Bode

1801 · ref. 19781 — Berlin: Selbstverlag Chez l’auteur 1801. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Printed in German and French with the text in 2 columns. Unbound sheets folded in signatures uncut; in absolutely beautiful condition a phenomenal newly discovered gem. First and only edition of the text volume to Bode’s Uranography published the same year. This text volume was printed separate and apart from the star atlas which set a new benchmark in the field proving itself as a true successor to the great atlases of Bayer Hevelius and Flamsteed. Bode’s atlas is noted for a number of stars lying outside of the constellations and he proposed the concept of boundaries to these constellations that would with later adjustments become “fundamental to astronomy” Whitfield. Bode 1747-1826 was director of the Berlin observatory and editor of the Astronomisches Jahrbuch. He played an important role in the development of astronomy in Germany becoming Royal Astronomer and a member of the Berlin Academy. He gave the name Uranus to Herschel’s newly discovered planet. DSB II p. 220; Warner p. 39; Whitfield p. 104. Selbstverlag, Chez l’auteur, unknown books