Star Map by Johann Elert Bode – Plate XXVI
Plate XXVI from Johann Elert Bode’s Vorstellung der Gestirne showing Hydra the Water Snake, the largest of all 88 constellations, Sextans (the sextant), The head of Virgo, and the tail of the unicorn (Monoceros)
Dimensions: 27.5 x 23 cm
Handcolored copperplate engravings representing the Constellations from the star atlas “Vorstellung der Gestirne” by the German astronomer and mapmaker Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826).
Born in Hamburg, Bode became the director of the Berlin Observatory and published the Uranographia in 1801, a celestial atlas showing the positions of stars,and including an artistic interpretation of the figures in the constellations. This smaller star atlas – Vorgestellung der Gestirne (Presentation of the Stars) – was intended for astronomical amateurs.
Bode is known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. He also charted the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet’s name.
