These are a pair of planispheres of the northern and southern skies, and ‘THE FIRST IMPORTANT PRINTED MAPS SHOWING THE STARS AS SEEN FROM EARTH’ (Warner). Johannes Honter (1498-1549) was born in Kronstadt now in Romania. He graduated from Cracow University in 1530 and in the same year he wrote ‘Rudimentorum Cosmographiae’ published in Cracow with just two maps, no copy survives. Honter’s attention turned to the spread of humanism and the Reformation. He believed this was best achieved through schools and began producing small classical works.

They are found bound into some examples of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Omnia, quae extant opera, Geographia excepta’ published in Basel in 1541 by Henri Petri. They illustrate parts seven and eight of the Almagest, or star catalogue. They illustrate the Ptolemaic constellations at 1532 although their are errors in detail. As Warner points out ‘by 1532 the vernal equinox, also known as the first point of the sign of Aries, had recessed well into the constellation of Pisces. On the map. however, it is shown back in the constellation of Aries. Likewise the autumnal equinox which in 1532 occurred when the sun was in Virgo’s breast, is shown at her feet.’ The initials ‘I H C’ in the southern constellation image stand for Johannes Honter of Kronstadt. Karrow (1993) 41/3a & 3b pp. 302-11; Warner Honter 1A & 1B.