The Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius is best known for his spectacular celestial atlas, the Harmonia Macrocosmica. His atlas contained a description of ancient and contemporary astronomy including the theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe. The atlas was illustrated with twenty-nine engraved plates that are among the most beautiful celestial charts ever made. The charts include illustrations of the heavens and diagrams of the orbits of the Sun, Moon, and planets according to the different cosmological theories. They were richly adorned with elaborate cartouches and baroque elements such as putti in clouds, shells, garlands, as well as portraits of famous astronomers and astronomical instruments. The Harmonia Macrocosmica was published in 1660, and reissued in 1661 by the Amsterdam publisher Johannes Jansson as a supplement to his Atlas Novus. The plates were reissued again in 1708 by the Amsterdam publishers Gerard Valk and Petrus Schenk.

The relative size of the celestial bodies is presented in this dramatic chart. Numerous putti hover in the surrounding cloud background and support the title banners. Finely engraved by Johannes van Loon.

References: Kanas, pp. 191-194.

Condition: B

Old color and wide margins with one small damp stain in image and another in bottom blank margin that just enters border at bottom right. There is a small burn mark in image at right, and small areas of discoloration in blank margins caused by cello tape, far from image. The cello tape has been removed. Remnants of hinge tape on verso.