Senex’s rare star charts in full original colour.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a great demand, from scientists and navigators alike, for an extensive and reliable star catalogue and atlas. The charts of John Seller were unreliable, those of Johannes Hevelius unobtainable, and the perfectionist John Flamsteed was reluctant to issue his great celestial atlas. The demand was met by the cartographer and mapseller John Senex, who – with the considerable aid of Edmond Halley – published a chart of the solar system in 1712, a zodiac in 1718, two pairs of star charts, with (as here) and without the zodiac illustrated, of the north and southern hemispheres circa 1721, and a planisphere in 1740. The charts were, at the time of publication, the most up to date rendering of the heavens available, and proved hugely popular. Even after the posthumous publication of Halley’s ‘Atlas Coelestis’ in 1729, the plates would continue to be issued up until the end of the eighteenth century.