tion of the whole to the last most perfect and correct Catalogue of them that ever yet appear'd. We fee this here perform'd and finish'd after a new and moft elegant manner, to the great benefit and advantage not only of the learned World, but of Mankind in general, and more especially that of the trading and fea-faring Part thereof, by the great and mafterly hand of the late incomparable Mr. Flamfted, the late Royal Profeffor of Aftronomy at Greenwich; The Honour of his Profeffion; the Ornament of the British Nation; the great Boaft and Glory of the Aftronomical World! Of whom it may much more juftly be faid, than 'twas of Hipparchus by Pliny, That he undertook a business, which it would have been a great Work for even a Deity to perform; that is, to number the Stars, and call each of them by their Names. By which means, he has given to pofterity the poffeffion of the Heavens, if any of them bave fubtlety enough to comprehend them. This most excellent Perfon, and moft accurate Observer of the Courfe of the Celestial Bodies, had with indefatigable pains and labour, for more than 40 years, watch'd the motion of the Stars; and has given us innumerable Obfervations of the Sun, Moon, and Planets, which he made with very large Inftruments, exactly divided by moft exquifite Art, and fitted with Telescopical Sights. Whence we are to rely more on the Obfervations he hath made, than on all those that went before him; who only made their Obfervations with the naked Eye, without the affiftance of Telescopes. He alfo * Aufus eft (etiam rem Deo improbam) annumerare pofteris ftellis, cœlo in hereditatem cunétis relicto; fi quifquam qui rationem eam caperet inventus effer. Plin. in Hift. Nat. A 2 has has compofed the British Catalogue of fixed Stars; the number inferted in which reach to 3000. And as Hevelius doubled in his Obfervations the number of Stars obferv'd by Tycho; fo our British Aftronomer has as far out-done Hevelius, having by his Obfervations doubled the Stars that were obferved by him: To each of which he has annex'd the Longitude, the Latitude, right Afcenfion, and Distance from the Pole; together with the variation of rightAfcenfion and Declination, while the Longitude increases a degree. We are fo much indebted to this Aftronomer, for the Increase of the Knowledge we have of the Celestial Bodies, that there is not the leaft Star in the Heavens to be feen, whofe Place and Situation is not now better known than the pofition of moft Cities, thro' which Travellers on our Globe do daily pafs. Nor is it any wonder that the Aftronomers fhould take fo much pains, and fo obftinately watch the fixed Stars, to determine their places; for without the exact fettling of their pofitions and places, they could never have found out the Ways of the Planets, nor have defcribed their Orbits: For it is upon the Obfervations of the fix'd Stars, as upon immoveable Pillars, that the whole Science of Aftronomy is erected, and by them indeed it is moft firmly fuftain'd. What the fame great Author has yet further done, by his inceffant Labours for the good of Pofterity, in the advancement and perfection of Aftronomy, during the laft and concluding period of his invaluable Life, will more fully appear from the fubjoin'd Account of the pre fent fent excellent Performance, which is here given in its native and genuine fimplicity, as it has lately been collected and tranfcrib'd from his own original Papers. §. I. The Reasons and Motives of this To O render the indefatigable labours of Mr. Flamfted as ufeful and beneficial to the world as may be, as well as to compleat his Works already published, it has been judg'd very neceffary by his Executors to carry on and perfect the prefent work; which contains all the Conftellations vifible in our Hemisphere: wherein the ancient Figures are reftored, and the Stars laid down in their proper places, with the greatest exactnefs, from his laft corrected Catalogue. The motives that induced Mr. Flamfted to fet about this work, the progrefs that he made in it during his life-time, and the methods that he made ufe of for conftructing the Charts, which render them far more ufeful than any yet extant, will beft appear by the account that he himself has left behind him: Wherein he tells us, That having about the year 1700 compleated the calculation of the places of the fix'd Stars, he fet himself to form Maps of the Conftellations; wherein he found it neceffary wholly to depart from Bayer, of whom Hevelius himself complain'd, but without mentioning any particulars; which fet Mr. Flamfted into a strict enquiry, to find out who thofe Aftronomers were that firft conftructed Maps of the Conftellations; and efpecially by whom the Stars were reduced into thofe forms, into A 3 which which they are difpofed in Ptolemy's catalogue, (of which there is no account that can be relied on :) For from what Ptolemy himself tells us, in the fourth chapter of his 7th book, it is evident, that thefe images or forms were older than Hipparchus's time: where he fays, "that we employ not the fame figures of the Con❝ftellations, that thofe before us did; as nei"ther did they of thofe before them; but fre"quently make ufe of others, that more truly "reprefent the forms for which they are drawn. "For inftance, thofe ftars which Hipparchus "places on the Virgin's fhoulder we place cn her fide, because their distances from the "head appear too great for the distance from "the head to the fhoulder in his fign of Virgo; "and thus by making those stars to be on the "fides, the figure will be agreeable and proper, "which it would not, if those stars were drawn CC on the fhoulders. §. II. Who the Aftronomers were, that first conftructed Maps of the Conftellations, and reduc'd the Stars into the forms they now appear in, in Ptolemy's Catalogue. The Chaldean obfervations were made in the 82d year ar ads, correfponding with the 519th year of Nabonaffar, or 229 before Chrift, wherein mention is made of the ftars in the fouthern fhoulder of the Virgin, or the northernmoft in the front of the Scorpion, in an appulfe of Mars to that ftar; which appulfe was obferved in the 476th year of Nabonaffar, or 276 before Chrift. Tymocharis and Ariftillus, who lived about 800 years before Chrift, obferved the appulfes of of the Moon to the fixed Stars, about 295 years before Chrift, and in the year of the world 3709; and again about 283 years before Chrift, or the year of the world 3724, were ftill ancienter than the Chaldeans: At which time it is plain, from what Ptolemy fays, that the Ancients had figures or maps of the Conftellations, with the Stars places defigned on them. Aratus the Poet, who wrote of the rifing and fetting of the Stars, flourished about the 125th Olympiad, or about 280 years before Chrift, was (if not cotemporary, yet) but little later than Tymocharis and Ariftillus, and certainly older than the Chaldean obfervers of the appulfes From whofe poem 'tis confirmed that the Greeks had figures of the Constellations. But from whom they had drawn them, or how they came by them, is no where to be learn'd. From the aforementioned place in Ptolemy it is evident, that by thofe before him, he meant Hipparchus and his followers; and by thofe elder than the Chaldean and Greek Aftronomers, who flourished before Hipparchus's time, he meant thofe Aftronomers who first of all made obfervations of the appuifes of the Planets to the fixed Stars: From the translation of which, we have an account of an obfervation of the Northermoft Star in the front of Scorpio, made in the 476th year of Nabonaffar, or 276 years before Chrift; and likewife of another of the Southermoft fhoulder of Virgo, made in the 519th year of Nabonaffar, or 229 years before Chrift. But Tymocharis and Ariftillus, whofe obfervations are alfo tranfmitted' to us by Ptolemy, mention Stars of many other Con A 4 |