor’s. Objects whose nomenclature tied them to an identity in a specific constellation would therefore become confused over time and lead to disagreement among observers. As Europe emerged from the ashes of the First World War, astronomers decided the time was ripe to apply academic rigor in defining the limits and contents of a truly modern night sky.

IAU Commission 3

In July 1919, European astronomers gathered at the Palais des Académies in Brussels for the Constitutive Assembly of the International Research Council during which they chartered a governing body for world professional astronomy known as the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU first formally met at Rome in 1922, at which time members of the new organization voted to constitute a number of “Commissions,” effectively a series of working groups comprised of subject experts tasked with establishing a series of standards on which all working astronomers would agree. Commission 3 was on the topic of “Notations,” formed in part to deal with the problem of constellation boundaries. The Commission’s task, in part, was to decide on a final set of constellation boundaries given Benjamin Apthorp Gould’s work in the southern hemisphere.8 The sensible approach seemed to be to adopt the boundaries from Uranometria Argentina and extend this model to the northern hemisphere. For this work, it selected Eugéne Joseph Delporte (1882–1954), a Belgian astronomer based at the the Royal Observatory at Uccle. Delporte began with a list of 88 constellations, given in the Appendix to this book, declared canonical at the first IAU General Assembly at Rome. At the same time, each constellation was assigned a three-letter abbreviation to make uniform the short references to constellations in the names of variable stars. Delporte conducted the investigatory work into extending Gould’s system of boundaries with L. Casteels (University of Ghent, Belgium) at Uccle. Delporte’s initial study was conducted during 1923–1925, and his proof-of- concept was presented at the second General Assembly held at Cambridge, England, in 1925. The members of Commission 3 looked favorably on his work and endorsed a full study to be presented at the following General Assembly. Delporte drew new boundaries for the 88 constellations recognized by the IAU in 1922 along hour circles defined for the equinox of 1875.0 to establish consistency with Gould’s southern hemisphere charts.

8Gould (1824–1896) was an American astronomer who founded both the Astronomical Journal and the Argentine National Observatory. In 1879 Gould published Uranometria Argentina: Volume 1, an atlas of 7756 stars within 100 degrees of the south celestial pole whose positions he measured during his tenure at Córdoba, Argentina. His approach defined constellation boundaries using obliques, or arcs of great circles, along lines of constant right ascension and declination. 14 1 What Is a Constellation?

At the third General Assembly in Leiden, Netherlands, the full Union ap- proved the recommendation of Commission 3 to adopt Delporte’s boundaries for constellations north of declination 12:5ı. With this report, the professional astronomy community in 1928 agreed on the number, name, and boundaries of 88 constellations found on maps to the present day. Delporte published the results of his work in Délimitation scientifique des constellations (1930b); charts showing the new constellation boundaries were published concurrently in Atlas Céleste.In his Star Tales (1989), Ian Ridpath rightly noted that Délimitation represents “an international treaty on the demarcation of the sky, to which astronomers throughout the world have conformed ever since.” The work of IAU Commission 3 that resulted in the publication of Delporte’s atlas and explanatory volume necessarily involved the promotion of certain constel- lations and the suppression of others. There are many books about the history of the 88 constellations declared “official” by the IAU, but little has been written to date about the others overlooked in this process. The historical constellations discarded by the IAU in the 1920s are treated in detail in Volume 1 of this set. In this volume, a separate recounting of other figures is given; these constellations fall into one of several categories that hold them as a subordinate group to those in Volume 1. Given the wildly variable degree of attention they received from historical cartographers, the stories behind these figures are deeper and more nuanced. Chapter 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands”

The 28 constellations in Volume 1 of this book are grouped together on the basis of a particular defining characteristic: each was a more or less original invention that is sourced in more than one published text or chart. They are constellations that became at least somewhat popular and exhibited a kind of staying power that lasted from decades to centuries. Some even persisted nearly up to the last possible minute before being excised at the time of the International Astronomical Union’s definition of the “modern” canon of constellations in 1922 (see Chap. 1). That leaves a separate set of 16 constellations that did not achieve such attention, although they have their own interesting histories. While they do not quite fit the “lost constellation” ideal exactly, they are worth something of an honorable mention. These constellations, which fall into one or more of three broad categories, are found in this volume.

Asterisms

The modern definition of a constellation includes a figure delineated by several bright stars intended to represent an object, animal or person that typically alludes to an historical identity, surrounded by fainter stars disconnected to the depiction of that figure. The whole assembly of stars is enclosed by a precisely-defined set of boundaries that differentiate a particular constellation from is neighbors. However, the historical understanding of constellations lacked an objective set of boundaries and focused more distinctly on the figure represented by the bright stars. That figure is now referred to as an asterism. Prior to the twentieth century, “constellation” and “asterism” were essentially interchangeable terms that lacked proper definitions with which to differentiate them in everyday use.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 15 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_2 16 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands”

Until the scientific method began to dominate and direct the work of obser- vational astronomers in the seventeenth century, skywatchers had little need to repeatably determine the association of any particular faint star with one widely recognized figure or another. That left many stars “unformed,” making use of a term introduced by the second century AD Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy to describe stars visible to the naked eye that were not historically ascribed to any constellation in the classical world. Over a 1000 years later, figures devised from Ptolemy’s unformed stars became the basis for dozens of newly-invented constellations. While some of those constellations are found on contemporary star charts, most were tossed into the rubbish bin of history and are the subject of this book and its companion Volume 1. The current sense of the term “asterism” refers to any group of bright stars forming some recognizable pattern; many gained a popular definition of their own but never quite achieved constellation status. The prototypical example of an asterism is the “Big Dipper” or “Plough,” a subset of stars within the classical figure of Ursa Major. The Dipper asterism, along with other nearby stars forming an asterism that looked to the ancient Greeks like the profile of a bear, is contained within a set of boundaries recognized by the International Astronomical Union as defining a constellation called Ursa Major. However, neither the Dipper nor the figure of the bear holds any formal significance to the modern science of astronomy. Asterisms are therefore something of a folk notion that can be drawn arbitrarily on the night sky by anyone at any time. Sometimes asterisms serve a navigational function. The bright stars Dubhe and Merak (˛ and ˇ Ursae Majoris) are colloquially known as “The Pointers;” a line drawn from ˇ to ˛ and continued in the same direction for about 30ı falls very near the north celestial pole and Polaris (˛ Ursae Majoris). This helps the novice mariner distinguish between Polaris (V magnitude C1:98) and nearby Kochab (ˇ Ursa Minoris, V magnitude C2:08). In the southern hemisphere, a line drawn between the “Southern Pointers” Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar (˛ and ˇ Centauri) points toward an asterism called the Southern Cross that stands in for the constellation Crux. In this way, the Southern Pointers show navigators the correct Cross and not the similar “False Cross” asterism composed of ı Velorum, Markab (Ä Velorum), Avior ( Carinae) and Aspidiske (Ã Carinae). In a few cases asterisms were separated from historical figures to become constellations in their own right. Perhaps the most famous example is the division of the classical figure of Scorpius into two pieces, each of which became a zodiacal constellation during antiquity. Before the Classical period of ancient Greece, Scorpius was envisioned with two large chelae, or claws, extending into the space overlapping the eastern extreme of Virgo. The old notion of eleven members of the zodiac rather than the modern twelve is recorded in the first book of the biblical Old Testament1: “Then [Jacob] had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ ”

1Genesis 37:9 (NIV). The “eleven stars” refer to the ancient houses of the zodiac. Asterisms 17

In the Hellenistic era, the Greek association of Virgo with the agriculture goddess Demeter-Ceres gave way to a different understanding in the form of the virgin goddess Astraea, daughter of Astraeus and Eos. Astraea personified the ideals of purity and innocence, and became identified with Dike, the Greek goddess of justice. Depictions of Astraea often show her holding the scales of justice, so Greco-Roman astronomers appropriated the chelae of Scorpius to form the pans and suspension rod of a balance. By the time Ptolemy was writing in the second century AD, the Scales were held as a twelfth zodiacal constellation and became known to the Romans as Libra. To this day the two brightest stars in Libra retain Arabic names referring to their former role in Scorpius: Zubenelgenubi (˛ Librae, “the southern claw”) and Zubeneschamali (ˇ Librae, “the northern claw”). Lupus (the Wolf) was likewise carved off of Centaurus and given its own identity as an asterism by the Greek astronomer Hipparchos in the third century BC; it remains a modern constellation. Similarly, the modern constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair) gained a life of its own in antiquity after being separated from Leo. Conon of Samos (c. 280–c. 220 BC), court astronomer to the Egyptian king Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246–222 BC) at Alexandria, appropriated some faint stars historically counted as part of Leo’s tail to recognize his queen, Berenice II (c. 267–221 BC). According to legend,2 Berenice promised the removal and dedication of her long tresses to the goddess Aphrodite provided that Ptolemy returned unharmed from a battle in the Third Syrian War.3 Upon Ptolemy’s return to Alexandria, Berenice placed the hair in Aphrodite’s temple at Zephyrium,4 butinshortorderit disappeared. Sensing an opportunity, Conon proposed that Aphrodite had interceded to place the hair in the heavens as an acknowledgment of Berenice’s sacrifice and a token of the goddess’ favor. The astronomer Ptolemy did not accept Conon’s invention of Coma Berenices, referring to its stars as “a nebulous mass, called the lock [of hair]” but otherwise considering them firmly part of the Lion. The tale of Conon and the hair gained favor in the sixteenth century and Coma Berenices was afforded constellation status by the German cartographer Caspar Vopel(1511–1561) as “Berenices Crinis” on a globe published in 1536. It gained further popularity on its inclusion in Tycho Brahe’s 1602 star catalog, and achieved enduring fame upon its appearance in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria (1603). It has been shown on star charts ever since. The most extreme form of the breakup of one historical asterism to form others that later became part of the modern canon of constellations is the partition of Argo Navis into Carina, Puppis and Vela (see Volume 1). The division of Argo Navis5

2E.g., Aratus, Phaenomena 146; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.24. 3The War was waged between the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt and the Seleucid Empire, two successor states of Alexander the Great’s empire, during the third and second centuries BC. 4The modern city of Mersin, Turkey. 5In 1843 the English astronomer Sir John Herschel proposed replacing Lacaille’s invented constellation Pyxis with a fourth constituent of Argo Navis he called Malus (the Mast); Herschel’s figure appeared on a few mid-century maps but was discarded before 1900. 18 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands” was suggested in 1756 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille as the result of observations he made from South Africa in 1751–1752. Argo Navis was once the largest widely-known asterism in the night sky, but many found its large figure unwieldy. While Argo Navis persisted on popular charts until the end of the nineteenth century, the International Astronomical Union accepted Lacaille’s proposed constituent constellations when it published a list of official constellations in 1922. Asterisms can be functionally divided into four types: aliases, sectional, non- sectional, and cross-border. Some well-known examples of each are given below.

Alias Asterisms

Each modern constellation takes its name and identity from a widely recognized figure composed mainly of bright stars; alias asterisms are alternate names or ‘nicknames’ for these figures. Such asterisms include: • The Ice Cream Cone,orThe Kite—a roughly quadrilateral group of bright stars forming the body of Boötes (the Herdsman) consisting of Arcturus, Seginus, Princeps, and Izar (˛, ˇ,  and ı Boötis), and the combination of nearby stars  and  Boötis. • The Frying Pan—an asterism of Australian origin repurposing the brighter stars of Chamaeleon for use as an aid in finding the south celestial pole. • The Northern Cross—a representation of the bright stars of Cygnus as a Latin cross. The long axis of the Cross spans the set of stars from Deneb (˛ Cygni) to Albireo (ˇ Cygni) and the short axis runs from Gienah ( Cygni) to Rukh (ı Cygni), mirroring the body and wings of the Swan, respectively. Alias asterisms may also refer to traditional, and in particular, non-Western representations of figures with counterparts among modern constellations; ethnog- raphers have identified many such asterisms among various world cultures (see, e.g., Allen 1899; Selin 2000; Ruggles 2005;Aveni2008). An example is the Polynesian identification of Scorpius with a fish hook, the body and head of the Scorpion forming an elongated, capped letter “J.” Further, the subset of lost constellations here referred to as “rebrands” (see below) also fall under the heading of alias asterisms.

Sectional Asterisms

These are figures created from a subset of the brighter stars in a main constellation figure, which relate to the figure represented by the constellation and may or may not have an historical basis. Certain sectional asterisms such as Lupus later became constellations unto themselves, while others like Libra first changed identity before Asterisms 19 achieving independent recognition. On the other hand, figures like Caput Medusae (the Head of Medusa; Chap. 4) had long historical pedigrees and managed to win acceptance as constellations in their own right, but were ultimately demoted to asterism status when the modern canon of constellations was declared in 1922. Other historical sectional asterisms such as the “Great Square of Pegasus,” composed of Markab, Scheat and Algenib (˛, ˇ and  Pegasi), and Alpheratz (˛ Andromedae), have both ancient origins and modern folk appeal. Known as early as the second millennium BC to the Babylonians as MUL.AS.IKU˘ (the Field), these four stars whose rising in the east in the early evening is an indicator of the oncoming northern hemisphere autumn are commonly taught to beginning amateur astronomers. Some other historical sectional asterisms are: • Orion’s Belt—the three, evenly-spaced stars of similar brightness in the center of the figure of Orion identified as a belt around the Hunter’s waist from which hung his sword, imagined as the nebulosity and stars around the Orion Nebula (Messier 42). The three stars stood for various historical associations of three people, such as the three eastern kings of the Biblical New Testament and the Drie Susters (“Three Sisters”) among Afrikaans speakers in South Africa. • The Water Jar—a group of four stars, Sadachbia ( Aquarii), Seat ( Aquarii), and Á and Aquarii, forming the urn or jar from which the Water Bearer pours forth his eponymous stream. • Cerberus et Ramus Pomifer—a group of faint stars in eastern Hercules historically depicted as, alternately, the three-headed monster Cerberus and the Apple-Bearing Branch of the Hesperides in reference to two of the Herculean Labours. This asterism once held constellation status before being demoted in the late nineteenth century (see Volume 1 for details).

Non-sectional Asterisms

In a similar fashion these asterisms are formed from a subset of bright stars in a constellation whose identification does not distinctly relate to the main constellation figure. They, too, often (but not exclusively) have historical origins. A prototypical example is the “Keystone” of Hercules (Fig. 2.1), consisting of , , Á and  Herculis, so named for its resemblance to the keystone that holds in place a stone arch. Examples of other non-sectional asterisms include: • The Sickle—a group of six bright stars in western Leo (, , , , Á and ˛ Leonis) resembling a backward question mark. • The Teapot—eight stars defining the upper body and drawn bow of Sagittarius ( , ı, , , , ,  and  Sagittarii) that look strikingly like the profile of a teapot, complete with Milky Way clouds appearing as “steam” billowing from the spout. • Job’s Coffin—a diamond-shaped arrangement of the stars ˛, ˇ,  and ı Delphini. The origin of this asterism’s name appears lost to history. 20 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands” and up Herculis. In this view, north is  and Á ,

,  connect the bright stars Heavy black lines The Keystone, a non-sectional asterism in Hercules. left Fig. 2.1 east is Asterisms 21

• Terebellum—!, 59, 60, and 62 Sagittarii, forming a small quadrangle on the hindquarters of the Archer, known to Ptolemy as the τετρ´απλευρον (tetrápleuron, ‘quadrilateral’). • The Diamond Cross—four bright stars in Carina (ˇ, , Â,and!) forming an almost perfect, upright diamond shape. • The Circlet—a pentagon formed by the bright stars Â, , Ä, and à Piscium that represents the head of the western fish in Pisces.

Cross-Border Asterisms

Some asterisms are composed of stars that span more than one official constellation and do not refer to the classical or historical definitions of those constellations. Perhaps the most familiar cross-border asterism to northern hemisphere observers is the Summer Triangle (Fig. 2.2), formed from the bright stars Vega (˛ Lyrae), Deneb (˛ Cygni), and Altair (˛ Aquilae). The three stars form a near-perfect right triangle that rises on early summer evenings with its hypotenuse almost parallel to the eastern horizon. Other cross-border asterisms make use of stars from several constellations at once: • The Winter Triangle—a northern hemisphere winter counterpart to the Summer Triangle consisting of the bright stars Sirius (˛ Canis Majoris), Procyon (˛ Canis Minoris) and Betelgeuse (˛ Orionis). • The Egyptian X—two inverted triangles meeting at Sirius to form a large Latin letter ‘X’ in the northern hemisphere winter sky. The upper half of the X is identical to the Winter Triangle; the southern half is composed of Sirius (˛ Canis Majoris), Naos ( Puppis) and Phact (˛ Columbae). This asterism takes its name from the fact that its stars roughly border the celestial equator, and that traditionally it was more readily seen in its entirety from north Africa than Europe. • The Lozenge—a small quadrilateral made up of the stars Etamin, Grumium and Rastaban (, ,andˇ Draconis), and à Herculis, marking the head of Draco (the Dragon). • The False Cross a compact, diamond-shaped figure marked by the bright stars ı and Ä Velorum, and Avior and Aspidiske ( and à Carinae) that is often mistaken for the Southern Cross. The following figures discussed in this book are best described as asterisms: • Caput Medusae (the Head of Medusa)—Chap. 4 (sectional; Perseus) • Gladii Electorales Saxonici (the Crossed Swords of the Saxony Electorate)— Chap. 6 (cross-border; Virgo/Libra/Serpens Caput) • Lochium Funis (the Log and Line)—Chap.8 (non-sectional; Pyxis) • Norma Nilotica (the Nilometer)—Chap. 10 (sectional; Aquarius) • Phaeton—Chap. 11 (sectional; Eridanus) 22 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands” Aquilae). ˛ Cygni), and Altair ( ˛ Lyrae),Deneb ( ˛ connect the bright stars Vega ( Heavy black lines bottom and east is at the left The Summer Triangle, a cross-border asterism. Fig. 2.2 In this view, north is toward the “Rebranded” Figures 23

• Polophylax (the Guardian of the Pole)—Chap. 12 (cross-border; Phoenix/Tucana/Indus/Pavo?) • Solarium (the Sundial)—Chap. 16 (cross-border; Reticulum/Horologium)

Single-Sourced Constellations

Certain constellations were introduced on surviving charts—some quite famous and influential—that do not seem to have been adopted or promoted by other authors or cartographers. These tend to be inventions that suited their creators’ need to attract or retain patronage to fund their professional activities. Often these constellations honored specific political figures seen as unpalatable by competitors in other countries and quickly disappeared; others found limited (Pomum Imperiale, Chap. 13, and constellations Honores Frederici, Psalterium Georgianum, Robur Carolinum, Sceptrum Brandenburgicum and Taurus Poniatovii in Volume 1) or even permanent persistence (the modern constellation Scutum). The following figures discussed in this book are best described as single-sourced constellations: • The Battery of Volta—Chap.3 • Leo Palatinus (the Palatine Lion)—Chap.7 • Marmor Scupltile (the Bust of Christopher Columbus)—Chap.9 • Pomum Imperiale (the Imperial Orb of Emperor Leopold I)—Chap. 13 • Sciurus Volans (the Flying Squirrel)—Chap.15

“Rebranded” Figures

In other cases, some cartographers executed the most brazen move of all by poaching the inventions of others, introducing new figures to try to replace those already in circulation. Although there are a few instances in which these new constellations resulted from what appears to be genuine ignorance, it is clear that some mapmakers deliberately intended to displace existing constellations with new figures of their own creation. A few of the constellations originally introduced by Hevelius and Lacaille (e.g., Lacerta, Pyxis, Reticulum) were prime targets for this activity. These “rebrands” are in part defined by their inevitable failure to catch on. Carried to its logical extreme, the ultimate failed rebrand was Julius Schiller’s attempted Christianization of the night sky in Coelum Stellatum Christianum (1627). The following figures discussed in this book are best described as rebranded constellations: 24 2 Asterisms, Single-Sourced Constellations, and “Rebrands”

• Corona Firmiana (the Firmian Crown)—Chap.5 (replacing Corona Borealis) • Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (the Sceptre and Hand of Justice)—Chap. 14 (replacing Lacerta) Finally, note that two special subsets of constellations appearing in the works of Petrus Apianus (sixteenth century) and John Hill (1754) are set off from the others in this book in their own Appendices. Part II The Lost Constellations Chapter 3 The Battery of Volta

Genitive: Pila Voltae Abbreviation:PiV Location: The stars 1 Pegasi and 9 Pegasi in western Pegasus1

Origin and History

This single-sourced constellation appeared in Volume 1 of A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807) by the English polymath Thomas Young (1773–1829) (Fig. 3.1). Young made a number of contributions to fields of scholarship as varied as physics, medicine, linguistics and history, and chose the figure to honor his contemporary Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) whose “Voltaic pile,” an early electric battery, was announced 7 years earlier. Young’s Lectures collected systematically the contents of 91 “natural philosophy” lectures he delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain during 1801–1803. The Battery appears on one of two hemispheres (Plates XXXVI and XXXVII) bearing the mark

1“Two 4th-magnitude stars located between the heads of Delphinus, Equuleus, and Pegasus” (Bakich 1995).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 27 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_3 28 3 The Battery of Volta

Fig. 3.1 The Battery of Volta depicted in its only known source: Table XXXVI, Fig. 517 of Thomas Young’s A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts, Volume 1 (1807). Note Young’s inclusion of other obsolete constellations such as Antinous (upper left)and Honores Fredrici (as “Frederic’s Trophy”, bottom center; see Volume 1), as well as his fanciful English renderings of other figures (e.g., Lacerta as “Sea Lizard”; lower left)

“Pub. by J. Johnson,2 London 1 July 18053” and “Joseph Skelton4 sculp.” Despite Young’s discussion5 of “the particular stars,” he does not comment on the choice of these specific stars or why he intended them to highlight the work of Volta. The figure of the Battery was, as Deborah Warner put it in The Sky Explored: Celestial Cartography 1500–1800 (1979) “squeezed ...intothespacebetweenthe head and hoofs of Pegasus.” Young’s map marked the positions of only two stars: 1

2Joseph Johnson (1738–1809) was a prolific eighteenth-century London publisher and bookseller known for releasing a variety of titles on everything from high literature to social commentary. Johnson published a diversity of authors including philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, political economist Thomas Malthus, and Dissenting clergyman Joseph Priestly. 3Felice Stoppa points out that, based on the charted position of Á Virginis near right ascension 182:3ı, the charts were computed “for a period equivalent to that of their publication.” Precessing the star’s current position to Young’s given right ascension yields a date of approximately 1791. See Stoppa’s work on historic charts and atlases at http://www.atlascoelestis.com/. 4Joseph John Skelton (1783–1871) was an English engraver whose work specialized largely in antiquarian subjects, making Young’s star chart a rather unusual commission. 5Pages 496–498. Origin and History 29

Fig. 3.2 A composite view of the Battery of Volta, merging excerpts of Plate 20 in Bode (1801b) and Plate XXXVI, Fig. 517 in Young (1807). The two figures were aligned by matching stars in Pegasus, Equuleus, and Delphinus, and applying a geometric distortion map, keeping in mind that Young’s star positions were estimated in a much more crude fashion than the telescopic observations on which Bode relied

Pegasi (D HR 8173 D SAO 107073; V DC4:09)and9Pegasi(D HR 8313 D SAO 107365; V DC4:35). Young’s figure crosses the boundary of Delphinus (Fig. 3.2) and includes a handful of sixth-magnitude stars in the easternmost corner of that constellation. While left unformed by Ptolemy, it is clear from an examination of charts drawn before and after Young’s time that most cartographers considered these stars to belong to either Pegasus or Delphinus. To say that other mapmakers neglected to adopt Young’s invention would be an understatement; it is not to be found even in Richard Hinckley Allen’s exhaustive late nineteenth-century history of the constellations Star Names: Their Lore And Meaning (1899). Volta’s Battery was never accepted by the astronomical community and fell into immediate disuse. 30 3 The Battery of Volta

Iconography

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (Fig. 3.3) was born on 18 February 1745 to Filippo and Maria Maddalena (Inzaghi) Volta at Como, then in the Duchy of Milan. Relatively little is known of his early life. It is said that Volta did not begin to speak until age four, but by seven he had overtaken his peers in terms of intelligence and curiosity. Intended by his parents for the priesthood he began his education at the Royal Seminary in Como, but quickly decided to pursue physics and chemistry. He became interested in electricity early in his career. By 1774 he was Professor of Physics at the Royal School where he studied atmospheric electricity and began conducting basic laboratory experiments in electromagnetism and electrochemistry. The following year he made significant improvements to the electrophorus, a simple manual generator that produces an electric charge through electrostatic induction. Volta promoted the electrophorus so vigorously in the following years that it was later assumed he had also invented the device, although the Swedish physicist Johan Wilcke (1732–1796) wrote of its design as early as 1762. His investigations on electrical phenomena led him to pursue insights into the nature of ‘inflammable air,’ or hydrogen, first described by Henry Cavendish in 1766. This work led to his discovery of methane at Lake Maggiore in 1776, which he chemically isolated 2 years later and showed could be ignited in a closed vessel via an electric spark. His research earned him a chair in experimental physics at the University of Pavia in Lombardy, an appointment he

Fig. 3.3 Portrait of Alessandro Volta by the Italian publisher Niccolò Bettoni (1770–1842) Iconography 31 held for nearly 40 years. In 1794 he married Teresa Peregrini, an aristocrat from Como who bore him three sons. Volta retired from teaching in 1819 and relocated to his estate at Camnago, near Como, where he died on 5 March 1827.

The Electrochemical Battery

During the 1790s Volta began a professional association with Luigi Galvani (1737–1798), a physicist from Bologna. Galvani discovered and described a phe- nomenon he called “animal electricity,” which he believed persisted in the body of an organism after its death. Volta (correctly) reasoned that in Galvani’s experiments on frogs the apparent motion of an animal’s leg when the body was touched by instruments of dissimilar metals—brass and iron—was due to an electrochemical reaction mediated by salts in solution in the body. The observation proved the basis for Volta’s law of the electrochemical series: the electromotive force of a galvanic cell, in which a pair of dissimilar metal electrodes is separated by an electrolyte, is proportional to the difference between the metals’ electrode potentials. Volta’s invention of the first electrochemical cell (the “electric column”; Fig. 3.4) was the result of a professional disagreement with Galvani, who held firm to his interpretation of the galvanic response in the frog experiments. To prove that the generation of an electric current in a chemical cell had nothing to do with biology Volta constructed an apparatus in which the frog’s leg was replaced with paper soaked in brine and connected to electrodes. From these experiments he found that the pair of dissimilar metals with the highest electrode potential was silver and zinc;

Fig. 3.4 Schematic illustration of a voltaic pile from Leçons de Physique (1904), courtesy of Éditions Vuibert 32 3 The Battery of Volta

Fig. 3.5 Volta (center-right) demonstrates his “electric column” to Napoleon Bonaparte (center- left) in an undated painting by Giuseppe Bertini (1825–1898) the first cells were stacks of disks of these metals sandwiched between layers of cardboard saturated with brine. Volta demonstrated a device of this construction to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 (Fig. 3.5), and for his invention Napoleon created him a count. Later refinements swapped copper for silver and used sulfuric acid .H2SO4/ as the electrolyte. In the latter type, the solution of acid provides free hydrogen radicals C 2 .2H / and sulfate ions .SO4 /. Zinc is higher in the electrochemical series than both copper and hydrogen, and it reacts with the negatively-charged sulfate ions. The free hydrogen radicals capture electrons from the copper, forming molecular hydrogen gas .H2/. Electricity flows between the negative (zinc) and positive (copper) electrodes when they are connected by a conductor, but the formation of hydrogen gas reduces the efficiency of the cell because the gas largely remains in solution on the surface of the zinc terminal, reducing contact between the metal and the electrolyte. Since the electrolyte was confined to the cardboard disks in early versions and negated the need to immerse the whole contraption in liquid, this type of battery became known as a “dry cell.” In the figure representing the constellation he dedicated to Volta, Thomas Young illustrated the voltaic pile in sense as it would have been frequently encountered in the early nineteenth century: a stack of disks situated on its side in a box meant to enclose the pile with a lid opened to show the discs (Fig. 3.6). Iconography 33 A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the ) overlaid on a modern chart 1807 ( The figure of the Battery of Volta from Table XXXVI, Fig. 517 in Volume 1 of Thomas Young’s Fig. 3.6 Mechanical Arts Chapter 4 Caput Medusae

The Head of Medusa

Genitive: Capitis Medusae Abbreviation:CpM Location: In the left hand of Perseus1

Origin and History

Caput Medusae is best considered an asterism within Perseus, but historically it was considered sufficiently distinct from Perseus to warrant its own label on charts (Figs. 4.1, 4.2,and4.3). Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) wrote of Perseus that He is shown in early illustrations as a nude youth wearing the talaria, or winged sandals, with a light scarf thrown around his body, holding in his left hand the Gorgoneion, or head

of Medusa-Guberna, the mortal one of the Gorgons, and in his right the ÖÔ,orfalx,which he had received from Mercury. Dürer drew him thus, but added a flowing robe, a figuring that Bayer, Argelander, and Heis have followed, as they have, in the main, all of that great artist’s constellation figures. . . . Hipparchos and Pliny made a separate constellation of the Gorgon stars as the Head of Medusa, this descending almost to our own day, although always connected with Perseus. The figure of Medusa’s severed head borne in the left hand of Perseus (when depicted facing toward the viewer of a map) was understood as a part of the representation of the figure of Perseus on the sky at least as early as the Almagest (second century AD). That it bears any specific mention is likely attributable to the properties of ˇ Persei, an eclipsing binary star with the common name “Algol”, derived from the Arabic Ra’s al Ghul, meaning the “demon head;” Islamic

1 “To the east of the Triangle” (Fortin 1795); “In the Milky Way east of Cassiopeia and Andromeda” (Bode 1801a); “Between Camelopardalis and Taurus, in the middle of the milky- way” (Kendall 1845); “East of Andromeda and Cassiopeia, and north of Aries” (Bouvier 1858).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 35 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_4 36 4 Caput Medusae

Fig. 4.1 Detail of Caput Medusae as shown on Figure W of Johannes Hevelius’ Prodromus Astronomiae (1690)

Fig. 4.2 Perseus and Caput Medusae shown in Fig. 145 of Johann Leonhardt Rost’s Atlas Portatilis Coelestis (1723) Origin and History 37

Fig. 4.3 Caput Medusae depicted in Corbinianus Thomas’ Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum (1730) astronomers probably took the name directly from the description by Ptolemy. Allen noted that the variable nature of Algol long attracted attention: “Astrologers of course said that it was the most unfortunate, violent, and dangerous star in the heavens.” In Usus Astronomicus (1624) Jacob Bartsch described2 the meaning of

2“Perseus, Andromed˛e salvator, & sponsus, ad pedes Andromed˛e describitur, & prope pedem eius sin. Pleiades apparent. In hoc potiss. notand. I. Fulgida lateris dextris, quæ  p. ♀, Algenib seu algenbo, vel chenib Arab. dicitur. 2. in manu dextr. gladius aut falx. 3. In sinistra cum clypeo CAPUT MEDUSÆ, seu Gorgonis, quod amputasse is putatur. Gorgoneum istud & angnicomum caput Arabes Ras algol, rect. Rasolguli caput attenuationis, eò quod à spiris anguium, quibus obsitum, exsugitur: Iudæi Caput cacodæmonis, strigis vel dæmonissæ cuiusdam Lilis appellant, quæ Adami olim concubina, iam puerperis noctuinsidietur, & infantes excruciet: Astrologi stellam violentam, eò quod capitis periculum portendat iis, quibus in nativitate infortunatur. Ita hoc sidus ab omnibus ferè infaustum salutatur. Est  p. ♀. Nobis sit Davides cum capite Goliathi. 1 Sam. 17, v 51 & 54. In pedibus talaria seu alæ.” 38 4 Caput Medusae

Perseus and Caput Medusae in Biblical terms, referencing both Lilith,3 and young King David slaying the Philistine warrior Goliath: Perseus, said to be the savior and groom of Andromeda, at the feet of Andromeda, and the Pleiades appear near his left foot. In this are to be noted: 1. Glittering on his right side, that  by ♀, It is called ‘Algenib’ or ‘algenbo,’ or ‘chenib’ by the Arabs. 2. In his right hand a sword or dagger. 3. On the left side, as for a shield, the Head of Medusa, or the Gorgon, that he is supposed to have cut off. The Gorgon’s image, known to the Arabs as ‘Ras algol,’ or properly ‘Rasoguli’ as pertaining strictly to its head, because it coils like a snake, having been thickly sown, [its life] sucked out: the head of an evil Jewish demon, a certain witch or demoness called Lilith, once a concubine of Adam, at some point having given birth by night, seated, and may torment young children: To astronomers it is a violent star because it portends danger to those unfortunately born under it. Thus, this is the star to which nearly every unlucky individual paid his respects. It is  by ♀. To us it is David with the head of Goliath. 1 Samuel 17, verses 514 and 54.5 On his feet are winged sandals. Jean Nicolas Fortin wrote6 in the commentary accompanying his third edition (1795) of John Flamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis that the figure was a useful landmark to find the stars of another now-extinct constellation, Musca Borealis (see Volume 1): To the east of the Triangle, we see a group of five stars forming the head of Medusa; the easternmost is of the second magnitude and is called Algol; this star is peculiar in that it decreases in size and light in the period of 2 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes, 1 second. If we take the triangle & Medusa’s head as the ends of the base of an equilateral triangle whose apex would be at midday, three stars of the third magnitude are noted, this is the small constellation of the Fly, or the Lily. Johan Elert Bode described7 Perseus and Caput Medusa in Allgemeine Beschrei- bung und Nachweisung der Gestirne (1801a)ashe

3Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology thought to derive from an earlier class of female demons known to Mesopotamian cultures as L¯ıl¯ıtu. According to folklore that developed out of Medieval Jewish mysticism, Lilith was Adam’s first¯ wife created of the same earth as him in contrast to his (later) wife Eve, created from one of Adam’s ribs. Lilith is often portrayed as an evil and scheming woman, in contrast to the pure Eve who was only led astray by the direct influence of Satan. 4“David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.” (New International Version) 5“David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.” (New International Version). 6“A l’Orient du triangle, on remarque un groupe de cinq étoiles, formant le tête de Méduse; la plus orientale est de la seconde grandeur, & se nomme Algol; cette étoile est singuliere en ce qu’elle diminue de grandeur & de lumiere dans l’espace de 2 jours 20 heures 49 minutes 1 seconde. Si l’on prend le triangle & la tête de Méduse pour les deux extrémités de la base d’un triangle équilatéral dont le sommet seroit au Midi, on remarquera trois étoiles dont une est de la troisieme grandeur, c’est la petite Constellation de la Mouche, ou le Lys.” 7“Dessen Sterne zeigen sich in der Milchstrasse ostwärts von der Cassiopeja und der Andromeda. Der Ritter Perseus war ein Sohn des Jupiters und der Danae, wie die Dichter erzählen. Er machte sich am Hofe des Cepheus durch die Errettung der Andromeda von einem Meerungeheuer, vermittelst des von ihm abgehauenen Medusenhaupt berühmt, und erhielt dafür die Andromeda zur Gemahlin.” Origin and History 39

whose stars appear in the Milky Way east of Cassiopeia and Andromeda. The knight Perseus was the son of Jupiter and Danae, as the poets tell. He was at the court of Cepheus as the result of the salvation of Andromeda from a sea monster, by means of the severed head of Medusa made famous by him, and was awarded Andromeda as his wife. It is unclear whether the ancients believed Caput Medusae occupied the status of a proper constellation. Allen mentioned it in his description of Perseus: “Hipparchos and Pliny made a separate constellation of the Gorgon stars as the Head of Medusa, this descending almost to our own day, although always connected with Perseus.” Various authors and mapmakers thought Caput Medusae to hold only the status of an asterism and did not consider it on a level equal to that of Perseus itself. In the 1878 edition of The Geography of the Heavens, Elijah Hinsdale Burritt wrote The Head Of Medusa is nota separate constellation, but forms a part ofPerseus. ...It is represented as the trunkless head of a frightful Gorgon, crowned with coiling snakes, instead of hair, which the victor Perseus holds in his hand. The English botanist John Hill wrote in Urania (1754) that he thought the figure had been received from an earlier source—perhaps the Egyptians—and the Greeks merely adapted stars around the figure of a man to suit their existing mythology (Fig. 4.4): The sword of Perseus has so little to do with the business of the stars contained in that constellation, that it is very probably an addition made to the figure by the Greeks, to adapt it to their history, and very possibly the head of Medusa was no part of the original constellation. The Egyptians taught the rudiments of astronomy to the Greeks, and they probably received from that people the figure of a man in his place, whom not knowing what to make of, they called Perseus, because of the neighborhood of those constellations which they had before called Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda; they put the sword into one hand, and the gorgon’s head, by way of the shield into the other, and called him the deliverer of the lady. Other authors gave it co-equal billing with Perseus. Ezra Otis Kendall referred to the composite figure as “Perseus et Caput Medusae” in Uranography (1845)and called the entire assembly a “constellation”: “Perseus is represented with a sword in his right hand, and Medusa’s in his left, and a sword at his [sic]”. Caput Medusae appears on Carel Allard’s map Hemisphaerium meridionale et septentrionale planisphaerii coelestis (1706) distinctly associated with Perseus. It is labeled “(Algol)” next to its proper name and nearby is written “Persei Scutum”, meant to indicate that Perseus carries the head as if it were a shield. In about the same year, Johannes de Broen included it on Hemelskaart as “Medusas hoost” (Medusa’s head). Others depicting Caput Medusae in the eighteenth century include Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr in Atlas Coelestis (1742) and Johann Elert Bode in Vorstellung der Gestirne (1782). In the latter Perseus is labeled in all capital letters while Caput Medusae is labeled “Kopff” in minuscule, which suggests the status of an asterism. Mapmakers in the nineteenth century continued to show the Gorgon’s head in their depictions of Perseus, but few gave it a separate label. 40 4 Caput Medusae

Fig. 4.4 “Perseus & Caput Medusae” as shown on Plate 3 of Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822). The map also shows Musca Borealis and “Triangula,” which includes Triangulum Minus (lower-right;seeVolume1)

Iconography

The mythology of Perseus and Medusa is bound up along with the stories that explain several other figures in the Ptolemaic canon (Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cetus, and Pegasus) that together constitute the “Perseus Family” of constellations. This section concerns itself only with one episode in this particular epic tale. Jacob Green recounted the basic mythology of Perseus, Andromeda, and the Gorgon Medusa in Astronomical Recreations (1824): According to Grecian fable, Perseus is the son of Danæ. His grandfather, Acrisius, being informed by the Oracle that he should be killed by his grandchild, caused Perseus, as soon as he was born, to be thrown into the sea. The infant was, however, saved from drowning by some fishermen, and lived to verify the saying of the Oracle. Perseus is represented on the celestial maps with a sword in his right hand and the head of Medusa in his left. Iconography 41

When he determined to vanquish the Gorgons, Pluto lent him his helmet, which had the power of rendering the bearer invisible. Minerva furnished him with a buckler resplendent as glass, and he received from Mercury wings and a sword. Thus equipped, he set out on his expedition, and succeeded in cutting off the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, while she was sleeping, and bore it away in triumph. According to the fable, the blood which dropped from this head in its passage through the air, produced an innumerable quantity of serpents, which ever since have infested the sands of the Lybian desert, on which it fell. After some other exploits, Perseus rescued Andromeda from a cruel death, and being captivated with herbeauty,madeherhiswife...Whenherestoredthearmourwhichhadbeenkindlylent to him by his friends, he placed the Gorgon’s head on the ægis of Minerva, where it still remains. Jupiter on the death of Perseus, placed him in the skies.

The Gorgons

Along with Sthenno and Euryale, Medusa was one of three sister Gorgons, terrible winged demons whose name derives from the Greek γοργος,´ or “dreadful.” They are truly ancient figures in the Greek pantheon, appearing in Greek art (e.g., Fig. 4.5) by the turn of the eighth century BC. Feldman (1965) argued that their Greek name

Fig. 4.5 Orientalizing Archaic plate (c. 600 BC) from Kameiros, Rhodes, showing a winged ÓØÒ ´

goddess with a Gorgon’s head and holding a bird in each hand. She is an Artemis-like È

ÛÒˆ Potnia Theron Â Ö ( , “Mistress of the Animals”) that may have origins in Minoan art. Kameiros BM GR1860.4-4.2 42 4 Caput Medusae derives from the same root as the Sanskrit word gar˘g, denoting the guttural sound of a growling animal, making the Greek result somewhat onomatopoetic.8 Whatever the origin of their name, it is agreed that they were a gruesome lot. Jacob Green further wrote that The Gorgons were three sisters, inhabitants of Lybia [sic], who had the power of turning into stone all those on whom they fixed their eyes. Medusa was the only one of the sisters liable to death. She was celebrated for the beauty and luxuriance of her hair, but having offended Minerva, that goddess changed her locks into hideous serpents. Some time after this event Medusa was killed in the manner we have just stated. The other two sisters seem to have had in the sound of their voices some audible equivalent of Medusa’s lethal stare. In the Shield of Heracles, an archaic Greek epic poem attributed in antiquity to Hesiod (fl. c. eighth–seventh century BC), the sisters fly after Perseus9 unapproachable and unspeakable, longing to seize him: as they trod upon the pale adamant, the shield rang sharp and clear with a loud clanging. Two serpents hung down at their girdles with heads curved forward: their tongues were flickering, and their teeth gnashing with fury, and their eyes glaring fiercely. And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons great Fear was quaking. Ogden (2008) suggests that their ‘heavily metallic’ nature, referencing Pseudo- Apollodorus10 (c. first–second century AD), could explain the awful noise, and gives additional references to substantiate terrible sounds as a central characteristic of the Gorgons. In the Theogony, Hesiod indicated11 a marine origin for the Gorgons as a kind of personification of unseen, submerged coral reefs which often proved deadly to ancient sailors. They were the daughters of a primordial sea god and goddess who themselves personified the dangers of the ocean generally: And to Phorcys Keto bore the Graeae, with fair faces and gray from birth, and these the gods who are immortal and men who walk on the earth call Graiai, the gray sisters, Pemphredo robed in beauty and Enyo robed in saffron, and the Gorgones who, beyond the famous stream of Oceanus, live in the utmost place toward night, by the singing Hesperides: they are Sthenno, Euryale, and Medousa (Medusa), whose fate is a sad one, for she was mortal, but the other two immortal and ageless both alike. The traditional association between the Gorgons and the sea was continued by later authors, citing the creation of reefs where Perseus left Medusa’s head.

8This interpretation is disputed. See, e.g., Ogden (2008), pp. 54–55: “[t]he frequently advanced notion that Gorg¯on originally signified ‘howl’ on the basis of its supposed connection with Greek gargaris, Latin barrio and Sanskrit gar˘g, is erroneous, and not even countenanced in the technical linguistic literature.” 9Lines 226–236, trans. H. G. Evelyn-White. 10“But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine’s, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them,” Bibliotheca 2.4.2, trans. J. G. Frazer. 11Theogony 270 ff., trans. H. G. Evelyn-White. Iconography 43

According to Ovid,12 Medusa was originally a beautiful young women who gained her distinctive snakes as a punishment from Athena for being a rape victim: Medusa was violated in Athena’s shrine by the Lord of the Sea [Poseidon]. Zeus’ daughter turned away and covered with her shield her virgin’s eyes. And then for fitting punishment transformedtheGorgo’slovelyhairtoloathsomesnakes....Athenastill, to strike her foes with dread, upon her breastplate wears the snakes she made.

Perseus and the Decapitation of Medusa

Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danaë, the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. Acrisius would have rather had a son and heir, and he consulted the oracle at Delphi for guidance; the oracle foretold that Acrisius would one day be killed by Danaë’s son, so he set out to ensure she would never bear children. To that end, he imprisoned her in his palace in a bronze enclosure with an open roof. “Even thus endured Danaë in her beauty,” Sophocles recounts13 in Antigone, “to change the light of day for brass-bound walls; and in that chamber, secret as the grave, she was held close.” Having set his sights on the beautiful maiden Zeus entered her chamber as a shower of gold, impregnating her. Perseus was thus born half-mortal with royal blood. Perseus’ birth put Acrisius in an obvious bind: he feared for his own safety yet was hesitant to provoke the gods by killing a son of Zeus. He solved his problem by putting mother and infant into a wooden chest and tossing it into the sea.14 In the darkness of the chest, a fearful Danaë recited a prayer related15 in a poetic fragment by Simonides of Ceos (c. 556–468 BC) sometimes called “Danaë’s Lament”: My child such trouble I have. And you sleep, your heart is placid; you dream in the joyless wood; in the night nailed in bronze, in the blue dark you like still and shine. The salt water that towers above your head as the wave goes by you heed not, nor the wind’s voice; you press your bright face to the red blanket. If this danger were danger to you your small ear will attend my words. But I tell you: Sleep, my baby, and let the sea sleep, let

12Metamorphoses 4.770 ff., trans. A. D. Melville. 13Lines 944–945, trans. W.B. Tyrrell and L.J. Bennett. 14This act recalls the motif of infant exposure in myth, which recurs particularly in stories involving hero births. 15Fragment 543, trans. R. Lattimore. 44 4 Caput Medusae

our trouble sleep; let some change appear Zeus, father, from you. This bold word and beyond justice I speak, I pray you, forgive it me. The pair washed ashore on Serifos, where the fisherman Dictys took them in and raised Perseus as his son. Dictys’ brother Polydectes was king of the island; when Perseus grew into a man, the king fell in love with his mother. Believing Polydectes’ motives impure, Perseus protected Danaë from him. Polydectes found this to be a problem, and aimed to solve it by devising a way to banish Perseus from Serifos in disgrace. He held an ἔρανος (eranos), a kind of potluck dinner to which guests were expected to bring food or gifts. Polydectes requested that the guests bring horses as wedding gifts for Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus, but Perseus had none to give. He asked Polydectes to name a suitable alternative, promising to acquire whatever the king demanded. Sensing his opportunity, Polydectes made a mighty request: none other than the head of the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa. Bound by his promise, Perseus set off to find the quarry. Athena told Perseus to first locate the Hesperides, nymphal daughters of Hes- perus, the divine personification of the evening star: they possessed the weapons that Perseus would need to successfully complete the task. However, Perseus had no idea where to look for them; it was known only that they tended a garden belonging to Hera somewhere at the western end of the world in northwest Africa. Perseus first consulted the Graeae, perpetually-old sisters of the Gorgons, who shared between them a single eye. To see their interrogator, they passed the eye back and forth; sensing his opportunity, Perseus stole it from them held it in exchange for information on the whereabouts of the Hesperides. He duly returned the eye after the Graeae led him to the garden. The Hesperides gave Perseus a pair of winged sandals and a kibisis, a sort of sack constructed so as to safely carry Medusa’s head once obtained. Hermes outfitted him with an adamantine sword and the Helm of Hades, a cap whose wearer is rendered invisible, while Athena provided a shield whose surface was polished to a mirror- like sheen. Perseus then proceeded to the entrance of the Gorgons’ cave; as Pseudo- Apollodorus related16 in the Bibliotheca,Perseus(Fig.4.6) caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine’s, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her. From the blood of her neck sprang Pegasus and Chysaor, the offspring of her previous union with Poseidon. Perseus stuffed the severed head into the kibisis and ran quickly for the cave entrance; the other sisters, roused from their sleep by the commotion, gave chase but were unable to see him because of the invisibility afforded by Hades’ cap. From there, Perseus made his way to Mauretania, where

16Bibliotheca 2.4.2. Iconography 45

Fig. 4.6 Perseus with the head of Medusa (1545–1554) by Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571). Bronze; height 5.5 m (18 ft), including base. Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence. © Marie-Lan Nguyen, licensed under CC-BY 2.5

he visited the king Atlas and discovered that the severed head retained its ability to turn viewers to stone. When the king refused Perseus hospitality, he pulled the head from the kibisis and turned Atlas to stone. In later times, Perseus and Caput Medusae were adapted to a parallel Judaic theme; John Hill wrote “Among the enthusiasts, who have been for giving scripture names to all the constellations, Schiller, who always refers to the New Testament, makes Perseus St. Paul; but Schickard,17 who has recourse to the Old, calls it

17Wilhelm Schickard (1592–1635) was a German professor of Hebrew and astronomy at the University of Tübingen. 46 4 Caput Medusae

David, and makes the gorgon’s head that of Goliath.” Allen echoed the sentiment: “Schickard, Novidius,18 and the biblical school generally said that it was David with the head of Goliath.” There also exists some possibility that Caput Medusae earned a reputation distinct from that of Perseus due to the eclipsing binary star Algol (ˇ Persei), whose variability has been known at least since the seventeenth century but may have been recognized in antiquity.19 The periodicity of the star system’s varying light was not recognized until 1783 when the British astronomer John Goodricke proposed a mechanism for the variation that remains accepted to this day: a darker object than the primary star in orbit around it regularly passes in front of the primary, briefly blocking some of its light.20 “The little constellation of Caput Medusae ...represents the head of the Gorgon,” wrote21 Garrett Serviss, “and the strange star Algol, slowly winking like a wicked eye, suggests the reason why the ancients selected this little constellation to play such a part.”

Disappearance

Given that Perseus was a classical figure included in Ptolemy’s list of 48 constella- tions in the Almagest and was traditionally shown on maps with Medusa’s head receiving similar billing, Caput Medusae persisted on charts into the nineteenth century with labeling that suggests most mapmakers considered it to have a status on par with that of Perseus itself. Its decline in this regard began around 1850 and accelerated rapidly in the second half of the century; very few mentions of it, distinct from Perseus, appear after 1900. One of the first significant works to demote Caput Medusae entirely was Henry Brooke’s Guide To The Stars (1820). Brooke’s atlas was among the earliest to dispense entirely with constellation figures, showing only the constituent stars and adopting the same boundaries shown by Johann Elert Bode in Vorstellung der Gestirne (1782; reprinted in a new edition in 1805). On Plate 2, Brooke simply kept Bode’s boundary enclosing both figures, but labeled the result “Perseus”. While Bode seemed to give Caput Medusae a tacit identity of its own, Brooke rejected this notion and showed perhaps the first “modern” depiction of Perseus in his atlas. Almost two decades later, Joseph Johann Littrow22 took a similar approach in his Atlas des Gestirnten Himmels (1839) by leaving out figural depictions of the constellations, adopting a “connect the dots” style still seen on modern star charts.

18Probably refers to Ambrosius Novidius Fraccus, an Italian neo-Latin poet. 19S.R. Wilk, “Mythological Evidence for Ancient Observations of Variable Stars”. Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers 24(2), pp. 129–133 (1996). 20O.J. Eggen, “An Eighteenth Century Discussion of Algol”. The Observatory, 77, pp. 191–197 (1957). 21The Monthly Evening Sky Map, Vol. X, No. 110 (February 1916). 22Littrow (1781–1840) was a professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna best known for his eponymous conformal retroazimuthal map projection. Disappearance 47

He dealt with the Perseus/Caput Medusae question by separating them into two unconnected stick figures as shown in his Fig. 4.20. However, the stars representing Caput Medusae are not labeled as such; Littrow merely labeled the star Algol by itself. Friedrich Argelander restored the figures on Plate 2 of Neue Uranometrie (1843), but did not label Caput Medusae and drew a common boundary around both it and Perseus. Shortly thereafter, Ezra Otis Kendall referenced “Perseus et Caput Medusae” in Uranography (1845), noting that “Perseus is represented with a sword in his right hand, and Medusa’s in his left, and a sword at his ancles [sic].” Few authors referred to Caput Medusae in the following decades. While maps continued to depict the head, there are no later instances where it received a label separate from Perseus, completing the process by which it was demoted from a constellation to a mere asterism. Hannah Bouvier remarked in her Familiar Astronomy (1858) that it “it is sometimes noticed as a separate constellation, but astronomers usually unite it with Perseus.” An 1878 edition of Elijah Hinsdale Burritt’s Geography of the heavens asserted that “The Head of Medusa is not a separate constellation, but forms a part of Perseus.” At the end of the century, Allen (1899) took something of a neutral position: “Hipparchos and Pliny made a separate constellation of the Gorgon stars as the Head of Medusa, this descending almost to our own day, although always connected with Perseus.” Similarly, it received a mention in a table called “Old And New Constellations In Chronological Order” in Poole Bros. Celestial Handbook (1892), in which it is attributed to “Hipparchus, 130 years B.C.” Joel Dorman Steele’s Popular Astronomy (second edition, 1899) held Caput Medusae merely an asterism within Perseus, who “is represented as brandishing an enormous sword in his right hand,whileathisleftistheheadofMedua....Algol,inthemidstofa groupof small stars, marks the head of Medusa.” Among its last appearances, William Tyler Olcott discussed it in the context of Perseus in Star Lore of All Ages (1911): “His successful encounter with Medusa rendered his name immortal, and at his death, it is said, he was transported to the starry skies, where he appears with upraised sword, holding the severed head of the Medusa up to the gaze of all mankind, for all time.” At the first IAU General Assembly in Rome (1922), Caput Medusae did not receive a three-letter abbreviation, and was left off of Eugéne Delporte’s Atlas Céleste (1930a), its stars fully subsumed into Perseus (Fig. 4.7). 48 4 Caput Medusae ) overlaid on a modern chart 1825 ( Urania’s Mirror The figures of Perseus and Caput Medusae from Plate 6 of Fig. 4.7 Chapter 5 Corona Firmiana

The Firmian Crown

Genitive: Coronae Firmiana Abbreviation:CrF Location: Corona Borealis

Origin and History

Corbinianus Thomas (1694–1767) was a Benedictine monk who lived his life in and around Salzburg, Austria. Little is known of his life other than that he was a Professor of Mathematics and Theology at the University of Salzburg. He is remembered for Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum descriptionem et cum globi artificialis coelestis, an atlas first published at Frankfurt in 1730 and dedicated to the Firmian family of Salzburg and in particular the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Leopold Anton von Firmian (Fig. 5.1). A second edition followed the following year, printed at Augsburg. The atlas featured a number of innovations. Thomas was among the first to show Camelopardalis on a plate all to itself as well as to assign individual plates to the southern constellations whereas they were previously shown in other atlases together on a single plate. He used an unconventional system of nomenclature on the plates. Individual stars are labeled with a cluster of three characters each: a Greek letter identifier, a Roman numeral representing the magnitude, and an Arabic numeral referring to the star catalog in which it appeared. The plates, engraved by Johann Christoph Berndt (1707–1798), show the clear influence of Vincenzo Coronelli’s Epitome cosmografica (1693), although some show a preference for Johannes Hevelius’ figures in Prodromus Astronomiae (1690). At the time Thomas wrote, Salzburg was under the influence of the Firmians, a noble family originating in Tyrol. As Prince-Archbishop, Leopold von Firmian wielded tremendous influence in the temporal affairs of the city. Thomas evidently

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 49 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_5 50 5 Corona Firmiana

Fig. 5.1 Corona Firmiana depicted in Corbinianus Thomas’ Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum (1730) sensed the possibility of securing the patronage of the Archbishop through just the right sales pitch. While Thomas’ other academic output was almost entirely theological in nature, Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum . . . probably appealed to an interest in astronomy particular to the Archbishop, and Thomas intended to draw his attention by putting them Firmians themselves among the stars. To accomplish his goal, unlike other cartographers of the age, he did not form a constellation out of some scattering of faint, unformed stars. Rather, Thomas boldly appropriated a Ptolemaic constellation, keeping the figure it represented but changing the meaning. The constellation was Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown) which became in Thomas’ atlas “Corona Firmiana” (the Firmian Crown). Thomas gave this exposition of his repurposed figure: CORONA FIRMIANA vulgò Septentrionalis Apage jam ab hac CORONA nostra septentrionalis illius fabulas quàm à Vulcano ex auro fabricatam Ariadne Minois Cretæ Regis Filiæ dono datam fingunt. Alia nobis, ac tam insignem cœli locum longè magìs commerita ad sidera sustollitur CORONA, quà INSIGNIBUS FIRMIANIS insertâ summi Imperatores Antiquissimi FIRMIANÆ Prosapiæ amplissima in Universam Rempublicam tum politicam tum Christianæ merita CORONARE non dubitârunt. Si ergò Astronomiæ Dantiscanæ Hevelii Potentissimi Poloniæ Regis JOANNIS SOBIESCI SCUTUM Anglicæ Edm. Halleji Robur Regis sui CAROLI II. Galliæ Screptrum sui LUDOVICI vacuis cœli locis inserere, Weigelio totum cœlum Poëticum Origin and History 51

in Heraldicum, præcipuorum Europæ Principum insignia illustrans convertere licuit, cur non & nostræ luvaviensi APOLLINIS sui CLEMENTISSIMI Coronam, velut FIRMI- ANI stemmatis ILLUSTRISSIMI perpetuum monimentum, STELLATIS suis stipatam CORNIBUS inter astra, suspendere liceat? Non Octo solummodo, sed tot, quot stirpis suæ illustrissimos numerat successores, sideribus mundo irradiantem, quibus totum cœlum Juvaviense identidem inclamat: Ut luceant in perpetuas æternitates. Rendered in English: THE FIRMIAN CROWN, commonly known as [the] Northern [Crown] Be gone, now this Northern Crown of our stories, made of gold by Vulcan and given to Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete. Otherwise [it is] to us, and so deserves a more notable place in the sky to which a crown is raised up to the stars, which the Firmian insignia introduced by the most ancient heads of the Firmian family, the greatest in the Commonwealth, in terms both political and Christian, without a doubt deserved to be thusly crowned. If, therefore, the Shield1 by the Dannish astronomer Hevelius for the powerful Polish King John Sobieski [and] the Royal Oak2 by Edmond Halley for the English King Charles II, or the Sceptre3 of [French King] Louis [XV] are introduced to otherwise empty places in the heavens, [and to] Weigel4 everything poetic and heraldic in the vault of heaven, [and] the insignia of the distinguished European rulers allowed to be made famous, why not our merciful Salzburg Apollo’s crown, just as a perpetual memorial to the illustrious Firmian lineage, may not their power be there suspended among the stars? There are merely eight, but number many illustrious lines of their successors, stars shining upon the world, to which all Salzburg repeatedly cries out to the heavens: Let them shine forever. Here Thomas appeals to the Archbishop as the “Iuvavensi Apollinis”—the Apollo of Salzburg—indicative of both Firmian’s pastoral role in Apollo’s aspect as the patron defender of flocks, as well as Apollon Musegetes, the leader of the Muses and director of their choir. The picture that Thomas paints with his words is played out in the frontispiece of Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum (Fig. 5.2), in which Urania predicts “Apollo, you will be important to me” as light from the Archbishop’s heart falls on a celestial globe, picking out his namesake constellation. Thomas’ intent was, to say the least, thinly veiled. The effort did not work as planned. There is no historical evidence that Thomas received any archepiscopal largesse as a result of publishing the atlas, even though it went through two printings. No other cartographers evidently followed Thomas’ lead, as there are no known appearances of Corona Firmiana in any other atlases. It persisted only as an historical oddity mentioned by few other authors. In the 1814 edition of Jacques Ozanam’s Recreations in mathematics and natural philosophy (1694), editor Charles Hutton added a note that5

1The extant constellation Scutum (Sobieski). 2The extinct constellation Robur Carolinum; see Volume 1. 3The extinct constellation Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae, Chap. 14. 4The German engraver and publisher Johann Christoph Weigel (1654–1725), whose book on heraldry was published posthumously in 1734. 5London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, p. 115. 52 5 Corona Firmiana

Fig. 5.2 A scene from the frontispiece of the second edition of Corbinianus Thomas’ Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum (1730). At left, an angel holds an oval portrait of Prince- Archbishop Leopold Anton von Firmian, from whose image a beam of light descends onto a celestial globe and illuminates the figure of Thomas’ invented constellation, Corona Firmiana. A female figure speaks to the portrait “APOLLO magnus mihi eris” (“Apollo, you will be important to me”); the stars on her garment suggest she is Urania, the muse of astronomy. In the foreground are an assortment of books and measuring tools evoking the instruments with which the cartographer completed the globe. The other constellations that can be discerned on the globe are Leo, Lyra, Aquila, and Corona Australis, all symbolic of power and royal might Origin and History 53

Fig. 5.3 A ducat coin issued by Count Leopold Anton von Firmian near the end of his reign in 1743. Obverse: Veristic, half-length portrait in spiritual vestments and zucchetto with punchcutter’s mark “MK” (for “Franz Matzenkopf”) below the bust. Reverse: Six-field family coat of arms with central shield, surmounted by a cross and bishop’s galero with six tassels on each side, crossed behind with a crozier and sword

Another little known Celestial Atlas, which at least is mentioned by Lalande, is that of Corbinianus Thomas, a Benedictine and professor of mathematics at Augsburg. It is entitled Firmamentum Firmianum, in honour of the then bishop of the house of Firmian, and was published at Augsburg in small folio, in the year 1731. In this Atlas the northern crown is called Corona Firmiana. At the end of the nineteenth century, Richard Hinckley Allen made only passing reference to Thomas’ crown in the context of his discussion of Corona Borealis in Star Names (1899): In the Firmamentum Firmianum, a work of 1731, in honor of the persecuting bishop of Salzburg, of the Firmian family, the figuring is that of the Corona Firmiana, with a stag’s antlers from the coat of arms of that family.

Count Leopold Anton von Firmian

The object of Thomas’ adoration, Leopold Anton Freiherr von Firmian (Fig. 5.3),6 was born at Munich on 11 March 1679 to Holy Roman Imperial envoy Franz Wilhelm Freiherr von Firmian and Countess Maria Viktoria von Thun. He hailed from a noble dynasty that traced its origins to Sigmundskron Castle near Bolzano in South Tyrol. His maternal uncle, Count Johann Ernst von Thun, preceded him as Bishop of Seckau in 1679–1687 and as Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg during 1687–1709.

6Sometimes given as “Leopold Anton Eleutherius von Firmian.” 54 5 Corona Firmiana

The younger Firmian quickly climbed the ecclesiastical power ladder from his ordination at Rome in 1707. In 1718, Pope Clement XI appointed him Bishop of Lavant where he served until 1724 when he was made Bishop of Seckau by Pope Benedict XIII. He was elected Archbishop of Salzburg on 4 October 1727 and used the power of his new archbishopric to further the persecution of Protestants. Firmian was a strong supporter of the Counter-Reformation and brought the movement to bear on Salzburg’s minority Protestant faithful. On 31 October 1731, the anniversary of the night in 1517 on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Firmian signed the Emigrationspatent (Edict of Expulsion of Protestants). The document contradicted the 1648 Peace of Westphalia that ended the sectarian Thirty Years’ War, declaring as rebels Protestants within the Salzburg bishopric. Protestants were given the choice of either recanting their heretical beliefs or accepting exile outside Salzburg until at least 1734. Faced with this over 20,000 chose exile, dealing a blow to Firmian’s policies. Protestants began leaving Salzburg in November and were made to travel through the winter resulting in many deaths, commemorated indirectly by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1796–1797 epic poem “Hermann and Dorothea.” In the end, the Edict disadvantaged Salzburg. Some 12,000 of the Protestants banished from the city were welcomed by Prussian King Frederick William I (see Volume 1) and settled in East Prussia; other factions made their way to Zeeland in the Netherlands, Germany, and territories of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Protestant Estates of the Holy Roman Empire protested Firmian’s rule and imposed sanctions on Salzburg, inflicting a generation’s worth of damage to the city’s economy. Firmian soldiered on, leading the city until his death there on 22 October 1744. Other members of the Firmian family held considerable political power in the balance of the eighteenth century. His nephew, Cardinal Leopold Ernst von Firmian, went on to become Prince-Bishop of Passau. Another nephew, Karl Joseph von Firmian served as the Austrian plenipotentiary minister at Milan and was a well- known patron of the arts. Leopold Anton himself was an early supporter of Leopold Mozart, father of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Fig. 5.4). Origin and History 55 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1730 ( Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum . . . The figure of Corona Firmiana from Corbinianus Thomas’ Fig. 5.4 Chapter 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici

The Crossed Swords of the Saxony Electorate

Genitive: Gladiorum Electorales Saxonici Abbreviation:GES Location: In the space between Virgo and Serpens Caput defined roughly by ˛ Boötis, ˇ Librae, Virginis, and Virginis1

Origin and History

This highly contrived figure was devised by Gottfried Kirch in 1684 as an attempt to draw the attention (and patronage) of the Elector of Saxony at the time, Johann Georg III (1647–1691). It consisted of nine unformed stars between visual magnitude C3:7 and C5:2 in the area where the edges of the traditional figures of Boötes, Serpens, Libra, and Virgo converged; the point where the swords in Kirch’s figure cross is very close to the position of the bright, edge-on galaxy NGC 5746. He published the suggested constellation along with a description of Scutum Sobieski in Acta Eruditorum, the first scientific journal in the region of Europe that later became Germany. Kirch included a lengthy description with his engraving of the new constellation (Fig. 6.1), presented here in its entirety along with an English translation.

SCUTUM SOBIESCANUM, ET ENSES ELECTORALES SAXONICI,NOVI IN COELO ASTERISMI Quod priscis gentilium Astronomis familiare dudum fuit, ut praestantium Heroum nomine certis stellis, in asterismi speciem compactis indito, memoriam eorundem aeternitatis

1“In the area where Virgo meets Serpens Caput” (Ridpath 1989); “Bounded by ˛ Boo, ˛ Ser, ˇ Lib, Vir and Vir” (Bakich 1995).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 57 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_6 58 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici

Fig. 6.1 Gladii Electorales Saxonici depicted in Gottfried Kirch’s drawing for Acta Eruditorum (1684). Note that the letters of the stars conveniently spell out the name of the patron whose attention Kirch tried to obtain. Five other stars are shown to locate Kirch’s constellation; clockwise from upper left they are “Arcturus” (˛ Boötis), Boötis, “Lucida Serpentis” (˛ Serpentis), “Lanx Borea” (This name for ˇ Librae is not known from any other source; see Allen (1899) p. 276. It is probably a corruption of lanx borealis, meaning “the northern scale [of the Balance],” e. g., Table IX of Philip de la Hire’s Tabulae Astronomicae (1627).), Zubeneschamali, or ˇ Librae, Virginis and Virginis

consecrarent illud postquam successu temporum, toto pene stellarum exercitu in signa certa jam disposito inolevit, praesenti iterum seculo moris esse coepit, ex quo coelum intentioribus oculis inspectum, novos veluti coeli incolas, novasque stellarum cohortes in aciem produxit, nullo adhuc charactere notatas, aut in sideris aliquam speciem collectas. Sic celeberrimo Galileo Galilei Satellitum Jovialum quaternio tubospecilli ope detectus, sub siderum Medicaeorum titulo, Serenissimae Domus Medicaeae gloriae consecratus est: cujus ad exemplum anno 1642. Johannes Antonius Maria de Rhetia, in oculo Enoch & Elia quinque alias stellas sibi primum visas, & circumjoviales creditas, Urbanoctavianas, honori tum viventis Pontificis Romani nuncupavit. Par institutum Michaeli Florentio Langreno sua Lunarium macularum nomenclatura fuit. Deditque memoriae perpetuae servati sub latebris quercus ad alterum polum, inter Argo navem, Piscem volantem, Chameleonta & Centaurum, duodecim stellis enicans, nobilissimus Angliae Astronomus Edmundus Hallejus, in Catalogo suo stellarum australium. Gemino studio, Potentissimos Principes, Johannem III Poloniae Regem, & Johannem Georgium III Saxoniae Electorem, illum scuto gentilitio, hunc ensibus electoralibus inter sidera effulgentes, hic exhibemus. Et Scutum Scobiescanum celeberrimus Hevelius Regi suo, cum circumjacentibus asterismis, prout in Opere Uranographico ejusdem Autoris propediem edendo conspiciendum erit, delineatum, lapso vere dedicavit; nobis vero magni- tudines, longitudines & latitudines stellarum in subjecta tabella humaniter transmisit, quas B. Lectori, ut situm sideris in globo investigare possit, communicandas duximus. Enses Electorales Saxonicos pietati erga Clementissimum Electorem nostrum Godofredi Kirchii, solertissimi Astronomi debemus. Horum in coelo situm, adjectae stellae vic- inae celebriores luculenter designant: ipsae stellae, numero octo, nudis oculis omnes Origin and History 59

sunt conspicuae, earumque fulgentior in intersectione Ensium, fixis quartae magnitudinis accensenda venit, reliquae ad quintam & sextam magnitudinem accedunt: literis vero characteristicis Herois nostri nomen commode ferentes, non interituram unquam tanti Principis gloriam non vano omine pollicentur. Rendered in English:

SOBIESKI’S SHIELD, AND THE SWORDS OF THE SAXONY ELECTORATE, NEW CONSTELLATIONS That with which the ancient Greeks have long been familiar, as to the outstanding Heroes named by certain stars, that will be bound up in the form of constellations, consecrate their memory forever after that period of time, almost all the stars already arranged into clear forms, the custom began again in the present world, whereby alert eyes have contemplated the skies, even as new inhabitants of the heavens, and one may encourage formation of new constellations from keenness of sight, not yet named, or arranged into some shape. And so as an example the celebrated Galileo Galilei revealed the four Jovian Satellites with the aid of his telescope, under the name “Medicean Stars,” dedicated to the glory of the most serene House of Medici in 1642. Johannes Antonius Maria de Rhetia2 first saw five other stars in the eyes of Enoch and Elijah,3 believed to orbit Jupiter, named in honor of Urban VIII, then the Roman Pontiff. Langrenus’s nomenclature of lunar features was likewise established.4 And in the southern sky there were assigned twelve stars in among Argo Navis, Volans, Chamaeleon and Cenaturus forever to the memory of the hiding place in the oak tree5 by the noble English astronomer Edmond Halley in his Catalog of southern stars. We present here the national shield and the Electoral swords shining among the stars to the combined zeal of the powerful leaders, King John III of Poland, and Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony. And Sobieski’s Shield, of Hevelius’ most famous king, and surrounding constellations, delineated, just as in Uranographia6 by the same author that will be published soon, truly committed to the fallen; however, he has made available to us tables of the magnitudes, longitudes and latitudes of stars, which we think are to be shared with the good reader, just as it is possible to seek out the location of a star on the [celestial] sphere. We, Gottfried Kirch, most skilled astronomer, owe the Crossed Swords of the Saxony Electorate with a sense of duty toward our most merciful Elector. The brighter stars in this area brilliantly mark the Swords’ location: the eight stars themselves, all visible to the naked eye, the brightest at the intersection of the Swords, reckoned of the fourth magnitude,

2Anton (or Antonius) Maria Schyrleus of Rheita (1604–1660) was an astronomer and optician who invented the erecting eyepiece for early Galilean telescopes. 3Kirch alludes to the Biblical prophets Enoch and Elijah who were assumed bodily into heaven in the Old Testament in 2 Kings 2:11 (“As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind,” NIV) and Genesis 5:24 (“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away,” NIV), respectively. In this reference to “the eyes of Enoch and Elijah”, Kirch may have intended to suggest whatever Schyrleus saw was previously known only to God. 4Michael Florent van Langren (“Langrenus,” 1598–1675) was a Dutch astronomer and cartogra- pher who named many prominent lunar features and established the convention of calling the dark areas on the lunar disc after bodies of water. He also named a rather prominent lunar crater after himself, a name that persists officially to this day. 5Robur Carolinum, the Royal Oak; see Volume 1. 6Referring to “Uranographia,” the alternate title of Hevelius’ Firmamentum Sobiescianum (1687). 60 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici

Table 6.2 Stars in Gladii Kirch Designation HR SAO V Electorales Saxonici C5:0 indicated by Kirch (1684) “J” HD 124224 5313 120339 “o” 109 Vir 5511 120648 C3:7 “h” 110 Vir 5601 120809 C4:4 “a” 5Ser 5694 120946 C5:1 “n” 10 Ser 5746 121020 C5:2 “G” HD 126129 5386 120426 C5:1 “e” HD 126248 5392 120434 C5:1 “r” 11 Lib 5535 140176 C4:9 “g” 16 Lib 5570 140240 C4:5

the remaining are of the fifth and sixth magnitudes: they conveniently bear the characteristic letters of the name of our hero, and guarantee that neither the glory of such a Prince shall ever perish nor represent an unsubstantial sign. Kirch very unsubtly labeled the stars in his new constellation to spell out the name of his prospective patron: “J o h a n G e o r g” (see Fig. 6.1), where the star “o” does double duty. The stars defining Kirch’s constellation are listed in Table 6.2. Heinrich Olbers wrote7 in “On a Reformation of the Constellations, and a Revision of the Nomenclature of the Stars” (1841)that Kirch was desirous of introducing the Swords, the Orb,8 and the Sceptre of Brandenburgh.9 The electoral Swords were covered by the mountain Maenalus.10 The latter comment suggests that Olbers misunderstood exactly where Kirch placed the Swords. While Kirch’s suggestion of the Crossed Swords did not survive, his description and promotion of Scutum in the same 1684 source probably ensured the latter’s survival. As Ridpath (1989) notes, Kirch worked with Hevelius for some years and “probably got the idea [of Scutum] from him.” Hevelius later included Scutum in his Prodromus Astronomiae (1690), and the constellation remains canonical to this day. However, by discarding the Crossed Swords, Hevelius sealed its fate, having far more to gain from the flattery of his own King than his colleague’s. Kirch’s figure was not included in any major atlas of his time or after, and did not merit even a passing mention by Richard Hinckley Allen in Star Names (1899). Later cartographers such as Johan Elert Bode merely marked the area as the border of Boötes, Serpens, Virgo, and Libra, dividing its stars among those constellations. Kirch was not above playing both sides of the sectarian gulf in Europe while fishing for patronage. In 1688, he introduced a constellation called Pomum Impe-

7“Translated and communicated by Sir J.F.W. Herschel, Bart.” 8Pomum Imperiale (Chap. 13). 9Sceptrum Brandenburgicum; see Volume 1. 10Mons Maenalus; see Volume 1. Iconography 61 riale (Chap. 13) honoring a different contemporary head of state—the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. That constellation, too, was quickly forgotten.

Iconography

Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony

The Duke of Saxony and Holy Roman Elector at the time Kirch wrote was Johann Georg III (Fig. 6.2), the only son of Johann Georg II and Magdalene Sybille of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, born at Dresden on 20 June 1647. He succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony upon the elder’s death in 1680 at which time he also received the Imperial title of Arch-Marshal. As a child he received a strict Lutheran education that prepared him for a military career. His personality resembled that of his father; both shared a love of Italian music and opera. Johann Georg visited the Danish court with his mother in 1662; during the visit he was introduced to the 14-year-old Princess Anna Sophie (1647–1717), eldest daughter of King Frederick III and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After negotiations between Johann Georg II and Frederick III, the son and daughter became engaged in 1663 and married on 9 October 1666. Anna Sophie bore him two sons, John George IV, Elector of Saxony (1668–1694)

Fig. 6.2 Copperplate engraving of Johann Georg III (1647–1691), Elector of Saxony, from Matthaüs Merian’s Theatrum Europaeum (1691) 62 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici

Fig. 6.3 A one taler coin issued by Johann Georg III in 1690, minted at Dresden. Johann Georg is shown in battle dress on the obverse, carrying a sword and shield. The Crossed Sword motif appears in the center of the reverse (right). Image by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http:// www.cngcoins.com, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 and Frederick Augustus (1670–1733), who was later elected King of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. Their marriage was not happy, and Johann Georg III took a number of mistresses. In 1685 he met the Venetian opera singer Margarita Salicola and took her as his mistress. Upon her arrival in Dresden, she inaugurated a new era of opera in Saxony, singing leads previously reserved solely for castrati. He had an illegitimate son, Johann Georg Maximilian von Fürstenhoff (1686–1753), with her, and probably fathered an illegitimate daughter, Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschutz (1675–1694), with another woman, Ursula Margarethe of Haugwitz, a member of a noble Upper Lusatian family. Magdalena, later Countess of Rochlitz, was the mistress of Johann Georg IV, who may have been her own half-brother. Throughout Johann Georg’s early life, Saxony steadily recovered from the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), the population its capital, Dresden, exceeding 40,000 by the turn of the eighteenth century. Most of city north of the river Elbe was destroyed by a fire in 1685; Johann Georg appointed chief regional master builder Wolf Caspar von Klengel (1630–1691) and architectural sculptor Balthasar Permoser (1651–1732) to rebuild the city. The pair designed a new Dresden in the Baroque style of the times, resulting in an aesthetic that remained largely intact up to the destruction of the city in the Allied firebombing of 1945. Johann Georg became a competent military leader while still heir apparent, and led the Saxon Army into battle. His enthusiasm for war earned him the nickname of the “Saxonian Mars” (Fig. 6.3). After his accession to the Electoral throne he established a standing army of some 12,000 men, following the model of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and established a taxation regime to fund the army. He was less skilled in diplomacy, breaking off relations with the court of Louis XIV of France; he then worked to recruit other German princes for an Imperial Iconography 63 war against France. He maintained an alliance with the Habsburg court in Vienna, although the relationship was strained in the face of the Ottoman Turkish invasion of Austria in 1683. The Austrians’ distrust of Johann Georg caused Emperor Leopold I to relent only late in the game as his situation became increasingly desperate, enabling Johann Georg to field a force of 10,400 men against the Turks at the Battle of Vienna on 12 September. Yet, he never achieved full command of the German armies that came to Austria’s aid and failed to secure funding to keep his own men in the field through the winter of 1683–1684. His orientation toward war and foreign policy led Johann Georg to repeatedly neglect domestic affairs, resulting in opposition by the estates of Saxony to the war. Not only did the campaign deplete the cash reserves of the Electorate, but the nobility became wary of Johann Georg’s support for the Catholic Leopold, who frequently meted out harsh treatment to Austrian Protestants. While Johann Georg entered Vienna victoriously with Leopold on 15 September, he quickly thereafter marched for home with his troops on account of poor treatment they had suffered as Protestants in a Catholic realm. Nevertheless, he provided Leopold with an army for hire in 1686 during the continued prosecution of the Turkish War upon payment of 300,000 thalers. Johann Georg similarly supported other war efforts with mercenary armies, sending 3,000 Saxons to the Republic of Venice for their war on the Peloponnesus for the sum of 120,000 thalers. Meanwhile, Johann Georg continued to press for action against France. Although he did not join the League of Augsburg (1686) against the French crown, he sought the aid of Prince William III of Orange (later King William III of England), Duke George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Duke Frederick William of Brandenburg in a proposed alliance against Louis XIV. The alliance faltered, and Johann Georg’s hopes of glory in battle against France were dashed. Yet shortly thereafter in 1689 France renewed military conflict with Germany and his moment arrived. Johann Georg led his troops into battle for the defense of Franconia and his army joined that of Duke Charles V of Lorraine to participate in the siege of Mainz. He took ill during the campaign and was forced to leave, but returned in May 1690 after rejecting the advice of his advisors and physicians to stay in Dresden and finish his recuperation. On returning to the battlefield, he took command of the Imperial Army with the blessing of Leopold I. Johann Georg’s military successes during this phase were limited, and shortly thereafter his illness returned. He died in Tübingen on 12 September 1691 during an epidemic of communicable disease and was buried in the Cathedral of Freiberg. Johann Georg IV succeeded his father, but his own reign was cut short by smallpox less than three years later.

The Crossed Swords

The device of the Crossed Swords was incorporated into the arms of Saxony upon the accession Rudolf I, first of the Dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg in the Ascanian line, in 1356. That year, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV granted the honor of Elector 64 6 Gladii Electorales Saxonici

Fig. 6.4 Two versions of the arms of Saxony featuring the crossed-sword device. Left:Armsofthe Electorate of Saxony showing the crossed swords constituting the Imperial Marshal’s ensign (left side) and the green Common Rue, the “Herb of the beautiful girls,” a talisman against misfortune (right side). These arms were in use during 1356–1806. © Jimmy Nicolle, licensed under CC BY- SA 3.0. Right: Insignia for an administrative office of the NSDAP-Gau (district) of Saxony during the Nazi regime, 1933–1945 to the Rudolf I and his descendants, by which Wittenberg became an Electoral residence. The honor brought with it the Imperial office of Erzmarschall (“Arch- Marshal”), symbolized by the crossed swords insignia. The device was incorporated into the arms of Saxony (Fig. 6.4, left) along with a crown of the common rue (Ruta graveolens), an herb native to the Balkan peninsula. The appearance of the rue in the Saxon arms is older even than the crossed swords, dating to the origin of the ducal title in the House of Ascania during the twelfth century. Albert the Bear (1100–1170), first Margrave of Brandenburg, became Duke of Saxony in 1138; his Guelphic successor, Henry the Lion (1129–1195) was deposed by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1122–1190) in 1180. Albert’s son Bernhard, Count of Anhalt and Ballenstedt (1140–1212), inherited the ducal title and a rump territory around Wittenberg and Lauenburg. According to legend, when Bernhard rode in front of Frederick at his investiture as Duke, he carried a shield emblazoned with the Ballenstedt arms (barry sable and Or,a partitioned field of black and yellow stripes); Frederick removed the rue wreath that Bernhard wore on his head and draped it across the shield. The episode is preserved on the right half of the later Saxon arms. Even during the Nazi regime, when many symbols of German history were removed in favor of National Socialist images, Saxony kept its crossed swords (Fig. 6.4, right). The swords persisted in the arms of Saxony after the war but were formally abolished in 1952. The device was introduced as a maker’s mark on Meissen porcelain in 1720 and has been used on its products consistently since 1731, making the Crossed Swords one of the oldest extant trademarks in the world. (Fig. 6.5) Iconography 65 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1684 ( Acta Eruditorum The figure of Gladii Electorales Saxonici drawn by Gottfried Kirch in Fig. 6.5 Chapter 7 Leo Palatinus

The Palatine Lion

Genitive: Leonis Palatini Abbreviation:LPl Location: Unformed, faint stars just south of the celestial equator in the area between Antinoüs and Aquarius. It consisted of two groups of stars: (1) twelve stars east of Equuleus that formed a royal monogram, and (2) about two dozen stars to the south of the monogram that made up the figure of a lion.1

Origin and History

Leo Palatinus was created out of unformed stars in the space between Antinoüs and Aquarius in 1785 by Karl-Joseph König (1751–1809), a Jesuit and court astronomer at the observatory at Mannheim, Germany from 1782–1786. He invented the figure to honor his patrons, Karl Theodor, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria (1724–1799) and his wife, Countess Palatine Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach (1721–1794).

1“Formed...from faint stars between the present-day constellations of Aquarius and Aquila” (Bakich 1995).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 67 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_7 68 7 Leo Palatinus

König had an interesting and varied career beyond astronomy, as related2 by Sebastian Brunner in Wiener Kirchenzeitung für Glauben, Wissen, Freiheit und Gesetz in der katholischen Kirche3: Karl Joseph König, born in Flintsbach in 1751, in the district of Rosenheim, formerly a Jesuit, then employed by topographical bureau in Munich, [later] as electoral court astronomer in Mannheim made from his own observations a new constellation “Leo Palatinus”, maintained a steady correspondence with all the European observatories and became a member of the Museum in Paris and the Institute of Arts and Sciences in Bologna. Called a “Böotier” by the Bureau, this Jesuit also made an excellent collection of meteorological observations every 4 h for thirteen years. In addition, he was from 1805–1809 Professor at the Hydraulic Engineering School in Munich and leveled the Isar River from the Tyrolean border to its mouth at the Danube. As a relatively capable and benevolent prince during the Enlightenment, Karl Theodor patronized the arts and science and founded a number of scientific institu- tions. Among these was Mannheim Observatory, founded by the Prince Elector on 1 January 1771 at the behest of its first director, Professor of Experimental Physics and Jesuit Christian Mayer (1719–1783). Mayer cultivated an interest in astronomy Karl Theodor developed as early as around 1760. Karl Theodor had built for Mayer a temporary structure in his summer residence at Schwetzingen Castle, equidistant from the Elector’s dual seats in Heidelberg and Mannheim, for the purpose of observing the Venus transit of 6 June 1761. After a successful observing campaign, Karl Theodor ordered the construction of a more permanent observatory, completed in 1764, on the roof of his palace. While Mayer was away in St. Petersburg during the companion Venus transit on 3 June 1769 Karl Theodor and his guest, Prince Franz Xavier of Saxony, tried to see the event from the Schwetzingen observatory, but were clouded out. After the 1769 transit Mayer proposed a new observatory in Mannheim proper, built in 1772 as a tower adjacent to Mannheim Palace and the Jesuit College. Karl Theodor was generous with his patronage in the early years of the Observatory, and Mayer used the funds to purchase a number of fine astronomical instruments; Karl Theodor also donated a number of astronomy books from the Electoral Library to further the cause of research. Under Mayer’s able direction, within a few years the Observatory became a well-known center of astronomical research in Europe.

2“Karl Joseph König, geboren 1751 zu Flintsbach, im Landgerichte Rosenheim, früher Jesuit, dann beim topographischen Bureau in München angestellt, sammelte als kurfürstlicher hofastronome in Mannheim aus eigenen Beobachtungen ein neuen Sternbild “Leo Palatinus”, unterhielt eine beständige Korrespondenz mit allen Sternwarten Europa’s und wurde Mitglied des Museums in Paris und des Institutes der Künste und Wissenschaften in Bologna. Genanntes Bureau hat von diesem Jesuiten und “Böotier” auch eine vortreffliche Sammlung von meteorologischen Beobachtungen, welche dreizehn Jahre, täglich zu vier Stunden, gemacht wurden. Ausserdem war er von 1805–1809 Professor der Wasserbau-Schule in München und nivellirte die Isar von der Tiroler Grenze bis zur Ausmündung in die Donau.” 3“Viennese church newspaper for faith, knowledge, freedom and justice in the Catholic Church,” Vol. 11, No. 21, p. 332 (27 May 1863). Origin and History 69

Mayer himself undertook a program to discover new binary stars; his observations formed the majority of binaries published in the first edition of Johann Elert Bode’s celestial atlas Vorstellung der Gestirne (1782). Fortunes changed in 1778 when Karl Theodor left Mannheim for Munich to assume power over his newly inherited Duchy of Bavaria. While he remained Elector Palatine, his focus was drawn away from Mannheim and the institutions he founded there tended to languish. After Mayer’s death in 1783 König was appointed his successor and became a favorite of Karl Theodor, who summoned him to Munich in 1786. This explains a curious remark4 about König’s life after Mannheim made by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande in his Histoire abrégée de l’astronomie (1803): “Koenig was not able to stay in Mannheim, and the Vincentians5 were instructed to provide [for] astronomers: It was on this occasion that I had three of them at my home.” On König’s departure, the former Jesuit and Professor of Mathematics at Ingolstadt, Johann Nepomuk Fischer (1749–1805) was named as the new court astronomer. Fischer was a freethinker beholden to no one’s opinions but his own, and as a consequence he made many enemies at Mannheim before resigning from the observatory position in 1788. In the years leading up to its transfer to Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, in 1898, the Mannheim Observatory never quite reclaimed the reputation it held during its earliest days. During his brief tenure at Mannheim, König tried to maintain Karl Theodor’s interest in the observatory as well as his largesse. To that end he published a single sheet (Fig. 7.1) in 1785 showing the new constellation along with a Latin dedication to the Prince Elector and his wife: CAROLO THEODORO et ELISABETHA AUGUSTA Domus Comitum Palatinorum Rheni Solisbacensis Feliciter Regnantibus, Universæ Serenissimæ Domus Palatinæ Sumis Honoribus Leo Palatinus Observationibus Coelestibus Definitus, In Nova Coelo Costellatione Inlatus, et Favente Rev.mo Excell.mo D. L. B. et de Oberndorf Conf. et Status Minister, Ord. Melit. Equite &. Demississime Oblatus Die 4 Novembris 1785 Carolo Josepho Koenig Astronomo Aulico. Rendered in English as: KARL THEODOR and ELISABETH AUGUSTE the house happily governing the Sulzbach Palatinate of the Rhine, the Palatine Lion, defined by observations of the heavens, is chosen in honor of the entire and most serene house of the Palatinate, and favoring the most venerable and excellent D.L.B. and of Oberndorf,6 Privy

4“Koenig ne sut pas se maintenir Manheim, et les Lazaristes furent chargs de procurer des astronomes: ce fut cette occasion que j’en eus trois chez moi.” 5Members of the Congregation of the Mission, a Catholic society of priests and brothers founded by St. Vincent de Paul. It is part of the broader “Vincentian Family,” composed of organizations claiming St. Vincent de Paul as a founder or patron. 6Franz Albert Leopold von Oberndorff (1720–1799) was Governor of the Electoral Palatinate after Karl Theodor’s accession to the ducal throne of Bavaria in 1777 and the subsequent relocation of his court to Munich. König probably aimed to appeal to him as the Prince Elector’s local representative. 70 7 Leo Palatinus

Fig. 7.1 Leo Palatinus depicted on Karl-Joseph König’s Nova Constellatione Coelo Inlatus (1785). The figure above the lion is a combined monogram of Count Karl Theodor (“CT”) and Countess Elisabeth Augusta (“EA”). The four stars to the left of the monogram are the brightest four stars of Equuleus

State and Conference Minister and Knight of Malta, this new constellation is added to the skies. Submissively offered On the 4th November 1785 by Karl-Joseph König, Court Astronomer König devised his new constellation in two non-contiguous pieces east of Aquila and Antinoüs. The first piece, formed from a scattering of fourth-magnitude stars in far northwestern Aquarius, represented a lion wearing a crown on its head, while the second piece, comprising even fainter stars west of Equuleus, represented the combined monogram (“CTEA”) of the Count and Countess Palatine. The stars in Aquarius were shown by previous cartographers as part of the drapery held in the Water Bearer’s left hand; on Figure M of Prodromus Astronomiae (1690), Johannes Hevelius appropriated two of the stars to form the head of the arrow drawn by Antinoüs in his bow (Fig. 7.2), while the stars of the monogram were simply left unformed by Ptolemy. König’s invention must have failed to impress Karl Theodor, who did not increase the funding for Mannheim Observatory, but the flattery may in part explain why König was called to Munich the year after he published Leo Palatinus. The Palatine Lion evidently caught no one’s attention in the mapmaking business, and as in the case of most other attempts to introduce new constellations in honor of royal Origin and History 71

Fig. 7.2 Detail of Figure M in Prodromus Astronomiae (Hevelius 1690) showing Aquarius at right. The stars later used by Karl-Joseph König to form Leo Palatinus are here depicted at left as the head of the arrow being shot by Antinoüs and the drapery Aquarius holds in his left hand patrons, Leo Palatinus failed to gain recognition by other astronomers. It was overlooked by König’s contemporaries such as Fortin (1795), Goldbach (1799), Bode (1805), and Young (1807). That Johann Elert Bode did not portray König’s constellation in Uranographia (1801b) likely sealed its fate. The constellation does not appear on any known chart outside of König’s original 1785 sheet. Afterward, Leo Palatinus saw few references even as an historical oddity. Lalande made one of the few contemporaneous mentions of the figure, writing7 in 1803: “Charles-Joseph Koenig, who was the court astronomer of the Elector Palatine, had engraved [invented] a constellation by the name of Leo Palatinus, between Aquarius and Antinoüs; but it was not adopted by astronomers.”

7“Charles-Joseph Koenig, qui était l’astronome de l’électeur Palatin, fit graver une constellation sous le nom de Leo Palatinus, entre le Verseau et Antinoüs; mais elle n’a pas été adoptée par les astronomes.” 72 7 Leo Palatinus

Iconography

The Count and Countess Palatine of Sulzbach

The objects of Koenig’s affection in inventing the new constellation were his patrons, Karl Philip Theodor, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria and his wife, Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach (Fig. 7.3). Karl Theodor was born on 11 December 1724 at Drogenbos, near Brussels, and educated at Mannheim. He was the son of Johann Christian (1700–1733) of the House of Palatinate-Sulzbach (itself a cadet branch of the House of Wittelsbach) and Marie-Anne-Henriette-Leopoldine de La Tour d’Auvergne (1708–1728), margravine of Bergen op Zoom in south Holland. Johann Christian succeeded his father as Count Palatine of Sulzbach upon the elder’s death in 1732, but he died before inheriting the Electorate. In 1733, Karl Theodor became heir apparent to the Electorate and acceded as Prince Elector on 31 December 1742 at the death of Charles III Philip. Since Charles Philip and his

Fig. 7.3 Left: Karl Theodor, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria (1724–1799), painted in 1763 by Anna Dorothea Lisiewska-Therbusch, 1721–1782 (oil on canvas, 82  65.5 cm). Right: Countess Palatine Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach (1721–1794), painted c. 1752 by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, 1722–1789 (oil on canvas; dimensions unavailable). Both portraits are housed at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Germany Iconography 73 brothers failed to produce a single legitimate male heir, their Palatinate-Neuburg line of Wittelsbach became extinct and paved the way for the Sulzbach succession. Sensing the disappearance of his line near the end of his life, Charles Philip sought to strengthen ties binding together all the cadet branches of the Wittelsbach dynasty. He arranged the double wedding of Karl Theodor to his granddaughter, Elisabeth Auguste, and her sister Maria Anna (1722–1790), Countess Palatine, to Duke Klemens Franz de Paula of Bavaria (1722–1770) on 17 January 1742. Elisabeth Auguste was born 17 January 1721 to Joseph Charles of Sulzbach (1694– 1729) and Elisabeth Auguste of Neuburg (1693–1728), herself the daughter of Charles III Philip. The marriage of Karl Theodor and Elisabeth Auguste was not a happy one, nor was it productive; the couple had only one child8 some twenty years into their marriage. Afterward the couple lived mostly apart, each taking their own lovers. Elisabeth Auguste took up residence at Schloss von Oggersheim where she lived until the last year of her life, fleeing advancing French troops for Weinheim in late 1793. After her death, Karl Theodor married Archduchess Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este (1776–1848). On the death of Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria in 1777, Karl Theodor inherited his title and became Elector and Duke of Bavaria. Both the title and authority of the Elector Palatine were absorbed into the Electorate of Bavaria; this gave Karl Theodor and his heirs only one vote in choosing the Holy Roman Emperor, but they gained the precedence of the Bavarian Elector over others in the imperial hierarchy. This mattered little for Karl Theodor himself. Lacking a legitimate heir, none of his offspring could inherit either Electorate, leaving him only the option of acquiring other territory he could bequeath to his illegitimate children upon his death. The year after assuming the Bavarian throne he arranged a deal with Emperor Joseph II to exchange his southern Bavarian land holdings for territory in the Austrian Netherlands. The result would have been the Habsburgs inheriting Bavaria and the Palatinate. Naturally, this possibility alarmed the legitimate heir presumptive of those realms, Karl Theodor’s cousin Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken and head of the Palatinate-Birkenfeld branch of Wittelsbach. Charles August was backed in his opposition to the Bavarian land deal by Frederick II of Prussia and the majority of minor German states. The perceived crisis precipitated the War of Bavarian Succession, a short conflict that saw little field action but caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both sides from starvation and communicable disease. The ‘war’ was ended by the Treaty of Teschen that forced Karl Theodor to accept the Birkenfeld succession upon his death. Undaunted, he tried to cut a second deal for the same lands in 1784 but was opposed diplomatically by Frederick II’s Fürstenbund (“League of Princes”) founded to protect the constitutional and territorial integrity of the Empire. Faced with this threat, Karl Theodor again relented and did not press the territory issue again for the remainder of his life.

8Francis Louis Joseph, born 28 June 1762, lived for only one day. 74 7 Leo Palatinus

As Elector of Bavaria, Karl Theodor failed to achieve anything like his earlier popularity in the Palatinate. After a spat with the Munich city council in 1788 he moved his official residence back to Mannheim, returning to Munich less than a year later. In the same year monarchial Europe was jarred by the events of the French Revolution; by 1796 the Revolutionary Army was on Karl Theodor’s doorstep after first occupying the Duchy of Jülich and then the Palatinate. Karl Theodor appealed to Francis II for help, citing the earlier planned alliance and submitting Bavaria to the Emperor as a client state. Needless to say, this won him no love in Munich, whose residents openly celebrated his death due to a stroke on 16 February 1799. He was succeeded by Maximilian I Joseph (1756–1825), the first Elector from the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld. Karl Theodor never considered himself a military leader and styled himself a prince of peace in contrast to such contemporary figures as the warrior Frederick II. His interest in the arts left a lasting impression on the culture of Bavaria. He assembled a fine court orchestra in Mannheim and founded the Mannheim School of music; a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sought a position with the orchestra in 1777, just as the court was about to relocate to Munich. He was denied the position, but Karl Theodor later commissioned the opera seria Idomeneo (K. 366; 1780) from him. Mozart quoted the Elector’s praise, recalling that he said to him “No music has ever made such an impression on me.” Karl Theodor also brought a new visual aesthetic to Bavaria through com- missions of prominent buildings and monuments. His chief architect, Nicolas de Pigage (1723–1796), worked on projects at Schwetzingen and Mannheim Palaces, bringing fresh French influence that replaced prevailing late Baroque styles with early Classicism. Other architects in the employ of the Elector built Italianate structures of the kind popular with contemporaneous German rulers, a number of which remain prominent Bavarian landmarks to this day.

The Palatine Lion

The lion is a very old heraldic symbol, symbolizing royalty, bravery and strength in its role as ‘king of the beasts.’ The association of lions and royalty is at least as old as the dawn of human civilization in ancient Mesopotamia, and depictions of animals thought to be lions in art date back as far as 30,000 years ago. Symbolic lions probably arrived in Western Europe in late antiquity by way of Biblical texts and influences since they were not important in Roman art. Karl Joseph König chose to memorialize Karl Theodor among the stars in the shape of the Pfälzer Löwe, or Palatine Lion, an heraldic charge to the arms of the House of Wittelsbach (Fig. 7.4). The use of the Lion dates to the Medieval period and derives from the Holy Roman Imperial office of Reichsvikar, charged with the functional administration of all or part of the Empire on the Emperor’s behalf. Charles IV’s Golden Bull of 1356 set forth the constitutional structure of the Empire and made the Reichsvikar one of two Princes Elector charged with the running the Iconography 75

Fig. 7.4 Arms of the Elector Palatine by Václav Hollar (1607–1677). Copperplate etching, 9  13 cm; date unknown. The figures on either side of the arms are “Saint Mary, Mother of God, Patroness” (left) and “Saint Charlemagne, Founder” (right). The Palatine Lion figures prominently in both the shield and the crest of the arms

Empire’s affairs during an interregnum. After the Golden Bull, the Lion gained a crown in reference to the Elector Palatine’s new function. The Palatinate was dissolved as an Imperial Electorate in 1803 not long before the end of the Empire itself. After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1816, the Palatine Lion appeared in Bavarian arms only in the western part of the Kingdom of Bavaria along the Rhine. This area, known initially as the Circle of the Rhine, was renamed then Rhenish Palatinate in 1835 on orders of King Ludwig I (1786–1868). It retained that name until the territorial reorganization of Bavaria after the Second World War. The Palatine Lion remains in the Bavarian state arms, its position in the first subfield unchanged since 1950. (Fig. 7.5) 76 7 Leo Palatinus (1785) overlaid on a modern chart . Nova Constellatione Coelo Inlatus The figure of Leo Palatinus from Karl-Joseph König’s Fig. 7.5 Chapter 8 Lochium Funis

The Log and Line

Genitive: Lochii Funis Abbreviation:LoF Alternate names: “Linea Nautica” (Bowen 1888) Location: Near Argo Navis, incorporating stars from present-day Pyxis1

Origin and History

Lochium Funis was introduced by Johann Elert Bode in Uranographia (1801b; Fig. 8.1) as an elaboration on the figure of Pyxis Nautica (the Nautical Compass) devised by Lacaille in 1763, solving the problem of a number of faint, unformed stars in the vicinity of Pyxis. Bode evidently intended them to be interpreted as a single figure, enclosing them within a common boundary and listing together their stars in the accompanying catalog Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne. Together they formed a set of navigational tools: the compass measured the direction of Argo Navis, while the log and line gave its speed. Bode explained2 his addition in Allgemeine Beschreibung: De la Caille has introduced the former [Pyxis], and I have here enclosed the latter [Lochium Funis] to denote the same, the invention being to denote the speed and direction of a ship. Both are initially east of the main body of the Ship as it comes above our horizon.

1“Between the Cat and the northern part of Argo Navis” (Kendall 1845, referring to Pyxis); “[P]ositioned next to Pyxis” (Ridpath 1989). 2“De la Caille hat erstern eingeführt, und ich habe hier noch letztere beygefügt, um ausser der Erfindung der Richtung eines Schiffs auch die der Gescheindigkeit desselbden zu bezeichnen. Beyde stehen zunächst ostwärts bey dem über unsern Horizont noch aufgehenden Theil des Shiffes.”

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 77 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_8 78 8 Lochium Funis

Fig. 8.1 Lochium Funis shown on Plate 18 of Johann Elert Bode’s Uranographia (1801b)

Curiously, however, it was left out of the 1805 edition of his earlier Vorstellung der Gestirne, which depicted the stars of Lochium Funis as a sort of ribbon affixed to the sails of the Argo (Fig. 8.2). In the same year, August Gottleib Meissner showed Bode’s figure as “Lochleine” in Figures XXXIV and XXXV of Astronomischer Hand-Atlas, while Thomas Young labeled it simply “Log” on Plate XXXVII, Fig. 518 of A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807; Figure 8.3). Jacob Green showed it by name only on Plate 17 of Astronomical Recreations (1824).

Iconography

The log and line, also known variously as a “chip log” or “common log”, is a nautical tool used to measure speed and distance of a ship at sea. It is composed of two parts: a weighted slab of wood light enough to float but heavy enough to resist being carried away in light currents (the log), to which is attached a length of rope knotted at regular intervals (the line). To use it, mariners throw the log overboard and let Iconography 79

Fig. 8.2 Pyxis Nautica shown on in Plate 26 of the 1805 edition of Bode’s Vorstellung der Gestirne. The stars he assigned to Lochium Funis 4 years earlier in Uranographia are roughly represented by the ribbon-like device flying from the yard. Parts of two other now-extinct constellations introduced by Bode appear on this detail: Felis (“Die Katze,” upper left)andthe label for Officina Typographica (“Buchdrucker Werkstadt,” upper right;seeVolume1) out the line as they sail, counting the number of knots that passed by in a specified measure of time; historic use of the log and line involved a purpose-made sand glass. The weight of the log causes it to function as a drogue and remain roughly fixed in place, subject only to local currents, while the ship sails away. The count of knots paid out multiplied by the knot spacing gives the distance traveled in the timed interval; dividing the total distance by the time interval gives the speed.3 The knot separation was traditionally 7 fathoms (42 feet, or about 13 m) and the time interval 30 s, but historic refinements to the length of the nautical mile resulted in changes to the typical knot separation. By the nineteenth century, the separation was commonly set to 47 feet, 3 in (14.4 m) and the time interval to 28 s; this length, as a

3It is from this procedure that the common unit “knot”, meaning one nautical mile per hour, is derived. 80 8 Lochium Funis

Fig. 8.3 Lochium Funis (labeled “Log,” above center) as depicted on Plate XXXVII, Fig. 518 of Thomas Young’s Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807). Also shown are Argo Navis (“Argo the Ship,” left), Robur Carolinum (“Charles’ Oak,” top-left), Felis (“Cat,” right), and Officina Typographica (unlabeled, bottom-left); see Volume 1 for a description of these constellations fraction of a nautical mile, is identically proportional to 28 s as a fraction of 1 h. This is convenient up to a point; beyond speeds of about 8 knots, the 28-second interval was too long and a 14-second glass was used instead. The log and line was introduced in the first half of the seventeenth century, superseding an earlier means of measuring speed that involved tossing a floating object overboard near the prow of a ship and the time recorded that it took the object to pass between two points on deck separated by a known distance. Early versions of the log and line were known as a “Dutchman’s log”, consisting of a rectangular tobacco box made of brass with rounded ends; the box was generally engraved with tables used to convert the log timing to vessel speed. While it involved a simple measurement method, the log and line was not known as a particularly accurate tool. Many factors introduced errors into the measurement process, including currents, inaccurate timing, and elasticity of the material comprising the line. Sailors learned to minimize these effects by taking Iconography 81 repeated measurements under a variety of conditions, averaging out the errors. Fundamentally, the log and line method is limited by local currents, so the method requires periodic calibration using position fixes and navigational maps. The effect of cumulative errors otherwise led to mistakes in dead reckoning (itself dependent on accurate speed measurement) that could potentially cause significant navigational mistakes. To illustrate the use of the log and line, here is quoted almost in its entirety the eponymous Chap. 125 of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick (1851). In this passage, Melville also references the use of the quadrant (see Volume 1) as a navigational aid. While now the fated Pequod had been so long afloat this voyage, the log and line had but very seldom been in use. Owing to a confident reliance upon other means of determining the vessel’s place, some merchantmen, and many whalemen, especially when cruising, wholly neglect to heave the log; though at the same time, and frequently more for form’s sake than anything else, regularly putting down upon the customary slate the course steered by the ship, as well as the presumed average of progression every hour. It had been thus with the Pequod. The wooden reel and angular log attached hung, long untouched, just beneath the railing of the after bulwarks. Rains and spray had damped it; sun and wind had warped it; all the elements had combined to rot a thing that hung so idly. But heedless of all this, his mood seized Ahab, as he happened to glance upon the reel, not many hours after the magnet scene, and he remembered how his quadrant was no more, and recalled his frantic oath about the level log and line. The ship was sailing plungingly; astern the billows rolled in riots. “Forward, there! Heave the log!” Two seamen came. The golden-hued Tahitian and the grizzly Manxman. “Take the reel, one of ye, I’ll heave.” They went towards the extreme stern, on the ship’s lee side, where the deck, with the oblique energy of the wind, was now almost dipping into the creamy, sidelong-rushing sea. The Manxman took the reel, and holding it high up, by the projecting handle-ends of the spindle, round which the spool of line revolved, so stood with the angular log hanging downwards, till Ahab advanced to him. Ahab stood before him, and was lightly unwinding some thirty or forty turns to form a preliminary hand-coil to toss overboard, when the old Manxman, who was intently eyeing both him and the line, made bold to speak. “Sir, I mistrust it; this line looks far gone, long heat and wet have spoiled it.” “Twill hold, old gentleman. Long heat and wet, have they spoiled thee? Thou seem’st to hold. Oh, truer perhaps, life holds thee; not thou it.” “I hold the spool, sir. But just as my captain says. With these grey hairs of mine ‘tis not worth while disputing, ‘specially with a superior, who’ll ne’er confess.” “What’s that? there now’s a patched professor in Queen Nature’s granite-founded College; but methinks he’s too subservient. Where wert thou born?” “In the little rocky Isle of Man, sir.” “Excellent! Thou’st hit the world by that.” “I know not, sir, but I was born there.” “In the Isle of Man, hey? Well, the other way, it’s good. Here’s a man from Man; a man born in once independent Man, and now unmanned of Man; which is sucked in—by what? Up with the reel! The dead, blind wall butts all inquiring heads at last. Up with it! So.” The log was heaved. The loose coils rapidly straightened out in a long dragging line astern, and then, instantly, the reel began to whirl. In turn, jerkingly raised and lowered by the rolling billows, the towing resistance of the log caused the old reelman to stagger strangely. “Hold hard!” 82 8 Lochium Funis

Snap! the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon; the tugging log was gone. “I crush the quadrant, the thunder turns the needles, and now the mad sea parts the log-line. But Ahab can mend all. Haul in here, Tahitian; reel up, Manxman. And look ye, let the carpenter make another log, and mend thou the line. See to it.”

Disappearance

The Lochium Funis is an unusual example involving Bode’s Uranographia: a con- stellation suggested in this widely-referenced work that failed to become canonical. It garnered a few references in the nineteenth-century literature, but those authors who mentioned it seemed to give it the status of an asterism while recognizing Pyxis as a proper constellation. Ezra Otis Kendall described it in Uranography (1845)as “the band slung around [Pyxis] denotes the line, or log-line, added by Bode.” By midcentury, its popularity was already waning. Christian Gottlieb Riedig labeled it “Lochleine” on Plate I of his Himmels-Atlas (1849), but the minuscule size of its label suggests that Riedig thought of it as an asterism. Among its last appearances were in George Chambers’ A Handbook of Descriptive Astronomy (1877), in which it is attributed to “Bode’s maps” without citing a specific date, and as “Linea Nautica” on the southern hemisphere all-sky map in Eliza A. Bowen’s Astronomy By Observation (1888). It seems to have lost recognition even as an asterism in the last quarter of the nineteenth century; writing in 1899, Richard Hinckley Allen reported it as “entirely fallen into disuse”. The constellation boundaries set by the IAU in 1928 now place its stars indiscriminately among Pyxis, Puppis, Antlia, and Hydra (Fig. 8.4). Disappearance 83 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1801b ( Uranographia The figures of Pyxis and Lochium Funis from Plate 18 of Johann Elert Bode’s Fig. 8.4 Chapter 9 Marmor Sculptile

The Bust of Christopher Columbus

Genitive: Marmoris Sculptilis Abbreviation:MaS Location: The modern Reticulum and parts of western Horologium

Origin and History

Marmor Sculptile was introduced by William Croswell, a Boston cartographer and educator, on his 1810 Mercator map of the starry heavens. Croswell was described somewhat charitably by his biographer, Robert W. Lovett, as an “eccentric scholar” who “tried hard to make a name for himself in American science and letters.” While Croswell intended his map to show only the “ancient constellations . . . with those of the southern hemisphere, formed prior to the eighteenth century,” he allowed “some smaller stars and modern constellations . . . where the deficiency would have been remarkable.” These “modern constellations” included two of his own, Marmor Sculptile and Sciurus Volans (the Flying Squirrel; Chap. 15). But while Croswell attempted some utilitarian justification for introducing the latter, the Bust of Columbus merely “fills the place of the Net, which is also modern.” In short, Croswell argues in the introductory material to his map that because Nicolas Louis de Lacaille’s inventions were similarly “modern,” he could replace a Lacaille constellation as justifiably as Lacaille created it in the first place. The figure drawn on Croswell’s map (Fig. 9.1) is that of a sculpted bust sitting atop a plinth inscribed “[CHRISTOPH]ORVS COLVMBVS;” the inscription is partially hidden by a banner or cloth on which the base of the bust rests that reads simply “AMERICA.” Given the full dimensions of the figure, including the feathers projecting from Columbus’ hat, the constellation would have taken up not only Lacaille’s Reticulum, but parts of neighboring Horologium and Dorado; in fact, the engraver conveniently disregarded the star  Doradus, which would otherwise

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 85 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_9 86 9 Marmor Sculptile

Fig. 9.1 Marmor Sculptile depicted on William Croswell’s chart A Mercator map of the starry heavens (1810) have appeared on the map at the back of Columbus’ head. Only two stars are shown partially outlining the plinth, ˛ and ˇ Reticuli. Besides those stars, the others belonging to the constellation as implied by the figure are only very faint, between the sixth and seventh magnitudes. Marmor Sculptile made its only known appearance on Croswell’s chart and was disregarded by other cartographers of the time. Some of the same stars in Croswell’s constellation were used around the same time to form Solarium (Chap. 16), but it too was ultimately discarded. Iconography 87

Iconography

Croswell chose a suitable subject for one of the first star charts produced in America: its traditional ‘discoverer.’ Born Cristoforo Colombo in the Republic of Genoa around 1451, Columbus sailed under the Spanish flag when he made the first known European contact with North America since the attempted Norse colonization of Newfoundland in the eleventh century. Remarkably little is known of the basic details of his life, even as to his appearance: no portraits of Columbus painted from life are thought to exist, and the posthumous imagined portraits of the explorer have little historical value. Contemporary descriptions have him as a large and strong man at least six feet in height, considerably taller than the average European of his era. He was the son of Domenico Colombo (1418–1496), a wool weaver of the merchant class from Genoa, and Susanna Fontanarossa (1435–1489), of whom nothing is known other than she was born on the island of Corsica. Domenico moved the family to Savona when Christopher was nineteen; in the same year the younger Columbus entered the service of René of Anjou (1409–1480), later King of Naples, working aboard a Genoese ship hired by René in his campaign to take control of the Kingdom. Christopher was later apprenticed as a business agent for a number of important families of Genoa and traveled to Greece, Portugal, England, Ireland, and possibly as far away from Europe as Iceland. By 1477 he established a home in Lisbon where he was based for the next eight years; during this time he ran trading ships along the coast of West Africa and ventured as far south as the Portuguese trading post of Elmina in Ghana. While in Lisbon, Columbus married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo (c. 1455c. 1484), daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo (c. 1395–1457), a Portuguese nobleman who was the governor of Porto Santo. The couple had a son, Diego (1470/80–1526), who would later serve his father and was named Second Admiral of the Indies, Second Viceroy of the Indies and Third Governor of the Indies. Columbus left Portugal in 1485 for Castile, although it is unknown whether Filipa died or if he simply left her. In any case, by 1487 he had taken a mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Arana (1467–1536), who bore him one son, Ferdinand (1488–1539). They never married, although Beatriz remained Columbus’ companion for the rest of his life. Columbus’ ideas about travel to distant places may have come from his extensive reading. In order to read the great works of the day in geography and history, he learned Latin, Castilian and Portuguese; his copies of books by authors as diverse as Ptolemy, Marco Polo, and Pliny the Elder are full of his marginal notes. He was also well-versed in the books of the Bible and often quoted scripture in his letters. While Europe had maintained an overland trade route to Asia for centuries, travel across the Silk Road became considerably more treacherous after the fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent dissolution of the remnant Byzantine Empire. Europeans began to look to alternative sea routes to Asia. In 1470, the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli proposed a western sea route to the Portuguese King Afonso V, who rejected the idea because his sailors 88 9 Marmor Sculptile were at that time making rapid progress in their travels down the African west coast, and finding a passage into the Indian Ocean seemed imminent. Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and seemingly solved the problem of reaching Asia by sea, but his route would require very long transit times relative to the former speed of overland trade. Columbus read Toscanelli in the 1480s and corresponded with him before the latter’s death in 1482; from their interaction, he became convinced that the Indies could be reached by sailing west and south from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1485 he presented his proposal to King John II of Portugal whose advisers considered the plan unlikely to succeed. In particular, they felt that Columbus drastically underestimated the distance from Portugal to Asia at roughly 4000 km. Columbus came back to the Portuguese court in 1488 but by that time Dias’ discovery caused John II to lose interest in Columbus’ alternative route. It turns out that Columbus underestimated the circumference of the Earth due to a units problem. It was known since antiquity that the Earth was spherical, and the Greeks had estimated its circumference to rather high accuracy in the third century BC. Columbus’ understanding of this came from his reading of Pierre d’Ailly’s Imago Mundi (1410), which contained an estimate of the length of a degree of longitude along the equator made by the ninth century Islamic astronomer Abu¯ al-‘Abbas¯ Ah. mad ibn Muh.ammad ibn Kath¯ır al-Farghan¯ ¯ı, known in the West as 2 Alfraganus. d’Ailly quoted a length of 56 3 Arabic miles, but Columbus interpreted the figure in the much shorter Roman mile unit, leading to an underestimate of the circumference of the Earth by almost 10,000 km. He also had the wrong ideas about the size and extent of Asia. In Geography, Ptolemy estimated that the Eurasian landmass must span a full 180ı of longitude, whereas the angular distance from Iberia to mainland China is about 130ı and Japan is some 20ı further east. Columbus bought the even more erroneous estimate of 225ı made by Ptolemy’s contemporary, Marinus of Tyre, from which he computed that the western sea crossing from Europe to Asia should represent only 135ı of open ocean. Further, he had inaccurate information about the size and extent of Japan and believed in a legendary island the Portuguese called the “Ilha das Sete Cidades” (Island of Seven Cities) that seemed to be not much further west than the Azores. Columbus estimated that Japan must lie about 3700 km west of the Canary Islands at about the same latitude, whereas the true figure is about 12,500 km. In the late fifteenth century, no ship could have carried sufficient supplies to make even a one-way journey of that length. Had the then-unknown Americas not been in the way, Columbus’ plan would have been doomed from the start. He continued to press his case into the 1490s. While Portugal was out as a funding source, neighboring Spain was in a period of ascendancy. The “Catholic Monarchs” Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504) and King Ferdinand II of Aragón (1452–1516) had just completed the Reconquista of Iberia from the Moors with the fall of Granada on 2 January 1492. The pair looked toward building their economic capacity through trade with the Indies and sought a faster travel route that would give them a competitive advantage over other European royal houses. Suddenly, Columbus’ previously rejected offer to the Portuguese looked feasible. Iconography 89

His first meeting with the Catholic Monarchs in 1486 was unsuccessful. Colum- bus presented his plans to Isabella who, like John II of Portugal the year before, referred the issue to her advisors with the same prognosis: he severely underesti- mated the sea distance to Asia. However, on the unlikely chance that they were wrong and to prevent Columbus from shopping his ideas around elsewhere, Isabella granted him an annual allowance to keep him in Spain. Undaunted, Columbus returned to the monarchs shortly after their success at Granada; Isabella turned him down again, this time on the advice of her confessor. Legend has it that Columbus left the meeting at the Alcázar castle in Córdoba on a mule when Ferdinand managed to change Isabella’s mind. The Queen dispatched a royal guard to intercept Columbus, leading Ferdinand to later claim credit for Columbus’ discovery of the New World. The deal Columbus struck with the monarchs involved a number of benefits to him and his heirs—if he was successful. These included the naval rank of “Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” appointments as Governor and Viceroy of any lands claimed for Spain, and ten percent of the revenues from those lands in perpetuity. He would further be granted the option to buy a one-eighth interest in any Spanish commercial ventures in the New World. Lastly, his administrative positions would give him the right to nominate up to three individuals for royal offices in those lands, while the King and Queen retained the power to make the final decision. The agreement was concluded in April 1492 and he began provisioning three ships, the carrack Santa Maria and caravels Niña and Pinta, for the journey. The flotilla left Palos de la Frontera before dawn on 3 August. From Palos, Columbus sailed west to the Canaries, which at the time were possessions of Castile; there he repaired his ships and took on fresh supplies. He left San Sebastián de La Gomera on 6 September, powered by trade winds known as the “easterlies” on what would turn out to be a five-week journey across the open Atlantic. At two o’clock on the morning of 12 October, Rodrigo de Triana, a lookout on the Pinta, sighted the dark silhouette of land against the western horizon; the ship’s captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, alerted Columbus with the sound of a gunshot. Columbus and his men spent nearly three months exploring the Caribbean before departing for Spain, arriving in Palos on 15 March 1493 (Fig. 9.2). Between 1493 and 1503, Columbus completed three further round-trip journeys between Spain and the New World under the sponsorship of the Spanish monarchs. He did not prove to be an able administrator of the new lands, and relations with Isabella and Ferdinand soured after the third voyage. In 1500, the monarchs removed him as Governor and Viceroy, and had him arrested and returned to Spain in chains. While he eventually won his freedom and returned to the Americas, never again would he achieve royal favor. His sons litigated their complaints against Castile and Aragón for much of their lives, and the Columbus family remained entangled in legal actions against Spain until 1790. Columbus’ health declined in the last years of his life and he became increasingly religious, convinced that his discoveries were the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies. He published Book of Prophecies in 1505, laying out his arguments against the backdrop of Christian eschatology. He suffered attacks of what was thought to be 90 9 Marmor Sculptile

Fig. 9.2 Woodcut from the title page of Lettera delle isole nuovamente trovate (“Letter from the newly-found island,” 1493) from Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand II of Aragón, translated into verse by Giuliano Dati. Ferdinand (lower left) points to an island across the Atlantic to where Columbus is landing with three ships gout but that most modern medical scholars believe to have been Reiter’s syndrome, a reactive form of arthritis brought on by exposure to either gut or sexually- transmitted infections. He returned to Spain where he died in Valladolid on 20 May 1506. He seems to have remained convinced to the end that there was no “New World” and that he simply reached the eastern fringe of Asia, although historians disagree on that point. His legacy is mixed, having shifted toward a negative social view in recent decades. The New World was not “discovered,” being widely populated long before European contact, nor was Columbus the first to reach its shores. His contribution to history is not the discovery of the Americas, but rather the cultural ties forged between the Old World and the New. Still, much of the result was for the worse: the Spanish enslaved and exploited the peoples they encountered, and brought smallpox to the New World and syphilis to the Old, killing millions of people on Iconography 91 both sides of the Atlantic. By 1900, the indigenous people of the Americas—who once represented one hundred percent of its population—were reduced to a third of one percent of that population. Columbus, naturally, summarized his place in history rather differently1: I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous and warlike, whose manners and religion are very different from ours, who live in sierras and mountains, without fixed settlements, and where by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen our Lords, an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become the richest of countries. In Croswell’s time Columbus was still a figure who stirred feelings of pride in European-Americans, and it is little wonder that he chose the explorer to commemorate among the stars. With the recent reassessment of Columbus’ legacy, it seems decidedly unlikely that he would be the first choice among modern Americans to be memorialized by contemporary constellations (Fig. 9.3).

1Letter to Doña Juana de Torres, October 1500, quoted in William Brandon’s TheRiseAndFall Of North American Indians: From Prehistory Through Geronimo, Lanham, Maryland: Roberts Rinehart (2003), p.110. 92 9 Marmor Sculptile ) overlaid on a modern chart 1810 ( Mercator map of the starry heavens The figure of Marmor Scupltile from William Croswell’s Fig. 9.3 Chapter 10 Norma Nilotica

The Nilometer

Genitive: Normae Nilotica Abbreviation:NoN Location: Envisioned as a staff held in the left hand of Aquarius roughly between Delphinus and the main stars of Capricornus1

Origin and History

The Nilometer first appeared in charts on Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822;Fig.10.1) with the status of an asterism within Aquarius. Jamieson distin- guished it as such with a mixture of capital and minuscule letters in its label whereas all of his otherwise ‘proper’ constellations were labeled strictly with capital letters. The device shown by Jamieson, a type of measuring staff, was composed of some faint stars east of Antinoüs (see Volume 1) and north of the head of Capricornus. These stars were left unformed by Ptolemy, which made them an easy target for astronomers who wished to use them as part of tributes to their royal patrons; failed attempts to incorporate them into constellations include Pomum Imperiale (1688; Chap. 13) and Leo Palatinus (1785; Chap. 7). Norma Nilotica enjoyed a brief heyday in the 1820s and 1830s, appearing on Plate 26 of Urania’s Mirror (1825;Fig.10.2) and Plate 5 of Elijah Hinsdale Burritt’s Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens (1835). In fact, writing in 1899, Richard Hinckley Allen believed its introduction was attributable to Burritt: “indeed Burritt drew such in the hand of the figure [Aquarius] as Norma Nilotica, a suggestion of the ancient Nilometer.” However, the Nilometer’s life cycle ended soon after its appearance in Burritt’s charts. It is not found in works of the 1840s and 1850s, such as Argelander (1843), Riedig (1849), Möllinger (1851) or Johnston

1“West of Scorpio” (Young 1903).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 93 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_10 94 10 Norma Nilotica

Fig. 10.1 Norma Nilotica shown in the left hand of Aquarius on Plate XXI of the Celestial Atlas of Alexander Jamieson (1822)

(1855). Similarly, in its early history, it was overlooked by authors like Jacob Green (1824) in whose charts Aquarius holds only drapery in his left hand. Norma Nilotica receives a curious mention in a curious work, Veritas. Revelation of mysteries, biblical, historical and social, by means of the Median and Persian laws2 by Henry Saxelby Melville Wintle (aka ‘Henry Melville,’ 1799–1873), an Australian journalist and author born in England. This odd book about the lost mysteries of Freemasonry edited by Frederick Tennyson, brother of Lord Alfred, was said by Melville to have been forty years in the making. Its narrative contains ramblings about the origins of the constellations and what appear to be reproductions of charts from Flamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis. In describing Aquarius, Melville wrote: Then comes the left hand of Aquarius, or the Greek Neptune or Hebrew Moses. In his hand is the celebrated rod: it is the 24-in gauge of the masons, and on it are marked or notched the 24 h. The present name is Norma Nilotica.

2London: A. Hall & Company (1874). The quotation is from page 14. 10 Norma Nilotica 95

Fig. 10.2 Aquarius as shown on Plate 26 of Urania’s Mirror (1825). The Water Bearer holds the Nilometer in his left hand and pours a stream of water (“Fluvius Aquarii”, the River of Aquarius) from an urn with his right hand

In reality, Norma Nilotica was already forgotten by the time Melville wrote. In perhaps its last appearance as a recognized asterism, Charles Augustus Young (1903) played down its significance and effectively pronounced the Nilometer dead to most modern astronomers: Norma Nilotica, the rule with which the height of the Nile was measured, lies west of Scorpio, while Ara lies due south of Eta and Theta. Both are modern constellations, small and of no importance in our latitudes.

Iconography

The part of the sky in which Norma Nilotica was formed has a long history of mythological association with water imagery that probably predates written language. Around 4000 BC, precession of the equinoxes placed the position of the Sun on the winter solstice in Aquarius, making it one of the cardinal points of the zodiac for the civilizations of the ancient Near East. The Akkadians referred to Aquarius as Ku-ir-ku, the “Seat of Flowing Water,” giving rise to ancient depictions of the figure pouring water from an urn. To the Mesopotamians, this pouring of water was an allegory for the source of the water in the Flood myth and associated the constellation with the Sumerian god Ishkur, called Adad in Akkadian; the image 96 10 Norma Nilotica was reinforced in that the region experienced its annual rainy season around the time of the winter solstice. Much later Aratus referred to the region as “The Water,” bounded by an area containing the water-themed constellations Aquarius, Pisces, Cetus, Capricornus, Delphinus, Eridanus, Piscis Austrinus, and Hydra. Water was a precious, life-giving resource to the peoples of arid regions from North Africa to Mesopotamia. The Egyptians managed to grow a complex society out of harsh desert surroundings largely because a reliable source of water, the Nile River, flowed through their nation. The annual Nile flood, on which Egyptian agriculture and therefore civilization itself depended, was thought to result from the pleasure of Hapi, god of the inundation; as the figure of Aquarius, Hapi put his urn into the river, displacing the waters of the flood, or in other renditions poured the contents of his urn directly into the Nile. The peak of the flood corresponded to the heliacal setting of Aquarius, in which Aquarius set on the western horizon as the Sun rose in the east; from their vantage point, the Egyptians saw the constellation literally raising the waters. Some versions of the Aquarius/flood association have the Water-Bearer holding the Nilometer in the hand opposite the urn, measuring the height of the river as he pours water from his urn. Allen (1899) wrote, “The astronomers’ symbol for [Aquarius] showing undulating lines of waves, is said to have been the hieroglyph for Water, the title of Aquarius in the Nile country, where a measuring-rod may have been associated with it.” While traditionally depicted as a graduated measuring rod, the sense of the word “nilometer” includes any sort of device associated with measuring the height of the waters on the Nile, including purpose-built structures. Given the significance of the annual flood to the sustained life of Egyptian society and the irregularity of its volume and duration, the ability to accurately predict the volume of a year’s inundation was a crucial performance metric of the Egyptian priesthood. This was not only of religious and practical significance, but it also carried very real political consequences: the quality of a year’s flood, relative to expectations, was used to set tax rates on the presumption that better floods led to increased agricultural output. Priests therefore monitored the level of the river daily beginning around June, in advance of the anticipated rise. The Egyptians built permanent stone structures intended to facilitate this moni- toring, with marked columns partially submerged in the river from which its height could be ascertained with both reliability and repeatability. The Cairo Nilometer (Fig. 10.3) exemplifies this type of device.3 Another version of the built-in nilometer took the form of a flight of steps descending into the river from its bank, with height markings carved into a facing wall. The most elaborate form taken by nilometers was that of a channel cut into the river bank diverting water from the Nile after it reached a certain height; the

3The Cairo Nilometer was ordered built by the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil in AD 861, but is located on the site of an earlier nilometer seen and described by Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Dionysius of Tel Mahre in 830. 10 Norma Nilotica 97

Fig. 10.3 Interior of the ninth-century Cairo Nilometer on the island of Rhoda. A portal to the river at the bottom of the space allowed in water, whose height was then measured from graduations on the central column. Stairs provided access to its lower reaches, such that the measurer’s eye could be more nearly brought to water level. Photo by Berthold Werner, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 channel led some distance away from the river, usually to within the confines of a temple where it emptied into a well or cistern. In addition with providing a seasonal water supply to desert temples, it afforded priests private access to information they needed to make otherwise ‘miraculous’ predictions concerning the timing of the flood crest. Thomas Maurice identified4 a celestial instance of the Nilometer at the turn of the nineteenth century, but placed it well away from Aquarius: The Libra of the zodiac is perpetually seen upon all the hieroglyphics of Egypt, which is at once an argument of the great antiquity of that asterism, and of the probability of its having been originally fabricated by the astronomical sons of Mizraim.5 By the Balance they are supposed by some to have denoted the equality of days and nights at the period of the sun’s arriving at this sign ; and by others it is asserted, that this asterism, at first only the Beam, was exalted to its station in the zodiac from its being the useful Nilometer by which they measured the height of the inundating waters, to which Egyptian custom there may possibly be some remote allusion in that passage of holy writ, where the sublime prophet describes the Almighty as measuring the waters in the hollow of his hand.6

4Indian Antiquities, London: John White (1801), pp. 237–238. 5Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt. 6“Isaiah xl 12.” (= 40:12); “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” (NIV). 98 10 Norma Nilotica

The Nile flood occurred reliably each year between July and October, usually peaking in August, until the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 brought the river under permanent control. While historical Nilometers remain throughout Egypt, they are no longer relevant to a people whose access to the Nile’s waters is now well-regulated (Fig. 10.4). 10 Norma Nilotica 99 Celestial ) from Plate 21 of Alexander Jamieson’s center ) holding Norma Nilotica ( left ) and Aquarius ( below center ) overlaid on a modern chart The figures of Capricornus ( 1822 ( Fig. 10.4 Atlas Chapter 11 Phaeton

The Son of Apollo-Helios

Genitive: Phaethontos1 Abbreviation:Pha Location: Stars comprising the southern end of Eridanus, not inclusive of Achernar (˛ Eridani)

Origin and History

Phaeton is an asterism within the constellation Eridanus that emerged late relative to the constellation’s ancient origins. Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) believed its origins were to be found in Mesopotamia and long predated the Greeks. “There is much in the Euphratean records alluding to a stellar stream that may be our Eridanus,” Allen wrote, “and its title has been derived from the Akkadian Aria- dan, the Strong River.” White (2008) holds that the River’s name descends from the Sumerian name for Canopus (˛ Carinae), MUL.NUN.KI, under the assertion in some ancient sources that the River’s course ended there rather than at Achernar (˛ Eridani). The Sumerian word means “Star of Eridu” and refers to one of the oldest cities of Mesopotamia settled near the mouth of the Euphrates around 5400 BC.If the Greeks inherited Eridanus from Mesopotamia, the thinking goes, then the river it represents is the Euphrates and the whole figure becomes something like the “River of Eridu.” However, this theory hinges on the Sumerian word for Canopus and does not explain why the traditional constellation terminates at a completely different star. In any case, Eridanus probably predates both the Greeks and the mythology they attached to it.

1As Phaeton is a Greek proper name, its genitive is derived from the third Ancient Greek declension

ÒØÓ Ó .

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 101 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_11 102 11 Phaeton

Phaeton seems to first appear on star charts in Petrus Apianus’ Astronomicum Caesareum (1540;Fig.11.1), although a mythological connection between Phaeton and the River is suggested in art at least by the fifteenth century. A human figure associated with Eridanus is found drawn in earlier sources that likely derive from the Suda, a voluminous Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world dating to the tenth century. It is likely that the figure was an ancient river god (Fig. 11.2) later modified to the story of Phaeton. The few printed charts before Apianus (e.g., Dürer 1515) do not show any human figure associated with Eridanus; neither do ancient sources draw any direct line between the constellation Eridanus and the mythological Phaeton. Apianus further complicated the picture by portraying the person identified with Phaeton as a woman. Allen noted both the river god and the sex change in his chapter on Eridanus: “Old illuminated manuscripts added a venerable river-god lying on the surface of the stream, with urn, aquatic plants, and rows of stars; for all of which the Hyginus of 1488 substitutes the figure of a nude woman, with stars lining the lower bank.” Apianus does not mention Phaeton in his description of Eridanus in Astronomicum Caesareum, leading to the assumption that he merely repeated designs in familiar works of the previous two generations. The common depiction of Phaeton as a woman flailing about the end of the River is found in a number of charts in roughly the century after Apianus’ time. For example, it appears in Jerónimo de Girava’s Typo de la carta cosmographica de Gaspar Vopellio Medeburgense (1556), as its name implies a copy of a globe produced by Caspar Vopel in 1545. Giovanni Andrea Vavassore copied the same

Fig. 11.1 Phaeton depicted as a woman in Petrus Appianus’ Astronomicum Caesareum (1540) Origin and History 103

Fig. 11.2 Eridanus shown as a river god in Syntagma arateorum, an edition of Hyginus by Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) printed at Leiden in 1600 source for his Imagines coeli septentrionales cum duodecim imaginibus zodiaci published a Genoa in 1558. François de Mongenet depicted Phaeton on a set of gores probably printed in Italy in 1552, although stylistically they do not seem to have been borrowed directly from Vopel. The German engraver Matthaeus Greuter showed it on a set of globe gores published by Gulielmus Nicolai in Lyon around 1626. Also, Phaeton appears in the context of the constellations in sources other than printed maps and globes; the best known example is the set of frescoes in the Sala della Cosmografia at the Farnese Villa, Caprarola, Italy (Fig. 11.3), dating to about 1575. A Phaeton more closely resembling the ‘swimming woman’ model of contemporary charts appears on the ceiling of the Hall of Creation at Besta Palace in Teglio, Italy (c. 1550). Given the similarity in the figures, it is likely that this and nearly all the depictions on charts of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century trace directly back to Apianus. Phaeton may be reasonably compared to Caput Medusae (Chap. 4): a component of the story of a main constellation figure that never gained full status in its own right. But while Medusa’s Head was routinely drawn on charts with the figure of Perseus up to the turn of the twentieth century, Phaeton disappeared much sooner. This is probably due to its absence in certain, highly influential seventeenth-century atlases such as those of Bayer (1603) and Cellarius (1661). Later cartographers 104 11 Phaeton

Fig. 11.3 Phaeton (far right) shown falling into Eridanus in a ceiling fresco (unknown artist; 1573–1575) in the Sala della Cosmografia at the Farnese Villa, Caprarola, Italy might mention it in their descriptions of Eridanus (e.g., Thomas 1730), but none seems to have drawn it after Greuter. Since sixteenth-century charts were not informed by good star catalogs, par- ticularly at southerly declinations, determining exactly where Apianus imagined Phaeton to be located is speculative at best. A proposed reconstruction is shown on the finder chart in Fig. 11.5 and is derived from matching other figures on Apianus’ hemisphere to bright stars on modern charts. The result has Phaeton gracefully curving along the most southerly bright stars belonging to Eridanus, but falling traditionally short of Achernar (˛ Eridani).

Iconography

The main source for the most common version of the Phaeton myth is Books I and II of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (first century AD). Phaeton was the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the solar deity Apollo or Helios, the latter conceived of as driving a divine chariot across the sky each day to explain the rising and setting of the Sun. As a lesser deity, Phaeton was mortal. Clymene boasted that his father was the Sun Iconography 105

Fig. 11.4 Detail of Phaeton driving the Sun chariot in a painting by the American artist Max Francis Klepper (1861–1907), reproduced on the plate facing page 196 of William Tyler Olcott’s Star Lore For All Ages (1911)

God, and to this end Phaeton ascended into heaven to meet his supposed father. In an attempt to prove Phaeton was his son, Apollo-Helios swore on the river Styx to give Phaeton anything he asked. Phaeton replied that he wanted to drive the Sun chariot for a day, which Apollo-Helios considered dangerous and ill-advised. While he tried to talk Phaeton out of the request by saying that not even Jupiter would dare given the fiery heat of the chariot, the son was insistent. On the day Apollo-Helios was to fulfill the request, the horses that drew the chariot felt its much lighter weight (absent Apollo-Helios) and took to running faster than usual (Fig. 11.4). Terrified at the sudden speed, Phaeton let go of the reins, causing the horses to deviate from their prescribed course. They pulled the chariot too close to the Earth, burning it, destroying its vegetation, and in the process bringing the blood of the Ethiopians to their skin and turning it black. Africa was changed into a desert as rivers and lakes dried up and the sea retreated from its shores. In desperation, the Earth cried out to Jupiter, who brought the terrible charge to a halt by hurling a lightning bolt at Phaeton. The boy burned like a falling star as he fell into the river Eridanus, often identified with the modern Po of northern Italy. The nymphs who inhabited the area found his body and gave him a proper burial. According to Ovid2 the epitaph on Phaeton’s tomb read Here Phaethon lies, his father’s charioteer; Great was his fall, yet did he greatly dare.

2Metamorphoses 2.327-8, trans. A.D. Melville. 106 11 Phaeton

The Heliades, Phaeton’s sisters, mourned his loss and were changed by Jupiter into the poplar trees that line the valley of the Po to this day, watching over the place where Phaeton met his end. Ovid related3 their vigil: All the long night their mournful watch they keep, And all the day stand round the tomb and weep. The tears of the Heliades were turned into amber4; according to Apollonius Rhodius, the phenomenon was seen by the Argonauts on their voyage from the Danube to the Rhone5 (see Volume 1). This tale probably came about when amber was first imported to Greece from the northern reaches of the Adriatic basin; it became naturally associated with the Po of northern Italy. There may even be something of this in the stars of Eridanus themselves; Aratus related6 the sisters’ tears to the constellation in the Phaenomena (third century BC): “For alone are those poor remains of Eridanus, River of many tears, also borne beneath the feet of the Gods.” The story of the mythical ‘lost continent’ of Atlantis, recounted by Critias in Plato’s dialogue Timaeus (c. 360 BC) is framed as a tale told to the Greek king Solon by an Egyptian priest. In prefacing the story, Critias mentions the Phaeton legend and asserts the episode is a tale of the cycles of destruction throughout history: There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story that even you [Greeks] have preserved, that once upon a time, Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father’s chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals.7 The figure of Phaeton, in association with Eridanus, has a mythological tie to one version of the story explaining the figure of the constellation Cygnus. According to this version, Cycnus, son of Sthenelus, was a king of Liguria and either a very close friend or lover of Phaeton. Ovid wrote that Cycnus was distantly related to Phaeton on his mother’s side. Cycnus was distraught after the untimely demise of Phaeton, and sat beside Eridanus mourning his death. As a gesture of compassion to relieve him of his sadness, the gods transformed Cycnus into a swan, yet Cycnus would avoid the warmth of the Sun in memory of the manner of Phaeton’s death.8

3Metamorphoses 2.340-1, trans. J. Addison. 4Metamorphoses 10.262f; Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 154; Statius, Silvae 5.3.85; Nonnus, Dionysi- aca 43.400ff; Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1.11. 5Argonautica, 2.620-6. Apollonius assumed the Eridanus of myth somewhere joined the flow of both the Rhine and the Rhone, which would have allowed the Argo to sail into both the North Sea and the Ligurian Sea north of Corsica. 6Phainomena 359, trans. A.W. Mair. 7Timaeus, 22c, trans. B. Jowett. 8Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 367 sqq. Iconography 107

In Virgil’s version of the story, Cycnus remained human for the rest of his life, but continued to lament the loss of Phaeton; as an old man, his gray hair became gray feathers as he was changed to a swan.9 In yet another rendition, the late Roman commentator Servius held that Cycnus was a renowned musician and lover of Phaeton who was later transformed into a swan and placed among the stars by Apollo.10 From this, it is suggested in Hyginus’ account, Cycnus as a musician gives us the English idiom of a “swan song.”

9Virgil, Aeneid, 10.189f. 10Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii, 10.18. 108 11 Phaeton ) overlaid on a modern chart 1540 ( Astronomicum Caesareum The figure of Phaeton from the hemisphere chart in Petrus Apianus’ Fig. 11.5 Chapter 12 Polophylax

The Guardian of the Pole

Genitive: Polophylakos1 Abbreviation:Pol Location: Modern Tucana and Pavo2

Origin and History

Polophylax was created out of stars near the south celestial pole by Petrus Plancius on a large wall map of 15923; this is the same map on which his other new creation, Columba, first appeared (Herlihy 2007). Its name was formed from the Greek πολος´ , or “pole” (as in the extreme of an axis), and φ´υλαξ with various possible meanings such as “watcher,” “guard,” “sentinel,” “guardian,” “keeper,” and “pro- tector”. It follows in the model of the alternate designation of Boötes, αρκτοφ´υλαξ (“Arctophylax”), or “guardian of the bears”. As Boötes appears to follow the Bears around the north celestial pole, so Polophylax was evidently considered to circle the south celestial pole, where in Plancius’ time the southern explorers had not yet invented a constellation. For more information on guardian/watcher figures among the constellations, see the chapter on Custos Messium in Volume 1.

1

ÐÓ ´ÙРܸ Polophylax derives from the constructed ancient Greek word ÔÓ which takes the third

declension ending ¹Ó. 2“Between Crux and Piscis Austrinus” (Bakich 1995). 3Bakich (1995) attributed its formation to Plancius “around 1614”; he was likely unaware of its appearance on maps published at least 20 years earlier.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 109 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_12 110 12 Polophylax

It appeared again on another Plancius map of 1594, Orbis terrarum typus de integro multis in locis emendatus (“A map of the entire world improved in many places”), labeled “Polophilax” and situated next to an unlabeled “Southern Cross” figure whose placement suggests an ill-informed guess as to the location of Crux. That Plancius misunderstood the placement of this Cross is reflected in a similar misplacement of Triangulum Australe (Fig. 12.1). Polophylax did not immediately catch on, and its fate may have been sealed when Johannes Bayer left it out of his highly influential Uranometria (1603). A generation later, Polophylax was still remembered, albeit possibly as an historical curiosity. The constellation is mentioned briefly in “A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile Begunne Anno 1626,” a travelogue written by Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st baronet (1606–1682). The book is the only surviving, detailed account of the first official English diplomatic contact with Persia. Herbert accompanied the royal embassy of

Fig. 12.1 The constellations of the southern sky shown on Petrus Plancius’ map of 1594, Orbis terrarum typus de integro multis in locis emendatus, which includes Polophylax just above and to the left of center. Note also the Cross and Triangle placed near the south celestial pole (center), indicating that Plancius misunderstood of the locations of Crux and Triangulum Australe. Columba is shown, unlabeled, just to the left of Orion (far right), adjacent to the hind legs of Canis Major and the stern of Argo Navis Origin and History 111

Charles I to the court of the Safavid Shah ‘Abbas¯ I (1571–1629) in 1626–1629. Of the return journey to England, Herbert wrote: All this while having propitious winds, upon the 23. day the second time we cross the Æquinoctial, once more bidding farewell to the Antarctique constellations, some of which we took special notice of toward the Pole; the Crosiers,4 4 stars of the second magnitude in the form of a Cross, distant from the South Pole 17 deg. 20 min., Noah’s Dove,5 Polophylax, within 3 degrees of the Pole, and others, amongst which Magellane’s Cloud,6 a constellation of several small stars, not so lucid as those be of the fifth magnitude; yet; being a condense part of the aerial Region, they discolour the Skie, as the Galactæa doth, which we call the Milky-way, and is the only visible Circle in the Heavens, Densa stellarium turba7 Manilius calls them, a Troop of invisible Stars, and yet the splendor beaming from them is discernable; And here under the Æquinoctial the two Bears, which were deprest, reappeared in our hemisphere; for there at one time we saw both Poles, so as I think Linschoten8 errs, in saying he saw the Southern Pole Star when he was at Goa,9 which elevates the North Pole 15 degrees. Polophylax was also passed over by all the major cartographers of the sev- enteenth century, including Cellarius and Hevelius who simply left the area of Polophylax devoid of stars on their maps. It was certainly extinct by the end of the century, and 200 years later Richard Hinckley Allen made no mention of it in Star Names, suggesting that it was unknown to him. Where exactly was Polophylax located? Other than Herbert’s account, there is essentially nothing in the historical record to shed light on this mysterious figure. Bakich (1995) gave its location as “between Crux and Piscis Austrinus,” probably on the basis of its appearance on Plancius’ 1594 map, but that assertion has been shown incorrect here. It seems impossible to reconstruct exactly which stars comprised Polophylax given that its only appearance is on the maps of Plancius and his misplacement of Crux and Triangulum Australe renders its position suspect. However, Plancius did get the relative placement of Piscis Austrinus and Argo Navis roughly correct even though the south celestial pole as he drew it is offset from its actual position by about 12ı toward Mensa, not far from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Taking Plancius at his word for the position of Polophylax midway between these two constellations, with the figure’s long axis parallel to the keel of the Ship, any candidate stars once belonging to his invention should be in the vicinity of Pavo, Tucana and Hydrus. Overlaying Plancius’ 1594 map on a modern chart and discounting his positions for Crux and Triangulum Australe, a reasonably

4The constellation Crux. 5The constellation Columba. 6Probably the Small Magellanic Cloud, given the mention near Polophylax. 7“A dense crowd of stars;” Astronomica 1.755. 8Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563–1611), a Dutch traveler and historian who published navigational routes that helped western Europe establish trade with the East Indies. 9A state of India located in the western region of the Konkan. At a northern latitude of 15ı300,the south celestial pole is forever below the horizon at Goa. 112 12 Polophylax good fit can be obtained by distorting the map to match up Canopus, Fomalhaut, Achernar and Sirius. The new projection brings into alignment constellations as widely separated as Ara, Lupus, Argo Navis, Corvus and Lepus. The result suggests, for example, that Plancius may have misattributed stars in Reticulum and Hydrus to Crux. A proposed reconstruction of Polophylax is shown in Fig. 12.2.Inthis scheme, its principal stars include , ı and  Tucanae,  Pavonis, and possibly  Indi,  and ˇ (or ı) Pavonis. It remains unclear on what basis Plancius devised the figure of Polophylax, but it was possibly just fanciful and intended to fill a gap in the sky where no actual information about the stars was known. Plancius himself seems to have abandoned the new figure relatively quickly; its stars must have been absorbed into several of the twelve constellations Plancius introduced in 1598 on the basis of observations made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, explorers contracted by Plancius in 1592 to make stellar observations while on the first Dutch trading voyage to the East Indies. Some of their stars became, among other constellations, parts of both Tucana and Pavo. Polophylax may well have been merely an ephemeral placeholder, awaiting knowledge of the actual locations of stars in the southernmost skies. Given that it may never have actually existed at all, Polophylax represents the ultimate “lost constellation.” Origin and History 113 overlaid on a gro multis in locis emendatus Orbis terrarum typus de inte A proposed reconstruction of Polophylax from Petrus Plancius’ 1594 map Fig. 12.2 modern chart. Plancius’ stars have been left intact on the figure to show the correspondence with certain stars in modern Tucana and Pavo Chapter 13 Pomum Imperiale

The Imperial Orb of Emperor Leopold I

Genitive: Pomi Imperialis Abbreviation:PmI Location: On either side of the border between Aquila and Aquarius1

Origin and History

Pomum Imperiale was introduced by Gottfried Kirch in Acta Eruditorum (1688; Fig. 13.1) to honor the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I; the constellation appeared in the same issue of Acta Eruditorum in which he published Sceptrum Brandenbur- gicum (see Volume 1), which later also fell by the wayside. Kirch described2 the location and motivation for his new invention in the accompanying text: During the time of the Herald globes, and the old constellations exchanged for new figures we recall: that the least of which we do not speak is the efforts of Kirch, that after our Swords of the Saxony Electorate,3 in the year 1684, declared by the Acts of that year,4 page

1“Seven...starssituatednearAntinoüs, below the Eagle and Dolphin”(Kirch1688); “Seven faint stars to the southeast of the head of Aquila”(Bakich1995); “Near Aquila”(Kanas2007). 2“Dum Heraldicorum globorum, & asterismorum veterum in nova schemata commutatorum meminimus: minime nobis tacenda est Kirchii nostri industria, qui post Enses Electorales Saxonicos, A. 1684, testantibus Actis illius anni pag. 396, cœlo illatos, & Malo Imperiali, & Sceptro Brandenburgico sedem inter astra coelestia, ex stellis nullo adhuc dum sideri transcriptis, assignavit. Primum gloriae cessit Invictissimi Imperatoris nostri Leopoldi, dedicarum eidem anno 1684 ab Autore, in memorial obsidionis Viennensis fortissime solutæ : teneturque ab Antinoo prehensum, sub Aquila & Delphino septem stellis coruscans, quarum nomenclatura dextre collecta, ipsum Leopoldi nomen non ineleganter exprimit.” (p. 452) 3Kirch’s invention Gladii Electorales Saxonici; see Chap. 6. 4Kirch’s contribution to Acta Eruditorum for 1684.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 115 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_13 116 13 Pomum Imperiale

Fig. 13.1 Pomum Imperale as drawn by Gottfried Kirch for Acta Eruditorum (1688). The orb is held by the figure of Antinoüs, while Aquila noses in with a beak at right above Antinoüs’ head. Copperplate engraving; 16:5  8 cm Origin and History 117

Table 13.2 Stars in Pomum Imperiale according to Kirch (1688) Kirch Designation HR SAO V “L” (cross) 4Aqr 7982 144877 C6.1 “E” 3Aqr 7951 144814 C4.4 “O” 70 Aql 7873 144624 C4.9 “P” 69 Aql 7831 144495 C4.9 “U” HD194263/HD194244 =7803 125772/125769 C6.4/C6.1 “L” (orb) 71 Aql 7884 144649 C4.3 “D” 1Aqr 7897 126062 C5.2 Note that Kirch’s star “U” is either of two sixth-magnitude stars separated by 18 min of arc, or a common label for both objects

396, carried to heaven, and the Imperial staff, and the Brandenburg Scepter5 to rest among the stars of heaven, of the stars while still not for the star conveyed, it is ascribed. The first of the honors yielded to our unconquered emperor Leopold, dedicated by the author in the year 1684, in memory of the siege of Vienna, freed by the most brave : seven glittering stars situated near Antinous, below the Eagle and Dolphin, which are skillfully collected would not be improperly named for Leopold. Kirch’s shameless attempt to curry favor with his patron extended so far that he labeled the seven stars he identified as symbolizing the orb with the letters L-E-O-P- U-L-D, as seen in Fig. 13.1. The stars are identified with their modern designations in Table 13.2. However, as in the instances of the other constellations created by Kirch for the purpose of flattering German rulers of his day, none of his contemporaries adopted Pomum Imperiale and the new constellation quickly disappeared from charts. Its first major test was at the hand of Hevelius, who left it out of Prodromus Astronomiae (1690); similarly, it was ignored by other cartographers of the era such as Coronelli (1693), the second edition of Pardies (1674) published in 1693, the second edition of Seller (1680) published in 1700, de La Hire (1702), Allard (1706), and de Broen (1709). There are several approaches taken by other mapmakers to deal with its stars: • Part of Antinoüs’ bow (Hevelius 1690;Rost1723; Doppelmayr 1742;Jamieson 1822,andUrania’s Mirror, 1825) • Extra-long horns of Capricornus (Royer 1679) • Unformed stars not associated with any figure (Thomas 1730; Flamsteed 1729; Croswell 1810) • Unformed stars, but intended as part of Antinoüs via constellation boundaries (Bode 1782, 1801b, 1805; Argelander 1843)

5Sceptrum Brandenburgicum; see Volume 1. 118 13 Pomum Imperiale

• Stars not shown at all (Pardies 1674; Allard 1706;deLaHire1702;deBroen 1709) • Completely different, but similarly failed constellations (Leo Palatinus; Chap. 7) and asterisms (Norma Nilotica; Chap. 10) Pomum Imperiale seems to have been more or less completely forgotten by the beginning of the nineteenth century; writing at its close, Richard Hinckley Allen makes no mention of the Imperial Orb in his exhaustive Star Names.

Iconography

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician (Fig. 13.2) was born on 9 June 1640 in Vienna to Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (1608–1657), and Maria Anna of Spain (1606–1646). As the second son of the Emperor, Leopold did not appear bound for power and was given an ecclesiastical education. He was intellectually talented, becoming fluent in French, Spanish, Italian and Latin in addition to his native German. He seems to have inherited his father’s musical talents, composing both sacred and secular music throughout his life. Due to the circumstances of his birth he was unusually knowledgable about both theology, the arts and sciences, which influenced his later temperament as a ruler. His deep Catholic religiosity was characteristic of his House of Habsburg although it rendered him highly doctrinaire on religious questions and less tolerant as a result. Leopold’s fortunes changed forever on 9 July 1654 when his elder brother Ferdinand IV died of smallpox, making Leopold heir apparent. His planned career in the clergy left him without the military zeal of most European monarchs of the seventeenth century, making his management style both defensive and strongly conservative in religious and social matters. He was perceived as awkward and emotionally aloof in social situations, although he became close with various figures at court. Despite these qualities he became an able leader. Hungary elected him as its king in 1655, followed by Bohemia in 1656 and Croatia in the following year. Ferdinand III died on 2 April 1657, and Leopold was elected Emperor in July 1658. The new Emperor almost immediately began a half-century rivalry with France. The court of Louis XIV exerted an outsize influence on German foreign policy by virtue of its dominance among the mostly German princes of the League of the Rhine. Leopold gave his word to France that he would not side with Spain in the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), yet the Empire eventually acted against the French in the dispute over control of Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). When the Habsburg King Charles II died childless in late 1700, he left the Spanish crown to Philippe de France, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of France’s Sun King. All along Leopold rejected any notion of breaking up Charles’ extensive land holdings, but he himself died before the question was ultimately settled. Iconography 119

Fig. 13.2 A contemporary engraving of Leopold I bearing the Imperial regalia (sceptre and orb). Reprinted in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 61, page 462 (1902). The inscription below reads LEOPOLDUS I Romanorum Imperator, Semper Augustus, Germ[aniae] Hung[ariae] Bohem[iae] etc. Rex Arch[dux] Austriae Dux Burg[undiae] Com[es] Habs[burgicum] etc. (“LEOPOLD I Emperor of the Romans, always majestic, King of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia etc., Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Habsburg, etc.”)

Leopold married the 15-year-old Margarita Teresa of Austria (1651–1673), the Infanta of Spain, in Vienna on 12 December 1666. In the style typical of Habsburg inbreeding, she was both niece and first cousin to Leopold. After giving birth to four children, she died at the age of 21. Leopold was devastated by her loss, having truly loved her. Her married twice again in his lifetime, first to Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria (1653–1676), eldest daughter of Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria, in 1673 and then to Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg (1655–1720), a princess of the Palatinate, in 1676. Claudia Felicitas gave him two daughters who died young, while Eleonore Magdalene bore him ten children including the future Holy Roman Emperors Joseph I (1678–1711) and Charles VI (1685–1740). 120 13 Pomum Imperiale

Leopold’s rule followed in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) that changed the political and religious landscape of central Europe. The conclusion of the War with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) resulted in a loss of Habsburg power, ending the Medieval political model of Europe united under a single temporal ruler in the person of the Holy Roman Emperor and led spiritually by the Pope as the head of a sole Christian denomination (Fig. 13.3). The Habsburgs’ diminished power across the Continent was somewhat offset by a strengthened position in their own realms. Leopold built on this result for himself to enhance the power of his office, making him the first Habsburg monarch to capitalize on the new political order of Europe. After 1663 the Imperial Diet sat permanently in session at Vienna, enacting a series of constitutional reforms. While the Emperor remained an elected head of state, Leopold initiated political and bureaucratic reforms to consolidate power in the mold of the absolutist French monarchs. The Duke of Hanover was elevated to the status of Prince Elector in 1692, and in 1700 Leopold granted Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, the title of “King In Prussia” to build support for a pending war with France.6 While moves like these weakened the Emperor’s central authority, they gave him progressively more power and influence over his archduchies in Austria and kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

Fig. 13.3 One ducat coin issued by Leopold I in 1682. Obverse: Leopold standing, wearing armor, cape and crown, bearing the Imperial Sceptre and orb. Inscription: Leopold D[EI] G[RATIA] R[OMANORUM] I[MPERATOR] S[EMPER] A[UGUSTUS] G[ERMANIÆ] H[UNGARIÆ] B[OHEMIÆ] REX (Leopold, by the grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, forever majestic, King of Germany, of [and] of Bohemia). Reverse: Madonna and Child seated and surrounded by rays. Inscription AR[CHDVX] AV[STRIÆ] DV[X] BV[RGUNDIÆ] M[ARCHIO] MO[RAVIÆ] CO[MES] TY[ROLIS] (Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Margrave of Moravia, Count of Tyrol). Inscription is split by a crowned shield displaying Hungarian bars (left) and a double cross (right)

6See Sceptrum Brandenburgicum, Volume 1. Iconography 121

Despite his generally pacifist nature, during his reign Leopold conducted wars against Transylvania and the Ottoman Empire, and three against France. He pushed conflict back with the Ottomans, who interfered with the affairs of Transylvania, some two decades. After securing support from the Imperial Diet in 1664, Leopold sent troops to fight the Ottomans; the effort led to the Peace of Vasvár that brought a 20-year truce with Sultan Mehmed IV. However, Leopold also had trouble at home that led back to war with the Ottomans. His greatest governing challenge was found in Hungary, where his suppression of Protestantism caused civil unrest and a failed coup d’état known as the Magnate conspiracy. Leopold handled Hungary with more deference in the following decade, but the situation became unsettled again in the early 1680s. Seeing his opportunity Mehmed IV sided with the rebels and sent an army into Austria in early 1683. At first the Sultan’s army advanced essentially unopposed until reaching Vienna; both sides dug in for a long siege lasted through much of the summer. After appealing for help from his allies, including Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony (Chap. 6), Leopold’s army crushed the Ottomans and saved the city on 12 September 1683. Leopold died in Vienna on 5 May 1705. He is remembered as a figure who shepherded the Holy Roman Empire through turbulent times that continued after the Wars of Religion. His reforms continued to influence the last phase of the Empire in the century after his death.

The Orb in Royal Regalia

Gottfried Kirch chose the figure of a globus cruciger (“cross-bearing orb”) to represent the Emperor in the night sky. The orb, surmounted by a cross, symbolizes Christ’s dominion over the world and appears in the iconography of Western art when held by Christ himself as the Salvator Mundi (“Saviour of the World”). When held by an earthly king, the orb stands for the monarch’s rule over his lands and implies the temporal authority given by God. The classic design of a globus cruciger is embodied in the orb shown in Fig. 13.1: divided into three parts by bands of metal and/or jewels, the orb represents the three continents known to Medieval Europe. The orb is an ancient symbol, shown either in the hand of a ruler or an instant away from being crushed underfoot, suggesting a degree of power capable of changing the world. It was well known by the Roman era during which Emperors and the god Jupiter alike were portrayed holding globes in their hands. As Christianity displaced the Roman state and its religion during the fifth century AD, the globe gained a cross and the combined figure sent a message understandable by Christians and pagans alike. Even the papacy adopted the image of a crowned globe, placing it atop the papal tiara to reinforce the Pope’s feudal status as a liege lord over Catholic monarchs. In some European kingdoms with established religions such as the United Kingdom, the globus cruciger in the hand of the sovereign is symbolic of the monarch’s role as both temporal head of state and titular leader of the state religion. 122 13 Pomum Imperiale

The globus cruciger is almost always accompanied in art by the scepter as a pair of images meant to convey the royal status of their bearer. In this sense, Pomum Imperiale serves as a kind of companion piece to Sceptrum Brandenburgicum (see Volume 1) also invented by Gottfried Kirch. The constellations form a symbolic pair, representing both Kirch’s king (Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg, as “King in Prussia”) and his Emperor (Leopold I) (Fig. 13.4). Iconography 123 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1688 ( Acta Eruditorum The figure of Pomum Imperiale drawn by Gottfried Kirch in Fig. 13.4 Chapter 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae

The Sceptre and Hand of Justice

Genitive: Sceptri et Manus Iustitiae Abbreviation:SMI Alternate names: “Sceptrum” (Allard 1706); “Sceptrum Imperiale” (Thomas 1730) Location: The modern constellation Lacerta

Origin and History

Of the constellations described in this book Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (Fig. 14.1) represents a case in which an existing figure was disfavored, and ultimately replaced by another: Lacerta (the Lizard), which remains canonical to this day. It is, in a sense, the only victim of a successful rebranding campaign. In 1679, Augustin Royer took a set of unformed stars of the fourth magnitude and fainter in the space between Andromeda, Pegasus, and Cepheus and introduced a constellation to honor of King Louis XIV of France on his chart Cartes du Ciel Reduites en Quatre Tables . . . From these stars he formed the shapes of a crossed royal scepter and an outstretched hand at the end of a similar staff—the “Hand of Justice”—both tied together with a ribbon. Royer wrote1

1“Outre les Estoilles marquées dans les Catalogues des Astronomes nous en avons observé 17. entre les constellations de Cephée, d’Andromede & de Pegase qui n’y sont point; ces Estoilles nouvelles se trouvent tellement scituées les unes à l’égard des autres qu’il n’y a point de figure qui leur convienne mieux que celle du Sceptre Royal & de la main de Justice; aussi l’on en a fait une constellation dans ce planisphere, & comme l’Astrologie a attribué de tout temps la fortune des pays aux Astres.”

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 125 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_14 126 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae

Fig. 14.1 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (“Sceptrum Imperiale”) depicted in Corbinianus Thomas’ Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum (1730)

Apart from stars marked in the catalogs of astronomers we observed 17 between the constellations Cepheus, Andromeda and Pegasus which are not [marked]; these stars are so situated such that no figure better suits them than the Royal Sceptre and the Hand of Justice. He offered a practical justification for this choice: It is also [made into] a constellation on this planisphere, since Astrology has always attributed the fortunes of countries to the Stars. In short, his shameless effort to elevate his King’s interest to the heavens was no less than an act intended to secure the prosperity and security of France itself. However, in this Royer was considerably less successful than his contemporary, Gottfried Kirch; despite inventing two constellations intended to glorify the French monarchy, Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae and Lilium,2 he found no material reward based on the intercession of the King. In fact, it may well be that Kirch’s introduction of the very similar Sceptrum Brandenburgicum was prompted in direct reaction to Royer’s Sceptrum: if a French astronomer could invent a constellation to flatter the

2See Musca Borealis, Volume 1. Origin and History 127

Sun King, what should prevent similar recognition of a German monarch? As luck would have it, neither constellation would survive to become part of our modern canon. Royer’s constellation only managed moderate traction among cartographers of the day, but the seeds of its undoing were sewn in 1687 when Hevelius revealed his own design for its stars. As Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) put it, Hevelius was motivated to introduce an entirely different figure, Lacerta (the Lizard), for the same stars due to the unusual shape of the space he perceived them to occupy on the sky: This inconspicuous constellation was formed by Hevelius from outlying stars between Cygnus and Andromeda, this special figure having been selected because there was not space for any of a different shape. But he drew ‘a strange weasel-built creature with a curly tail,’ heading the procession of his offerings to Urania illustrated in his Firmamentum Sobiescianum of 1687. Hevelius saw the picture very differently from Royer (Fig. 14.2). To form Lacerta, he assigned parts of Royer’s figure to the chain connected to Andromeda’s wrist, Cepheus’ headgear, and an errant outlying star in Cygnus. In both cases, Andromeda’s chain terminated at o Andromedae, and both charts assign the stars Ã, Ä, ,and Andromedae to the maiden’s right hand. To the west, Royer took the small arc of stars comprising 3, 7, and 8 Andromedae as the fleur-de-lis topping the scepter, while Hevelius incorporated them as links in the chain, as he also did the star now known as 15 Lacertae. Royer showed the latter star as part of a ribbon tying the sceptre and the Hand of Justice together; other stars in the ribbon include 11, 12, and 12 Lacertae and what appears to be  Cygni. Royer made 4 Lacertae and the triangle formed by ˛, ˇ, and 9 Lacertae into the eponymous Hand, while Hevelius kept 4 Lacertae as the lizard’s head and turned the triangle into a loose wrapping from Cepheus’ turban. Even after Hevelius won the battle over the designation of these stars and Lacerta gained wide acceptance in the second half of the eighteenth century, nearby stars were still in dispute; a century after Hevelius, Johann Elert Bode tried to remake the stars around the end of Andromeda’s chain into the new constellation Honores Frederici (see Volume 1). After the publication of Firmamentum Sobiescanum, very few cartographers paid any attention to Royer’s Sceptrum. A notable exception appears in Corbinianus Thomas’ Mercurii philosophici firmamentum firmianum . . . (1730), in which Thomas gives both a place of prominence to Royer’s figure and its own unique name—Sceptrum Imperiale (Fig. 14.1). Thomas described3 the figure as instilling reverence in ‘other’ (non-French) astronomers:

3“Asterismus Ludovico XIV. Regi Galliarum ex occasione, dum eximiæ magnitudinis mirique artificii Globus eidem offerretur, dedicatus, duplicis sceptri cum manu Justitiæ formam obtinet, inde enatam, quod stellæ, quibus constat, diurna sphæræ circumvolutione Zenith Parisiense perstringant; unde cùm stellæ verticales aliàs astrologis loco, quibus imminent, ominosæ habeantur, hi gloriosa huic regno præsagia intulêre.” (p. 186) 128 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae

Fig. 14.2 Top: Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (“Sceptrum”) shown on Augustin Royer’s Cartes du Ciel (1679). Bottom: Hevelius’ invention “Lacerta sive Stellio” (“Lacerta, or Stellio”) as depicted on Figure M of Prodromus Astronomiae (1690). The lower figure has been cropped, rotated and mirrored to approximately match the Royer map Iconography 129

An asterism dedicated to King Louis XIV of France on the occasion, a creation of particular and wonderful extent offered to the world, taking the form of a double scepter with the Hand of Justice, having sprung forth from the sphere of the heavens turning daily about the Paris zenith; whence these stars situated directly overhead may have been considered threatening and menaced other astronomers, a presentiment of this glorious kingdom has been put forth. On the other hand, Thomas had good reason for lending credence to the notion of constellations invented for the purpose of charming a prospective royal patron: in the same set of charts, he introduced his own equivalent constellation, Corona Firmiana (Chap. 5). Other than in Thomas’ charts there seem to be only two appearances of Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae on widely-circulated maps in the first few decades of the eighteenth century: Vincenzo Coronelli showed it as “Scettro” on Plate 17 of Epitome cosmografica . . . (1693), while Carel Allard copied it down to the detail from Royer in Hemisphaerium meridionale et septentrionale planisphaerii coelestis (1706) with the label “Sceptrum.” By and large, however, cartographers initially ignored both Royer and Hevelius, electing to leave the stars in question unformed (e.g., Pardies 2nd ed., 1693; de La Hire 1702;deBroen1709). Over a span of about 70 years, the tide of cartographic opinion in the matter of the faint stars between Andromeda and Pegasus ebbed from Royer and flowed toward Hevelius. In 1729, John Flamsteed sided with Hevelius and showed these stars as Lacerta in the first edition of his Atlas Coelestis; the influence of his catalog and charts helped tip the balance in favor of the acceptance of all of Hevelius’ inventions as canonical. By midcentury, Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae rapidly fell out of favor; for example, Christian Doppelmayr shows the stars as “Lacerta Stellio” on Plate XVIII of Atlas Coelestis (1742). Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae was certainly extinct before 1750. At the end of the nineteenth century, Richard Hinckley Allen mentioned Royer’s constellation in his discussion of Sceptrum Brandenburgicum, calling the former figure “forgotten”: There was, in the sky, still another Sceptre held by the Hand of Justice introduced by Royer in 1679 in honor of King Louis XIV, in the place of Lacerta; but this also has been forgotten.

Iconography

Louis XIV of France

Louis Dieudonné (‘God-given’; Fig. 14.3) was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Louis XIII (1601–1643) and Anne of Austria (1601–1666). His reign, which at 72 years and 110 days lasted longer than any monarch of any major power in European history, was particularly remarkable given that he was not expected to survive birth. Anne endured four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631, so when Louis was born he was regarded as a miracle sent from God. 130 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae

Fig. 14.3 Portrait of Louis XIV (c. 1670), engraved by Nicolas Pitau (1632–1671) after a painting by Claude Lefèbvre (1632–1675)

He became king at a young age after his father’s untimely death at Paris on 14 May 1643 from what are thought to be complications from intestinal tuberculosis. With the end in sight, Louis XIII worried of the consequences of what he perceived to be Anne’s inability to manage political affairs. This presented a serious problem to the dying king, for tradition dictated that she would become the sole regent to their four-year-old son. Shortly before his death Louis XIII decreed that the regency should pass to a council of ministers rather than Anne; however, in deference to custom he appointed her the head of the council. While retaining some control, she would not rule on her own. Anne’s political scheming led to the rise of influence of the Italian Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602–1661) who effectively functioned as the successor of Louis XIII’s minister Cardinal Richelieu. On Louis XIII’s death, Anne appealed to the Parlement de Paris to annul her husband’s will in order to abolish his regency council. She was successful and became the sole Regent of France. Iconography 131

However, understanding she could not handle the reins of government alone, she entrusted Cardinal Mazarin with a great deal of power. Like the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I profiled in Chap. 13, young Louis came of age in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), among the most destructive periods of European history. Cardinal Mazarin negotiated an end to the conflict with the Peace of Westphalia, bringing with it full Dutch independence from Spain, increased autonomy among the German Princes-Elector, and a Swedish presence in the Imperial Diet. Mazarin, acting as the de facto prime minister of France, also successfully obtained certain concessions from Habsburg-ruled Austria including the Habsburg lands and claims in Alsace and recognition of France’s sovereignty over the bishoprics of Verdun, Metz and Toul. In the wake of the Peace, some minor German states beseeched the French crown for protection against Habsburg ambitions in the region, and in 1658 France helped form the League of the Rhine. The political union of German princes along the Rhine river served to weaken the influence of the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III. While Mazarin’s efforts were good for the Crown, they were less so for the judges and nobles of the Parlement de Paris who saw their traditional powers eroded at the expense of an increasingly centralized and autocratic royal government. The nobles launched a large but poorly-planned revolt that later became known as the Fronde and lasted from 1648 until 1653; at one point it saw Louis and Anne held under house arrest in the royal palace in Paris. The Frondeurs claimed they acted on behalf of the King against Mazarin and Anne in her capacity as Regent of France, but as Louis came of age they were deprived of their stated justification for the revolt. Eventually Mazarin got the upper hand and set France on its course for the remainder of Louis’s reign. While ultimately unsuccessful, the Fronde was an early precursor to the French Revolution over a century later. Louis was declared of age to rule in 1654 and began his personal rule over France in 1661 at age 23 upon the death of Mazarin. To the surprise of his court, he asserted his power to govern in the absence of a chief minister, saying to his assembled ministers and secretaries of his government4: Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my command ...Iorderyounottosignanything,notevenapassport...without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one. Despite having dispensed with dominant bureaucrats like Richelieu and Mazarin, Louis proved an able domestic leader. He stepped into the lawlessness of the period during and immediately after the Fronde and offered peace and stability to a country used to the stresses of long-running foreign wars. He initiated a series of reforms to the royal administration and central economy that chipped away at the relative independence of the feudal aristocracy, and in 1667 consolidated historically

4Quoted in Wolf (1968), p. 133. 132 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae irregular legal procedures across France into a single code, the Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile, which became popularly known as the ‘Code Louis.’ Louis married his cousin Maria Theresa (1638–1683), eldest daughter of Phillip IV of Spain (1605–1665) in 1660, one result of the previous year’s Treaty of the Pyrenees that formally ended a long-running military conflict between France and Spain tied to the Thirty Years’ War. Louis contracted to pay a dowry of 500,000 écus for Maria Theresa’s hand in marriage provided that she would renounce all claims by her or her descendants to any Spanish territory in perpetuity. The dowry was never paid, leading Charles II of Spain to conclude that France had abrogated that condition of the treaty. On his death Charles left his empire to Philip, Duke of Anjou (1683–1746), the grandson of Louis and Maria Theresa, who later ruled as King Philip V of Spain. Maria Theresa gave birth to six children but only one, Louis, le Grand Dauphin (1661–1711), survived to reach adulthood; the younger Louis was outlived by his father and never ruled France. While Louis XIV seemed genuinely affectionate toward his wife, particularly in the early years of their marriage, he was never faithful to Maria Theresa. He had at least thirteen children with various mistresses, and despite the fact that Louis believed, in his words,5 that “no issue should come of such species,” he arranged suitable marriages for most of them with members of cadet branches of the House of Bourbon. After Maria Theresa’s death on 30 July 1683, Louis took up with Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (1635– 1719) and is thought to have married her in secret at Versailles in late 1683. d’Aubigné’s status as a commoner meant their marriage was morganatic and she was therefore not openly acknowledged as Louis’s wife nor was she styled Queen. Still, the marriage was an open secret in the higher echelons of French society and lasted until the King’s death. The enduring historical reputation Louis built for himself has much to do with a personality cult he carefully grew and tended. Moving the seat of royal power out of Paris to Versailles and building its massive palace complex attracted the nobility away from the big city, enabling more control over the French aristocracy. However, the nobles’ access to the king was carefully orchestrated, with most allocated only very small apartments in the palace sufficient for costume changes and the odd illicit affair or two; most aristocrats had to pay to keep other quarters in the nearby village of Versailles where they actually slept at night. By suppressing the influence of the nobility, the absolute monarchy became further entrenched in French society. Louis’s last target was the clergy, which retained considerable power. In November 1681 he convened an assembly of Catholic leaders that eventually adopted the Declaration of the Clergy of France (1682), affirming the divine right of French kings to rule without interference by the Church up to and including the Pope himself.

5Quoted in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie and Jean-François Fitou, Saint-Simon and the court of Louis XIV, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 106. Iconography 133

Meanwhile, the King pursued a policy of intolerance toward French Protestants, whose continued existence evoked bad memories of the disgraces of his royal predecessors. In October 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes, signed by “Good” King Henry IV in 1598, that granted substantial civil and religious rights to French Calvinist Protestants known as Huguenots. The Edict was seen as a defeat for the Catholic monarchy, even though its adoption was a strategic move intended to end the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) that resulted in the deaths of as many as four million people. Louis subscribed to the prevailing European principle of cuius regio, eius religio (“whose kingdom, his religion”) that held that a king’s subjects should obediently follow the precepts of his religion. The result of Louis’s policy change has been compared to the Alhambra Decree of 1492 that resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, a boiling-over of religious tensions that was eventually reversed and resulted in an ensuing period of tolerance but had lasting economic and social repercussions. Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on 1 September 1715, mere days before his 77th birthday; it was a drawn out and painful death to which the King yielded gently. However, his sense of self-importance remained intact to the very end; several eyewitnesses later recalled his near-final words were “Je m’en vais, mais l’État demeurera toujours.” (“I depart, but the State abides.”) His remains were interred in the Basilica of Saint-Denis outside Paris, where they remained for nearly a century before being exhumed and destroyed during the Revolution. The King outlived most of his immediate legitimate family, including the Dauphin, his eldest son, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke’s eldest son. That left as heir presumptive the Duke’s youngest son, then 5 years old, who would succeed his great-grandfather as Louis XV (1710–1774). The King’s nephew, Philip II, Duke of Orléans, was in line to become regent for the child as the most closely related, surviving legitimate relative. Seeing in Orléans a political aspirant akin to his own mother, Louis followed his father’s example and established a regency council including his own illegitimate son Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine. Louis XIV’s greatest legacy may be his command of military and policy victories in western Europe and the emergence of a de facto French empire ruling over distant lands. By the end of his reign France considerably expanded its colonial holdings in Asia, Africa and the Americas including the enlargement of New France through its principal territory which discoverer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643– 1687), named “Louisiane” in honor of his monarch. Louis retains a largely favorable view among historians who credit him with advancing France’s position as a leading world power. Chief among his accom- plishments was orchestrating a French takeover of the Spanish throne in the person of Philip V whose accession in 1700 ultimately resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession and ended French ambitions of political hegemony over Europe. However, the outcome considerably defanged the Spanish monarchy and ended historical efforts on its part to interfere in domestic politics in France. Along with expanding France’s boundaries to create more defensible frontiers, Louis’s policies 134 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae

Fig. 14.4 A 10 sol coin minted at Paris and issued by Louis XIV in 1703. Obverse: Louis in profile facing right; inscription LVD[OVICUS] XIIII D[EI] G[RATIA] FR[ANCIÆ] ET NAV[ARRÆ] REX (“Louis XIV, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre”). Reverse: Crossed Sceptre and Hand of Justice surmounted by a crown and surrounded by three fleurs-de-lis; inscription DOMINE SALVVM FAC REGEM (“O Lord, save our King”) strengthened the nation and set the stage for the eventual emergence of the modern French state.

The Sceptre and Hand of Justice in French Royal Regalia

Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae refers directly to the regalia of the French royal family extending at least as far back in time as the Frankish kings of the early Middle Ages. By the eleventh century, the Crown, Scepter and Main de Justice (Hand of Justice) were items among the standard regalia of all French kings and are frequently seen in royal seals of the era (Fig. 14.4). The Hand is an otherwise ordinary scepter which has an ivory finial carved to resemble a human hand with the index and middle fingers extended as in the gesture of a religious blessing. Among the crown jewels that survived the French Revolution, the Main de Justice contains a medieval finial but is attached to a scepter that was probably made for the coronation of Napoleon I on 2 December 1804. Napoleon included the royal symbols in his arms particularly in reference to their supposed origin among the regalia of Charlemagne, the first king of something resembling a united France. The later French Emperor, crowned almost a 1000 years after the old, was ever-mindful of history and sought to be as close to it as possible. On becoming emperor, Napoleon thought it fit to visit his famous predecessor, and he arrived at the site of Charlemagne’s tomb in Aachen Cathedral on 2 October Iconography 135

1804. Marie Jeanne Pierrette Avrillon (1774–1853), a chambermaid to the Empress Joséphine, recalled6 the scene years later in her memoir: Of all the fetes and ceremonies held for the Emperor in Aix-la-Chapelle,7 there was one which was really exceptional for the grandeur of the memories it evoked. There was a superb procession in which were solemnly carried the insignia used at the crowning and anointingofCharlemagneandalso...relicssuchashisskullandthe bone of one of his arms; we saw his crown, his sword, his sceptre, his hand of justice, his imperial globe and his gold spurs: all objects that were greatly venerated by the inhabitants of Aix-la-Chapelle and which had only been exhibited so as to celebrate of the presence of the Emperor. While the scepter signified royal power and the ability to grant mercy, the Main de Justice stood for the monarch’s entrusted power to secure his kingdom through divine authority. Folklore has it that each element of the Hand was invested with particular symbolism: the thumb for the King, the index finger for reason, the middle finger for charity, and the ring and pinky fingers for the Catholic faith The extended thumb, index and ring fingers were also held as a group of three representing the Trinity. During coronations, the Main de Justice was presented to the King who held it in his left hand while bearing the Sceptre in his right hand; afterward, both were entrusted to the Royal Treasury in Saint-Denis. In Augustin Royer’s time, the Sceptre and Main de Justice were unmistakable emblems of the French royal family and their inclusion on star charts was an unsubtle suggestion both of French kings’ power on earth as well as their favored status by the ruler of the heavens. While Royer’s invention outlived Louis XIV, it became unfashionable within the lifetime of his successor and was firmly extinct before the Revolution that swept aside the Ancien Régime and Bourbon rule (Fig. 14.5).

6Related in “Mémoires de mademoiselle Avrillion, première femme de chambre de l’impératrice Joséphine,” Mercure de France (1986), p. 67. 7The French name for the German city of Aachen. 136 14 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae ) overlaid on a modern chart 1688 ( Acta Eruditorum The figure of Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae drawn by Gottfried Kirch in Fig. 14.5 Chapter 15 Sciurus Volans

The Flying Squirrel

Genitive:SciuriVolantis Abbreviation:ScV Location: Just off the Milky Way northwest of Perseus

Origin and History

William Croswell introduced the Flying Squirrel on his Mercator Map Of The Starry Heavens (1810;Fig.15.1) along with Marmor Sculptile (Chap. 9). It is shown in approximately the position already occupied by Camelopardalis, making it a (failed) attempted rebrand. Croswell defended his creation on aesthetic grounds in the Introduction to the accompanying Description and Explanation of the Mercator Map of the Starry Heavens, with Its application in the Solution of Problems: The Flying Squirrel occupies part of the space usually allotted to the limbs of the Camelopard, which is a modern constellation. As the body would fall without the map, an entire animal has been substituted. Croswell marked only two stars to indicate his new constellation: the double star †385 denotes the base of the squirrel’s tail and the variable CE Camelopardalis one of its hind legs. The squirrel’s body stretches out to the northeast while its tail spans the modern border between Camelopardalis and Cassiopeia. While the two stars Croswell drew (HD 21291 and HD 21389, at V magnitudes +4.2 and +4.5, respectively) were explicitly plotted on his map, a few other stars of the fifth and sixth magnitude clearly delineate the Squirrel’s body. To illustrate this, the illustration of the Squirrel from Croswell’s map was superimposed on a modern map of the region as shown in Fig. 15.2. Given the very different projections of the two maps, an excerpt of Croswell’s map was reprojected onto the modern map and stars in Perseus and Auriga matched to arrive at the correct scale. Grid lines on Croswell’s Squirrel have been edited out. The result shows

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 137 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_15 138 15 Sciurus Volans

Fig. 15.1 SciurusVolansshowninA Mercator Map Of The Starry Heavens by William Croswell (1810) that four additional stars fall within the outline of the Squirrel’s body: HD 22764 (abdomen), HD 24480 (back), HD 26670 (neck just below the mouth), HD 27245 (left forepaw). No other cartographer appears to have adopted Croswell’s suggestion, and the Flying Squirrel took its one and only flight through the heavens on his early nineteenth century map.

Iconography

Flying squirrels are known scientifically as Pteromyini or Petauristini, and are a tribe of 44 species in the family Sciuridae. Unlike most members of the family, flying squirrels are strictly nocturnal creatures. They range largely over Asia, with two notable exceptions: “Old World flying squirrels” of the genus Pteromys, found from Japan to Finland, and two species of “New World flying squirrels” (Glaucomys sabrinus and Glaucomys volans) found in North America. The two New World species are distinguishable on the basis of their relative sizes and the coloration of their undersides. Given that Croswell lived in the northern United States, it is likely that he intended his constellation to represent G. sabrinus, the Northern Flying Squirrel; of the two, it is the larger species and its hairs are colored dark at the base and white at the tip. 15 Sciurus Volans 139 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1810 ( Mercator map of the starry heavens The figure of Sciurus Volans from William Croswell’s Fig. 15.2 Chapter 16 Solarium

The Sundial

Genitive:Solarii Abbreviation:Sol Location: Faint stars north and west of Reticulum1

Origin and History

Solarium was a small constellation with a confusing story that appeared and disappeared from charts in the span of about a generation during the mid-nineteenth century. It has been written that Solarium was introduced by Elijah Burritt in Atlas of the Heavens, an eight-page supplement to his Geography of the Heavens, published in various editions from about 1833 through the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Burritt repeated the figure in Atlas designed to illustrate the geography of the heavens (1835). But Solarium’s first instance in print dates to a decade before Burritt’s atlas when it appeared on Plate 28 of Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822), evidently as an attempt to replace Nicolas Louis de Lacaille’s constellation Reticulum. Compar- ing the two works in Fig. 16.1, it is clear that Burritt derived his constellations and figure placements from Jamieson down to the level of details. Jamieson repeated Solarium in his Atlas Of Outline Maps Of The Heavens.2 Even Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) was confused as to who first introduced Solarium: “I can nowhere find anything as to the origin of the figure, although Miss [Hannah M.] Bouvier included it in her list,3 and Burritt drew it on his Atlas.”

1“East from Horologium, between the head of Hydrus and the tail of Dorado” (Allen 1899). 2London: G. & W.B. Whittaker (1824). 3Bouvier (1858).

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 141 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_16 142 16 Solarium

Fig. 16.1 Two of the only known published instances of the constellation Solarium. Top: Plate 28 from Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822). Bottom: Map VII of Elijah Hinsdale Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens (1833) 16 Solarium 143

Fig. 16.2 An excerpt from page 259 of Hannah Bouvier’s Familiar astronomy (1858) indicating Solarium and Reticulum as separate constellations

Bouvier herself didn’t help the matter, as she indicated Solarium and Reticulum were distinct constellations (Fig. 16.2); whereas she typically provided some brief information about the origin of each constellation, in the case of Solarium she did not. Although Jamieson nowhere gave an explanation for his Sundial, thematically it follows Lacaille’s convention honoring the apparatus of science or contemporary technological innovations. It is certainly no accident that he placed it in the sky next to Horologium, a figure introduced by Lacaille to represent a pendulum clock. It appears that, in the era before clearly-defined constellation boundaries, Jamieson simply appropriated some faint stars and formed a new figure where none existed previously. Solarium never enjoyed wide circulation and appears to have been entirely extinguished before 1850, by which time most mapmakers were showing Lacaille’s Reticulum adjacent to its stars. Upon the adoption of the modern constellation boundaries in 1928, its figure was bisected by the boundary drawn between Reticulum and Horologium (Fig. 16.4). Reticulum seems to have been a slow- moving target for nineteenth century cartographers who wished to leave their own imprint on the sky; in 1810, William Croswell attempted to replace it with his Marmor Sculptile (the Bust of Christopher Columbus; Chap. 9)onhisMercator map of the starry heavens, but no one followed his lead. At the end of the century Allen wrote that Burritt’s constellation “seems to be ignored by our astronomers, its stars being combined with those of the neighboring constellations.”

Iconography

The sundial is an ancient and decidedly low-tech means of timekeeping that relies on the apparent position of the Sun in the daytime sky as a function of time on scales from hours to months. It consists of two parts, a gnomon that casts a shadow in sunlight, and a surface on which hours are marked or ruled. The apparent motion of the Sun across the sky results in a time-variable position of the gnomon’s shadow on the time-telling surface; as the shadow creeps across the surface, it crosses numbered hour lines. In the simplest configuration with a flat time-telling surface essentially 144 16 Solarium

Fig. 16.3 An Egyptian sundial dating to the Nineteenth Dynasty (c. thirteenth century BC). The sundial is made from a limestone ostracon on which a charcoal semicircle is divided into twelve sections representing hours. A wooden or iron bolt functioning as a gnomon was affixed to the hole at top. University of Basel, Switzerland

tangent to the surface of the Earth, the accuracy of readings varies wildly throughout the year. Orienting the gnomon’s edge parallel to the Earth’s rotation axis removes the seasonal variation and results in better timekeeping. The earliest sundials in the archaeological record are found in Egypt (Fig. 16.3). Earlier peoples probably understood the idea of telling time by watching shadows, but they left no surviving objects identified as having been constructed specifically for that purpose. Babylonians and Egyptians both built obelisks as part of their monumental architecture, some of which appear to have been deliberately oriented to serve a secondary timekeeping purpose. The Biblical account of the “dial of Ahaz” likely refers to such an obelisk.4 Sundials appeared in Greece by the sixth century BC and are said to have been introduced there by Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610–c. 546 BC); Herodotus in turn ascribed Greek knowledge of sundials to the Babylonians.5 By the Hellenistic period, the Greeks used sophisticated sundials clearly informed by their study of geometry and astronomy. Vitruvius cites the work of Berossus, a Hellenistic Babylonian priest and author active in the early third century BC who built a compact, accurate sundial by cutting a hemisphere into a cubical block of stone.6 Fixing a small bead on a wire at the center of the hemisphere, the hour was read from

4Isaiah38:4–8“ThenthewordoftheLordcametoIsaiah:...‘ThisistheLord’ssigntoyouthat the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’ So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.” (New International Version) A similar account is given in 2 Kings 20:8–11. 5“For as touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians.” Histories 2.109, trans. G.C. Macaulay. 6“Berosus the Chaldean, was the inventor of the semicircle, hollowed in a square, and inclined according to the climate.” De Architectura 9.8.1, trans. J. Gwilt. 16 Solarium 145 the shadow of the bead falling on a circular arc of twelve equal-length segments cut into the stone. The basic design attributed to Berossus remains popular in the construction of modern sundials. Vitruvius also listed all the known types of sundials in Boox IX of De Architectura and named their Greek inventors. The Romans inherited the use of sundials from the Greeks, although ancient authors disagree as to the date of introduction. Pliny the Elder related7 astory by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), who contended that the first sundial was brought from Sicily and installed in Rome and fixed atop a column in the Forum at the time of First Punic War (264–241 BC); a later, more accurate sundial was erected by the consul L. Papirius Cursor at the temple of Quirinus around the time of the Samnite Wars (late fourth century–early third century BC). The third century AD writer Censorinus speculated8 that the Roman custom of dividing the day into two 12-h periods probably derived from the use of sundials to mark time. While sundials remain in use to the present they are impractical for a number of reasons, the least of which that they are useless at night. This inconvenient fact presented a problem to Medieval clerics increasingly dedicated to strictly keeping the canonical hours. Time after dusk was previously kept by means such as water clocks and graduated candles, although neither was especially accurate. The need for reliable timekeeping at night was filled by the invention of the first robust mechanical clocks, made of iron and driven by slowly-falling weights that sounded the hours by striking bells. By the seventeenth century mechanical clocks began to displace sundials as the preferred means of keeping time during daylight hours, being typically more accurate and useful both indoors and out. Late in his life—and after going totally blind—the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) designed an “escapement” mechanism that allowed for the counting of oscillations of a swinging pendulum, although the first working model of the design only appeared several years after Galileo’s death. Having shown that the period of a rigid pendulum’s swing depended solely on its length, Galileo considerably improved the timekeeping accuracy of mechanical clocks. By 1700, clocks and portable watches began to displace the use of sundials for civil timekeeping, although many municipalities maintained public sundials as master clocks from which to set the time of mechanical timepieces. At the turn of the nineteenth century, sundials were largely relegated to garden decorations where they are often found to this day (Fig. 16.4).

7Natural History 7.212–5. 8“The division of the day and the night each into 12 h is not ignored by anybody, but I think it was observed at Rome, only after the invention of the sun-dial.” De Die Natale XII, trans. W. Maude. 146 16 Solarium Atlas designed to illustrate ), drawn by Elijah Hinsdale Burritt on Map VII in right of center ) and Horologium ( left of center ) and overlaid on a modern chart 1835 ( The figures of Solarium ( Fig. 16.4 the geography of the heavens Appendix A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Petrus Apianus (Fig. A.1), also known as Peter Apian, Peter Bennewitz, and Peter Bienewitz, was one of the foremost mathematical publishers, instrument makers and cartographers of the sixteenth century. Born on 16 April 1495 in Leisnig, Saxony, he was one of four sons of Martin Bienewitz, a shoemaker of comfortable middle-class extraction. He was educated first at the Latin school in Rochlitz, and then from 1516 to 1519 at the University of Leipzig where he studied astronomy, mathematics, and cosmography. While at Leipzig, he Latinized his surname to “Apianus”, deriving from apis (“bee”) and equivalent to Biene in German. Apianus relocated to Vienna in 1519 to complete his degree at the University of Vienna, taking a B.A. 2 years later during an outbreak of plague. Fleeing the city, he landed first in Regensburg before settling in Landshut. He married Katharina Mosner, the daughter of a local councilman, in 1526 and by her had fourteen children. Among his sons was Philip Apianus, born 1531, who would later follow his father into the study of mathematics. Apianus was fascinated first and foremost by cosmography, a broad science of the Renaissance which set out to explain everything in the universe within a mathematical framework. He excelled in its study and later became one of its most famous practitioners; by modern standards, he can be thought of as one of the best applied mathematicians of his day. His interest in cartography was stimulated during one of the most momentous periods in European history: the Age of Exploration, witnessing the trailblazing voyages of the likes of da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan. His first published work was a world map, Typus orbis universalis (1520), itself based on a contemporary map drawn by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller.1 The following year, Apianus published Isagoge, a geographical commentary on the 1520 map. The work that firmly established Apianus’ academic credentials was Cos- mographicus Liber, published at Landshut in 1524. Frequently known as the

1Waldseemüller (1470–1522) is traditionally credited with the first recorded usage of the word “America” in honor of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 147 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9 148 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Fig. A.1 A portrait of Petrus Apianus in an engraving by the Dutch publisher Philip Galle (1537–1612), c. 1570

Cosmographia in later editions, it was a lavishly-illustrated treatise on astronomy, navigation, geography, cartography and weather; it contained digressions on various map projections, the shape of the Earth, and descriptions of the use of mathematical instruments. While the book would later appear in dozens of editions in four languages across Europe, it was not at first a runaway hit. However, a 1533 edition edited and expanded by Gemma Frisius (born Jemme Reinerszoon, 1508–1555), a renowned Dutch physician and cartographer who was later a tutor to Gerardus Mercator, became a bestseller. Frisius had good cause to lend his name and effort to the revision, as his workshop produced the very instruments that Apianus described and illustrated. The Cosmographia attracted the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), who praised the work at the Imperial Diet of 1530 and issued printing monopolies to Apianus’ press in 1532 and 1534. In 1535, Charles granted Apianus the right to display a coat of arms. On the basis of the Cosmographia, Apianus was appointed Professor of Mathe- matics at the University of Ingolstadt in 1527, a post he held for the remainder of his life despite later appeals from universities at Leipzig, Padua, Tübingen, and Vienna. In addition to his work at the university, Apianus operated a printshop at Ingolstadt where he gained a reputation for producing high-quality editions of various texts on cartography and geography. He printed his own works on the press as well. In 1533 he published Horoscopion Apiani Generale . . . , a description of the ‘horoscopion,’ a device used to solve various astronomical measurement problems (Fig. A.2). His A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 149

Fig. A.2 The title page from Petrus Apianus’ Horoscopion Apiani generale . . . (1533) showing the eponymous device 150 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Instrumentum sinuum sive primi (1534) was a mathematical text that included the first sine tables calculated to every whole minute of arc, which he applied to a variety of problems in astronomy, navigation and architecture. In the same year, he published the first large-scale map of Europe, no known copies of which survive. He printed a single-sheet map, Imagines syderum coelestium . . . ,in1536,which showed the 48 Ptolematic constellations (less Serpens) and introduced new figures Rosa and Phaeton. Apianus’ magnum opus, Astronomicum Caesareum (“The Emperor’s Astron- omy”), followed in 1540. Dedicated to Charles V, it includes a number of then-new scientific ideas such as a method of computing longitude via observations of solar eclipses and the first published assertion that the tails of comets always point away from the direction of the Sun. Astronomicum Caesareum also introduced a technological innovation in publishing: the volvelle, or wheel chart (Fig. A.3). First developed by Islamic astronomers in the Medieval period, volvelles are paper constructions printed with various dials and numerical indicators that function as simple analog computers. Apianus developed volvelles into functional works of high art, showing examples of their use in the book to calculate the dates of historical eclipses of the Sun and Moon. Charles was delighted by his “Astronomy,” appointing Apianus the court mathe- matician and knighting the four brothers Bienewitz. He promised Apianus the sum of 3,000 guilders and in 1544 named him an Imperial Count Palatine, bestowing on him the right to legally legitimize children and grant degrees of higher learning. The royal attention served to further Apianus’ reputation as one of the most preeminent scientists of his time. Even as he tended to neglect his teaching duties at the university, Apianus remained involved in the development of new astronomical and surveying instruments, including his own designs for quadrants and armillary spheres. He died at Ingolstadt on 21 April 1552, succeeded in his post by his son, Philip. Petrus Apianus introduced two new constellations, neither of which survived beyond the end of the seventeenth century: • Phaeton (the son of Apollo-Helios) • Rosa (the Rose) Apianus also provided the earliest known European description of some indige- nous constellations of Arabia: • Filiae Ursae Majoris (the Daughters of the Great Bear) • Pastor Canes et Oves (the Shepherd, the Dog and Sheep) • Duae Alae (the Two Wings) • Quinque Dromedarii (the Five Dromedaries) The figures Apianus drew occupy a unique place between handy asterisms, a recounting of indigenous folklore, and actual innovation. A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 151

Fig. A.3 A volvelle from Astronomicum Caesareum (1540) showing the conversion between celestial declination and horizon altitude coordinates. An outer wheel labeled “horizon” is rotated and the declination corresponding to the observer’s zenith is read from the pointer above the human figure. The Latin title reads “These may be clearly seen from the instrument”

Asterism from Cosmographicus Liber (1524)

Apianus’ first major popular work, Cosmographicus Liber, was published by the printer and priest Johann Weyssenburger at Landshut in 1524. It was an immediate success enjoying at least 45 editions in four languages by at least 18 different publishers and remained in print for over a half-century after Apianus’ death. Gemma Frisius (1508–1555) carried out a careful correction and annotation of the 1524 version; the result was published in 1529 as a second edition, entitled Cosmographia von Petrus Apianus. Two years later, a less expensive, abridged version of Apianus’ original called Cosmographiae introductio was published at Ingolstadt. But it was the 1533 edition of Frisius’ annotated version, including his short works De locorum describendorum ratione (Concerning the method of describing places) and De eorum distantijs inueniendis (On the determination of distances), that earned the book its greatest popularity and secured its place in history. 152 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

However, some of Apianus’ success was merely the result of fortuitous timing: a European reading public with an appetite for all things related to the New World ate up the book’s detailed discussion of newly-discovered lands in America. Again, he seems to have merely recycled content from previous authors; his information appears to be substantially drawn from the accounts in Cosmographiae introductio by Martin Waldseemüller, published at St. Die in 1507, and Johann Schöner’s Luculentissima quaeda[m] terrae totius descriptio (The most brilliant description of the entire Earth), printed in 1515 at Nuremburg. Apianus’ work so strongly resembles Schöner’s book that Cosmographicus Liber may simply be an abridgment of its text. Cosmographicus Liber was a treatise on astronomy and navigation, but more broadly it was aimed at an educated lay audience as a kind of “popular science” of the day. The content was largely appropriated directly from Ptolemy, but it is the book’s volvelles that represent its main selling point and principal innovation. Whereas earlier books of similar content were largely constructed around sets of tabular information, Apianus’ volvelles turned the pages of Cosmographicus Liber into functional computers, enabling skilled users to make calculations involving navigation, distances and time. Apianus introduced one new figure in Cosmographicus Liber, an alternate figure for the bright stars of Ursa Major he called “Plaustrum” (Fig. A.4). Apanius’ figure shows a team of horses pulling a wagon, consistent with the European alternate view of Ursa Major as a four-wheeled wagon or “wain.” The dualism of the Bear/Wagon is at least as old as ancient Greece.2

Fig. A.4 Plaustrum (left roundel)asshowninCosmographicus Liber (1524). In the roundel at right, its stars are shown in their conventional role in Ursa Major

2E.g., “He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her full and the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face of heaven- the Pleiads, the Hyads, huge Orion, and the A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 153

The identification of these stars as a team of draught animals pulling a cart may have to do with their circumpolar situation that has them endlessly circling the north celestial pole. F. Max Müller provided some clues in Volume 2 of his Lectures on the science of language3: Another name of the Great Bear, or originally the Seven bears, or really the seven bright stars, is Septemtriones. The two words which form the name are occasionally used sepa- rately; for instance, ‘quas nostri septem soliti vocitare triones.4’ Varro5 (L. L. vii. 73–75),6 in a passage which is not very clear, tells us that triones was the name by which, even at his time, ploughmen used to call oxen when actually employed for ploughing the earth. If we could quite depend on the fact that oxen were ever called triones, we might accept the explanation of Varro, and should have to admit that at one time the seven stars were conceived as seven oxen. But as a matter of fact, trio is never used in this sense, except by Varro, for the purpose of an etymology; nor are the seven stars ever again spoken of as seven oxen, but only as ‘the oxen and the shaft,’ boves et Temo, a much more appropriate name. Varro himself offered an explanation7 for the Latin word implying a connection to the ancient practice of keeping calendars to ensure successful planting and harvesting: The marks of this one are, that the Greeks, for example Homer, call these seven stars the Wagon and the sign that is next to it the Ploughman, while our countrymen call these seven stars the Triones ‘Plough-Oxen’ and the Temo ‘Wagon-Pole’ and near them the Axis ‘axle of the earth, north pole’ : for indeed oxen are called the Triones by the ploughmen even now, especially when they are ploughing the land ; just as those of them which easily cleave the glebae ‘clods of earth’ are called Mighty glebarii ‘clod-breakers,’ so that all that ploughed the land were from terra ‘land’ called terriones, so that from this they were called triones, withthelossoftheE....Myopinionisthatinoldtimesthefarmersfirstnoticedcertain signs in the sky which were more conspicuous than the rest, and which were observed as suitable to indicate some profitable use, such as the time for tilling the fields. The Latin word “triones” is a hapax legomenon, a word that occurs only once within a particular context, and is attested by its single instance in De lingua Latina. If Varro’s derivation is correct, the significance of the wagon becomes clear: the seven stars of Plaustrum endlessly circle about the pole like oxen around a circular threshing-floor. Furthermore, the Latin word for ‘north,’ septentri¯on¯es, appears to derive from a fusion of septem and Varro’s word tri¯on¯es, indicating the seven stars of the wagon always found toward the north. Apianus repeated the figure in his Horoscopion Apiani generale . . . (1533; Fig. A.5), in which he elaborated further on the meaning of the figure. In this work,

Bear, which men also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place, facing” (Homer, Iliad, 18.483–8, trans. S. Butler.). 3London: Longmans, Green and Co. (1885), pp. 399–400. 4“The seven that we commonly call the ploughing-oxen”. 5Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC–27 BC) was a scholar and writer during the late Roman Republic period. 6De lingua Latina, first century BC. 7De lingua Latina 7.73–4, trans. R.G. Kent. 154 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Fig. A.5 Ursa Major is marked Ursa Maior sive Plaustrum (“Ursa Major, or the Wagon”) in Horoscopion Apiani generale . . . (1533)

Plaustrum is shown relative to Ursa Minor and the Pole Star in its tail, along with a time-telling device. Here, Apianus gives a graphical representation of an old folk method of telling time at night by noting the position of the Dipper relative to Polaris. The asterism functions as the hour hand on a clock; knowing the season, one infers the local time according to its orientation in the northern sky.

Asterism from Horoscopion Apiani Generale . . . (1533)

In 1533, Apianus published a pair of identical maps in two separate works, both printed at Ingolstadt: Horoscopion Apiani generale dignoscendis horis cuiuscumque generis aptissimum and Instrument Buch. Horoscopion is divided into four sections. Following the requisite dedication to Charles V, a description of the instrument is given. The second part is a straightforward exposition of astronomy, while the third part is dedicated to the problem of determining sizes, distances and heights of objects that are out of the direct reach of the observer. In the last section, Apianus describes the use of the instrument for measuring intervals of time. The astronomy section contains a pair of maps. Each shows a polar-projection view of the northern sky from the observer’s ground-based vantage point, extending from the north pole to slightly beyond the celestial equator. While one map shows the Ptolemaic canon of northern constellations, the other includes curious figures that did not previously appear on European charts. Kunitzsch (1987) studied these A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 155 maps, to which he referred as “ordinary” and “extraordinary,” respectively, in detail, concluding that Apianus must have been exposed to the Book of Fixed Stars by the tenth-century Islamic astronomer known as al-S. uf¯ ¯ı in its original Arabic. The “extraordinary” map (Fig. A.6) carries a set of instructions8 that suggest its use: The following figure sets forth an exact knowledge of the stars.

USE OF THE PRECEDING FIGURE

When you are able to find the time and hour from the above, and now you wish to be certain that you recognize all the errors of the proposed star, put forth to you the preceding figure, and this proposed star in the document or figure, turn it downward, and thus, of your face, take, nothing else imagined which of more or the center of this figure is above the zenith again. The identification of the strange figures on the map puzzled many historians, some of whom Kunitzsch quotes. Zinner (1967) regarded them as “of an unusual form,” while Przypkowski (1961) described the figures as “une sorte de fantaisie cosmologique.” It was only in 1979, according to Kunitzsch, that their nature was correctly explained by Deborah Warner: they were of the “Bedouin rather than Ptolemaic tradition.” Their knowledge among Europeans was new, although al-S. uf¯ ¯ı described them over five centuries before Apianus’ time. Given that no known Latin or vernacular translation of al-S. uf¯ ¯ı existed in the early sixteenth century, Kunitzsch asserted that his detailed knowledge of the locations, figures and names of these constellations must have been transmitted by an intermediary functional in Arabic. He speculated that this might have been a “helper” among Apianus’ cadre of associates, but that whatever relationship existed with this unnamed assistant must have later soured or otherwise broken off. Having received a printing privilege from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1532 it seems likely that he intended to publish a full translation of the work of “Azophi,” but no such work appeared in the remaining two decades of Apianus’ life or afterward. Kunitzsch explained that the “extraordinary” map was drawn as a means of assisting readers in the operation of instruments described in the 1533 texts: “Looking closely, one can see that sixteen stars are designated by numbers on the map. ...This map, therefore, was not, like all its predecessors, designed for mere contemplation or instruction, but for immediate practical use.” While the figures along the ecliptic, which included the aforementioned numbered stars, were drawn according to Ptolemy, the figures in the incompletely-filled space between

8Exactam Stellae cognitionem sequens tibi proponit schema. USUS FIGURAE PRAECEDENTIS. Ubi iam tempus & horam ex supradictis inueneris, iamque certus esse cupis te stellam illam propositam cognoscere posse citra omnem errorem, propone tibi figura praecedentem, atque stellam istiam in instrumento sive figura propositam deorsum verte, & sic faciei tuae adhibe, non aliud imaginando qui si plus sive centrum in hac figura supra zenith rursus. 156 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Fig. A.6 The “extraordinary” map from Petrus Apianus’ Horoscopion Apiani generale . . . (1533). Sixteen principal northern hemisphere stars are shown along the ecliptic; additional constellations that Apianus believed to be part of the indigenous Arabian night sky appear at and below center. See main text for a translation of the caption the ecliptic and the pole are almost entirely different. Ursa Major is easily located, as is Boötes.9 But there are others without Western counterparts:

9Kunitzsch claimed the leashed dogs being led by the Herdsman were forerunners of Canes Venatici, introduced by Hevelius a century and a half later, but comparison with modern maps shows that this cannot be so. A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 157

Near the North Pole there appear three female figures in front of a woman sitting on something like a chair, or sofa; to their left is a shepherd with a dog and a flock of sheep; below the group of females there are four big camels with a very small baby camel in their middle; and between the shepherd’s group and Cygnus, under the right wing of the bird, there appear two stars surrounded in their lower part by a ring of feathers or something the like. Apianus provides labels for these figures in the text. The group of four women correspond to Ursa Minor; al-S. uf¯ ¯ı called these banat na’sh, which Apianus rendered as “Daughters of the Bier” (Bear). al-S. uf¯ ¯ıwrote,10: He (AbuH¯ . an¯ıfa) also mentioned that Banat¯ Na‘esh al-Kubra (The Great Daughters of the Bier or Coffin) consist of seven stars similar to the smaller (sisters11). The astronomers call them the Great Bear. However he did not know that they are part of the constellation Ursa Major. The Arabs used the same term for both Ursa Major and Minor based on the similarity of their forms, distinguishing them with descriptive terms translated as “Greater” and “Lesser.” The trio of shepherd, sheep and dogs was rendered in Latin as “Pastor Canes et Oves,” while the five camels were the “Quinque Dromedarii.” Lastly, the “two stars surrounded in their lower part by a ring of feathers” was labeled “Duae Alae” (literally “Two Wings”; Fig. A.7), although Kunitzsch suggests there is no such counterpart in al-S. uf¯ ¯ı’s original and that whatever word was translated as “Alae” may have been a misprint in Apianus’ copy of al-S. uf¯ ¯ı. These figures are described in further detail below. An interesting question, unanswered by the available evidence, is whether Apianus would have published a full map of the Arabian sky had he completed a successful translation of al-S. uf¯ ¯ı. It is also unclear why these four indigenous figures were included on the instructional 1533 map and did not turn up in any of his earlier or later works. It seems likely that Apianus did not suggest the Arabian figures for widespread adoption in Europe, considering that they included parts of some very recognizable Ptolemaic figures such as Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, and Ursa Minor. Rather, Apianus may have been simply filling some space with a curiosity while intending to keep the map otherwise uncluttered (Fig. A.8).

Constellations from Imagines Syderum Coelestium . . . (1536)

In his third major work, Apianus plotted a very dense map of the northern sky (Fig. A.9). On this map he introduced one new figure: a single rose blossom for

10The Book of Fixed Stars. Folio 13 (MS Marsh 144, Bodleian Library, Oxford) translated by Hafez (2010). 11Here al-S. uf¯ ¯ı is drawing a comparison between the shape of the Dipper and the Pleiades; Hafez (2010), p. 92. 158 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Fig. A.7 Duae Alae (the “two wings”) depicted in Horoscopion Apiani generale (1533)asthe “crown” device to the left of and below Cygnus (center) a small group of faint stars (Fig. A.10). In the text accompanying the map, Apianus wrote12: There are also seen other stars near the tail of Leo, of which one [is] called “Triches” and the other “Rosa”. Triches is a nebulous star, which is also called Berenice’s Hair, for the Greeks call Triches “hair”. It rises 9 August, sets 27 September; Rosa [rises] 18 August, sets 15 November. Brown (1932) argued that Rosa must represent the star Cor Caroli (˛ CVn) on the presumption that Apianus intended the dogs following Boötes on his chart to indicate the same stars later identified by Bayer as Canes Venatici. An examination Apianus’ map shows this clearly cannot be. Allen (1899) mentioned a figure called “Rosa,” although based on his description it is unclear whether this is the same one drawn decades earlier by Apianus: Bayer also mentioned Rosa, a Rose, or a Rose Wreath; but he figured it on his plate of Boötes as a Sheaf of Wheat, in reference to the Virgo Ceres close by; indeed, Karsten Niebuhr,13 at Cairo in 1762, heard it called Al Huzmat, the Arabic term for that object, or

12“Videntur etia aliae stellae iuxta Leonis caudam, e quibus altera Triches, altera Rosa dicitur, Triches stella nebulosa est, quae crines Berenices quoque dicitur, Trichas enim graeci crines vocant. Oritur 9 Augusti, 27 Septen. occidit, Rosa 18 August oritur, 15 Nouembris occidit.” 13Niebuhr (1733–1815) was a German cartographer and explorer best known for his work for Denmark during the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761). A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 159 ) overlaid on 1533 ( ; (2) Pastor Canes et Oves; (3) Quinque Dromedarii; Horoscopion Apiani generale . . . ) and interpreted part of Auriga (6) as a goat marking the star Capella 4 ı shown by Apianus are (1) Daughters Of The Great Bier ¯ ¯ uf . Selected constellations from the “extraordinary” Northern Hemisphere map in Petrus Apianus’ a modern chart. The Bedouinand figures (4) from Duae al-S Alae. Apianus also depicted Caput Medusae (5; Chap. Fig. A.8 160 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536)

Fig. A.9 Imagines syderum coelestium . . . , a single-sheet map published by Apianus at Ingolstadt in 1536. The contents were reproduced identically in Apianus’ later masterwork, Astronomicum Caesareum (1540). Original page dimensions approximately 42  30 cm A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 161

Fig. A.10 Rosa (slightly above center) depicted in Imagines syderum coelestium:::(1536)

for a Pile of Fruit, Grain, or Wood. The Dresden globe14 has it as an Ivy Wreath, or, just as probably, a Distaff held in the Virgin’s hand, which has been designated Fusus vel Colus, Fila et Stamina, the Distaff, Thread, and Woof; or perhaps the Caduceus of Mercury, placed here when Coma was a part of Virgo and this latter constellation the astrological house of that planet. Overlaying Apanius’ figure on a modern map (Fig. A.11) reveals what Rosa was drawn to represent. Its position coincides with a loose open cluster of stars known as the Coma Star Cluster or Melotte 111 after its number in the 1915 star cluster catalog of Philibert Jacques Melotte (1880–1961). The cluster members number about 40 stars between magnitudes +5 and +10 lying at a distance of some 86 parsecs (280 light years). Its brightest stars are barely visible to the naked eye

14It is unclear to which globe Allen refers. Given the reference to Karsten Niebhur and the Middle East, he may mean the brass celestial globe in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen attributed to Muhammad ibn Mu’ayyad al-’Urd’i (late thirteenth century). 162 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1536 ( Imagines Syderum Coelestium The figure of Rosa from Petrus Apianus’ Fig. A.11 A The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus (1524–1536) 163 under good conditions, and the fainter stars, unresolved to the eye, explain Apianus’ description of a “nebulous star.” However, it appears that Apianus confused Melotte 111 with the star ˇ Comae Berenices, at least according to how he drew “Triches” and “Rosa”. In any case, Rosa is evidently unique among the lost constellations, in that it is the only named figure representing a star cluster. Appendix B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

The practice of suggesting new constellations remained in vogue during the mid- eighteenth century, and opportunities then still existed for gentleman-scientists to introduce figures that others might adopt for their own charts. However, there were progressively fewer bright stars still up for grabs after 1700, and enterprising mapmakers had to find increasingly creative means of proposing new constellations. A set of fanciful new creations was devised and introduced by John Hill in Urania: or, A Compleat View of the Heavens (1754), but his contribution is largely forgotten by history (Fig. B.1). Hill was an English botanist, son of the Reverend Theophilus Hill, born in the Soke of Peterborough, Northamptonshire, in 1714. He obtained a medical degree from Edinburgh and was apprenticed to an apothecary; on completing his apprenticeship he established his own shop in St. Martin’s Lane, Westminster. With his knowledge of medicinal herbs, he practiced as a quack doctor and amassed a considerable fortune from the preparation and sale of various plant-based medicines. He authored a number of books beginning with an English translation of Theophrastus’s History of Stones in 1746, and he wrote many articles for scholarly journals. In the same year he became the editor of the British Magazine, a post he held until 1750. During 1751–1753 he wrote a daily column called “The Inspector” for the London Advertiser and Literary Gazette. His voluminous writing was not limited to scientific subjects; additionally, he produced several plays and novels. With the financial support of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713–1792) and Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762–1763) under George III, he devoted the last sixteen years of his life to a monumental botanical work: The Vegetable System, consisting of some 26 volumes and 1,600 copperplate engravings. For his efforts Hill was awarded the Order of Vasa from King Gustav III of Sweden in 1774. He used the title “Sir” thereafter despite the fact that it was not bestowed upon him under the British honours system.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 165 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9 166 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

Fig. B.1 John Hill (1716–1775) in a portrait from Makers of British Botany: A Collection of Biographies by Living Botanists (1913)

Hill’s writings often brought him into conflict with the established scientific and literary authorities of his day. During the 1740s Hill was a fixture at many meetings of the Royal Society, and despite authoring two publications in the Philosophical Transactions of the Society he failed to secure election as a Fellow.1 One to hold a grudge, Hill began to publish anonymous critiques of Philosophical Transactions papers in late 1749 and launched a public campaign to deride and discredit the Society and its members. Events culminated in the “Paper War” of 1752–1753 between Hill and Henry Fielding (1704–1754), the novelist and dramatist best known for his novel Tom Jones. Hill and Fielding traded barbs in a series of pamphlets with Fielding leading the charge against the so-called “armies of Grub Street,” a loose association of authors based in and around the impoverished London district of Moorfields. Described by his biographer, George Rousseau (2012), as “one of Georgian England’s most vilified men despite having contributed prolifically to its medicine, science and literature,” Hill died in London on 21 November 1775. Among Hill’s many published works he wrote about astronomy in Urania (1754;Fig.B.2), an exhaustive compendium of astronomical terms in the form of a dictionary.2 Hill intended it to be the first of six volumes:

1K.J. Fraser, “John Hill and the Royal Society in the Eighteenth Century.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 43–67 (1994). 2Urania was dedicated to the astronomer George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, FRS (c. 1695/7– 1764). He was styled Viscount Parker between 1721–1732 and served as MP for Wallingford (now in Oxfordshire) from 1722–1727. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1722, making many of his astronomical observations from the seat of his viscountcy at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 167

Fig. B.2 The title page from John Hill’s Urania: or, A Compleat View of the Heavens (1754) 168 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

The whole will be A compleat System of Natural and Philosophical Knowledge, in six volumes, quarto. And in there will be contained, a general and particular explication of the SYSTEM of the UNIVERSE ; with an history of the heavens and earth ; their inhabitants and contents ; or a review of the works of the visible creation. Despite its subject, Urania was not intended to benefit the astronomical community specifically. “Had this work been written for astronomers,” Hill noted, “a very different method had been pursued ; the form had been that of a system, not a dictionary, and entertainment had given place to the abstruser sciences, on which this is founded.” Hill used the dictionary entries of Urania to introduce 15 new constellations that he submitted “to the reception of the astronomers.” In the book’s preface he reasoned that if they accept [them], the author will have a pride, as well as pleasure, in having added something to the science. It is his intent, that this volume may stand as a specimen of a work has a great desire to render useful : and it will be his care to compleat the others in no inferior manner. Certainly to his chagrin, not one of his figures was adopted by astronomers or celestial cartographers despite his assertion that “if they are neglected, there is only a little trouble lost.” Ironically, in many cases the stars from which Hill drew in forming his constellations were later appropriated by other authors for the same purpose—all of which also became extinct. The following table summarizes the names of the figures and those of other constellations from which Hill took stars to create them. Sources in italics indicate

Name Meaning Source(s) Anguilla The Eel Equuleus, Delphinus Aquila, Serpens Aranea The Long-Legged Spider Virgo Bufo The Toad Turdus Solutarius / Noctua Dentalium The Tooth-Shell Norma Nilotica Gryphites The Gryphaea Shellfish Cereberus et Ramus Pomifer Hippocampus The Pipefish Psalterium Georgianum Hirudo The Leech Taurus Limax The Slug Sceptrum Brandenburgicum Lumbricus The Earthworm Canis Minor, Cancer, Gemini, Cancer Minor Manis The Pangolin Honores Frederici, Andromeda, Cygnus Patella The Limpet Taurus Poniatovii Pinna Marina The Pen Shell Scutum, Antinoüs Scarabaeus The Rhinoceros Beetle Scorpius Testudo The Tortoise Cetus, Pisces Uranoscopus The Stargazer Fish Telescopium Herschelii Major B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 169 an obsolete constellation discussed in Volume 1 except Norma Nilotica, which is included here in Chap. 10. Hill’s obscure work has not been since reprinted but his writings on invented constellations are reproduced here in their entirety. In cases where reconstructions of Hill’s constellations are possible, finder charts are included.

Anguilla (The Eel)

ANGUILLA, the Eel. A constellation now first offered to the astronomical world, and comprising a number of unformed stars, some of them very conspicuous, over the heads of Capricorn and Sagittary.3 It is an asterism of considerable extent, and, in proportion to the space that it occupies in the heavens, is not ill furnished with stars. The figure is that of the common eel in that convoluted state in which it is usually seen when in motion. But the contortions of its body are not many nor violent, so they make it very happily comprise the stars. The constellations, between and among which the Anguilla is placed, are the Equuleus, the Dolphin, the Eagle, and the Serpent of Ophiuchus.4 These are above and before it. And it seems running from Aquarius, and over the heads of Capricorn and Sagittary. The conspicuous stars in this constellation are thirty-seven, and several of them are very large and bright ones; in general they are so placed as to mark the figure, and make it very distinguishable in its whole course. They are disposed in the following manner; there is one at the tip of the snout, or verge of the mouth of the Eel, and, at some distance behind this, there are two at the sides of the upper part of the head, which stand as eyes; these three are all very bright and conspicuous; that at the mouth is the largest of them. At the first bend of the body there are three, all near the outlines, two are near the upper and one at the centre of the bend at the under: this is a large star, as is also the first of the others; the more remote is smaller, and, when nicely examined, is found to be a double star, or composed of two lesser ones. Beyond these are four more in a kind of cluster, one is in the out-line near the bend, the other three are at a little distance behind and above this; they fall in nearly a strait line from the upper outline; the two upper are small, the lower is a very large and bright star. At some distance behind there is one little star in the lower outline; at a distance behind this there are three in the body in an oblique line, all small; beyond these are three other also small, more distance from one another, and in more oblique line; and the middle one of these is a very large and bright one. Beyond these stands a single small star in the upper out-line; there is also, in the upper out-line, a very large one. At a distance behind these are two in the body; and at the next bend a large star in the lower, and a much larger in the upper out-line. Beyond these are three near the lower out-line; then three more, two near the lower and one near the upper; then two more both near the lower;

3The zodiacal constellation Sagittarius. 4Hill’s figure appropriated stars long considered formal members of the classical constellations he names. His text does not include an illustration of the proposed constellation. 170 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) and lastly, two at the extremity of the tail, both small. Thus is marked from near the body of the Serpent, where the hand of Ophiuchus has hold of it, to the shoulder of Aquarius, and all the way in a distinct manner.

Aranea (The Long-Legged Spider)

ARANEA. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a cluster of unformed and very conspicuous stars near the sign Virgo. The creature, under the out-lines of whose figure they are comprehended, is the common long- legged spider, which we see in fields among the grass in summer, and which the old writers on natural history have all described under the name of the field spider, and the late ones under that of the long-legged spider, or Acarus.5 It is a little constellation, but for the space it occupies is not ill provided of stars, and they are very happily disposed to answer to the principal parts of the figure; it is represented in a posture of walking, raised from the ground by its long legs, and marching from the constellation Virgo toward the lower part of that of Hydra6 The only constellation, beside these, which is near to it, is the Raven on the back of the Hydra, and at some distance are the scales of the sign Libra. It occupies a space between these, but does not fill it up, or become at all confounded with them although it takes in all the stars that are left unformed by those; these stars luckily stand in a cluster together about the middle of the space, and are all placed in some particular part of the figure of this insect. The hinder part of the spider is very near to the knee of Virgo, and to the spike or ear of corn in the left hand: its head is directed toward that part of the body of the Hydra a little below where the raven sits, but at some distance; the tail of the raven is nearly at an equal distance from the left legs of the spider, its right legs are near a part of the robe of Virgo, and are turned toward the sign of Libra; but this is at a considerable distance. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Aranea are thirteen, and they are far the greater part of such magnitudes as to make a very bright appearance. There is one placed just at the meeting of the forceps before the head, and one star at the extremity of the body, or at the rump of the creature. The rest are disposed about the legs and feet. With respect to the four legs on the right side, there is one star at the extremity or foot of each; and on the third there is also another star about the joint of the knee. With respect to the four on the left side, the first leg has two stars almost close together at the extremity or foot; the second has one at the upper joint, and one at the foot; the third has none at the foot, but one at the middle joint; and the fourth

5Acarus is a genus of mites in the family Acaridae first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Hill may have been confused, or used an otherwise obsolete name for a spider genus. 6The stars used by Hill to form Aranea are a handful of fifth- and sixth-magnitude objects between Spica (˛ Virginis) and  Hydrae. They traditionally belonged to Virgo and bear Flamsteed numbers ranging from 53 to 89. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 171 has one at the foot, and none in any other part. These are all remote enough from the nearest of those of any other constellation, and there is no confusion (Fig. B.3).

Bufo (The Toad)

BUFO. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a number of unformed stars near the sign Libra. The animal, under the out-lines of whose figure these are arranged, is the common toad, mentioned by all the writers on natural history, and celebrated among the vulgar, to a proverb, for the brightness of its eyes, one of which is represented by the most considerable star in the constellation. It is but a small asterism, but for the space which it occupies in the heavens, it contains a very fair portion of stars; these have always been considered as a conspicuous cluster, and it is wonderful that they have not before been arranged under the form of some animal, in the manner of those clusters which form the Lynx, and the others. The constellations, between and among which the Toad is placed, are Libra, the tail of the Hydra, the Centaur, and Wolf, and the Scorpion.7 Itsheadistoward the Scorpion; and its rump toward the tail of the Serpent. One of the claws of the Scorpion comes very near to the front of the Toad’s head, and the lower part of the under scale in Libra, is as near to the upper part, or crown of its head: one of the feet of Virgo is over its back, but this is at some distance; the bright star in the tail of the Hydra comes very near the hinder part, and the belly and feet are over the Wolf and the Centaur. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Bufo are fifteen, and some of them are remarkably bright and considerable; in the head there are only two, one is near the extremity or mouth, and this a small one; the other, which may be called the Toad’s Eye, is a very fine one of the second magnitude. There are two on the upper part of the neck, and two more in the fore paw. Upon the anterior part of the body there stand seven, they are of different magnitudes, but two toward the back are large, and one at the side, toward the thigh of the fore leg, is yet larger. There is also a large one in the hinder thigh, and another in the rump, or at the hinder extremity of the body. There is not any one of these that is very near any of the other constellations, but they are absolutely a detached cluster (Fig. B.4).

Dentalium (The Tooth-Shell)

DENTALIUM. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of certain unformed stars near the shoulder of Aquarius. The creature, under whose out-lines these stars are comprised, is a shell-fish, an inhabitant of the shallow

7Hill’s figure almost exactly overlaps the obsolete constellation known alternately as Turdus Solitarius and Noctua introduced by Pierre-Charles Le Monnier in 1776; see Volume 1. 172 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania m John Hill’s gged Spider) fro The figure of Aranea (the Long-Le Fig. B.3 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 173 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Bufo (the Toad) from John Hill’s Fig. B.4 174 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) seas, and is frequent in the collections of the curious.8 It has its name from the resemblance which it bears to the tusk of some animal, and is described by all who have written on natural history. It is a small constellation, but, for its extent, it contains a considerable number of stars. The constellations between which it is placed, are Aquarius, the Dolphin, Antinous, and Capricorn.9 Its open part, or mouth, is towards Antinous, and its extremity, or point, towards Aquarius. This point comes very near the shoulder of that figure, and the lower part of the bend of the shell is also near the hand, and a part of the robe. The tail, or lower part of the Dolphin, is over the open part of this constellation, but at some distance; one of the hands of Antinous is very near to the same open part, and the head of the sign Capricorn is under it at a distance, about equal to that at which the Dolphin is above it. The conspicuous stars in the Dentalium are fifteen, and they are disposed, as it were, in four clusters at some distance from one another. The first cluster consists of five, and marks the mouth, or opening. One is placed at each limit of the shell, but these are both small ones. The three others are situated between these, and are larger, two are nearly upon a level with one another, and the third is lower on the shell. The second cluster consists of three little stars, it is at some distance above the middle of the shell, two of them are near together, the third is single, and is a little above these, and something larger. The third cluster is also of three, this is somewhat beyond the middle of the shell, and these are placed nearly at an equal distance from one another; one of these is on each out-line, and the third nearly in the midst of the shell. The fourth cluster consists of four stars, or rather of two lesser clusters, of two each. The first two are small, and at some distance from one another, they stand at a small space from the extremity of the shell; the other two are almost close together, and are very near the point of the extremity: these are just over the shoulder of Aquarius ; and the third cluster is almost immediately over his hand (Fig. B.5).

Gryphites (The Gryphaea Shellfish)

GRYPHITES. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and formed out of certain conspicuous stars near the sign Hercules in the northern hemisphere. It is a small constellation, but for its extent very well set with stars. The Gryphites, from which it obtains its name, and under the out-lines of whose figure the stars very happily fall, is a species of shellfish, the remains of which are very frequent in beds of stone, and at depths in the earth, but which, in its recent state, is an inhabitant of the deep seas only, and scarce ever is washed on shore:

8Dentalium is a genus of marine scaphopod molluscs in the family Dentaliidae comprising about 50 extant and 50 extinct species. Their name is derived from the curved and conical shape of the animal’s shell, usually whitish in color, which superficially resembles a canine tooth. 9Hill’s figure takes up some faint stars later shown among Norma Nilotica (Chap. 10), a device borne in the left hand of Aquarius. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 175 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Dentalium (the Tooth-Shell) from John Hill’s Fig. B.5 176 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) it is of the oyster kind, but has a figure approaching to the Nautilus. Most of the writers on natural history have mentioned it, and it is described and figured in the history of fossils.10 Its figure and place in the heavens will be seen in the same plate with Hercules; it is situated between that constellation and those of Lyra, Vulpis et Anser, Aquila, and the Serpens Ophiuci.11 It is placed in an inverted posture with respect to Hercules, and is at a small distance over his left arm; the horns of the Lyra are at some distance over the head of the Shell, it is in a line with the Fox and Goose, and the head of it stands opposite to the wing of the Goose. The tail of the Eagle comes also toward its head, and the sweep of the lower part, or back of the shell, is over the tail of Ophiuchus’s Serpent, and in part over the head of Ophiuchus. The upper part or hollow of the shell is opposite to the lower part of the arm of Hercules, his hand is against its middle, and the lip, or turning-up of the shell, is opposite to his shoulder. The Gryphites consists principally of eleven stars, and these almost all very conspicuous; they are so well disposed also in the figure, that ‘there is not a constellation in the heavens better marked, or more easily distinguished. They are situated principally toward the head and toward the lip of the shell, in the middle there is a vacancy, there is one in the head, and another a little below it; beyond this, toward the body, there are two, one of them near the upper, and the other near the under out-line of the shell, and a little above and beyond that of the upper out-line there is a fifth smaller than any of the others, but sufficiently conspicuous. Toward the extremity there are two in the lower part near one another,and very conspicuous. Beyond these, where the shell turns up, there are three others, one near the lower, one near the upper out-line and a larger and more conspicuous than either a little beyond and between them. This tenth star is the largest in the whole constellation. The eleventh and last is a small, but very bright one, placed at the verge of the lip. The whole constellation is as bright a cluster of stars as any in the heavens (Fig. B.6).

Hippocampus (The Pipefish)

HIPPOCAMPUS. A constellation offered to the astronomical world in the plates of this work, and composed of certain conspicuous and unformed stars under the feet of the constellation Taurus. It is of some considerable extent in the heavens, and, for the space it occupies, is ornamented with no inconsiderable number of stars, and these are all happily disposed, and some of them sufficiently conspicuous.

10Gryphaea was a genus of marine bivalve mollusks, now extinct, that lived from the Triassic to the Tertiary periods. Their fossils, commonly called “Devil’s toenails,” are found widely in Britain and would have been familiar to Hill. 11Hill’s constellation was positioned in roughly the same part of the sky as the earlier creation Cerberus et Ramus Pomifer; see Volume 1. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 177 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania Shellfish) from John Hill’s Gryphaea The figure of Gryphites (the Fig. B.6 178 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

The creature from which it takes its name is one of the most singular animals in the world, it is frequently met with dried in the collections of the curious, and its long and narrow head, its curled body, and bent neck make it very remarkable. It is a fish of the Syngnathus,12 or Needle Fish kind. Most of the naturalists have named it, and it is described and figured in the history of animals, published some little time since by the author of these observations. The Hippocamp is placed between Orion, the Bull, the Whale, and the Eri- danus.13 There is a vacant space between these in the centre of which are several loose stars, and this figure comprehends them all. The head of the Hippocamp is pointed at the breast of the Whale, and comes between the head of that monster and Eridanus. Its tail points at the side of Orion, and comes near to the lion’s skin he holds up in his left hand. The fore feet of the Bull are over the hinder part of its body, and the Eridanus runs in some degree parallel under it. There might be an objection started against the making so small a fish as the Hippocamp extend over so large a space of the heavens; but there is an example very near at hand, that proportion has not been observed between the several figures. When we see the paw or fin of the Whale cover the whole breadth of the river Eridanus, we are not to except against making the little Hippocamp longer than the club of the Great Orion. The considerable stars in the constellation of the Hippocamp are twenty-one, there are many of them very conspicuous, and their exact places and situations will be seen in the figure of the constellation, which is given in the same plate with that of Taurus. They are in general terms disposed in the following manner. In the head there are four, two near to one another about the end of the snout, and two others near also to one another about the upper part of the head, these are all small, but distinctly enough to be seen. In the rising part of the neck there are two near the upper out-line of the figure both large, but the hinder one the larger and brighter; in the descending out-line of that bend there are four, three near the same out-line, and one more in the body, the lower one of the three, and the single star are both large and bright. In the lower part of the bend, near the out-line are three, one larger, and distant two smaller, and near to one another; beyond these, in the out-line also, are three in a cluster very near to one another, one of these is large, and two are smaller. A little beyond these, near the upper out-line, are two very conspicuous, and the three last are at the tail, one at the extremity of it, and two a little distant, one in the upper, and the other in the lower out-line. By these the whole figure is very well described (Fig. B.7).

12Syngnathus is a genus of pipefishes in the family Syngnathidae, commonly known as the ‘Seaweed pipefish’. 13Hippocampus incorporates some stars that, 35 years later, were drawn by Maximilian Hell as the constellation Psalterium Georgianum; see Volume 1. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 179 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Hippocampus (the Pipefish) from John Hill’s Fig. B.7 180 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

Hirudo (The Leech)

HIRUDO. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a series of conspicuous unformed stars over the head of Orion. The creature, under whose out-line these stars are arranged, is the common Leach14; the insect used in bleeding; common in shallow waters, and described by all the writers on natural history. It is a small constellation; but in proportion to the little space that it occupies in the heavens it contains a considerable number of stars. It is represented under the figure of that animal, not stretched out at length, but in its ordinary position bent, and with the head directed back again toward the tail. The stars are very happily comprehended under the lines of this figure, and there is this peculiar advantage, that as a part of them are much larger than the others, those are all disposed toward the tail, and the small ones run in a series along the part toward the head, which, when the creature extends itself, is much the smaller part of its body. The constellations between which the Hirudo is placed are Orion and the Bull, and these are so disposed that there are no others that can properly be called in to ascertain its place. The lion’s skin in the left hand of Orion is held up to the knee of the Bull,15 and his club is in such a position as to come very near the top of the horn16; by this means, between the two arms of Orion and the front of the Bull,there is left a space vacant, and in that part of this space, which is just over the head of Orion, stands the new constellation.17 Its tail, or larger extremity, is near the back part of the head of Orion, the thicker portion of its body runs parallel with the club in his right band, and the bend toward the smaller part comes near the horn of the Bull; from this the head is bent again downwards, and is pointed toward the crown of Orion’s head, but at a greater distance than the tail. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Hirudo are twenty, and eight of these, which are toward the head are of the smallest magnitude that can be called conspicuous; there is a ninth among them a little larger, but it owes its seeming size to, their particular littleness. They are disposed about the figure in the following manner: there is one small star in the top of the head: at some distance from this there is a cluster of six, of these two are in the lower out-line of the figure, and three in the upper, and one is on the body; this single star is that of the first nine that is larger than the rest. At a distance beyond these there is another cluster of two, also small ones, these are the last of the nine little stars of the constellation; after these stands a single larger star in the upper out-line, beyond this there is

14Leeches are segmented, largely hematophagous worms belonging to the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. Nearly 700 species of leech are recognized; of these, 100 are marine, 90 are terrestrial and the balance are freshwater. 15 Tauri. 16 Tauri. 17These are an assortment of fourth- to sixth-magnitude stars traditionally belonging to Taurus, and bearing Flamsteed numbers from 111 to 130. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 181 another single one of nearly the same size also in the upper out-line, then there are three following one another along the lower outline; beyond these there are five in a cluster, or rather in two clusters, three of them are against the upper, and two against the under out-line. The twentieth is a single star, and is placed in the centre of the hollow of the tail (Fig. B.8).

Limax (The Slug)

LIMAX, the naked Snail. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of certain conspicuous unformed stars near the foot of Orion, and under the Eridanus. It is a constellation of small extent, and contains only a few stars; but some of these are very considerable and bright ones. The creature, under whose out-line they are arranged, is the black naked snail,18 which is frequent in gardens and damp places, and is described by all the naturalists. The stars are disposed principally toward the head, and toward the lower part of the body, the middle is less characterised by them. The constellation Limax stands between Orion, the Hare, and the Eridanus.19 Its head comes up toward the edge of the river, at some distance from the foot of Orion, and its body falls at some distance before the head and fore feet of the Hare. The tail points at another part of the Eridanus after its first bend; but this is at a very considerable distance. In all this space, however, there are no very remarkable stars, nor indeed any where else about it. The conspicuous stars, of which the constellation Limax is composed, are nine. Their exact places may be seen in the figure given in the same plate with that of Orion. In general they are disposed as follows. There is one at the extremity of the head, one at the hinder part of it near the out-line, and these are both large and bright ones. A little distant from these, near the opposite out-line, toward the hinder part of the head, are two small stars placed near one another, after these is a vacant space in the figure, till toward the lower part of the body, where there is in the out- line a single large and conspicuous star; a little lower than this, and at the opposite out-line, stand three in a cluster together in the last, which is also a tolerably large and bright one, is at the tip of the tail (Fig. B.9).

18Slugs are gastropod molluscs which lack apparent shells, unlike their kin known as snails whose shells are large enough such that the animal may fully retract itself within. Most slugs are found in either marine environments or on land, but one genus (Acochlidium) lives in freshwater. 19Gottfried Kirch published many of the same stars described here as the obsolete constellation Sceptrum Brandenburgicum in 1688; see Volume 1. 182 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania ill’s The figure of Hirudo (the Leech) from John H Fig. B.8 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 183 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Limax (the Slug) from John Hill’s Fig. B.9 184 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

Lumbricus (The Earthworm)

LUMBRICUS. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a series of conspicuous and unformed stars between the signs Cancer and Gemini. The creature, under the out-line of whose figure these are arranged, is the common earth-worm,20 or dewworm, which we see coupled above the surface of the ground in damp mornings. It is a small constellation, and it comprehends only a few stars, but these are in so remarkable a place that it is very fit they should be ascertained within the lineaments of some figure. The creature, that is made to answer this purpose, is drawn in a crawling posture, a little convoluted, and running up from the Little Dog to Gemini.21 These are the three constellations between which it is placed, its head is very near the shoulder of one of the twins, the greater part of its body runs up between that sign and Cancer, and the lower, or bent part of the body toward the tail, runs over the back of the Little Dog, and that but at a small distance. The conspicuous stars, in the constellation Lumbricus, are nine, and they are of very different sizes, though none of them of the larger magnitudes. There is one22 at the extremity of the head, this is very near the shoulder of one of the Twins; at some distance below this is a single star23 in the middle of the neck; a little lower than this, at the thickened part of the Worm, there are three stars, two on the one,24 and one25 on the other out-line. At a distance, below these, there are two single stars26 also on the out-line; and finally, there are two others at the end of the bended part, the one27 of these is at the very top of the tail, and the other28 is a little before the tip. These stars are very well comprised within the outline of the figure, and there is yet this farther advantage, that there is no conspicuous star any where about it that is left unformed so as to create confusion (Fig. B.10).

20Earthworms are a kind of terrestrial or aquatic segmented worm in the phylum Annelida commonly found feeding on dead organic matter in soil. Most worms commonly referred to as “earthworms” are organized into the class Oligochaeta, and all are hermaphroditic. 21To create this figure Hill appropriated some unformed stars of the fourth to sixth magnitudes in northern Canis Minor, western Cancer and eastern Gemini. Some were previously identified by Petrus Plancius as part of the obsolete constellation Cancer Minor as early as 1612; see Volume 1. 22There is no plausibly bright star at the position Hill indicates. 2385 Geminorum. 243and5Cancri. 25Probably 1 Cancri. 2611 Canis Minoris and, likely, HD 63352 (V=+6.04). 271 Canis Minoris. 286 Canis Minoris. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 185 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Lumbricus (the Earthworm) from John Hill’s Fig. B.10 186 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

Manis (The Pangolin)

MANIS. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a series of very conspicuous unformed stars near the constellation Cepheus. The creature, under the out-lines of whose figure these are arranged in this new- made constellation, is one of the most singular in the world.29 It is preserved in some of the most curious museums, and has been mentioned by some of the late writers under the name of the scaly lizard, but it is not at all of the lizard kind, although it, in some degree, resemble them in figure. The antients were unacquainted with it, and but few writers, who have spoken of it, have done this with any degree of accuracy. It will be found described and figured from the real animal in the history of animals lately published by the author of this work. The creature is represented in this constellation in its usual position of squatting down upon the ground with its legs spread out, its tail a little bent, and its long tongue extended. It is in this manner that in the woods it watches for its prey; it is of the colour of withered leaves, and its scales somewhat of their shape, so that it is unobserved, and its tongue is thrust out that flies and ants may fix upon it, and it feeds on these by drawing it in again. The constellation is of considerable extent in the heavens, and comprehends a great many stars; some of these are very considerable, and were very ill counted before under the name of this, or that constellation. It is placed between Cassiopeia, Cepheus, the Swan, and the Lizard.30 There is a great extent of the heavens left vacant between these, and all the considerable stars in that space are comprehended in this constellation. Its head is at a small distance from the right arm of Cassiopeia, and its tongue is extended toward the palm-branch, which he holds in her left. The body of the creature runs between the sceptre in the hand of Cepheus and the Lizard, and the tail is continued down between the head of Cepheus and the head of the Lizard, and by the tail of Cygnus. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Manis are twenty-one in number, and some of them are of very considerable magnitudes; they follow one another in a crooked series, and are very happily comprehended within and upon the out-lines of this figure. There are two on the head, a considerable one31 at the tip of the nose,

29The pangolin, from the Malay word pengguling (“something that rolls up”), is a mammal of the order Pholidota native to tropical Africa and Asia. Hill’s name for the constellation, Manis, is also the name of a genus represented by four species living in Asia: the Indian pangolin (M. cras- sicaudata), the Chinese pangolin (M. pentadactyla), the Sunda pangolin (M. javanica)andthe Philippine pangolin (M. culionensis). A fifth species, the Asian giant pangolin (M. paleojavanica), is extinct. 30Hill made use of ˇ Lacertae, and Andromedae, and several stars of the fourth through sixth magnitudes in Andromeda with Flamsteed numbers 3 to 18 to form this constellation. 2 Cygni probably marks the tail. Some of the stars were used by the German astronomer Johan Elert Bode to create the obsolete constellation Honores Frederici in 1787; see Volume 1. 31 Andromedae. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 187 and another32 much larger at the eye; and there is a third also, a conspicuous and beautiful star, at the extremity of the tongue. At each of the fore feet there is also one star,33 and on the lower part of the back there runs a series of five.34 Below these there is one35 larger and more conspicuous at the origin of the hinder leg on the right side; and at the foot of the hinder left leg there is another very considerable one36; this stands very near the head of the Lizard. At the beginning of the tail there is a small star37 on the left side, and a little lower, on the same side, there is another38 at a considerable distance; below this there stand two more almost opposite to one another,39 and placed one on each side of that part of the tail. These are opposite to the right hand of Cepheus. At some distance below these is a single and very conspicuous star, this is on the right side of the tail toward the end, and it is very near the little star40 at the extremity of the tail of Cygnus. The remaining stars of the Manis are only four, one of them stands at some distance below, this is in the middle of the tail, and beyond this there are two near together also in the middle, and, finally, one at the extremity of the tail, not an inconsiderable one, though smaller than many of the others (Fig. B.11). This and twelve others are the constellations, added to those already formed, in this work. There appeared a deficiency of some figure in those places where they are situated, and these figures very happily fill them. If they are accepted by those who profess astronomy, I shall be glad to have added something, be it ever so little, to the science; if they are neglected, there is only a little trouble lost. They have taken up but about as many pages in the description, and the stars, of which they are composed, must have stood in the plates where they are given, whether or not they had been connected together by the faint out-line under which they are disposed.

Patella (The Limpet)

PATELLA. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and composed of a little cluster of very conspicuous unformed stars, near the right shoulder of Ophiuchus.41 The creature, under the out-lines of whose figure these are disposed,

32 Andromedae. 334 and 18 Andromedae. 347, 8, and 11 Andromedae; the other two Hill mentions are unclear. 353 Andromedae. 36˛ Lacertae. 379 Andromedae. 38ˇ Lacertae. 39One of these stars is 2 Cygni; the other is unclear. 40Hill may have meant  Cygni. 41Hill appears to have appropriated the fourth- through fifth- magnitude stars 66, 68 and 70 Ophiuchi to form this constellation. Along with 73 Ophiuchi, these stars were formed into the obsolete constellation Taurus Poniatovii by Marcin Odlanicki Poczobut in 1777 (see Volume 1). Hill’s text does not provide an illustration for Patella. 188 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ill’s narrative description in the main text ) overlaid on a modern chart. Hill’s figure was drawn, incompletely, near the edge 1754 ( Urania Lacertae to the tip as shown here are conjecture based on H ˇ The figure of Manis (the Pangolin) from John Hill’s Fig. B.11 of a map; the pangolin’s left rear foot and its tail from B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 189 is the common Limpet,42 a shell-fish, frequent about our rocks, and very familiarly known to all who have at all considered that part of the animal creation; it is placed with its opening, or broad part, opposite to the shoulder of Ophiuchus. The Patella is a small constellation, and contains only a few stars; their exact place and situation may be seen in its figure given with that of Ophiuchus. The constellations, between which it is situated, are Ophiuchus, the Serpent, and the Eagle; but it is more distant from the two latter, and its situation is sufficiently ascertained with respect to the former only. The stars of which it is composed are easily counted, for, they are only four, but they are all large and beautiful ones; three43 of these which are disposed almost in a line, mark the bottom of the shell, and one44 which stands single over them, the top.

Pinna Marina (The Pen Shell)

PINNA, or Pinna Marina. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and formed of a cluster of very conspicuous stars near the left foot of Antinous. The occasion of making new constellations is in no part of the heavens so conspicuous as with respect to this of Antinous. The stars of which it is composed, although of a very considerable consequence as to the size, and of considerable number, were formerly reckoned among those of the Eagle, or rather were counted with them under the name of the unformed stars of the Eagle; although some of them are very remote from that constellation. It was a great assistance to the astronomers to arrange these into a new constellation, and yet this has not done what was intended perfectly, for still there remain a cluster of considerable stars between Antinous and Ophiuchus’s Serpent, so situated, that they are as near one as the other, and as proper to be added to the numbers of one as of the other. It is of these that the new constellation, here proposed, is formed. It is of small extent, and it takes in but few stars, but they are large, conspicuous, and, as has been already observed, remote from all the other constellations. The creature, under the out-lines of whose figure they are represented, is a shell-fish,45 an inhabitant of the seas, somewhat approaching to the nature of the muscle kind, but very large, and having, in the place of their beard, a tuft of fine silky matter of

42Limpets are aquatic snails whose shells are relatively flat and roughly conical in shape; used generically, the term refers to any gastropod whose shell shows no obvious sign of coiling. Hill’s name for the constellation comes from the genus Patella, so named for its ‘dish-shaped’ shell. 4366, 67 and 68 Ophiuchi. 4470 Ophiuchi. 45Pen shells are bivalve molluscs belonging to the genus Pinna and whose origins date to the Carboniferous period. Hill likely refers to the type species P. nobilis, a Mediterranean variety that was important historically as the main source of sea silk, a very fine and valuable fiber made from the byssus secreted by a gland in the animal’s foot and used to secure its shell to the sea floor. 190 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) great length, of which, in some places, they make gloves and other manufactures. It is represented in the constellation with the smaller end, or head, upwards, the lip downward, and the tuft, or beard, extended. The constellations, between which it is placed, are Antinous, the Serpent, and Sagittary.46 There is a large extent of the heavens between these, but it is only in that part of it near Antinous that there are any conspicuous stars, all about the head of Sagittary is in a manner vacant. These stars, toward Antinous, are the cluster which make the new constellation; the whole figure of the shell stands between the tail of the Serpent and the two feet of Antinous, and the beard is extended almost to one of those feet ; the head of Sagittary is directly under the shell, but it is at a great distance. The conspicuous stars in the Pinna are only seven, but they are very conspicuous, and they are disposed in the following manner. One of them47 is at the extremity or head of the shell; this is not a very inconsiderable star, and yet it is smaller than any of the other six. There is another single star48 a little lower down, just, where the beard has its passage out of the shell. In the beard itself there are two, one49 at the extremity, and the other50 at a little distance from it, and the other three are at the other end of the shell near the lip of it, one51 of them is at one corner of the lip, another52 is in the out-line a little above it, and the last53 is on the verge of the lip, but not at the corner (Fig. B.12).

Scarabaeus (The Rhinoceros Beetle)

SCARABÆUS. A constellation offered to the astronomical world, and formed of a cluster of conspicuous stars, which occupy a little space in the heavens, left between the constellations Ophiuchus, Libra, and Scorpio.54

46Hill completely ignored here the constellation Scutum Sobieskii introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1684 and published in his Firmamentum Sobiescianum (1687), which was in wide circulation by the mid-18th century. He also borrowed two stars from the obsolete constellation Antinoüs (see Volume 1) now catalogued as Á Scuti and 12 Aquilae. 47ˇ Scuti. 48ThevariableRScuti(V = +5.2) is the only plausible candidate star in this area. 4912 Aquilae. 50Á Scuti. 51ı Scuti. 52 Scuti. 53˛ Scuti. 54To form Scarabaeus, Hill took a handful of fourth magnitude and fainter stars below the body of Serpens and almost directly above the head of Scorpius including , , , 16 and 18 Scorpii, stars traditionally associated with Scorpius’ northern claw in antiquity and later with Libra; see, B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 191 ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Pinna Marina (the Limpet) from John Hill’s Fig. B.12 192 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754)

The species of Beetle, under the out-lines of whose form these are arranged, is that singular and beautiful one, known by the name of the Rhinoceros Beetle,55 and preserved in all the cabinets of the curious; it is represented in a posture of moving, with his back toward the leg of Ophiuchus, and its horn turned up towards his thigh. It is a very small constellation, but in proportion to the extent that it occupies in the heavens, it contains a sufficient number of stars, and these, in general, very conspicuous: they have been used to be accounted among the unformed stars of the other constellations, but this is so uncertain, and confused a method of speaking of them, that it is certainly better to have them, like the stars of those constellations, arranged under the lines of some figure, and much more familiar and perspicuous; for instance, to call one of them the upper or the lower star in the horn of the Beetle, than by any number of the unformed ones of such a constellation, though with the addition of a letter from Bayer. The Scarabæus is situated but at a small distance from any of these constellations which are about it. The whole space left between the three is not equal to more than half one of the scales of the balance, and the little constellation is nearly in the middle of it, but nearer to the two others than to Ophiuchus. The Serpent is over the Beetle’s head, its horn runs parallel with the arm of Ophiuchus, and is pointed, as before observed, at his thigh; one of the scales of Libra is under the hinder part of its belly, and its rump is turned to the Scorpion, almost touching the extremities of two of his fore legs. The conspicuous stars in the Beetle are nine, they stand in a pretty cluster, and some of them are very conspicuous; there is one56 in the extremity of the head, just at the insertion of the horn, this is a small one, but in the horn there are two both large, and very conspicuous, one57 of these is toward the insertion, and not at a great distance from that at the root, the other58 is more than twice as far from that, as that is from the firsts this is a very bright star, and stands at the tip of the horn; at the joining of the head to the back there is also one,59 and that a bright star, and there are two in the legs,60 one at the extremity of the first, and the other at the extremity of the second leg; there is also one61 on the lower out-line of the body, at

e.g., Figure Ii in Hevelius (1690). The constellation boundaries deemed official by the International Astronomical Union in 1928 assigned them entirely to Scorpius. 55Rhinoceros beetles (Dynastinae) are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family, Scarabaeidae,also commonly known as horn beetles. Over 300 species are known within the subfamily, reaching sizes of up to 15 cm. Despite their imposing appearance, they neither sting nor bite and are thus harmless to humans. 56It is unclear to which star Hill refers. 5716 Scorpii. 5818 Scorpii. 59 Scorpii. 60There are no plausible candidate stars at the location indicated by Hill. It is possible he intended the star 50 Librae, but that star does not match his figure particularly well. 61 Scorpii. B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 193 the insertion of the thigh of the hinder leg; and one62 almost opposite to this, at the out-line of the back. The ninth, or last star63 in the Beetle, is at the extremity of its rump, and comes between the toes of the first and second leg of Scorpio (Fig. B.13).

Testudo (The Tortoise)

TESTUDO. A constellation offered to the astronomical world in the plates of this work, and composed of certain conspicuous and unformed stars over the constellation Cetus64; it is not a very large one, but for the space it occupies in the heavens, it comprehends a considerable number of stars. The figure under which it is represented is that of a tortoise,65 drawing up its legs within, or nearly within the shell, and stretching out its neck, a common posture with that slow animal, when apprehensive of danger. The constellations between which the Tortoise is placed, are the Whale, the Fishes, and the water of Aquarius; there is left a vacant space in the heavens between these, and this is very happily occupied by the figure; it seems crawling over the tail, and toward the back of the Whale. The two fishes are carried almost parallel over its back, and its tail is pointed toward the urn of Aquarius, it is in its hinder part, very near one of the fishes, but at a greater distance from Aquarius, and it is toward the head, very near the Whale. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Testudo are twenty-six. Six of these are in the head, five in the tail, and three in the fore, and two in the hind foot; and the rest are distributed over the body. Of those in the head, there is one66 at the extremity, and two67 near the upper out-line; there is a single star68 near the insertion of the neck to the shell, and there are four69 toward the anterior part, and five toward the hinder part of the shell; one of these last is almost lost by being close to a larger. In the fore paw there are three, two of these very close to one another,70 and the

62 Scorpii. 6311 Scorpii. 64Hill formed Testudo from an assortment of fourth-magnitude and fainter stars in northern Cetus and southern Pisces mostly east of the vernal equinox point. 65Tortoises are a family (Testudinidae) of exclusively land-dwelling reptiles in the order Testudines that vary in adult size from a few centimeters to 2 m. The animals are protected from predators by a bony shell fused to the vertebrae and the ribcage into which they can partially or wholly withdraw. Tortoises are generally reclusive and diurnal to crepuscular depending on the ambient temperature. 6643 Ceti. 6742and38Ceti. 6834 Ceti. 69It is unclear to which stars Hill here refers. 70Unclear. 194 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Scarabaeus (the Rhinoceros Beetle) from John Hill’s Fig. B.13 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 195 other71 at a distance, in the hinder foot one of the two, the anterior one72 is a large and bright star, and the other73 is equal to most of the others. Of the five at the tail, one74 is very near its insertion to the body, and the other four75 are very near its extremity, and near to one another; these are at a small distance from the lower fish (Fig. B.14).

Uranoscopus (The Stargazer Fish)

URANOSCOPUS, the Star-Gazer. A constellation offered to the astronomical world in these observations, and composed of certain conspicuous and unformed stars between the constellation Lynx and the sign Gemini76. The figure, place, and situation of the stars of which it is composed, have been exhibited in the same plate with the constellation Gemini. The Uranoscope is a sea-fish of peculiar figure,77 and has its name from its eyes being in such a position that it always looks upwards. Nature has destined it for living at the bottom of the seas, and its prey being always above it, this is the only direction of the eyes that could be useful. Most of the writers in natural history have named it, and it will be found figured and described at large in the history of animals, published, some time since, by the author of these observations. The constellation is of considerable extent, and, in proportion to the space it occupies in the heavens, is not ill furnished with stars. These are happily enough disposed to represent the figure, and the constellation is in this the more marked, that it takes in all the visible stars in that part of the space which it occupies; and without any forcing of the out-line, does not leave one out any where. The figure is that of a fish with a large head, the eyes looking upward, a body very thick toward the head, but thinner all the way to the tail, and that fin a broad one. It is very well marked in its place in the heavens, for it is over the head of Gemini, and under the belly of the Lynx, the rest of the constellations about it are Auriga and Cancer, there

7125 Ceti. 7230 Piscium. 73Unclear. 7420 Piscium. 7513 and 14 Piscium, and HD 221146 and HD 221147. 76To form Uranoscopus, Hill made use of three fifth-magnitude stars in northern Gemini (o,  and 70 Geminorum) and several in eastern Auriga (including 63, 65, 66, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 Aurigae). Many of the same stars became part of Maximilan Hell’s now-defunct constellation Telescopium Herschelii Major in 1789; see Volume 1. 77Uranoscopus is a genus of venomous, perciform ‘stargazer’ fishes in the family Uranoscopidae, so named for their eyes placed atop their heads. The family consists of 51 extant and one extinct species in eight genera. All living species are found in marine environments, inhabiting both shallow and deep waters. 196 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania The figure of Testudo (the Tortoise) from John Hill’s Fig. B.14 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) 197 is a small space left between these four constellations, in the middle part of which, and not very near to any of them, are the arrangement of stars, now thrown into a constellation, under the form of the Uranoscope; that sign is thence detached from all of them, and, as it were, situated at equal distance among them. The belly of the Lynx runs almost parallel with the body of this fish, its head is under the fore legs of the Lynx, and at a small distance from the right shoulder of Auriga; its tail is just over the head of Gemini, and its body over the extended arm of one of them, that which holds the dart. Cancer is at some little distance behind its tail, and below it. The conspicuous stars in the constellation Uranoscope are seventeen, and of these there are several very considerable; there is one78 at the extremity of the head, and a little behind it another79 smaller, at some little distance behind these stand two80 in the place of the eyes, both conspicuous and bright, a little beyond these are two81 placed on the lower out-line, and at some distance beyond these is a cluster of four,82 placed also near the lower out-line, at the head of the body; after this there are three, two83 of these are near the upper outline, and one84 is in the middle; beyond these is a single one85 near the middle, then two86 others also near the middle, and the last,87 or seventeenth, is in the centre of the fork of the tail; this is smaller than the rest, but it is sufficiently conspicuous (Fig. B.15).

78 4 Aurigae. 79 5 Aurigae. 80 2 and 7 Aurigae. 81 3 and 51 Aurigae. 8259, 8 and 62 Aurigae, and HD 50576(?). 8364 and 66 Aurigae. 8463 Aurigae. 8565 Aurigae(?). 86o and 70 Geminorum. 87 Geminorum. 198 B The Constellations of John Hill (1754) ) overlaid on a modern chart 1754 ( Urania ill’s The figure of Uranoscopus (the Stargazer Fish) from John H Fig. B.15 Appendix C The Modern Constellations

Nominative Genitive Abbreviation Origin Andromeda Andromedae And Ancient (Ptolemy) Antlia Antliae Ant Lacaille (1763) Apus Apodus Aps Keyser & de Houtman Aquarius Aquarii Aqr Ancient (Ptolemy) Aquila Aquilae Aql Ancient (Ptolemy) Ara Arae Ara Ancient (Ptolemy) Aries Arietis Ari Ancient (Ptolemy) Auriga Aurigae Aur Ancient (Ptolemy) Bötes Böotis Boo Ancient (Ptolemy) Caelum Caeli Cae Lacaille (1763) Camelopardalis Camelopardalis Cam Plancius (1613) Cancer Cancri Cnc Ancient (Ptolemy) Canes Venatici Canum Venaticorum CVn Hevelius (1690) Canis Major Canis Majoris CMa Ancient (Ptolemy) Canis Minor Canis Minoris CMi Ancient (Ptolemy) Capricornus Capricorni Cap Ancient (Ptolemy) Carina Carinae Car Lacaille (1763) Cassiopeia Cassiopeiae Cas Ancient (Ptolemy) Centaurus Centauri Cen Ancient (Ptolemy) Cepheus Cephei Cep Ancient (Ptolemy) Cetus Ceti Cet Ancient (Ptolemy) Chamaeleon Chamaeleontis Cha Keyser & de Houtman Circinus Circini Cir Lacaille (1763) Columba Columbae Col Plancius (1592) (continued)

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 199 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9 200 C The Modern Constellations

Nominative Genitive Abbreviation Origin Coma Berenices Comae Com Bayer (1603) Corona Australis Corona CrA Ancient (Ptolemy) Corona Borealis Corona CrB Ancient (Ptolemy) Indus Indi Ind Keyser & de Houtman Lacerta Lacertae Lac Hevelius (1690) Leo Leonis Leo Ancient (Ptolemy) Leo Minor Leo Minoris Lmi Hevelius (1690) Lepus Leporis Lep Ancient (Ptolemy) Libra Librae Lib Ancient (Ptolemy) Lupus Lupi Lup Ancient (Ptolemy) Lynx Lyncis Lyn Hevelius (1690) Lyra Lyrae Lyr Ancient (Ptolemy) Mensa Mensae Men Lacaille (1763) Microscopium Microscopii Mic Lacaille (1763) Monoceros Monocerotis Mon Plancius (1613) Musca Muscae Mus Keyser & de Houtman Norma Normae Nor Lacaille (1763) Octans Octantis Oct Lacaille (1763) Ophiuchus Ophiuchi Oph Ancient (Ptolemy) Orion Orionis Ori Ancient (Ptolemy) Pavo Pavonis Pav Keyser & de Houtman Pegasus Pegasi Peg Ancient (Ptolemy) Perseus Persei Per Ancient (Ptolemy) Phoenix Phoenicis Phe Keyser & de Houtman Pictor Pictoris Pic Lacaille (1763) Pisces Piscium Psc Ancient (Ptolemy) Piscis Austrinus Piscis Austrini PsA Ancient (Ptolemy) Puppis Puppis Pup Lacaille (1763) Pyxis Pyxidis Pyx Lacaille (1763) Reticulum Reticuli Ret Lacaille (1763) Sagitta Sagittae Sge Ancient (Ptolemy) Sagittarius Sagittarii Sgr Ancient (Ptolemy) Scorpius Scorpii Sco Ancient (Ptolemy) Sculptor Sculptoris Scl Lacaille (1763) Scutum Scuti Sct Hevelius (1690) Serpens Serpentis Ser Ancient (Ptolemy) Sextans Sextantis Sex Hevelius (1690) Taurus Tauri Tau Ancient (Ptolemy) Telescopium Telescopii Tel Lacaille (1763) Triangulum Trianguli Tri Ancient (Ptolemy) Triangulum Australe Trianguli Australis TrA Keyser & de Houtman Tucana Tucanae Tuc Keyser & de Houtman (continued) C The Modern Constellations 201

Nominative Genitive Abbreviation Origin Ursa Major Ursae Majoris UMa Ancient (Ptolemy) Ursa Minor Ursae Minoris UMi Ancient (Ptolemy) Vela Velorum Vel Lacaille (1763) Virgo Virginis Vir Ancient (Ptolemy) Vol ans Volantis Vol Keyser & de Houtman Vulpecula Vulpeculae Vul Hevelius (1690) Ursa Major Ursae Majoris UMa Ancient (Ptolemy) Ursa Minor Ursae Minoris UMi Ancient (Ptolemy) Vela Velorum Vel Lacaille (1763) Virgo Virginis Vir Ancient (Ptolemy) Vol ans Volantis Vol Keyser & de Houtman Vulpecula Vulpeculae Vul Hevelius (1690) References

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Symbols ˇ Boötis (star), 18 ˛ Aquilae (star), 22 ˇ Carinae (star), 21 ˛ Aurigae (star), 159 ˇ Centauri (star), 16 ˛ Boötis (star), 57, 58 ˇ Comae Berenices (star), 163 ˛ Cygni (star), 22 ˇ Cygni (star), 18 ˛ Lacertae (star), 187 ˇ Delphini (star), 19 ˛ Lyrae (star), 22 ˇ Draconis (star), 21 ˛ Scuti (star), 190 ˇ Lacertae (star), 127 ˛ Serpentis (star), 57, 58 ˇ Librae (star), 17, 57 ˛ Virginis (star), 170 ˇ Pegasi (star), 19 ˛ Andromedae (star), 19 ˇ Persei (star), 35, 38, 46 ˛ Aquilae (star), 21 ˇ Reticuli (star), 86 ˛ Boötis (star), 6, 18, 57 ˇ Ursae Majoris (star), 16 ˛ Canem Venaticorum (star), 158 ˇ Ursae Minoris (star), 16 ˛ Canis Majoris (star), xii, 6, 21  Scorpii (star), 190, 192 ˛ Canis Minoris (star), 21 ı Scuti (star), 190 ˛ Carinae (star), 101 ı Boötis (star), 18 as ‘MUL.NUN.KI’, 101 ı Cygni (star), 18 ˛ Centauri (star), 16 ı Delphini (star), 19 ˛ Columbae (star), 21 ı Sagittarii (star), 19, 21 ˛ Cygni (star), 18, 21 ı Velorum (star), 16, 21 ˛ Delphini (star), 19  Herculis (star), 20 ˛ Eridani (star), 101, 104  Scuti (star), 190 ˛ Lacertae (star), 127  Carinae (star), 16, 21 ˛ Leonis (star), 19  Cygni (star), 18 ˛ Librae (star), 17  Herculis (star), 19 ˛ Lyrae (star), 6, 21  Leonis (star), 19 ˛ Orionis (star), xii, 21  Sagittarii (star), 19 ˛ Pegasi (star), 19 Á Herculis (star), 20 ˛ Reticuli (star), 86 Á Scuti (star), 190 ˛ Ursae Majoris (star), 16 Á Virginis (star), 28 ˛ Ursae Minoris (star), 16, 154 Á Aquarii (star), 19 ˇ Lacertae (star), 186, 187 Á Herculis (star), 19 ˇ Librae (star), 57, 58 Á Leonis (star), 19 ˇ Scuti (star), 190 Á Scorpii (star), 95

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 207 J.C. Barentine, Uncharted Constellations, Springer Praxis Books, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9 208 Index

 Hydrae (star), 170 Puppis (star), 21  Aquarii (star), 19 Sagittarii (star), 19  Boötis (star), 18 o Andromedae (star), 127  Delphini (star), 19 o Geminorum (star), 195, 197  Doradus (star), 85 2 Andromedae (star), 186  Draconis (star), 21 2 Cygni (star), 187  Leonis (star), 19 2 Aurigae (star), 195, 197  Pegasi (star), 19 3 Aurigae (star), 195, 197  Piscium (star), 21 4 Aurigae (star), 195, 197  Sagittarii (star), 19 5 Aurigae (star), 195, 197 Ã Andromedae (star), 127 6 Aurigae (star), 195 Ã Carinae (star), 16, 21 7 Aurigae (star), 197 Ã Herculis (star), 21 8 Aurigae (star), 195, 197 Ã Piscium (star), 21 Acochlidium (slug genus), 181 Ä Andromedae (star), 127 Annelida (phylum), 180, 184 Ä Piscium (star), 21 Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), 42, 44 Ä Velorum (star), 16, 21 De lingua Latina (Varro), 153 Andromedae (star), 186, 187 Dynastinae, 192 Andromedae (star), 127 Hirudinea (leech subclass), 180 Piscium (star), 21 Metamorphoses (Ovid), 43 Sagittarii (star), 19 Oligochaeta (worm class), 184 Virginis (star), 57, 58 Pinna nobilis, 189 Leonis (star), 19 Pinna (pen shell genus), 189  Tauri (star), 180 Testudinidae, 193 ! Carinae (star), 21 Theogony (Hesiod), 42  Sagittarii (star), 19 Uranoscopidae (family), 195  Geminorum (star), 195, 197 Uranoscopus (genus), 195  Herculis (star), 20 Almagest (Ptolemy), 8  Aquarii (star), 19 Antigone (Sophocles), 43  Herculis (star), 19 Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), 44 Andromedae (star), 186 Book of Prophecies (Columbus), 89 Scorpii (star), 190, 192 Cosmographicus Liber (Apianus), 151 Andromedae (star), 127 Délimitation scientifique des constellations  Cygni (star), 187 (Delporte), 14  Boötis (star), 18 Danaë’s Lament (Simonides of Ceos), 43  Cygni (star), 127 Eranos, 44  Boötis (star), 18 Glaucomys sabrinus, 138  Sagittarii (star), 19 Glaucomys volans, 138 Virginis (star), 57, 58 History of Stones (Theophrastus), 165 Sagittarii (star), 19 Idomeneo (opera), 74 Virginis (star), 57 Imago Mundi (d’Ailly), 88 Â Carinae (star), 21 Kibisis, 44, 45 Â Piscium (star), 21 London Advertiser and Literary Gazette, 165 Â Scorpii (star), 95 Metamorphoses (Ovid), 104  Carinae (star), 21 Niña (ship), 89 †385 (star), 137 Pinta (ship), 89  Scorpii (star), 190, 193 Prodromus Astronomiae (Hevelius), ix  Draconis (star), 21 Ruta graveolens, 64 Boötis (star), 58 Santa Maria (ship), 89 Herculis (star), 20 Shield of Heracles, 42 Tauri (star), 180 Suda (encyclopedia), 102 Aquarii (star), 19 TheVegetableSystem(Hill), 165 Herculis (star), 19 Theogony (Hesiod), 42 Leonis (star), 19 Timaeus (Plato), 106 Index 209

Urania: or, A Compleat View of the Heavens 65 Aurigae (star), 197 (Hill), 166, 168 65 Geminorum (star), 195 Uranographia (Bode), ix 66 Aurigae (star), 197 Cygnus (constellation), 157 66 Geminorum (star), 195 Gorgons (Greek mythology), 41 66 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Hades (Greek mythology), 41 67 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Medusa (Greek mythology), 41, 42 68 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Pegasus (constellation), 40 69 Aquilae (star), 117 Perseus (Greek mythology), 41 7 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 Perseus (constellation), 45 70 Aquilae (star), 117 Spain 70 Geminorum (star), 195, 197 Palos de la Frontera (city), 89 70 Ophiuchi (star), 189 ‘Abbas¯ I of Persia, 111 71 Aquilae (star), 117 1 Aquarii (star), 117 8 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 1 Cancri (star), 184 85 Geminorum (star), 184 1 Canis Minoris (star), 184 9 Andromedae (star), 187 1 Lacertae (star), 127 9 Lacertae (star), 127 1 Pegasi (star), 27, 28 9 Pegasi (star), 27, 29 11 Andromedae (star), 187 11 Canis Minoris (star), 184 11 Scorpii (star), 193 A 12 Aquilae (star), 190 Aachen (Germany), 135 12 Lacertae (star), 127 Aachen Cathedral, 134 13 Piscium (star), 195 Abbasid dynasty, 96 14 Piscium (star), 195 Achernar (star), 101, 104 15 Lacertae (star), 127 Acrisius (Greek mythology), 40, 43 16 Scorpii (star), 190, 192 Adad (Akkadian mythology), 95 18 Andromedae (star), 187 Adhafera (star), 19 18 Scorpii (star), 190, 192 Adriatic Sea, 106 2 Lacertae (star), 127 Africa, 87, 88, 105 20 Piscium (star), 195 Cape of Good Hope, 88 25 Ceti (star), 195 Afrikaans (language), 19 3 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 Age of Exploration, 147 3 Aquarii (star), 117 Ahab (literary figure), 81, 82 3 Cancri (star), 184 Akkadian culture, 95 30 Piscium (star), 195 Al Jabhah (star), 19 34 Ceti (star), 193 al-S. uf¯ ¯ı, ‘Abd al-Rahman, 155, 157 38 Ceti (star), 193 as “Azophi”, 155 4 Andromedae (star), 187 al-Mutawakkil (Abbasid caliph), 96 4 Aquarii (star), 117 Albert I, Elector of Brandenburg, 64 4 Lacertae (star), 127 Albert the Bear, 64 42 Ceti (star), 193 Albireo (star), 18 43 Ceti (star), 193 Alcázar Castle, 89 5 Cancri (star), 184 Alexander III of Macedon (“the Great”), 17 50 Librae (star), 192 Alexandria (Egypt), 8, 17 51 Aurigae (star), 197 Alfonso V of Portugal, 87 59 Aurigae (star), 197 Alfraganus (astronomer), 88 59 Sagittarii (star), 21 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (poet), 94 6 Canis Minoris (star), 184 Algenib (star), 19 60 Sagittarii (star), 21 Algieba (star), 19 62 Aurigae (star), 197 Algol (star), 35, 38, 46 62 Sagittarii (star), 21 Alhambra Decree, 133 63 Geminorum (star), 195 Alnasl (star), 19 64 Aurigae (star), 197 Alpheratz (star), 19 210 Index

Alsace, 131 70 Aquilae (star), 117 Altair (star), 21, 22 71 Aquilae (star), 117 Americas, 88–91 HD194244 (star), 117 Anaximander of Miletus, 144 HD194263 (star), 117 Ancien Régime (French history), 135 Ara (constellation), 95 Andromeda (constellation), 35, 39, 40, Aragón (Spain), 89 125–127, 129 Arana, Beatriz Enríquez de, 87 ˛ (star), 19 Aranea (constellation), 170 Ã (star), 127 Arctophylax, 109 Ä (star), 127 Arcturus (star), 6, 18, 57 (star), 127, 186, 187 Argo Navis (constellation), xii, 8, 17, 18, 59, (star), 127, 186 77, 110, 111 o (star), 127 Partition by Lacaille, 17 11 Andromedae (star), 187 Argos (Greece), 43 18 Andromedae (star), 187 Ariadne (Greek mythology), 51 3 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 Ascella (star), 19 4 Andromedae (star), 187 Asia, 87–90 7 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 Aspidiske (star), 16, 21 8 Andromedae (star), 127, 187 Assyrian culture, 7 9 Andromedae (star), 187 Asterism, 15, 16 Andromeda (Greek mythology), 39, 41 Alias, 18 Anguilla (constellation), 169 Cross-border, 18, 21 Anna Sophie of Denmark, 61 Non-sectional, 18, 19 Anne of Austria, 129–131 Sectional, 18 Anser (constellation), 176 Astraea (Greek mythology), 17 Antinoüs (constellation), 67, 70, 71, 93, 117, Astraeus (Greek mythology), 17 174, 189, 190 Aswan High Dam (Egypt), 98 Antlia (constellation), xi, 82 Athena (Greek mythology), 43, 44 Aphrodite (Greek mythology), 17 Atlantic Ocean, 88–91 Apianus, Petrus (cartographer), 147, 148, 150, Atlantis, 106 152, 154, 155, 157, 160 Atlas (Greek mythology), 8 Apianus, Philip (mathematician), 147, 150 Atlas, King of Mauretania (Greek mythology), Apollo (Greek mythology), 51, 52, 104, 105 45 as “Apollon Musegetes”, 51 Augsburg (Germany), 49, 53 Aquarius (constellation), 67, 70, 71, 93–97, 99, Augustus II of Poland, 62 169–171, 174, 193 Auriga (constellation), 159, 195 Á (star), 19 ˛ (star), 159  (star), 19 2 (star), 195, 197  (star), 19 3 (star), 195, 197 (star), 19 4 (star), 195, 197 “Fluvius Aquarii”, 95 5 (star), 195, 197 1 Aquarii (star), 117 6 (star), 195 3 Aquarii (star), 117 7 (star), 197 4 Aquarii (star), 117 8 (star), 195, 197 Association with the Nile, 96 51 Aurigae (star), 197 Flood imagery, 96 59 Aurigae (star), 197 Heliacal setting, 96 62 Aurigae (star), 197 Relation to Egyptian Hapi, 96 64 Aurigae (star), 197 Zodiac symbol, 96 65 Aurigae (star), 197 Aquila (constellation), 52, 67, 70, 117, 169, 66 Aurigae (star), 197 176, 189 HD 50576 (star), 197 ˛ (star), 21, 22 Austria, 63, 120, 121, 131 12 Aquilae (star), 190 Salzburg (city), 49, 51, 53, 54 69 Aquilae (star), 117 Seckau (city), 53, 54 Index 211

Tyrol (region), 49 Book of Job, 7 Vienna (city), 63, 117–119, 121 Bourbon, Louis-Auguste de (Duke of Maine), Austrian Netherlands, 73 133 Avior (star), 16, 21 Brahe, Tycho (astronomer), 17 Avrillon, Marie Jeanne Pierrette, 135 Brandenburg (Germany) Azores, 88 Margraviate of, 62, 64 Brazil, xi British Magazine, 165 B Brussels (Belgium), 13, 72 Babylonian culture Bufo (constellation), 171 Neo-Babylonian, 7 Bute, John Stuart (3rd Earl), 165 Old Babylonian, 7 Byzantine Empire, 87 Baden-Württemberg (Germany), 69 Byzantium Balkan peninsula, 64 Constantinople (city), 87 Barbarossa, Frederick, 64 Baroque style, 62, 74 Battery of Volta (constellation), xi, 23, 27–29, C 33 Córdoba (Spain), 89 Battle of Vienna (1683), 63, 121 Caduceus, 161 Bavaria (Germany), 73, 74 Cairo Nilometer, 96, 97 Belgium Camelopardalis (constellation), 49, 137 Brussels (city), 13, 72 †385 (star), 137 Drogenbos (city), 72 CE (star), 137 Royal Observatory, 13 HD 21291 (star), 137 Uccle (city), 13 HD 21389 (star), 137 Berenice II of Egypt, 17 HD 22764 (star), 138 Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands), 72 HD 24480 (star), 138 Berndt, Johann Christoph (engraver), 49 HD 26670 (star), 138 Bernhard of Anhalt and Ballenstedt, 64 HD 27245 (star), 138 Berossus (astronomer), 144 Camnago (Italy), 31 Bertini, Giuseppe (painter), 32 Canada Besta Palace (Italy), 103 Newfoundland (region), 87 Betelgeuse (star), xii, 21 Canary Islands (Spain), 88 Bianchini, Francesco, 8 Cancer (constellation), 184, 195, 197 Bible 1 Cancri (star), 184 Old Testament, 16 3 Cancri (star), 184 Bienewitz, Martin (shoemaker), 147 5 Cancri (star), 184 Big Dipper (asterism), 6, 16, 154 Cancer Minor (constellation), xiii as “Plaustrum”, 152 Canes Venatici (constellation), xii, xiii, 156, Boötes (constellation), 57, 60, 109, 156, 158 158 ˛ (star), 158 ˛ (star), 6, 18, 57, 58 Canis Major (constellation), xii, 110 ˇ (star), 18 ˛ (star), xii, 6, 21 ı (star), 18 Canis Minor (constellation), xii, xiii, 184  (star), 18 ˛ (star), 21  (star), 18 1 Canis Minoris (star), 184  (star), 18 11 Canis Minoris (star), 184 (star), 58 6 Canis Minoris (star), 184 as “Arctophylax”, 109 HD 63352 (star), 184 Bohemia, 118, 120 Canopus (star), 101 Bologna (Italy), 31, 68 Cape of Good Hope, 88 Bolzano (Italy), 53 Capella (star), 159 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 32, 134, 135 Capricornus (constellation), 93, 96, 99, 117, Coronation, 134 169, 174 212 Index

Caput Medusae (constellation), xii, 19, 21, 35, Circlet (asterism), 21 38–40, 45–48, 103, 159 Classicism, 74 association with Algol, 46 Claudia Felicitas of Austria, 119 Caribbean Sea, 89 Clock, 145 Carina (constellation), 17 Clymene (Greek mythology), 104 ˛ (star), 101 Code Louis, 132 ˇ (star), 21 Colombo, Domenico, 87  (star), 16, 21 Columba (constellation), 109, 111 Ã (star), 16, 21 ˛ (star), 21 ! (star), 21 Columbus, Christopher (explorer), 85, 87–91, Â (star), 21 147  (star), 21 Appearance, 87 Cassiopeia (constellation), 35, 39, 40, 157, 186 as “Admiral of the Ocean Sea”, 89 Casteels, L. (astronomer), 13 Early life, 87 Castile (Spain), 87–89 Family, 87, 89 Catholic Monarchs, 88, 89 First voyage (1492), 89 CE Camelopardalis (star), 137 Marriage, 87 Celestial poles, 11 Voyages to the Americas, 89 Celestial sphere Columbus, Diego, 87 Declination, 11 Columbus, Ferdinand, 87 Hour circles, 13 Coma Berenices (constellation), xii, xiii, 17, Poles, 11 161 Right ascension, 11 ˇ (star), 163 Centaurus (constellation), 17, 59, 171 as “Berenices Crinis”, 17 ˛ (star), 16 as “Triches”, 158 ˇ (star), 16 Coma Star Cluster, 161, 163 Cepheus (constellation), 39, 40, 125–127, 157, Comets, 150 186, 187 Common rue, 64 Cepheus (Greek mythology), 39 Como (Italy), 30, 31 Cerberus (Greek mythology), 19 Congregation of the Mission, 69 Cerberus et Ramus Pomifer (constellation), Conon of Samos (astronomer), 17 xiii, 19, 176 Constantinople (Byzantium), 87 Ceres (Greek mythology), 17 Constellation Names, x Cetus (constellation), 40, 96, 178, 193 Abbreviations, xiii 25 Ceti (star), 195 Genitives, xi 34 Ceti (star), 193 Constellations 38 Ceti (star), 193 Abbreviations, 13 42 Ceti (star), 193 Boundaries, 11–14 43 Ceti (star), 193 Cor Caroli (star), 158 Chamaeleon (constellation), 18, 59 Corona Australis (constellation), xii, 52 Chambers, George F., 10 Corona Borealis (constellation), xii, xiii, Charlemagne, 134, 135 49–51, 53 Charles II August (Duke of Zweibrücken), 73 Corona Firmiana (constellation), 24, 50, 52, Charles II of Spain, 118, 132 53, 55 Charles III Philip of Bavaria, 72, 73 Corsica, 106 Charles IV (Holy Roman Emperor), 63, 74 Corvus (constellation), 170 Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor), 148, 150, Count Palatine, 72 154, 155 Counter-Reformation, 54 Charles V of Lorraine, 63 Croatia, 118 Charles VI (Holy Roman Emperor), 119 Crossed Swords of Saxony, 62–64 China, 88 Croswell, William, 85 Chip log, 78 Crown jewels of France, 134 Chysaor (Greek mythology), 44 Crux (constellation), 109–111 Circle of the Rhine, 75 as the Southern Cross, 16, 21 Index 213

Cujam (star), 19, 20 Dresden (Germany), 61–63 Cycnus (Greek mythology), 106, 107 Allied firebombing (1945), 62 Cygnus (constellation), 18, 127, 157, 158, 186, Fire of 1685, 62 187 Drie Susters (asterism), 19 ˛ (star), 18, 21, 22 Drogenbos (Belgium), 72 ˇ (star), 18 Duae Alae (Bedouin constellation), 150, 157, ı (star), 18 159  (star), 18 Dubhe (star), 16  (star), 187 Duchy of Bavaria, 69  (star), 127 Duchy of Jülich, 74 2 (star), 186, 187 Duchy of Milan, 30 Duke of Bavaria, 72, 73 Duke of Hanover D as Prince Elector, 120 d’Ailly, Pierre (astronomer), 88 Duke of Saxony, 61, 64 d’Aubigné, Françoise, Marquise de Maintenon, Dutchman’s log, 80 132 Dürer, Albrecht, 35 Danaë (Greek mythology), 39, 40, 43, 44 E Danube (river), 68 Earth (planet), 11 Daughters of the Bear (Bedouin constellation), Circumference, 88 157, 159 Precession of rotation axis, 11 David (Biblical figure), 46 Earthworm, 184 de Gama, Vasco (explorer), 147 East Indies, 112 de Houtman, Frederick (explorer), 112 East Prussia, 54 Dead reckoning, 81 Eclipsing binary, 46 Declaration of the clergy of France (1682), Edict of Expulsion of Protestants (1731), 54 132 Edict of Nantes (1598), 133 Declination, 11 Edinburgh (Scotland), 165 Delphi (Greece), 43 Egypt, 97 Delphinus (constellation), 27, 29, 93, 96, 169, Alexandria (city), 17 174 Egyptian X (asterism), 21 ˛ (star), 19 Elbe (river), 62 ˇ (star), 19 Elector of Bavaria, 73 ı (star), 19 Elector of Saxony, 61  (star), 19 Elector Palatine, 69, 73, 75 Job’s Coffin (asterism), 19 Electoral Palatinate, 69 Delporte, Eugène Joseph (astronomer), 13 Electorate of Saxony, 61, 63, 64 Demeter (Greek mythology), 17 Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, 119 Deneb (star), 18, 21, 22 Elijah (Biblical figure), 59 Dentalium (constellation), 174 Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach, 67, 69, 70, 72, Dial of Ahaz, 144 73 Diamond Cross (asterism), 21 Elmina (Ghana), 87 Dias, Bartolomeu (explorer), 88 Emigrationspatent (1731), 54 Dictys (Greek mythology), 44 England, 87 Dike (Greek mythology), 17 London (city) Dionysius (Syrian Orthodox Patriarch), 96 Moorfields (district), 166 Dolphin (constellation), 117 Westminster (borough), 165 Dorado (constellation), 85, 141 Northamptonshire (county), 165  (star), 85 Oxfordshire (county), 166 Draco (constellation), 157 Shirburn Castle, 166 ˇ (star), 21 Peterborough (soke), 165  (star), 21 Wallingford (city), 166  (star), 21 Enoch (Biblical figure), 59 214 Index

Enyo (Greek mythology), 42 New World, 138 Eos (Greek mythology), 17 Old World, 138 Epoch (time), 11 Fontanarossa, Susanna, 87 Equinox (time), 11 Fraccus, Ambrosius Novidius (poet), 46 1875.0, 13 France, 62, 63, 120, 121, 126, 131–134 Equuleus (constellation), 27, 29, 67, 70, 169 Lascaux (village), 7 Eridanus (constellation), 96, 101–106, 178, Metz (city), 131 181 Paris (city), 68, 132 ˛ (star), 101, 104 Toul (commune), 131 Eridanus (Greek mythology), 102 Verdun (city), 131 Eridu (city), 101 Versailles (city), 132, 133 Erzmarschall, 64 Francis II (Holy Roman Emperor), 74 Etamin (star), 21 Francis Louis Joseph of Bavaria, 73 Eudoxus of Cnidus, 7, 8 Franco-Spanish War, 118 Euphrates (river), 101 Franconia (Germany), 63 Eurasia, 88 Frankfurt (Germany), 49 Europe, 87, 88, 90, 91 FranzXavierofSaxony,68 European Wars of Religion, 121 Frederick Augustus of Saxony, 62 Euryale (Greek mythology), 41, 42, 44 Frederick I Barbarossa (Holy Roman Emperor), 64 Frederick I of Prussia, 120, 122 F Frederick II of Prussia, 73, 74 Fürstenbund, 73 Frederick III of Denmark, 61 Fürstenhoff, Johann Georg Maximilian von, Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg 62 as “King in Prussia”, 120, 122 False Cross (asterism), 16, 21 Frederick William I of Prussia, 54 Farnese Atlas, 8 Frederick William of Brandenburg, 63 Farnese Villa (Italy), 103 Freemasonry, 94 Farnese, Alessandro Cardinal, 8 Freiberg (Germany), 63 Felis (constellation), 77 French Revolution, 74, 131, 133, 135 Ferdinand Charles of Austria, 119 French Wars of Religion, 133 Ferdinand II of Aragón, 88–91 Frisius, Gemma (cartographer), 148, 151 Ferdinand III (Holy Roman Emperor), 118, Fronde (French history), 131 131 Frying Pan (asterism), 18 Ferdinand IV of Germany, 118 Fertile Crescent, 7 Fielding, Henry (novelist), 166 G Filiae Ursae Majoris (Bedouin constellation), Galilean satellites (Jupiter) 150 as “Medicean Stars”, 59 Finland, 138 Galilei, Galileo (astronomer), 4, 59 Firmian family, 49–51, 53, 54 Galileo Galilei (astronomer), 145 Firmian, Cardinal Leopold Ernst von, 54 Galvani, Luigi (physicist), 31 Firmian, Franz Wilhelm Freiherr von, 53 Gemini (constellation), 184, 195, 197 Firmian, Karl Joseph von, 54  (star), 195, 197 Firmian, Leopold Anton von (Prince- o (star), 195, 197 Archbishop), 49, 52–54 63 Geminorum (star), 195 as the “Salzburg Apollo”, 51 65 Geminorum (star), 195 First Punic War, 145 66 Geminorum (star), 195 First World War, 13 70 Geminorum (star), 195, 197 Fischer, Johann Nepomuk (astronomer), 69 85 Geminorum (star), 184 Fishhook (asterism), 18 Genoa, 87 Flintsbach (Germany), 68 George III of Great Britain, 165 Florence (Italy), 45 George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Flying squirrel, 138 63 Index 215

Germany, 54, 63 Peloponnesus (region), 63 Aachen (city), 135 Serifos (island), 44 Augsburg (city), 49, 53 Green, Jacob (author), 40, 42 Baden-Württemberg (region), 69 Greuter, Matthaeus (engraver), 103 Bavaria (region), 73, 74 Grumium (star), 21 Dresden (city), 61–63 Gryphites (constellation), 174, 176, 189 Flintsbach (town), 68 Gustav III of Sweden, 165 Franconia (region), 63 Frankfurt (city), 49 Freiberg (city), 63 H Heidelberg (city), 68 Hadar (star), 16 Ingolstadt (city), 148, 150, 154 Hades (Greek mythology), 44 Karlsruhe (city), 69 Halley, Edmond (astronomer), 59 Landshut (city), 147, 148, 151 Hand of Justice, 134, 135 Lauenburg (city), 64 Hapi (Egyptian mythology), 96 Leipzig, 147, 148 HD 194244 (star), 117 Leisnig, 147 HD 194263 (star), 117 Mainz (city), 63 HD 21291 (star), 137 Mannheim (city), 67–69, 72, 74 HD 21389 (star), 137 Munich (city), 53, 68–70, 74 HD 221146 (star), 195 Nazi regime, 64 HD 221147 (star), 195 Passau (city), 54 HD 22764 (star), 138 Regensburg (city), 120, 147 HD 24480 (star), 138 Rochlitz, 147 HD 26670 (star), 138 Rosenheim (district), 68 HD 27245 (star), 138 Saxony (federal state), 62 HD 50576 (star), 197 Schwetzingen, 74 HD 63352 (star), 184 Schwetzingen Castle, 68 Heidelberg (Germany), 68 Tübingen (city), 63, 148 Heliades (Greek mythology), 106 Upper Lusatia (region), 62 Helios (Greek mythology), 104–106 Weinheim (city), 73 Hell, Maximilian (astronomer), 178 Wittenberg (city), 54, 64 Helm of Hades, 44 Ghana, 87 Henry IV of France, 133 Elmina (city), 87 Henry the Lion, 64 Gienah (star), 18 Herbert, Sir Thomas (traveler), 110 Gladii Electorales Saxonici (constellation), Herculean Labours, 19 xiii, 21, 57, 58, 60, 65, 115 Hercules (constellation), 19, 174, 176 Globus Aerostaticus (constellation), xi  (star), 19, 20 Globus cruciger, 121, 122 Á (star), 19, 20 Goa (India), 111 Ã (star), 21 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (writer), 54  (star), 19, 20 Golden Bull of 1356, 74, 75 (star), 19, 20 Goliath (Biblical figure), 46 Hercules (Greek mythology), 42 Goodricke, John (astronomer), 46 Hermes (Greek mythology), 44 Gorgons (Greek mythology), 41, 42, 44 Herschel, John (astronomer), 17 Gould, Benjamin Apthorp (astronomer), 13 Hesiod (poet), 42 Gout, 90 Hesperides (Greek mythology), 19, 42, 44 Graeae (Greek mythology), 42, 44 Hesperus (Greek mythology), 44 Granada (Spain), 88, 89 Hill, John (botanist), 39, 45, 165, 166, 168 Great Square (asterism), 19 Hill, Rev. Theophilus, 165 Great Turkish War (1683–99), 63 Hipparchos of Nicaea (astronomer), 17, 35, 39, Greece, 87, 106 47 Argos (city), 43 Hippocampus (constellation), 176, 178 Delphi (town), 43 Hippodamia (Greek mythology), 44 216 Index

Hirudo (constellation), 180 Como (city), 30, 31 Holy Roman Emperor, 120 Duchy of Milan, 30 Holy Roman Empire, 121 Farnese Villa, 103 Imperial Diet, 120, 131 Florence (city), 45 Imperial Estates, 54 Lake Maggiore, 30 Reichsvikar, 74 Liguria (region), 106 Honores Frederici (constellation), 23, 127, 186 Lombardy (region), 30 Horologium (constellation), 85, 141, 143, 146 Milan (city), 54 Horoscopion, 148 Naples (city), 8 House of Ascania, 64 Padua (city), 148 House of Bourbon, 132, 135 Rome (city), 54, 145 House of Habsburg, 73, 118–120, 131 Savona (city), 87 House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld, 73 South Tyrol (region), 53 House of Palatinate-Sulzbach, 72, 73 Teglio (city), 103 House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, Izar (star), 18 74 House of Wittelsbach, 73, 74 House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld (branch), J 73 Jacob (Biblical figure), 16 House of Palatinate-Neuburg (branch), 73 Japan, 88, 138 House of Palatinate-Sulzbach (branch), 72 Job’s Coffin (asterism), 19 Hungary, 118, 120, 121 Johann Christian of Bavaria, 72 Hyades (star cluster), 7 Johann Georg II of Saxony, 61 Hydra (constellation), 6, 82, 96, 170, 171 Johann Georg III of Saxony, 57, 59–63, 121  (star), 170 as the “Saxonian Mars”, 62 Hydrogen, 30 Death, 63 Hydrus (constellation), 141 Early life, 61 Marriage, 61 Mistresses, 62 I Johann Georg IV of Saxony, 63 Iberia, 88 John George IV of Saxony, 61, 62 Ice Cream Cone (asterism), 18 John II of Portugal, 88, 89 Iceland, 87 John III of Poland, 59 Ilha das Sete Cidades (legendary island), 88 Johnson, Joseph (publisher), 28 India Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of the Goa (state), 111 French, 135 Indian Ocean, 88 Joseph Charles of Sulzbach, 73 Ingolstadt (Germany), 148, 150, 154 Joseph I (Holy Roman Emperor), 119 Institute of Arts and Sciences (Bologna), 68 Joseph II (Holy Roman Emperor), 73 International Astronomical Union (IAU), x, xii, Jupiter (Greek mythology), 39, 41, 105, 106, xiii, 13 121 Commission 3 (Notations), 13, 14 Jupiter (planet), 59 II General Assembly (1925), 13 Galilean satellites, 59 III General Assembly (1928), 13, 14 Inzaghi, Maria Maddalena, 30 Ireland, 87 K Isabella I of Castile, 88, 89, 91 König, Karl-Joseph (astronomer), 67–69, 71 Isar (river), 68 Kant, Immanuel (philosopher), 5 Ishkur (Sumerian mythology), 95 Karl Theodor of Bavaria, 67–70, 72–74 Italy, 106 as Duke of Bavaria, 73 Besta Palace, 103 as Elector of Bavaria, 74 Bologna (city), 31, 68 Death, 74 Bolzano (city), 53 Early life, 72 Camnago (town), 31 Family, 73 Index 217

Marriage, 73  (star), 19 Patron of arts, 74 Á (star), 19 Karlsruhe (Germany), 69  (star), 19 Kaus Australis (star), 19 (star), 19 Kaus Brealis (star), 19 (star), 19 Kaus Media (star), 19 Leo Minor (constellation), xii Keto (Greek mythology), 42 Leo Palatinus (constellation), 23, 67, 68, 70, Keyser, Pieter Dirkszoon (navigator), 112 71, 93, 118 Kingdom of Bavaria, 75 Leopold I (Holy Roman Emperor), 61, 63, 115, Kingdom of Hungary, 54 117–122, 131 Kingdom of Naples, 87 as heir apparent, 118 Kingdom of Transylvania, 121 Death, 121 Kirch, Gottfried (astronomer), 57, 58, 60, 126, Early life, 118 181 Libra (constellation), 17, 57, 60, 97, 170, 171, Kite (asterism), 18 190, 192 Klemens Franz de Paula of Bavaria, 73 ˛ (star), 17 Klengel, Wolf Caspar von (builder), 62 ˇ (star), 17, 57, 58 Klepper, Max Francis (painter), 105 50 Librae (star), 192 Knot (measurement unit), 79 Libya, 42 Kochab (star), 16 Light pollution, 3 Ku-ir-ku (Akkadian mythology), 95 Liguria (Italy), 106 Ligurian Sea, 106 Lilium (constellation), 38, 126 L Linschoten, Jan Huyghen van (traveler), 111 Lacaille, Nicolas Louis de (astronomer), 18, Lion (heraldic symbol), 74 77, 85 Lisbon (Portugal), 87 Lacerta (constellation), 23, 125, 127, 129, 186, Littrow, Joseph Johann, 46 187 Lochium Funis (constellation), 21, 77–80, 82, ˛ (star), 127, 187 83 ˇ (star), 127, 186, 187 Log and line, 80 “Stellio”, 129 use, 78, 81 1 Lacertae (star), 127 Lombardy, 30 12 Lacertae (star), 127 Louis XIII of France, 129, 130 15 Lacertae (star), 127 Louis XIV of France, 62, 63, 118, 125–127, 2 Lacertae (star), 127 129, 131–135 4 Lacertae (star), 127 Birth, 129 9 Lacertae (star), 127 Death, 133 as “Stellio”, 128 Early years, 129 Lake Maggiore (Italy), 30 First marriage, 132 Lalande, Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Illegitimate children, 132 (astronomer), 53 Legacy, 133 Landshut (Germany), 147, 151 Legitimate children, 132 Langren, Michael Florent van (astronomer), 59 Persecution of Protestants, 133 Large Magellanic Cloud, 10 Personal rule, 131 Lascaux (France), 7 Personality cult, 132 Lascaux cave, 7 Regency, 130 Lauenburg (Germany), 64 Relations with the Church, 132 Le Monnier, Pierre-Charles (astronomer), 171 Second marriage, 132 League of Augsburg (1686), 63 Suppression of the nobility, 132 League of the Rhine, 118, 131 Louis XV of France, 133 Leipzig (Germany), 147, 148 Louis, le Grand Dauphin, 132, 133 Leisnig (Germany), 147 Louis, Duke of Burgundy, 133 Leo (constellation), 17, 52, 158 Lozenge (asterism), 21 ˛ (star), 19 Ludwig I of Bavaria, 75 218 Index

Lumbricus (constellation), 184 Mesopotamia, 74, 101 Lupus (constellation), 17, 171 Eridu (city), 101 Luther, Martin (theologian), 54 Mesopotamian culture, 6, 7, 95, 96 Lynx (constellation), 171, 195, 197 Metz (France), 131 Lyra (constellation), 52, 176 Miaplacidus (star), 21 ˛ (star), 6, 21, 22 Milan (Italy), 54 Milky Way, 3–5, 137 Center, 5 M Origin, 5 Macclesfield, George Parker (2nd Earl), 166 Structure, 4, 5 Machina Electrica (constellation), xi Minerva (Greek mythology), 41, 42 Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschutz, 62 Minos of Crete (Greek mythology), 51 Magdalene Sybille of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Mons Maenalus (constellation), 60 61 Moravia, 120 Magellan, Ferdinand (explorer), 147 Moses (Biblical figure), 94 Magellanic Clouds, 10 Mosner, Katharina, 147 Magnate conspiracy, 121 Mozart, Leopold (composer), 54 Main de Justice, 134, 135 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (composer), 54, Mainz (Germany), 63 74 Malthus, Thomas (economist), 28 MUL.AS.IKU˘ (Babylonian constellation), 19 Malus (constellation), 17 MUL.APIN tablets, 6, 7 Manis (constellation), 186, 187 Munich (Germany), 53, 68–70, 74 Mannheim (Germany), 67–69, 72, 74 Musca Borealis (constellation), 38 Mannheim Observatory, 67–70 Mannheim Palace, 68 Margarita Teresa of Austria, 119 N Maria Anna of Spain, 118 Naos (star), 21 Maria Anna of Sulzbach, 73 Naples (Italy), 8 Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este, 73 Napoleonic Wars, 75 Maria Theresa of Spain, 132 Navarre, 134 Marie-Anne-Henriette-Leopoldine de La Tour Neo-Babylonian culture, 7 d’Auvergne, 72 Neolithic period, 6 Marinus of Tyre (geographer), 88 Netherlands, 131 Markab (star), 16, 19 Bergen op Zoom (city), 72 Marmor Sculptile (constellation), 23, 85, 86, Zeeland (region), 54 92, 137, 143 New Testament, 45 Mauretania (Africa), 44 New World, 89, 90 Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, 74 Newfoundland (Canada), 87 Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria, 73 NGC 5746 (galaxy), 57 Mayer, Christian (astronomer), 68, 69 Nile (river), 95, 96 Mazarin, Cardinal Jules (minister), 130, 131 and Egyptian Hapi, 96 Medici family, 59 Annual flood, 96 Medusa (Greek mythology), 35, 39–45, 47 Association with Aquarius, 96 Mehmed IV (Ottoman Emperor), 121 Nilometer, 93, 96–98 Meissen porcelain, 64 as architecture, 96, 97 Melotte 111 (star cluster), 161, 163 Norma Nilotica (constellation), 21, 93–96, 99, Melotte, Philibert Jacques (astronomer), 161 118, 174 Melville, Henry (author), 94 North Celestial Pole, 157 Melville, Herman, 81 North Sea, 106 Merak (star), 16 Northamptonshire (England), 165 Mercury (Greek mythology), 41 Northern Cross (asterism), 18 Mercury (Roman mythology), 161 Nunki (star), 19 Mersin (Turkey), 17 Nuremburg (Germany), 152 Index 219

O Pemphredo (Greek mythology), 42 Oceanid (Greek mythology), 104 Pequod (literary figure), 81 Oceanus (Greek mythology), 42 Peregrini, Teresa, 31 Oenomaus (Greek mythology), 44 Perestrelo, Filipa Moniz, 87 Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus, 60 Permoser, Balthasar (sculptor), 62 Old Babylonian culture, 7 Perseus (constellation), 38, 39, 46–48, 103, 137 Old Testament, 16 ˇ (star), 35, 38, 46 Old World, 90 Sword asterism, 39 Ophiuchus (constellation), 6, 169, 170, 176, Perseus (Greek mythology), 39–45 187, 189, 190, 192 Petauristini, 138 66 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Peterborough (England), 165 67 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Phact (star), 21 68 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Phaeton (constellation), 21, 102–104, 150 70 Ophiuchi (star), 189 Phaeton (Greek mythology), 101–108 Oracle of Delphi (Greek mythology), 43 Depiction as a woman, 102 Orb, 119–121 Philip II, Duke of Orléans, 133 Ancient world, 121 Philip V of Spain, 132, 133 as “globus cruciger”, 121 Philippe de France (Duke of Anjou), 118 Order of Vasa, 165 Phillip IV of Spain, 132 Orion (constellation), xii, xiii, 6, 7, 152, 178, Phorcys (Greek mythology), 42 180, 181 Pigage, Nicolas de, 74 ˛ (star), xii, 21 Pinna (constellation), 189, 190 Messier 42 (nebula), 19 Pinzón, Martín Alonso (sailor), 89 Orion Nebula, 19 Pisces (constellation), 96, 193 Orion’s Belt (asterism), 19  (star), 21 as the “Drie Susters”, 19 Ã (star), 21 Ottoman Empire, 63, 121 Ä (star), 21 Oxfordshire (England), 166 (star), 21 Shirburn Castle, 166 Â (star), 21 Ozanam, Jacques (mathematician), 51 13 Piscium (star), 195 14 Piscium (star), 195 20 Piscium (star), 195 P 30 Piscium (star), 195 Padua (Italy), 148 HD 221146 (star), 195 Palatine Lion, 69, 74, 75 HD 221147 (star), 195 Palazzo Farnese, 8 Piscis Austrinus (constellation), xii, xiii, 96, Palos de la Frontera (Spain), 89 109, 111 Paris (France), 68, 132 Plancius, Petrus (cartographer), 184 Parlement de Paris, 130, 131 Plaustrum (asterism), 152, 153 Passau (Germany), 54 Pleiades (star cluster), 6, 7 Pastor Canes et Oves (Bedouin constellation), Pliny the Elder, 35, 39, 87 150, 157, 159 Plough (asterism), 16 Patella (constellation), 189 Po (river), 105, 106 Pavo (constellation), 109 Pointers (asterism), 16 Peace of Vasvár (1664), 121 Polaris (star), 16, 154 Peace of Westphalia (1648), 54, 120, 131 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 62 Pegasus (constellation), 27, 29, 125, 126, 129 Polo, Marco, 87 ˛ (star), 19 Polophylax (constellation), 21, 109–111, 113 ˇ (star), 19 Polydectes (Greek mythology), 44  (star), 19 Pomum Imperiale (constellation), 23, 60, 93, 1 Pegasi (star), 27, 28 117, 122, 123 9 Pegasi (star), 27, 29 Pope Benedict XIII, 54 Pegasus (Greek mythology), 40, 44 Pope Clement XI, 54 Peloponnesus (Greece), 63 Pope Urban VII, 59 220 Index

Porto Santo (Portugal), 87 Rochlitz (Germany), 147 Portugal, 87–89 Rome (Italy), 54, 145 Lisbon (city), 87 Rosa (constellation), 150, 158, 161, 162 Porto Santo (island), 87 Rosenheim (Germany), 68 Poseidon (Greek mythology), 43, 44, 94 Rotanev (star), 19 Potnia Theron (Greek mythology), 41 Royal Observatory of Belgium, 13 Precession of the equinoxes, 11 Royal Society, 166 Priestly, Joseph (clergyman), 28 Rudolf I (Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg), 63, 64 Princeps (star), 18 Rukh (star), 18 Procyon (star), 21 Russia Psalterium Georgianum (constellation), 23, St. Petersburg (city), 68 178 Pseudo-Apollodorus (author), 42, 44 Pteromyini, 138 S Pteromys (genus), 138 Sadachbia (star), 19 Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, 17 Sagitta (constellation), xiii Ptolemy, 8, 46, 87, 88 Sagittarius (constellation), xiii, 169, 190 Ptolemy III Euergetes of Egypt, 17 ı (star), 19 Puppis (constellation), 17, 82  (star), 19 (star), 21  (star), 19 Pyxis (constellation), 17, 23, 77, 82, 83 (star), 19 ! (star), 21  (star), 19 Q  (star), 19 Quadrant, 81 (star), 19 Quinque Dromedarii (Bedouin constellation), (star), 19 150, 157, 159 59 Sagittarii (star), 21 60 Sagittarii (star), 21 62 Sagittarii (star), 21 R Salicola, Margarita (opera singer), 62 R Scuti (variable star), 190 Salvator Mundi, 121 Ras Elased (star), 19 Salzburg (Austria), 49, 51, 53, 54 Rasalas (star), 19 Samnite Wars, 145 Rastaban (star), 21 San Sebastián de La Gomera (Spain), 89 Reconquista, 88 Savona (Italy), 87 Regensburg (Germany), 120, 147 Saxe-Wittenberg (Germany duchy), 63 Regulus (star), 19 Saxony (German state) Reichsvikar, 74 Arms, 64 Reiter’s syndrome, 90 Saxony (Germany), 62 René of Anjou, 87 Army, 62 Republic of Venice, 63 Sceptrum Brandenburgicum (constellation), Reticulum (constellation), 23, 85, 141, 143 23, 60, 117, 122, 129, 181 ˛ (star), 86 Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (constellation), ˇ (star), 86 24, 51, 125–127, 129, 134, 136 Rhenish Palatinate, 75 Schöner, Johann (cartographer), 152 Rhine (river), 75, 106 Scheat (star), 19 Rhoda (island), 97 Schickard, Wilhlem (astronomer), 45 Rhone (river), 106 Schiller, Julius (cartographer), 23, 45 Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Schloss von Oggersheim (Germany), 73 Cardinal-Duke of, 130, 131 Schwetzingen Castle (Germany), 68, 74 Right Ascension, 11 Schyrleus, Anton Maria (optician), 59 Rigil Kentaurus (star), 16 Sciuridae (family), 138 Rijl al-Awwa (star), 57 Sciurus Volans (constellation), 23, 85, 137, Robur Carolinum (constellation), 23, 59 138 Index 221

Scorpius (constellation), 93, 95, 171, 190, 192, Aragón (region), 89 193 Córdoba (city), 89  (star), 190 Canary Islands, 88 Á (star), 95 San Sebastián de La Gomera (city), 89 (star), 190 Castile (region), 87–89 Â (star), 95 Granada (city), 88, 89  (star), 190 Palos de la Frontera (city), 89 Chelae, 16, 17 Valladolid (city), 90 11 Scorpii (star), 193 Spica (star), 170 16 Scorpii (star), 190, 192 St. Petersburg (Russia), 68 18 Scorpii (star), 190, 192 St. Vincent de Paul, 69 Fishhook (asterism), 18 Star cluster Scotland Coma (Melotte 111), 161, 163 Edinburgh (city), 165 Hyades, 7 Scutum (constellation), 23, 51, 57, 59, 60 Pleiades, 7 ˛ (star), 190 Sthenelus (Greek mythology), 106 ˇ (star), 190 Sthenno (Greek mythology), 41, 42 ı (star), 190 Sualocin (star), 19  (star), 190 Summer Triangle (asterism), 21 Á (star), 190 Sun, 4 R Scuti (star), 190 Sundial, 143 Sea silk, 189 Design of Berossus, 144 Seat (star), 19 History, 144 Seckau (Austria), 53, 54 Second World War, 75 Seginus (star), 18 T Seleucid Empire, 17 Tübingen (Germany), 63, 148 Serifos (Greece), 44 Taurus (constellation), xiii, 6, 7, 178, 180 Serpens (constellation), 6, 150, 176  (star), 180 ˛ (star), 57, 58 (star), 180 Serpens Caput (asterism), 57, 60 Pleiades (star cluster), 6, 7 Serpens Cauda (asterism), 57 Taurus Poniatovii (constellation), 23 Shirburn Castle (England), 166 Teapot (asterism), 19 Sicily (Italy), 145 Teglio (Italy), 103 Sickle (asterism), 19 Telescopium Herschelii Major (constellation), Siege of Vienna (1683), 121 xiii, 195 Sigmundskron Castle, 53 Tennyson, Frederick (poet), 94 Silk Road, 87 Terebellum (asterism), 19 Simonides of Ceos (poet), 43 Tertiary (geologic period), 176 Sirius (star), xii, 6, 21 Testudo (constellation), 193 Skelton, Joseph John (engraver), 28 Theophrastus (philosopher), 165 Small Magellanic Cloud, 10, 111 Third Syrian War, 17 Sobieski, John (King of Poland), 59 Thirty Years’ War, 54, 62, 120, 132 Solarium (constellation), 23, 141–143, 146 Thomas, Corbinianus (cartographer), 49–51, Solon, 106 53 Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 61 Thun, Johann Ernst von, 53 Sophocles (playwright), 43 Thun, Maria Viktoria von, 53 South Africa, 18, 19 Tischbein, Johann Heinrich (the Elder), 72 South celestial pole, 18, 111 Titan (Greek mythology), 8 South Tyrol (Italy), 53 Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo (astronomer), 87, Southern Cross (asterism), 16, 21 88 Southern Pointers (asterism), 16 Toul (France), 131 Spain, 88–91, 131, 133 Treaty of Teschen (1779), 73 Alcázar Aastle, 89 Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), 132 222 Index

Triana, Rodrigo de (sailor), 89 Virgo (constellation), 16, 17, 57, 60, 158, 161, Triangulum (constellation), 35, 38 170, 171 Triangulum Australe (constellation), xii, 110, ˛ (star), 170 111 Á (star), 28 Triassic (geologic period), 176 (star), 57, 58 Tucana (constellation), 109 (star), 57 Tupi (language), xi Volans (constellation), 59 Turkey Volta’s Law, 31 Mersin (city), 17 Volta, Alessandro (physicist), 27, 28, 31, 32 Tyrol (Austria), 49 Career, 30 Tyrol, County of, 120 Discovery of methane, 30 Early life, 30 Volta, Filippo, 30 U Voltaic pile, 31, 32 Uccle (Belgium), 13 Volvelle, 150–152 Unformed stars, 16 Vopel, Caspar (cartographer), 17 University of Ghent, 13 Vulcan (Greek mythology), 51 University of Ingolstadt, 148 Vulpecula (constellation), 176 University of Leipzig, 147 University of Pavia (Italy), 30 University of Salzburg, 49 W University of Vienna, 147 Waldseemüller, Martin (cartographer), 147, Unukalhai (star), 57 152 Upper Lusatia (Germany), 62 Wallingford (England), 166 Urania (Hill), 166 War of Bavarian Succession (1778–9), 73 Urania (Greek mythology), 51, 52 War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), 118, Uranoscopus (constellation), 195, 197 133 Ursa Major (constellation), xii, xiii, 7, 16, 109, Water Jar (asterism), 19 111, 153, 154, 156, 157 Weigel, Johann Christoph (publisher), 51 ˛ (star), 16 Weinheim (Germany), 73 ˇ (star), 16 Westminster (England), 165 “Big Dipper” (asterism), 6, 16 Weyssenburger, Johann (printer), 151 “Pointers” (asterism), 16 Wilcke, Johan (physicist), 30 Ursa Minor (constellation), xii, 109, 111, 157 William III of England, 63 ˛ (star), 16, 154 William III of Orange, 63 ˇ (star), 16 Winter Triangle (asterism), 21 Ursula Margarethe of Haugwitz, 62 Wittenberg (Germany), 54, 64 Wollstonecraft, Mary (philosopher), 28 V World War I, 13 Valladolid (Spain), 90 World War II, 75 Variable star Wright, Thomas (astronomer), 5 Eclipsing binary, 46 Varro, Marcus Terentius (writer), 153 Vega (star), 6, 21, 22 Y Vela (constellation), 17 Yoke Star, 6 ı (star), 16, 21 Young, Thomas (scientist), 27 Ä (star), 16, 21 Venus transit of 1761, 68 Z of 1769, 68 Zeeland (Netherlands), 54 Verdun (France), 131 Zephyrium (ancient city), 17 Versailles (France), 132, 133 Zeus (Greek mythology), 43, 44 Vienna (Austria), 63, 117–119, 121, 147, 148 Zubenelgenubi (star), 17 Vincentians, 69 Zubeneschamali (star), 17, 57, 58