18th Century Celestial Charts of the Northern and Southern Skies, Set of 2

Pair of 18th century celestial charts of the northern and southern skies THOMAS, Corbinianus. Haemisphaerium Coeli Boreale. [&] Haemisphaerium Coeli Australe. Frankfurt, 1730. Original colour. Two plates, each 125 x 135mm. The northern & southern celestial spheres, engraved by Johann Christoph Berndt for the celestial atlas ‘Mercurii Philosphici Firmamentum Firmianum’, named for Thomas’s patron, Leopold Anton von Firmian, Archbishop of Salzburg. Corbinianus Thomas (1694-1767), a Benedictine monk, was Professor of Mathematics and Theology at the University of Salzburg. His star atlas was first published in 1730 at Frankfurt, with a second edition at Augsburg the following year. He used an odd system for nomenclature: Bayer Greek letter for the star, Roman numeral for the magnitude and Arabic numeral for the star catalogue reference. KANAS: 7.7, ‘beautiful illustrations’; WARNER, p.251.