Copper engraving, 49.5 x 59 cm, original hand-colour, blank verso.
This celestial chart depicts the orbits of the major planets according to Copernicus and Kepler, who shared heliocentric theories of the solar system, hypothesising circular and elliptical orbits respectively. Notes explain Kepler’s theories, as well as those of Ismael Bullialdus (author of Astronomia Philolaica), those of the English mathematician and astronomer Seth Ward, and of Nikolaus Mercator.
Doppelmayr became professor of mathematics at the Aegidien-Gymnasium in Nuremberg in 1704, and enjoyed a close working relationship with the founder of the Homann firm, Johann Baptist Homann. Astronomical plates prepared by Doppelmayr appeared in early editions of Homann’s general atlases before being collected together and published as the ‘Atlas Coelestis’ by the Homann Heirs in 1742. As part of this, Doppelmayr summarised the development of astronomy as a discipline.