Claude Mellan, Pierre Gassendi, Three maps of the Moon

INTRODUCTION
- Man and the stars
SECTION I
- The dawn of astronomy: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Biblical Cosmos
SECTION II
- The cosmos becomes a sphere
SECTION III
- The geometry of the cosmos
SECTION IV
- The skies of Islam
SECTION V
- Evangelisation of the cosmos
SECTION VI
- The Renaissance of Astronomy
SECTION VII
- Galileo: the cosmos through the telescope
SECTION VIII
- From Galileo to Newton

Set of uncut printed gores and polar caps of the Moon

Claude Mellan, Pierre Gassendi, Three maps of the Moon

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Claude Mellan (1598-1688), Pierre Gassendi (1591-1655)
Three maps of the Moon, 1637
Abbeville, Musée Boucher de Perthes

These three maps of the Moon by the celebrated engraver Mellan, whose work was commissioned by Pierre Gassendi, show three different phases of the Earth's satellite. They represented a crucial step forward in terms of sheer beauty, realism and accuracy in detail.