The Sunderland Collection

The frontispiece of this atlas is a map of the constellations, based on the work of the early seventeenth-century astronomer, Julius Schiller (c.1580–1627) who replaced the zodiacal constellations with Judeo-Christian figures: the Twelve Apostles, as well as figures from both the Old and New Testaments. Here, the constellations are: Sagittarius (St Matthew); Aquarius (Judas Thaddeus or Jude the Apostle); Pisces (Matthias the Apostle); Aries (St Peter); Taurus (St Andrew); Cassiopeia (Mary Magdalene); Orion (St Joseph); Cygnus (St. Helena, holding the cross); The River of Eridamus (The parting of the Red Sea).

Andreas Cellarius’s magnum opus ‘Harmonia Macrocosmica’ is probably the finest celestial atlas ever realised. The atlas features twenty-one sumptuous Baroque-style charts that majestically represent the three competing astronomical models of the day: the Ptolemaic, Tychonic, and the Copernican.

Most atypically, the cartography of the frontispiece integrates Judeo-Christian symbolism within the European vision of the cosmos by melding Old Testament figures with the zodiacal signs, such as Saint Peter for Aries. The last eight plates represent celestial hemispheres and planispheres depicting the constellations. They are the most ornate and celebrated for their level of artistic detail. Of the various engravers and authors who worked on the atlas, only two signed their work: Frederik Hendrik van den Hove, author of the frontispiece, and Johannes van Loon, who engraved ten plates. All the designs of the classical constellations were taken from those created by Dutch artist and engraver Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam.

This map was originally included in Cellarius’s ‘Harmonia Macrocosmica’ of 1660/1661, published by Johannes Janssonius, who in the same year also included the work as the last volume in his own ‘Atlas Maior’.

First hemisphere with the Christianized firmament

Frontispiece

The planisphere of Ptolemy 

Ptolemaic model of the universe

Planetary orbits of Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe 

Planetary orbits of Nicolaus Copernicus 

Scenography of the Copernicus system

Planisphere of the Tychonic system

Sconography of the Tychonic system

Planisphere of Aratus

Brahe's method for measuring the distances between the planets

Sizes of the celestial bodies

Earth circled by celestial bodies

Hemisphere map showing the clestial and terrestrial motions

Hemisphere map of the old world with 3 climatic zones

Ptolemy's  eccentric and epicyclical orbits

The major astrological aspects

Eccentric orbit of the sun

Spiral revolution of the sun and earth

Eccentric and epicylce movement of the moon

The moon's phases

The movments of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn

The movments of Venus and Mercury 

Second hemisphere with the Christianized firmament

The northern stellar hemisphere of antiquity

Scenography of the celestial and terrestrial northern hemispheres

The northern stellar hemisphere, with the terrestrial hemisphere underneath

The southern stellar hemisphere of antiquity

The southern stellar hemisphere with celestial and terrestrial spheres

Andreas Cellarius’s stunning ‘Harmonia Macrocosmica’ was the only celestial atlas produced during a celebrated era of Dutch publishing between 1570 and 1670. It is quite possibly the finest celestial atlas ever realised.

Universal Harmonia

Harmonia Macrocosmica

Cellarius's Atlas of the Cosmos

or a Complete and New Atlas, Showing a General and New Geography of the Entire Created Universe

sev Atlas Universalis et Novus, Totius Universi Creati Cosmographiam Generalem, et Novam Exhibens