Solar Eclipse Prints of the 18th Century
For the status of eclipse prediction, note Charles Leadbetter, A treatise of eclipses for 26 years: commencing anno 1715. ending anno 1740 (London, 1717)
The dedication is titled "To the Sons of Urania" and begins:
"As there is no part of Mathematicks so noble and excellent as Astronomy; so there is no part of Astronomy so difficult as the Doctrine of Eclipses ..... This piece of Learning is the very superstructure and punctilio of Astronomy. And so rare it is to be found amongst Men, that not One of Twenty-thousand hath attained to it."
For discussion of the phenomenon of broadside eclipse prints, see
Alice N Walters, "Ephemeral events: English broadsides of early eighteenth-century solar eclipses", History of Science, Vol. 37, pt. 1:115 (Mar. 1999) p. 1-43.
G. Armitage, The Shadow of the Moon: British solar eclipse mapping in the eighteenth century (Map Collector Publications, Tring, 1997)
Other narratives:
Related Objects:
- Inventory No. 15748, "Print (Hand-Coloured) "The Eclipseometer" for the Eclipse of 22 April 1715, by J. B., London, 1715"
- Inventory No. 27158, "Print (Engraving) of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 1 April, 1764, by Joseph Betts, engraved by Cole, Oxford, c. 1764", Betts, Joseph - University College, Oxford
- Inventory No. 22214, "Print of Five Solar Eclipse Paths across North Western Europe, by Benjamin Martin, London, c. 1764?", Martin, Benjamin