Whilst researching Alex Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas, I took a deep dive into the website of Ian Ridpath, a real polymath on the subject and fascinating for anybody with an interest in astronomy. The text below is quoted from his website.
“Of all Jamieson’s many publications, it is his Celestial Atlas that is best remembered. By the time it appeared Jamieson was evidently well connected for he obtained royal approval to dedicate it to the king of England, George IV. Two editions were produced in rapid succession, one dated February 1822 and the other September 1822. The star charts in both editions appear identical – even obvious labelling errors such as ‘Herscelii’ for Herschelii on Plate 4 and ‘Fyxis’ for Pyxis on Plate 26 went uncorrected. The only significant change seems to have been the insertion of an unnumbered plate after the Preface illustrating Egyptian and Hindu zodiacs.
The second edition was later reprinted on thinner paper and with a somewhat smaller page size (earlier printings had had overly generous margins). No date is given for this reprint, but on its title page Jamieson’s name has the post-nominal letters LLD in place of the previous AM, so he had evidently obtained his doctorate of law in the meantime. An advertisement for the Celestial Atlas in the London Literary Gazette of 7 February 1824 describes it as ‘just published’, so a date of late 1823 or early 1824 seems probable. Confusingly, though, the title page of this reprint still bears the date of first publication, i.e. 1 February 1822.
Where Jamieson’s charts differed most noticeably from those of Fortin and Bode was in his modelling of the constellation figures. Fortin and Bode closely followed the depictions in Flamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis, but Jamieson allowed himself greater artistic freedom. His figures were more realistically drawn, notably in his improvements on Flamsteed’s unconvincing portrayals of Lacerta, Lynx, Cancer, Scorpius…. Overall, Jamieson’s figures are more appealing than those of his predecessors.”
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:A_Celestial_Atlas_by_Alexander_Jamieson
