The following references are useful to find biographical, as well as iconographical, information on astronomers authors of famous books.
To check books against descriptions made by other librarians, a list of catalogues including rare astronomy collections is provided.
For a more comprehensive coverage of rare book cataloguing, please refer to the General section of this site

• Biography
• Language
• Online catalogues of libraries with rare astronomy collections
• Portraits

Biography

• Biographical Index to Sky & Telescope (a complete index by Kevin Krisciunas)
• Jesuits and the Sciences 1540-1995
• History of Astronomy: Persons: Sources (Astronomiae historia by Wolfgang R. Dick)
• Astronomi italiani (since 1860) in Italian

Language

• The Astronomy Thesaurus by R.M. and R.R. Shobbrook (multilingual)

Online catalogues of libraries with rare astronomy collections

• Armagh Observatory (The rare and antiquarian book collection)
• Department of Astronomy of the Bologna University
• Fonds ancien "Reserve" de l'Observatoire de Marseille
• Harvard University Libraries (Hollis)
• Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze
• The Paris Observatory Library
• Webcat (University of Cambridge, Institute of Astronomy)
• Burndy Library of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT
• University of Florida Rare Book Collection: Astronomy
• Urania (U.S. Naval Observatory Library Catalog)
• Vienna University (Astronomy Library)

Portraits

• Astronomers from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology