Mercurii Philosophici Firmamentum Firmianum Descriptionem et Usum Globi Artificialis Coelestis..

Frankfurt & Leipzig: N.P., 1730. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Johann Christoph Berendt. P. Corbiniano [Corbinianus] Thomas. Mercurii Philosophici Firmamentum Firmianum Descriptionem et Usum Globi Artificialis Coelestis, ac Asterismos ejusdem ad ineuntem annum 1730. reductos LXXXVI. Iconismis æri incisis exhibens. Authore P. Corbiniano Thomas, Benedictino Elchingensi, AA. LL. et Philosophiæ Doctore, ac in Alma et Archi-Episcopali Universitate Salisburgensi Matheseos Porfessore Ordinario. Cum Facultate Superiorum. Prostat Franckofurti & Lipsiæ, Anno MDCCXXX. First edition. Oblong 4to, 16.5 x 19.5cm, [8], 212pp. Complete with hand-colored frontispiece and 84 plates, several folding. Original half alum-tawed leather over paper boards. Tape repair to recto of frontis, final leaf reattached and with a small spot of worming, else clean internally. Benedictine monk and mathematics and theology professor at the University of Salzburg, Corbinianus Thomas (1694-1767), was innovative in his approach to creating this beautiful atlas, using a combination of Greek letters, and Roman and Arabic numerals to label his stars. He was also among the first to assign individual plates to southern constellations. The work was also somewhat of a sales pitch, Thomas attempting to secure the patronage of the influential Prince-Archbishop, Leopold von Firmian, by appropriating the Ptolemaic constellation Corona Borealis and renaming it "Corona Firmiana." In Thomas' words: "Be gone, now this Northern Crown of our stories, made of gold by Vulcan and given to Ariadne...[it] 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." (Barentine, J. C. (2016). Uncharted Constellations: Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands. Germany: Springer International Publishing.) A wonderful example of this beautifully rendered atlas from the Golden Age of star maps, scarcely found complete.