FLAMSTEED, John (1649-1719). Atlas coelestis. London: for the author, 1729.

FLAMSTEED, John (1649-1719). Atlas coelestis. London: for the author, 1729.

First edition of the most important star atlas of the 18th century. The Atlas coelestis was intended as a companion to the Historiae published in 1712 by the Royal Society's officers Sir Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley, without the author's consent, and was based on Flamsteed's imperfect catalogue which he had deposited with the Society in 1708. The atlas comprises 27 celestial maps centred on the major constellations visible from Greenwich. See Babson/Newton 329.

Folio (525 x 385mm). Engraved title vignette and head-piece, and 27 engraved double-page celestial maps by James Mynde and Abraham Sharp, plate 14 printed on two double-sheets joined and folded, all mounted on guards (lacking the engraved portrait frontispiece, the plates trimmed close by the binder with plates 2, 12, 13, 15, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26 and 27 cropped into image, occasional faint soiling). Contemporary calf (spine worn with head- and tailcap defective, corners bumped and worn, extremities rubbed).

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