The Sunderland Collection

This book includes all of the original plates: two are Habrecht’s planispheres, one dating to 1628. They are stereographic (polar projection) celestial charts of the northern and southern constellations. They are based on the work of 

, whose 1598 celestial globe was particularly significant for its inclusion of twelve new southern constellations which had been recorded by navigator Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and his crew on the 'Eerste Schipvaart' during the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies (1595–1597). 

Of note is the inclusion of the constellation 'Rhombus'. Today this constellation is known as 'Reticulum' and survives as a faint cluster of stars. It may derive from the quadrilateral, or diamond-shaped arrangement of stars seen by Amerigo Vespucci near the Antarctic pole. This is the first printed depiction of 'Rhombus' which was introduced by Habrecht in 1621. 

This book also includes several folding plates that were added to Habrecht’s original edition by Sturm, including two polar projections of the terrestrial world and ten folded engravings showing the various parts of the ‘Planiglobium’. The plates were likely intended to be mounted and assembled to form instruments, each with a revolving plate measuring twenty-seven centimetres in diameter with a movable pointer and was to be supported on an approximately twelve centimetre base.

The ‘Planiglobium’ is a playful book that contains Isaac Habrecht II’s treatise on constructing celestial and terrestrial globes and planispheres, with rare folding plates designed by his pupil Johann Sturm. Globes and other scientific instruments such as astrolabes were typically found in the homes of the wealthy academic elite. By displaying printed versions, the ‘Planiglobium’ allowed wider audiences to experience the joy of seeing the world and cosmos – including newly ‘discovered’ lands – in three dimensions.

The work is among the finest ‘Instrument Books’ published in the seventeenth century. This example includes a full set of the rare folding plates that illustrate Habrecht’s treatise, which fold out to four times each page’s size. These include two folding celestial planispheres, which rarely are present in surviving copies of this book. They were masterfully engraved by Jacob von der Heyden, and were probably intended to be mounted and assembled to form paper instruments, each with a revolving plate and a movable pointer.

Globes were not only tools for astronomy, but also served as statement decorative items in the homes of the wealthy and educated. The ‘Planiglobium’ is an instrument book produced for public interest, decorated with maps and explanatory illustrations that replaced the need to purchase expensive globes or instruments. These types of works sought to teach audiences about the tools and methods of astronomers and geographers of celestial and terrestrial phenomena.

Frontispiece for Treatise on the 'Heavenly Sphere' 

Diagram for calculating positions in relation to the equator 

Circular diagram 

Frontispiece for Treatise on the Terrestrial Sphere 

Diagram of the globe showing the distance between different points

Projection from a single point such as the centre of the equator 

Cartouche 

Map of the Northern Constellations

Map of the Southern Constellations

Design for an instrument measuring the 'heavenly' plane

Compass illustration and classical podiums

Map of the Northern Hemisphere

Map of the Southern Hemisphere 

This work contains the full complement of plates, including two planispheres that are rarely present. Of the several other copies in continental European libraries, all but one lack the plates.