In honour of this week’s supermoon,  we have uncovered some beautiful moonscapes from the British library and the Internet Archive. They are reproduced below alongside Lady Wortley Montague’s (1689-1762) fitting poem “A Hymn to the Moon” from the 1805 collection, Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, written during her travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

A HYMN TO THE MOON

    Written, in July, in an arbor.

Thou, silver deity of secret night,
Direct my footsteps thro’ the woodland shade;
Thou conscious witness of unknown delight,
The lover’s guardian, and the muse’s aid!

By thy pale beams I solitary rove,
To thee my tender grief confide;
Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove,
My friend, my goddess and my guide,

E’en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height,
The charms of young Endymion drew;
Veil’d with the mantle of concealing night;
With all thy greatness, and thy coldness too.

For more beautiful and weird images of the moon and other celestial delights see here