How to Craft Telescopic Observation in a Book: Hevelius's Selenographia (1647) and its Images

“Animadvertebam deinde, hoc laboris aggresso suscipiendam esse fabula decantati Endymionis personam, & ferre dormiendum esse diu, noctu autem maximam partem vigilandum; quod citra virium corporis haud exiguam attenuationem fieri posset, nec citra rerum multarum dispendium.” Hevelius Johannes , Selenographia, sive, Lunae descriptio (Gdańsk (printed by Andreas Hünefeld for the author), 1647), Ad lectorem 3. The copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, is accessible online: URL: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/2–5-astron-2f/start.htm (20.04.2010).

Agapiou Natalia , Endymion au carrefour: La fortune littéraire et artistique du mythe d'Endymion à l'aube de l'ère moderne (Berlin, 2005), 192–239, p. 233 for the praise of Galileo as novello Endimion by Giambattista Marino in his poem Adone (1623).

“Hinc autem multo etiam major oriebatur formido, quod tale quid somniare non liceret, fore, ut laborum socium essem reperturus, quo visa charte traderentur; sed uni solique mihi & per noctem contemplandi curam & diurnam annotandi esse perferendam, hoc est, oculos de nocte & manus de die in perpetuis occupationibus detinenda.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), Ad lectorem 3–4.

In fact, however, already Hevelius's first observatory placed around 1640 on a newly built terrace on the roof of one of his wife's houses and comprising c. 20 square metres must have figured rather prominently in Gdańsk's urban space and thus attracted a broader attention. Yet secure data is available for his second Civic Stellaeburg only for which the terrace was enlarged in the years after 1650. Lisicki Andrzej , “Johannes Hevelius as an observer”, in: On the 300^th anniversary of the death of Johannes Hevelius: Book of the international scientific session, ed. by Głebocki Robert Zbierski Andrzej (Wrocław, Warsaw and Cracow, 1992), 23–42.

A recent discussion of various aspects of the presentation of knowledge in the early modern printed book can be found in Cognition and the book: Typologies of formal organisation of knowledge in the printed book of the early modern period, ed. by Enenkel Karl A. E. Neuber Wolfgang (Leiden and Boston, 2005).

For the conjunction of the history of early modern science with the history of print and reading, see Johns Adrian , The nature of the book: Print and knowledge in the making (Chicago and London, 1998).

Winkler Mary G. Van Helden Albert , “Johannes Hevelius and the visual language of astronomy”, in Renaissance and revolution: Humanists, scholars, craftsmen and natural philosophers in early modern Europe , ed. by Field Judith V. James Frank A. J. L. (Cambridge, 1993), 97–116, p. 99. See also Winkler Mary G. Van Helden Albert , “Representing the heavens: Galileo and visual astronomy”, Isis, lxxxiii (1992), 1992–217.

Hamou Philippe , La mutation du visible: Essai sur la portée épistémologique des instruments d'optique au XVII^e siècle , i (Villeneuve d'Asq (Nord), 1999), 154–61, p. 159: “Dans la voie ouverte par les gravures lunaires de Galilée mais d'une façon beaucoup plus décisive, il [Hevelius] impose un style de représentation naturaliste pour la peinture des cieux.” For Hevelius's images of the Moon see also Whitaker Ewen A. , Mapping and naming the Moon: A history of lunar cartography and nomenclature (Cambridge, 1999), 50–7. Those showing the phases of the waxing and waning Moon figure prominently at the beginning and end of the recent exhibition catalogue on the Moon in arts and sciences from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries: Der Mond, ed. by Blühm Andreas , with contributions by Horst Bredekamp, Hermann-Michael Hahn and Horst Hiesinger (Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Fondation Corboud) (Ostfildern, 2009), catalogue entry pp. 106–7.

Zittel Claus , “Begründungsprobleme empirischer Wissenschaft an der Schwelle zur Aufklärung: Der Fall Hevelius”, in Das geistige Leben in Preußen in der Zeit der Frühaufklärung, ed. by Marx Christoph Sapala Barbara (Olsztyn, 2002), 9–25.

In conformity with this claim, the vast majority of the engravings bear the signature: Autor sculpsit. See Winkler Helden Van , “Hevelius and the visual language” (ref. 7), 110, note 41.

“Hinc vero plane colligitur, Galileum, aut satis idoneo Perspicillo caruisse, aut iisdem observationibus suis non satis vacare potuisse, aut quod potissimum, artem pictoriam & delineatoriam ignorasse; quae alias huic operi admodum inservit, uti non minus visus acutus, Patientia & Labor.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 205. One wonders how Hevelius would judge the book of Horst Bredekamp, Galilei der Künstler: Der Mond, die Sonne, die Hand (Berlin, 2007), and its argument that Galileo's drawing skills and his decisively “zeichnerische Intelligenz” (p. 6) were of crucial importance to his astronomical discoveries.

Johns , Nature of the book (ref. 6), 437. The blatantly artificial character of Hevelius's visual representations has been stressed by Zittel, too: “… gerade in seinen bildlichen Repräsentationen [wird] der artifizielle Charakter bei der Erzeugung von realistischen Abbildern in kaum zu übertreffender Weise transparent und nachvollziehbar gemacht….” Zittel, “Begründungsprobleme” (ref. 9), 14.

Biagioli Mario , Galileo's instruments of credit: Telescopes, images, secrecy (Chicago and London, 2006); Bredekamp , Galilei der Künstler (ref. 11), 339–40.

Zittel , “Begründungsprobleme” (ref. 9), 16–17.

Netz Reviel , The shaping of deduction in Greek mathematics: A study in cognitive history (Cambridge, 1999). For the use of diagrams in late antique and medieval astronomy, see Obrist Barbara , La cosmologie médiévale. Textes et images 1: Les fondements antiques (Florence, 2004); Eastwood Bruce , Ordering the heavens: Roman astronomy and cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance (Leiden, 2007); and Müller Kathrin , Visuelle Weltaneignung: Astronomische und kosmologische Diagramme in Handschriften des Mittelalters (Göttingen, 2008).

Moreover, the Selenographia contains numerous smaller images, mostly diagrams, and tables included in the text and not singled out in the “Index et ordo figurarum”.

See, for instance, Hevelius, Selenographia (ref. 1), 206: “Quanquam enim, Anno Christi 1643. Matthias Hirschgarter, in Detectione sua Dioptrica, aliqualem Lunae effigiem conspiciendam nobis exhibuit; quam Nobilis quidam Neapolitanus, praestantioris notae Tubo usus, delineavit: Vix tamen adumbratio ista alicui satisfacere potest: Imo & magnopere a Lunae genuina forma eam dissidere, satis, opinor, ex meis apparebit iconismis, quibus omnes amussitati Tubi, bene scio, fidem certo facient.” See also p. 209: “Dum enim speculo oculis immorantur, videntur sibi, se omnia accurate esse complexos, quum oculis a speculo remotis, vix leviter & ruditer in animo versari imagines visas, sentiunt. Hoc certe pariter accidit, circa observationes Iconismorum Lunarium.” Apparently, the term iconismus was variably applicable to different kinds of visually perceived objects. Very much unlike Hevelius, Athanasius Kircher, for instance, entitled the plates in his Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650) iconismi.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 7–8.

Zittel , “Begründungsprobleme” (ref. 9), 18: “Gleich zu Beginn auf Seite 6 platziert er zudem strategisch geschickt einen Kupferstich, welcher die beschriebenen Linsen und seine Drehbank in der Werkstatt zeigt.” Winkler Van Helden , “Hevelius and the visual language” (ref. 7), 103, caption of fig. 6.3.

[Girolamo Sirtori], Hieronymi Sirturi Mediolanensis telescopium, sive ars perficiendi novum illud Galilaei visorium instrumentum ad sydera (Frankfurt (Lukas Jennis and Paul Jacoby), 1618).

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 6–7.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 24. In the second sentence of this chapter he states: “Hoc instrumentum Opticum ipsemet Anno 1637. excogitavi & adornavi, neque credo ante illud tempus (quod citra jactantiam dictum velim) unquam fuisse conspectum, aut ab ullo compositum”.

“… sicut modus in sequente diagrammate & ejus descriptione satis abunde exprimitur.” Hevelius, Selenographia (ref. 1), 7.

“… tamen illarum longe plures, nempe quadraginta, numeravi, magnumque adhibui, studium, ut singularum longitudines, Latitudines & distantias accurate determinarem & in chartam legitimo referrem ordine, quas omnes in apposita figura D exhibeo.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 34–35.

Winkler Helden Van , “Hevelius and the visual language” (ref. 7), 104–5.

“Constat enim distinctis membris, que inter se apte conjunguntur, sicut ex apposita figura patebit.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 40.

Remmert Volker , Widmung, Welterklärung und Wissenschaftslegitimierung: Titelbilder und ihre Funktionen in der Wissenschaftlichen Revolution (Wiesbaden, 2005), 184–6 and fig. 6.11. In the images in Hevelius's Machina coelestis (Gdańsk (printed for the author by Simon Reiniger), 1673–79) the terrace with the balustrade can be seen frequently and thus seems to belong firmly to the iconography of his observatory in Gdańsk. See ref. 4.

Winkler Helden Van , “Hevelius and the visual language” (ref. 7), 106.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 39–41.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 42–4.

For E IVPITER see Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 44–5; for D MARS, 66–7.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 43–4: “Medium enim, idemque maximum corpus Saturni, in oblongiori forma mihi apparuit; Brachiola quoque utriusque lateris, ex parte alia mihi visa sunt: Siquidem illa inter se, cum medio corpore Saturni adeo arcte non cohaerebant, sed ubi in unum continuum Corpus coire & cohaerescere debebant, in tam acutam & exilem cuspidem desinebant, ut non percipi posset, quod cum oblongo Saturni corpore stricte copularentur: Praeterea spatium, quo Brachiola ab ipso Saturni corpore aliquo modo separabantur, per quae coeruleum coelum licebat intueri, non aequabat istam latitudinem, quam prior figura repraesentat, sed minus erat. Insuper, quod in exprimenda vera hujus Planetae forma maxime dignum est animadversione, uterque arcus, tam interior, quam exterior, brachia terminans, nequaquam sectionem circuli, ut ab Eximio Fontana annotatum; sed parabolicam, seu potius hyperbolicam sectionem refert; sicut ex figura C cognoscitur. Hanc enim veram esse Saturni faciem, longo & exquisitae operae tubo accurate intueri, omniaque probe considerare potui, ita ut unusquisque, qui cupiditate reperiendi veri ducitur, huic indefessae observationi tuto possit fidere”.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 49–52.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 65: “Id quod nonnullis observationibus in figuram I relatis comprobabo”.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 240–409.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 235–49.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 219–20: “… scias me delineatione harum 40. Phasium, & facierum Lunae, pariterque earum sculptura, talem elegisse adumbrandi & obumbrandi modum, quo omnes multo diversissimos colores, in Luna conspicuos, tum quatenus a Paludibus, Aquis, tum quatenus a diversae altitudinis Montibus oriuntur, sufficienter exprimere, singulaque bene imitari possem. Quocirca Maculas majores, aquarum speciem referentes, duplicibus lineis transversis umbrosis, aeri incidi; Montes & Valles lineis circundedi; cacumina & vertices Montium, circulis sunt comprehensi, eo videlicet fine, ut melius exprimerentur & luminosius”.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 221–2: “Circa quod Plenilunium hoc tamen prius monendum duco, quod loca illa omnia plane alba, sive lineis subtilissimis colorata, Montes, Valles, aut Planities sint; … loca vero illa, quae lineis nigricantioribus aequaliter vides adumbrata, majorum Marium, Paludum, Lacuumque Lunarium speciem referunt”.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), figura Q, between pp. 226 and 227. This tabula was engraved by Jeremiah Falck. See Whitaker , Mapping and naming the Moon (ref. 8), 51.

Whitaker , Mapping and naming the Moon (ref. 8), 51–6.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 111: “Maculae Lunares cum non sint variabiles, idcirco non possunt esse simulacra specularia”.

“Impossibile quidem est, Lunam tali vultu se unquam conspiciendam praebere posse; quia rotunda, & minime corpus planum: Verum Tabula haec nostra sic datur adornata, ac si hemisphaerium Lunae, corpus quoddam esset planissimum, quod a Sole oriente, hoc modo (ut sic loqui liceat) illustrari, & obumbrari possit.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 261–2.

See, for instance, Hevelius, Selenographia (ref. 1), 256–72.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 409–95.

“In his praedictis primariis delineationibus quas capite 44. figura T exhibebo, vera proportio, & distantia Macularum omnium, in Luna aspectabilium, accuratissime & diligentissime est observata, nudisque solummodo lineis, non attenta umbra, est constructa.” Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 216.

“Caput XLIV. De Utilitatae Ex Figura Primaria Phasium & Lunationum redundante”, Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 409–15, pp. 409–10.

Daston Lorraine Galison Peter , Objectivity (New York, 2007), 63.

Hevelius , Selenographia (ref. 1), 411–12.

Winkler Helden Van , “Hevelius and the visual language” (ref. 7), 105.