Johann Bayer (1572 - March 7, 1625) was a German lawyer and celestial cartographer. Bayer was born in Rain, Lower Bavaria. In 1592, he began studying philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt. Upon completing university, he began legal practice in Augsburg, becoming legal adviser to the city council in 1612. In addition to the law, he studied archaeology, mathematics, and especially astronomy. His work codifying the positions of stars and other celestial objects on the celestial sphere had remains in use today. His star atlas Uranometria Omnium Asterismorum, published in 1603 in Augsburg, was the first atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere. It drew upon the work of Tycho Brahe and Alessandro Piccolomini, but was far more encyclopedic: Bayer's catalog included a thousand more stars than its precursors. Uranometria also introduced a new system of star designation, now known as the Bayer Designation. In addition to the classical constellations of the northern hemisphere, Bayer included in his work a dozen further constellations, invented to fill the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere - which Ancient Greece and Rome had never seen. The crater Bayer on the Moon is named after him. More by this mapmaker...

Alexander Mair (1559 - 1617), also known as Mayr / Mayer, was a German engraver and painter active in Augsburg in the latter part of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. Mair was born in Augsburg. His works include both copper engravings and woodcuts, although he is best known for copper. Among his more famous works are the frontispiece and celestial map plates for Johann Bayer's 1603 Uranometria, a portrait of Pope Leo X, vignettes such asDas Armbrustschiessen zu München 1599, the frontispiece of Marcus Welser's Dissertation sur les antiquités d'Augsbourg, and Welser's portrait. Mair is also credited with a wood-engraved map of Augsburg. He died in Augsburg in 1617. Learn More...

Johann Görlin (June 26, 1635 - February 2, 1663), also known as Gerlin, was a German printer and bookseller active in Ulm, Germany. Some suggest he is the son of a bookseller, also Johann Görlin, while others suggest he was born of a Steinenkirch pastor. He established himself with a private press on May 7, 1658, but published earlier works. He was briefly succeeded widow, who published until 1680, and by his son, also Johann Görlin. His shop printed theological and historical works for the most part, but also produced several editions of Johann Bayer's Uranometria. Learn More...