Kanas - Star maps: history, artistry, and cartography

Cover design: Jim Wilkie

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

The representation of celestial bodies (stars, planets, comets and other extraterrestrial phenomena) has been an important part of cartography for millennia. Star maps of early Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and other cultures are significant in their own right but also because of their influence on Greek, Roman, Islamic and, later, European celestial cartography. The history of changing images and practices in this field up to the present is discussed and illustrated in admirable detail in Star Maps , by Nick Kanas.

As with a number of others interested in cartography, the author is a medical doctor who has devoted a great deal of time and resources to studying and writing about his long-term avocation. However, most collectors have an interest in a limited time period or geographical area (e.g., the eighteenth century or Jamaica). By contrast, Dr. Kanas has a longer and larger agenda: the representation of the heavens from antiquity to the present, as illustrated by maps and charts.

In order to cover his wide-ranging subject, Nick Kanas book features over 200 images, 76 in color. Each of these images is discussed in the text in appropriate detail. Most of the illustrations are miniaturized, but they are generally well reproduced and remarkably readable. Similarly, the text is lucid and can be appreciated by specialists, but also by collectors and others. In addition to the maps and their descriptions, the volume contains a glossary and other reading aids.

Undoubtedly, Star Maps will become an important reference work in civic, institutional, college and university libraries, but individuals who are interested in the topics it covers will want to have their own copy. The distinguished scientific publishing house of Springer, in association with Praxis of Chichester, U.K., is to be commended for undertaking to make such a valuable body of knowledge available to a potentially larger audience. Because of its wide coverage, its many illustrations and other features, and because of the importance of the subjects it treats, Star Maps will become an indispensable library accession. It should also be acquired for their own private collections by all of those who are interested in the large and important body of knowledge it covers.

Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography was first published in 2007. A second edition was published in 2012, which added over 50 new pages, 44 new images, over 60 additional references, and several new sections that included a large section on frontispieces and title pages.

Now it is time for this third edition, with a number of significant changes and additions from the previous two. At the request of many readers, this edition is hardcover, making it more durable. In addition, the color plates have been incorporated into the text, rather than being placed in a separate section at the end. Two new chapters have been added: Chapter on Celestial globes and gores ). All in all, much is new in this book, for the ease and edification of the reader. Enjoy!

In the 17th and 18th Centuries, a number of beautiful sky atlases were produced in Europe that showed the constellations as allegorical representations of classical Greek heroes, heroines, and monsters. But these constellation images also had a scientific purpose, in that they were placed in coordinate systems of celestial latitude and longitude that allowed the stars to be mapped in the sky. In addition, many of these atlases depicted diagrams of the solar system that reflected both contemporary and ancient cosmological systems, thus tracing the development of our view of the heavens over time.

Such images have generally disappeared from modern-day celestial charts, which instead focus on showing thousands of stars and deep-sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae that are not visible to the naked eye. With the discovery of ever more wonders in space and with plans to finish the International Space Station and then move on to explore the Moon and Mars, there is a renewed interest in the heavens. Increasing numbers of people are buying telescopes and becoming amateur astronomers, and they are using star charts to help them navigate in the sky. But, at the same time, the beauty and awe generated by the celestial void has captured our imagination and delighted our aesthetic sense, and there is a longing for the old images. For example, antiquarian map societies are prospering, and celestial maps are now viewed as a specialty of map collecting.

Up until now, discussions of star maps have been found in either general histories of astronomy or in catalogs of celestial atlases that have failed to trace their development over time. What is needed is a more integrated book that discusses celestial cartography in terms of constellation development, changing views of the universe, and advances in mapmaking techniques, while at the same time capturing the beauty of the heavens using images from antiquarian celestial prints and atlases. This, in a nutshell, is the intention of this book.