"Each Part is Equivalent to one Month of Study of Astronomy"

Rare French board game, whose principal mission was "a race to the sun", published by Franc Mignien, a leading producer of Children's educational games.

The purpose of the game is to teach children the relative locations of the stars and constellations.

The game board consists of a celestial planisphere containing all the constellations visible within a year from Paris.

The planisphere is constructed in a stereographic equatorial polar projection. The constellations are represented by mythological characters with names in French. Each constellation occupies its celestial position. Some of the brightest stars are also named.

In 1878, the Petit Parisien described it as the fashionable game "à la campagne comme aux bains de mer." (in the countryside as in the sea).

The board can also be used to play the lotto, the game of the goose, to draw a horoscope, etc.

According to the description of the map provided by the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, the publisher extolled the virtues of the map as a teaching tool, declaring that "each part is equivalent to one month of study of astronomy"!

Rarity

We locate only a single example at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.