Andreas Cellarius

A pair of 17th century celestial hemispheres.

• Sold as a set of 2 plates.
• Andreas Cellarius (Dutch).
• Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri [&] Haemisphaerium Stellatum Australe Aequali sphaerarum proportione.
• Amsterdam: Schenk & Valk, 1708. 
• Original color with additions, including gold highlights.
• Unframed.

A pair of spectacular celestial charts of the northern and southern celestial spheres superimposed over the Earth. The northern sheet has Europe and Asia with parts of Africa and North America; the southern shows the Americas south of California and Florida and "Terra Australis Incognita." The skies are being supported by Atlas on one side and Hercules on the other.

The charts were published in the Atlas Coelestis; seu Harmonia Macrocosmica, the only celestial atlas to be produced in the Netherlands before the nineteenth century. It was a compilation of maps of the Ptolemaic universe and the more modern theories of Copernicus and Brahe, and remains the finest and most highly decorative celestial atlas ever produced. It was originally published by Jan Jansson in 1660; this chart comes from Schenk & Valk's reissue.