Della sfera del mondo

This striking Renaissance book by Alessandro Piccolomini (1508–1579), a Sienese humanist and philosopher, is illustrated with 47 full-page woodcut star maps, making this the first printed star atlas.

 

In this extraordinary work, Piccolomini uses consecutive Latin letters, beginning with ‘A’, to identify the most notable stars (usually the brightest) in each constellation. This practice was later adopted with some modification by 17th century German astronomer Johann Bayer, and through him, by all modern astronomers.