Collecting celestial maps and prints

Abstract

Collecting antiquarian celestial maps is actually a specialized area of map collecting in general, similar to other specialized areas (e.g., county or state maps of a country, maps of a country or continent, road maps, sea charts, maps of military campaigns, town plans, maps of an individual mapmaker, maps of a particular period of time). In all of these cases, one is concerned with such issues as authenticity, condition of the paper, type of colorization (if any), displaying the map, preservation, and price. Much of what will be said below could be said of any antiquarian map, be it celestial or terrestrial. I will only touch on some of the highlights specifically related to collecting celestial maps; more information is given in the references at the end.