Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
![Zacharias Landteck, ZACHARIAS LANDTECKS Neu inventierte GEOGRAPHISHE UNIVERSAL-ZEIG UND SCHLAG-UHR[:] ZACHARIAS LANDTECKS Nieuw Uytgevonde WEERELD-BEELDIGH WYS EN SLAG WERK. [Nüremburg: Johann Baptist Homann, ca. 1705?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BRM3118-Landteck-Schlag-Uhr_lowres-150x150.jpg)
An interesting, attractive and very rare print depicting a remarkable universal clock purportedly developed by Nuremburg clock- and watchmaker Zacharias Landteck (1670-1740). Not to be confused with the vastly more common version attributing the clock to map- and instrument maker Johann Baptist Homann. The print depicts one face of Landteck’s clock, flanked left and right […]
![[ Solar System ] Par Camille Flammarion et Naud-Evrard / Dessin et peinture de E. Huguenin / Gravure de Cholet / Impron. de Hoock Fes., LE MONDE SOLAIRE [:] NOTIONS DE COSMOGRAPHIE. Paris: Librairie Ch. Delagrave, ca. 1880.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BRM3538-Le-Monde-Solaire-ca-1880_lowres-scaled-e1589105138940-150x150.jpg)
A stunning and unrecorded image of the solar system, the fruit of a collaboration between a famed scientific thinker and author, a geographer, a wallpaper manufacturer, and an educational publisher. This spectacular chart represents the Copernican model of the solar system, with the eight known planets, the asteroid belt and a pair of comets orbiting […]
![Printed by John Poulson, Approaching Solar Eclipse. Philadelphia, [June 1806].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BRM3527-Approaching-Solar-Eclipse_lowres-scaled-e1588803109549-150x150.jpg)
An impressive 1806 astronomical broadside alerting Philadelphia-area residents to an upcoming solar eclipse, illustrated by a large woodcut diagram. Viewers in Philadelphia experienced the eclipse as only partial, though their compatriots in parts of New England and New York were treated to a “total obscuration of the solar disk”. Printed by newspaper publisher John Poulson […]
A delightful and handsome set of illustrated educational cards published in London in 1840 and addressing topics in astronomy, meteorology and optics, touching on themes as close to home as rainbows and as far afield as nebulae. The set consists of 104 educational cards, accompanied by an instructional booklet and housed in a book-form half-leather […]
Rare map of Nantucket by William Mitchell, described by Crosby as “the first large size map of local origin and of considerable accuracy” and one of the most sought-after maps of the island. Drawn by Nantucket astronomer and mathematician William Mitchell (1791-1868), the map depicts the island’s complex coastline, major topographical features, roads, and residences. […]
![[ Nostradamus ] Antoine de Fer, ROUE PERPETUELLE POUR PRONOSTIQUER LES ANNÉES FERTILES ET STERILES TRES FERTILES ET TRES STERILES POUR TOUTES LES ANNÉES TANT PASSÉES QVE AVENIR TIRÉE D'UN MANUSCRIPT DE M. MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS [“Perpetual Wheel For Predicting Fertile and Barren Years, Very Fertile and Very Barren For All Years, both in the Past and Future, Drawn from a Manuscript by Mr Michel Nostradamus”]. Paris: Antoine de Fer, [ca. 1641].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/BRM3880-de-Fer-Fertilite-1641_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Rare and very unusual engraved circular astrological instrument for predicting the fertility of the different seasons and months of the year… obviously of particular importance to agriculture, although the underlying perpetual design may have permitted other applications. The design is credited to the greatest of the medieval astrologer/prognosticators, Michel Nostradamus. Remarkably, this example of the […]
A charming and seemingly unrecorded edition of a portfolio of large-scale astronomical diagrams through the collaboration of James Reynolds and artist John Emslie, and designed “as an effective means of imparting knowledge through the medium of the eye, aided by suitable colouring, and the clear descriptions accompanying them” (advert in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical […]
Only the fifth known example of Amos Pettengill’s 1828 Stellarota, possibly the earliest known American planisphere. Reverend Amos Pettengill (1780-1830), a pastor who served in various New England communities, was living in Connecticut when he published A View of the Heavens (1826), an astronomical textbook for children. A brief mention of the Stellarota in the textbook […]
A very rare early 19th-century playing cards designed to educate players on “the sublime Science of Astronomy.” The set consists of 52 cards in 4 suits, as with a regular pack of cards. Here, however, each suit is assigned a season: Hearts represent Spring; Diamonds, Summer; Clubs, Autumn; and Spades, Winter. Cards 1 through 7 of […]