''Selenographia, sive Lunae descriptio'' (''Selenography, or A Description of The Moon'') was printed in 1647 and is a milestone work by

Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; ; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor and mayor of Danz ...

. It includes the first detailed map of the Moon, created from Hevelius's personal observations. In his treatise, Hevelius reflected on the difference between his own work and that of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

. Hevelius remarked that the quality of Galileo's representations of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

in ''

Sidereus nuncius ''Sidereus Nuncius'' (usually ''Sidereal Messenger'', also ''Starry Messenger'' or ''Sidereal Message'') is a short astronomical treatise (or ''pamphlet'') published in Neo-Latin by Galileo Galilei on March 13, 1610. It was the first published ...

'' (1610) left something to be desired. ''Selenography'' was dedicated to King Ladislaus IV of Poland and along with Riccioli/ Grimaldi's ''Almagestum Novum'' became the standard work on the Moon for over a century. There are many copies that have survived, including those in

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, in the library of

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

, in the Stillman Drake Collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto, and in the Gunnerus Library at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Selenographia map of moon

Notes

External links

''Selenographia, sive Lunae descriptio''
1647 books Lunar science Astronomy books {{astronomy-book-stub