Cellarius, Andreas

Hæmisphærium stellatum boreale cum subiecto hæmisphærio terrestri. Amsterdam: Jan Jansson, 1660

Copper-engraved celestial map (sheet size: 502 x 584 mm). Full period color. 𓄧;

The Northern Celestial Hemisphere, with the Terrestrial Hemisphere beneath — one of the finest celestial charts ever produced, from the first edition of Cellarius.

This composition presents a view of the constellations of the Northern Sky superimposed over the North Pole, Europe, and northern Asia. It is from the Harmonia Macrocosmica seu Atlas Universalis et Novus (Harmonious Universe or New and Universal Atlas) by Andreas Cellarius, the finest celestial atlas ever produced. According to Classical astronomy, championed by Aristotle and Ptolemy, the stars were mounted on a huge, transparent crystal sphere that was part of a geocentric system, in which all of the stars and planets revolved around🐻 the Earth.

The present image was engraved in 1660 by Jan Janssonius, during the greatest era of Dutch map-making, a period that saw the perfection of the art of representing scientific ideas in engraving. It was reprinted by Janssonius in 1661, and again in 1708 by Gerard Valk and Petrus꧃ Schenk, who added their names to the plates.

REFERENCE

Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici Cel. 1