The 1816 Solar Eclipse and Comet 1811 I in John Linnell's Astronomical Album

John Linnell: A centennial exhibition , curated by Crouan K. (Cambridge, 1982), p. ix, quoting articles in the Art journal and the Atheneum.

The entire album is inv. no. 1967-12-9-3.

Since the beginning of recorded time, the appearances of comets and eclipses have been viewed as prodigious signs from God; see Olson R. J. M. , Fire and ice: A history of comets in art (New York, 1985).

See Pidgley M. , “Cornelius Varley, Cotman, and the graphic telescope”, The Burlington magazine, cxiv (1972), 781–6, and Butlin M. , “Blake, the Varleys, and the graphic telescope”, in William Blake: Essays in honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, ed. by Paley M. D. and Phillips M. (Oxford, 1973), 294–304. The graphic telescope was patented the year Linnell observed the comet.

The verso contains two quick sketches of seaside scenes within square borders.

Story A. T. , The life of John Linnell, i (London, 1892), 24.

Thanks to Lindsay Stainton for her perceptive interpretation of the long ‘s’.

For the comet, see Kronk G. W. , Comet: A descriptive catalog (Hillside, N.J., 1984), 27; Vsekhsvyatski S. K. , Physical characteristics of comets (Jerusalem, 1964), 144–5; and Olson , op. cit. (ref. 3), 74–77.

Crouan , op. cit. (ref. 1), p. xvi.

See Olson , op. cit. (ref. 3), 78–100, and idem, “Samuel Palmer's watercolour of Donati's Comet”, The Burlington magazine, ciii (1990), 91–92, for an introduction to the proliferation of comets in British art at this time.

Alan Fiala of the United States Naval Observatory first kindly made these calculations, which we have verified and extended with Voyager and Visible Universe. See Mucke H. and Meeus J. , Canon of solar eclipses −2003 to +2526 (Vienna, 1983), 860 (chart), which has superseded von Oppolzer T. R. , Canon of eclipses, trans. by Gingerich O. (New York, 1962), chart 145.

Story , Life of Linnell (ref. 6), i, 80–86, and Crouan , op. cit. (ref. 1), p. xxi.