Officina Typographica
former constellation
Officina Typographica (Latin for printing office) was a constellation located east of Sirius and Canis Major, north of Puppis, and south of Monoceros. It was drawn up by Johann Bode and Joseph Jérôme de Lalande in 1798, and included in the former's star atlas Uranographia in 1801, honouring the printing press of Johannes Gutenberg. Lalande reported wanting to honour French and German discoveries in the same manner that Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille had done for his new constellations. It was called Buchdrucker-Werkstatt by Bode initially, and later Atelier Typographique in the 1825 work Urania's Mirror, Atelier de l’Imprimeur by Preyssinger in 1862 and Antlia Typographiae in 1888.
The constellation appeared in later star atlases through the 19th century but was rarely used by the end of the century; Richard Hinckley Allen noted its most recent use had been in 1878 in Father Angelo Secchi's planisphere, but stated "it is seldom found in the maps of our day.". The stars were later absorbed into northern Puppis, and remained permanently there after the setting of the constellation boundaries in 1928.
“Officina Typographica” enters the record as former constellation. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Officina, Typographica and former can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Officina Typographica” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Officina, Typographica and former provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2450097. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1798, 1801, 1825 and 1862.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Officina Typographica”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Officina Typographica primary sources, Officina Typographica archive and Officina research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Officina Typographica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.