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The Geographer

Although superseded by later works, John Barrow's anonymously produced geographical dictionary contained useful information on astronomical geography, especially as it related to finding longitude and latitude. It also contains numerous illustrations; the young tobacco-smoking lady from Aleppo is but one. This volume is from the Shoults Collection, and has just been recently catalogued. It was once owned by Humphry Repton, the landscape designer and author of Observations (1803), on display in cabinet 15.

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The Astrologer

Cornelius Gemma (1535-1577) was born at Louvain, where he later held the chair of medicine at the University. He occupied himself largely with astrology and mathematics but is remembered for his observations of an eclipse of the moon in 1569 and of the new star in Cassiopeia, which appeared in 1572. He recorded this star on 9th November, two days before it was seen by Tycho Brahe. Although many of Christopher Plantin's productions were embellished with copperplate illustrations, he chose the traditional woodcut for this first edition of Gemma's De naturae divinis characterismis (On the divine features of nature). This item was purchased locally.

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