Almagestum Novum, frontispiece
AuthorRiccioli, Giovanni Battista, 1598-1671
Page image from bound volume which has the following bibliographic description: 1 volume in 2. : illustrations, maps (2 folding), plates, diagrams, tables ; 37 cm
Almagstum novum was one of the earliest published books on astronomy. Riccioli gave names to craters and mountains on the moon. Most of the names are still in use. A competent astronomer and Jesuit priest, Riccoli published his massive New Almagest, a work that treated the efforts of both Copernicus and Kepler but which sought to show that the earth does not move.The image portrays Urania, the muse of astronomy, weighing up the rival systems of Copernicus, in which the earth moves round the sun, and Riccioli himself, in which the earth remains stationary at the center of the universe. The older system of Ptolemy has already been discarded and lies on the ground alongside.
Astronomy--Early works to 1800