(Title page to) Precis du Systeme Astronomique.

• Main Authors: Visconti, Sigismond, Dufour, Auguste-Henri (1798-1865)
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Charles Simonneau 1830
• Subjects: Celestial; Arctic; Auguste
• Online Access: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~349012~90116599; https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/205/15436011.jpg

"Rare expanded and revised edition of this magnificent, and no doubt expensively produced, astronomical atlas, together with the first edition of the often missing accompanying explanatory text volume. The seven stunning coloured double-page stipple plates are engraved by André Gianni after drawings by Sigismond Visconti (plates 1-V), with plate 6 revised by Auguste-Henri Dufour, and Dufour solely responsible for the most attractive and striking ‘Planisphère’. The plates beautifully illustrated the solar system, the orbit of the annual revolution of the earth around the sun and an indication of the seasons, the phases of the moon, eclipses of the sun and the moon, the tides ‘’flux et reflux’, a cross section of the earth taken at the equator and seen from the side of the Arctic Pole, and the final detailed planisphère ‘représentant les différents positions de la terre relativement au soleil pendant les douze mois de l’Année, calculé pour 1830’. The charts, minus the planisphere, were apparently first published by Visconti in 1815, issued in three parts over six months (according to a contemporary review in Le Constitutionnel, July 10th 1816, p.3), with a further issue of the 6 astronomical plates by Chez Vilquin in 1820-5. Dufour and Simmoneau added the planisphere to this edition of 1830, and renumbered the original plates. Further editions appeared in 1839 and 1859. The work was favourably reviewed in a number of contemporary sources, which praised Visconti for presenting the complicated theories of such luminaries as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton regarding the workings of the solar system and the principle phenomena, in such an easy to comprehend, and highly visual way. Intended for elementary education, they were no doubt originally intended to be displayed in classrooms. ‘Elles sont gravées par M. A Gianni sur un fond atmosphérique, par un procédé tout particulier, imitant le pointilllé roulette dans sa perfection, dont il est l'inventeur. Les exemplaires en couleur sont imprimés et coloriés avec ...