BAY 



BAY 



to be Rain, which U not far from the confluence of the Lech 

 and the Danube), in Bavaria, in 15 7-.'. He followed tin- 

 profession of an advocate at Augburg, where lie died in 

 1625, having livod a bachelor fifty-three years. He was an 

 astronomer, and a diligent inquirer into antiquity. The 

 preceding particulars are (or were) Mated iu hi* epitaph, in 

 ;mrch of St. Dominic at Augsburg. (See Schiller, 

 Ctrl urn itrllalum Chtittianum. Aug. Ymd. 16'J" : or K;i*t- 

 11. -r. (j'ftrh. tier Math. vol. iv. p. 94.) Of bit life we can 

 find no account, except in ti . //ir Universtlle, 



nJiirh Mates that he was a minister of the gospel, whose teal 

 got him into trouble, but \vlu> was withal so Rood an astro- 

 nomer, that he was ennobled by tint Emperor Leopold in 

 1669. With whom he has been confounded in this strange 

 e v.r cannot tell, but be himself, in the preface to Ins 

 chari- himself for employing his time in mathe- 



matics, he b.ing a lawyer. There was a John Bayer who 

 published various works between liiv.2 uiid 16C7. one- of 

 which, Oslium vei A'.rium Salurer, <$c., might have con- 

 tained astronouiy. 1'erhaps this one may have been ton- 

 founded with John Ba\er of Augsburg;. 



Bayer has innuortali/.i'd his n.uiio, as Delamhrc remarks, 

 at a very cheap rale. Ho published charts of the stars in 

 lCi'3, in which, for the first tune, he dislir. .< from 



another bv allixing lct;ei>. \Vhen MamMecd and others 

 adopted tliis practice, which has since become universal, the 

 letters of Bayer were followed, winch has made his maps valu- 

 able ; otherwise they are not so good as those of Hevelius. 



The first edition ol Bayer's maps was published at Augs- 

 burg in September, 1603, with the following title : Johannis 

 Baieri Uluiinani, J.C. Uranometria,nmnium asterismorum 

 continent schemata nova methodo delineata, (frets laminis 

 expresta. The title given by Lalande (Bibliogr. Astr.) is 

 incorrect He had obtained the constellations visible in the 

 northern hemisphere from the catalogue of Tycho Brain-, 

 and those about the south pole from Americus Vcsputius 

 and others. (Kepler, Tab. Rudolph, cited by Kastncr.) It 

 is not known whether he observed himself, but Riccioli, in 

 tli'- words ' snis viyiliis astronomicis aucta et emendata,' 

 implies that be did ; and Bartschius (Pluniiph. in Pref. ad 

 Led.) affirms that Bayer was not in possession of the more 

 recent observations of Tycho Brahe, and that his places were 

 erroneous in consequence. There are fifty-one maps by 

 Bayer, namely, two of the hemispheres, one of nine constel- 

 lations about the south pole, and forty-eight of single con- 

 stellations. The Greek letters are employed to denote the 

 stars, and where the Greek alphabet ends, the Roman small 

 It HITS are used. 



The following is the list of Bayer's constellations, after 

 each of which is placed the letter with which the reckoning 

 ends; so that by looking at the numbering of the two 

 alphabets annexed, the number of stars reckoned by him 

 may be seen. In applying the letters he seems to have ar- 

 ranged the stars in order of brilliancy: thus a is the Uu-gcM 

 star in a constellation, that is, the largest in the npin 

 Bayer, observing with the naked .-v--. in and about 1000. 

 Bayer's names and spellings arc retained. The constella- 

 tions are all in Ptolemy. 



34. Cetui, + 



35. Orion, p 



36. Eridanus, d 



37. Lepus, y 



38. I 1,0 



> 'anis Minor, ij 

 40. Navis, s 



.it.iiinis, q 

 IJ. (rater, \ 

 43. Corvus, q 

 4-1. II) dra. b 



45. Lupus,* 



46. Ara, U 



17. Corona meridional!*, t> 

 4-i. Piscis Notius, (i 



Pavo 



Toucan 



I'liu-mx 



1 ' 



>lan* 



Hjdrus 



Chameleon 



Apis 



Apis Indica 



Tnanguluui Australe 



Indus 

 ."u. Synopsis Cecil Superioris 



Borea 

 51. Synopsis Cu-li Inferiorii 



Austro 



In Delumbre's \at(Hist. il,- iMv/. M>xl.). ,,|,r, 



for x o read o. The title of the last map is pn-Miiiicd 

 by us, as the only copy of the first edition we know of does 

 not contain it. and the succeeding editions have no letter- 

 press. The constellations in Italics are those of which a 

 front view is presented, of which we shall presently tp.- 



In this first edition, the letter-press is on the back of the 

 plates. It contains, in addition to what has been noticed, 

 the various names of the constellations and s,: 

 together with the planets with which they were supposed to 

 have astrological allinitics. 



In order to restore, as he supposed, the sphere of Ptolemy, 

 Bayer has inverted many of the constellations, and ; 

 them turn their backs ; and this he has done upon an ecliptic 

 and equator so disposed as to place the spectator ; 

 The state of the question is thit/ it is pretty clear either 

 that Ptolemy imagined himself on the outside of the 

 looking on the backs of the constellations, or in the nisiile, 

 looking on the fronts ; for neither of the two remaining sup- 

 positions will place those stars on the right or left ami 

 which Ptolemy places there. The alternative might be 

 easily settled by remarking whether the stars in tin- 

 are placed in the front or back ; but, unfortunately, Ptolemy 

 generally refers them to some part of the dress or arms 

 which has both back and front, such as the belt of Orion : 

 but in the few instances which are tests, Ptolemy a 1 

 names the back, the only exception we know of being a star 

 in Virgo, which is said to be in the front face (irpoowirov), 

 which may be reconciled with the rest by supposing tin- 

 hack of a figure with the face turned sideways. Thei. 

 to represent Ptolemy completely, an outside of a sphere, or 

 part of a sphere, must be drawn ; and on an in- 

 there is only the choice of changing left into right, ar... 

 versa, by drawing backs, or backs into fronts, and 

 by drawing fronts. Bayer has chosen the first, with the 

 exceptions noted in italics in the preceding list, lor which he 

 has been blamed by Schiekard, liarlseh, Heveluis, Flam- 

 steed, and others- but, singularly enough, he 1 

 ried his own -v*tem through: for Andromeda, of which he 

 has represented the face, is precisely one ol those signs in 

 which a crucial word is found in Ptolemy, who places one 

 star between the shoulders (iv nf (UTafpitup). Flam 

 cm* the knot by assuring us that VUTOV and /r<S?. 

 winch vulgar scholars imagine to mean 'the back,' and 

 part of the back between the shoulders,' sometimes 

 mean 'the front' and 'the chest,' in proof of winch he 

 brings his own conviction, that Homer and other* mn*i in 

 some place* have adopted these senses. Montuchi, with 

 great probability, c .njectiire* that Bayer intended to d.. 

 convex sphere, but overlooked, or was ignorant of, the 

 proper method of inverting the figures on the copper. 



Circumstances which we shall have to mention in FLAM 

 STEKD make it worth while to give the preceding details, 

 The rest of the history of Bayer's work is as follows : Ir 

 Julius Schiller published at Augsburg hi* ( 

 ./um Chri&tianum, &c. toriuli tiprrA J. Hui/rn. ^<\ 

 Umwmttrletn navam prinre accuratiorcm laruj 

 temijue tuppeditanlis. This was an attempt to change the 

 * of the constellations into others derived from the 

 Scriptures; as, for instance, calling the twelve signs of the 

 zodiac after the apostles, &c. The northern constellations 

 '..ken from the New Testament and the southern from 

 the ( )ld. Schiller's account is a* follow* : that Bayer, having 

 laid down the positions of the star*, left all the rest to Schiller, 

 but died before the whole (and Ursa Minor in particular) 

 was completed, and without having time to finish some as- 

 tronomical Prolegomena; that the new Uranometry of Baye* 



