Tabula Selenographica in qua Lunarium Macularum exacta Descriptio secundum Nomenclaturam Praestantissimorum Astronomorum tam Hevelii quam Riccioli

Nürnberg: J. B. Homann, 1730. No Binding. Very Good. No Binding. Large oblong Folio. Engraved double-hemisphere of the lunar surface, hand-colored, image 494 x 588 mm (single sheet 520 x 593). Map is laid down and framed under glass. ---- Important double-hemisphere map of the surface of the moon, depicting the lunar maps of Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) and Giovanni Riccioli (1598-1671). Hevelius published "the first atlas of the moon, Selenographia, 1647... It displayed for the first time the complexity of the moon's topography, although it perpetuated certain myths such as the existence of lunar seas. Few of the place-names proposed by Hevelius became permanent, indeed one of the most striking aspects of his maps is the elaborate analogy he built up between the topography of the moon and that of the earth, with the Mediterranean, North Africa and Asia Minor dominating the moon's visible face. It is to the Jesuit astronomer, Giambattista Riccioli, an ardent opponent of Copernicanism, that we owe most of the familiar lunar names" (Whitfield, Mapping of the Heavens, p. 93 and p. 97). The double hemisphere is surrounded by representations of four phases of the moon, the upper corners decorated with cherubs using a telescope and Diana, the lady of the moon, text panels at bottom.