Alessandro Piccolomini, De le stelle fisse
The popular book De le stelle fisse, published in 1540 by the Italian cardinal Alessandro Piccolomini, presents a discussion of the constellation lore and forty-seven maps, one for each ptolemaic constellation, with the exception of Equuleus. The constellations are shown without the mythologic figures.
On his maps Piccolomini indicates the stellar magnitudes, the direction of the equatorial pole and the direction of daily rotation of the celestial sphere, but the lack of a coordinate system prevents the accurate determination of the star positions.
Ursa minor and Ursa major in Piccolomini's book (Bibl. del Dip. di Astronomia di Bologna)
A cd-rom for a deeper view
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Author of these pages: Davide Neri - E-mail: ban2280@iperbole.bologna.it