''Selenographia, sive Lunae descriptio'' (''Selenography, or A Description of The Moon'') was printed in 1647 and is a milestone work by
Johannes Hevelius. It includes the first detailed map of the Moon, created from Hevelius's personal observations. In his treatise, Hevelius reflected on the difference between his own work and that of
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
. Hevelius remarked that the quality of Galileo's representations of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
in ''
Sidereus nuncius'' (1610) left something to be desired. ''Selenography'' was dedicated to King
Ladislaus IV of Poland and along with
Riccioli/
Grimaldi's ''Almagestum Novum'' became the standard work on the Moon for over a century. There are many copies that have survived, including those in
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
, in the library of
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
, in the Stillman Drake Collection at the
Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto, and in the
Gunnerus Library at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
Notes
External links
''Selenographia, sive Lunae descriptio''
1647 books
Lunar science
Astronomy books
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