Abstract
The constellation was introduced by Petrus Plancius on maps published in 1612–1614 to fill a perceived empty space between Cancer and Gemini (Fig. 6.1). Some authors attribute its formation to the Polish nobleman and astronomer Stanislaus Lubieniecki (1623–1675); Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) wrote: “[Jacob] Bartschius and Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, made it into a Lobster, and the latter added toward Gemini a small shrimp-like object which he called Cancer minor.” However, Bartsch did not mention the constellation in 1624s Usus Astronomicus, nor did he show it in the charts published in Planisphaerium stellatum (1661; Fig. 6.2). Similarly, Lubieniecki did not show it in his magnum opus Theatrum cometicum (1681), although he included its stars (Fig. 6.3).
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Notes
- 1.
“[I]t is likely that in the time of Homer the other Bear had not yet been marked out as a constellation, and that the star-group did not become known as such to the Greeks until the Phoenicians so designated it and used it for purposes of navigation.” Geography, I.1.6 trans. H.L. Jones, published in Vol. 1 of the Loeb Classical Library edition (1917).
- 2.
Ptolemy’s “unformed stars” not belonging to any particular constellation.
- 3.
Bibliotheca 2.5.2, trans. J.G. Frazer.
- 4.
Paradiso, Canto XXV, lines 100–102; trans. H.W. Longfellow.
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Cancer Minor. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_6
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