Fine fully colored example of this rare 17th Century map of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, originally issued in 1674, by Ignace Gastone Pardies, in Paris and revised in 1690, based in part on the work of the French Jesuit mathematician and astronomer, Thomas Gouye (1650-1725).

The map first appeared in Globi Coelestis in Tabulas Planas Redacti descriptio ... opus postumum, by Ignace Gaston Pardies and edited by Jan De Fontenay, in 1674. Dedicated to Johan Friedrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg and engraved by G. Vallet, in Paris, the atlas consisted of 6 Celestial Charts with text in Latin and French at the sides. Pardies (1636-1673), was a Jesuit astronomer whose manuscript star atlas was published by his colleagues just after his death.

Pardies' atlas was then reissued in 1690, with new information added, including the paths of comets observed since 1674 and corrections attributed to Thomas Gouye, described below. The figures of the Constellations are drawn from Bayer's Uranometria, with the figures carefully reworked and adapted to a broader view of the sky than was originally presented by Bayer.

The present example of the map appeared in the 1690 edition of Globi Coelestis in Tabulas Planas Redacti descriptio, and can be distinguished from the map included first edition of the atlas, by the revisions attributed in the text panels to Gouyeand, from the third edition of the atlas, published in 1693, which includes a different engraver credit at the bottom left margin (apud G. Duchange), as illustrated by the copy of the map in the National Library of France: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b59714416/f6.item

This magnificent work is perhaps most recognizable as the source of inspiration for the hemispheric projections of Gabriel Doppelmayr, which first appeared in the 1730s in atlases by Johann Baptist Homann and later appeared in Doppelmayr's Atlas Coelestis, first published in 1742.

The map provides a remarkable depiction of the Southern Sky (an internal view of the southern hemisphere centered on the southern equatorial pole in a gnomonic projection). The second edition of the map was apparently revised to include the work of later Jesuit scholars, including Thomas Gouye, a French Jesuit astronomer and mathematician, working in Dieppe.

Gouye's Observations Physiques et Mathematiques . . . published in 1688, in Paris , was an important scientific work published by the Jesuits, which included critical observations and corrections of some of his predecessors. With respect to its Astronomical observations, it is noteworthy for being a true work of science, rather than a travelogue, compiling astronomical observations, instrumentation, and weather conditions, in addition to observed astronomical positions and related calculations.

In the marginal notes below the Astronomical Index, the text notes Gouye's correction of the observations of Guy Tachard (1651-1712), who made a number of important celestial observations in the Southern Hemisphere, during his embassy to Siam in 1685, which were published in his Voyage de Siam des Peres Jesuites . . . (Paris, 1686). Gouye used his treatise to recalculate the determinations of latitude made by Tachard, using more recent and more accurate declination tables drawn by Philippe de La Hire.

All editions of Pardies' Atlas are rare. We note 2 examples of the 1674 edition offered in the past 30 years, with no recorded examples of the 1690 edition appearing on the market in more than 50 years.