RARE Zodiac Constellations Print hand-colored from 1st American celestial atlas

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

RARE Zodiac Constellations Print hand-colored from 1st American celestial atlas:
$100.00

Astronomical Recreations; or, Sketches of the Relative Position and Mythological History of the Constellations by Jacob Green.Philadelphia: Anthony Finley, 1824Hand-colored, engraved star mapPlate 1Sheet size: 11.25 x 8.5 inchesPlate impression: 9 x 7 inchesCondition: Minimal foxing, slight offsetting from text pages, some paper loss in outer margin. See scans.
An exquisite hand-colored engraving from the first American celestial atlas. Jacob Green\'s 1824 work, Astronomical Recreations; or, Sketches of the Relative Position and Mythological History of the Constellations, was based on the plates of Johann Elert Bode\'s 1801 Uranographia. Bode\'s work was \"the first reasonable complete description of the starts visible to the unaided eye,\" (Astronomical Observations: Astronomy and the Study of Deep Space).
Jacob Green (1790-1841) was \"an American scholar . . . born in Philadelphia July 26th, 1790, where he was also educated, graduating at the University of Pennsylvania when at the age of sixteen years. He evinced a taste for the study of natural sciences at so early a period in life, that it seemed almost akin to an instinct. His first labors, even in boyhood, were devoted to botanical studies, and he made quite a large collection of plants. His studies were soon extended to mineralogy, conchology, chemistry, electricity, and galvanism, and zoology in general. Not long after leaving the University, he published, in connection with a young friend, a \"Treatise on Electricity,\" which was favorably received, and gave him a reputation as a man of science, and one destined to hold fellowship with our best scholars. He also studied law, and was licensed to practice; but instead of following the profession, he . . . accepted a professorship in Nassau Hall, of chemistry, experimental philosophy, and natural history. After filling this chair for four years . . . he removed to Philadelphia, where, on the establishment of the Jefferson Medical College, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry and continued in the office to the close of his life. . . . Professor Green died February 1st, 1841, when in the midst of his useful labors and in the freshness of his literary fame.\" (The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians, Now Deceased, by Henry Simpson, 1859.)