SCHILLER, JULIUS. COELUM STELLATUM CHRISTIANUM. AUGSBURG: ANDREAS APERGER, 1627

Oblong folio (12 1/2 x 16 1/4 in.; 320 x 410 mm). Engraved title with a view of Christ in majesty seated with saints and biblical personages, 49 (misnumbered "LIV") engraved constellation maps and 2 engraved maps of the northern and southern skies, all by Lucas Kilian; closed tear to title and first leaf, marginal tear repaired to one chart. Contemporary spotted calf with single blind rule.

Brown, pp. 31-33; Warner, p. 229; Zinner 5078

FIRST EDITION. "An interesting and curious old work in which the stars appear as in the Uranometria [of Johann Bayer], but instead of the ancient figures and names of the constellations, numerous saints are enshrined amongst the stars. Biblical names are substituted instead of the so-called heathen ones . . . It is said that Judas or Julius Schiller revived the names given to the Zodiacal groups centuries before by the Venerable Bede, and completed the reformation with all the constellations . . . copies of this work are very rare" (Brown). Several new objects appear on these charts, some of which have proved fictitious, but among the most important is the great nebula in Andromeda, now classified as M31.