Boötes with two dogs depicted by Petrus Apianus (1533)
Two dogs follow at the heels of Boötes on this chart of the northern sky from Horoscopion Apiani Generale by the German astronomer Petrus Apianus (Peter Apian), published in 1533 at Ingolstadt. The tail of the Great Bear is at right, and Virgo is beneath Boötes’s feet. Boötes holds the two dogs on a leash in his right hand, which hangs by his side rather than being held up high as in later representations. In his left hand he carries a tall staff carved with a face, possibly intended to be his own likeness. The bright star between his thighs is Arcturus; the figure 7 between his lower legs is the star’s reference number on the chart.
This chart is remarkable for reasons other than the dogs. As well as the familiar Greek figures it shows several Arabic constellations, evidently derived from Apianus’s study of the 10th-century Book of the Fixed Stars by the Persian astronomer al-Ṣūfī. For more about Apianus’s chart of 1533 and its Arabic influences see here.
On by Apianus published in 1536 (and again, in colour, in 1540), the leash is held aloft in the left hand of Boötes, and the number of dogs has increased to three.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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Boötes holds three dogs on a leash on a single-sheet chart by Petrus Apianus titled Imagines syderum coelestium published in 1536. On this chart, and the 1540 chart, the constellations are shown reversed, as they would appear on a celestial globe.
