Astronomical Images : Constellation: The Pleiades, or seven sisters

Aratus

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This image comes from an edition of a work by Aratus of Soli (third century BC) that was firstly translated by Cicero and later by Avienus in the fourth century AD. It remained fashionable until the sixteenth century. The edition includes a long series of woodcuts showing personifications of constellations, planets and zodiac signs, which were mostly derived from Erhard Ratdolt's 1482 edition of G. Julius Hyginus' <i>Poetica astronomica</i>. The edition contained the life of Aratus, translated from the Greek into Latin, by the printer, Aldo Manuzio. It was issued alongside a magnificent collection of other ancient astrological texts, which included Marcus Manilius's <i>Astronomicorum libri quinque</i>. This latter work, by the first-century Roman astrologer, was previously published by Regiomontanus at his Nuremberg press in c. 1474, and was subsequently published by Joseph Justus Scaliger. The woodcut here shows the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas, a constellation discussed by Aratus.</p>