Analysis of the Farnese Globe

Schaefer B. E. , “The epoch of the constellations on the Farnese atlas and their origin in Hipparchus's lost catalogue”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxvi (2005), 167–96.

Ibid. 182, item (7).

Duke Dennis W. , “Dating the Almagest star catalogue using proper motions: A reconsideration”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxiii (2002), 45–55.

The notation Cx.y.z refers to a standard section in Hipparchus's Commentary on the Phenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus. I am using the English translation of Roger MacFarlane (private communication) with the assistance of Paul Mills. Until this is published, the interested reader must use Hipparchus, In Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena commentariorium , ed. and transl. by Manitius K. (Leipzig, 1894), which has an edited Greek text and an accompanying German translation.

I thank Rawlins D. (private communication) for pointing out items 4, 7, 15, 23, and the miscomputed negative right ascension of Aries's muzzle noted in the Appendix.

Kidd D. , Aratus Phenomena (Cambridge, 1997), 326.

Künzl E. , Ein römischer Himmelsglobus der mittleren Kaiserzeit , Jahrbuch des Römische-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 47, Jahrgang 2000 (p. 535), and references therein; Künzl E. , “The globe in the Roemisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum Mainz: The only complete celestial globe found to-date from classical Greco-Roman antiquity”, Der Globusfreund , xlv/xlvi (1998), 81–154.

In this and many other cases Hipparchus specifies positions on circles of constant declination by dividing the circle into twelve 30° segments and referring to each section with the corresponding name of the zodiacal segment. For a full discussion see Duke D. W. , “Hipparchus' coordinate system”, Archive for history of exact sciences , lvi (2002), 427–33.

Grasshoff G. , The history of Ptolemy's star catalogue (New York, 1990); Duke D. W. , “Associations between the ancient star catalogues”, Archive for history of exact sciences , lvi (2002), 435–50; and idem , “The depth of association between the ancient star catalogues”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxiv (2003), 227–30.

Künzl , op. cit. (ref. 7).

Valerio V. , “Historiographic and numerical notes on the Atlante Farnese and its celestial sphere”, Der Globusfreund , xxxv/xxxvii (1987), 97–124, is an excellent account of the history of astronomical investigations of the Farnese globe. The paper is available online at http://www.coronelli.org/farnese/. More recent details are available at Valerio V. , “L'Atlante Farnese e la rappresentazione delle costellazioni”, in Eureka: Il genio degli antichi , ed. by Eugenio Lo Sarde (Naples, 2005), 233–9. See also De Meis S. , “Astronomical reflexes in ancient coins”, Commerce and monetary systems in the ancient world , ed. by Robert Rollinger Christoph Ulf (Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Bablyonian Intellectual Heritage Project, Innsbruck, Austria, October 3^rd — 8^th 2002; Stuttgart, 2004), 470–98.

Toomer G. J. , Ptolemy's Almagest (London, 1984), 329.

Gain D. B. , The Aratus ascribed to Germanicus Caesar (London, 1976).

Possanza Mark D. , Translating the heavens: Aratus, Germanicus, and the poetics of Latin translation (New York, 2004).

Valerio , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Thiele G. , Antike Himmelsbilder (Berlin, 1898), 27–45. An English translation by Hugh Thurston of Thiele's discussion of the Farnese globe is available at www.csit.fsu.edu/∼dduke/thiele.pdf.

The gridlines were added by Strebe Daan , the author of Geocart (see http://www.mapthematics.com).

See, e.g., http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StereographicProjection.html.

Stern H. , “Classical Antiquity”, in the entry titled “Astronomy and astrology” in Encyclopedia of world art (New York, 1960), ii, cols 48–57 and plate 23.

Thiele , op. cit. (ref. 16).