THE ”EMPEROR’S ASTRONOMY” (dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) elegantly depicts the cosmos and heavens according to the 1400-year-old Ptolemaic system, which maintained that the sun revolved around the Earth. By means of hand-colored maps and moveable paper parts (volvelles), Petrus Apianus (1495–1552) laid out the mechanics of a universe that was Earth- and human-centered. Within three years of Apianus’s book, this view was challenged by Copernicus’s assertion that the Earth revolved around the sun, making this elaborate publication outdated.
Petrus Apianus. Astronomicum Caesareum (The Emperor's Astronomy). Ingolstadt, Germany: 1540. Rosenwald Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
