The design of Blaeu’s globe harks to Johannes Bayer’s ‘Uranometria’ of 1603, rather than following Mercator’s tradition as previously thought. A total of eighty-three stars and up to eight star groups are named, including forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations, four of non-Ptolemaic constellations, and twelve southern constellations observed by 

 (1552–1622). The nomenclature for some of the Ptolemaic constellations is extensively detailed and some of them are given in Greek, followed by the name in Arabic script. 

Close to the North Pole are two tables in a cartouche: one explaining the astrological symbols marked on the sphere and the other explaining precession (a change in the Earth’s axis of rotation) with a table based on a constant precession rate. New stars (novae) are indicated with explanations of Cassiopeia, Cygnus, and Ophiuchus, including notes indicating their first and last observed positions. 

One of a pair of globes. The celestial globe has twenty-four hand-coloured engraved half gores, with two polar calottes.

’s twenty-six-inch globes are the pinnacle of Dutch Golden Age cartography. Their size and grandeur stand testimony to the confidence and wealth of the maritime mercantile nation at the height of its powers. Blaeu intended the globe to be a luxury item aimed at wealthy merchants and noblemen. However, it was also one of the most detailed cosmological tools of its age, to be used as much as admired. 

Astronomical details on the sphere include a magnitude table close to the North Pole. The Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds are labelled. Close to the North Pole, there are two tables in a cartouche, one explaining the astrological symbols marked on the sphere and the other explaining precession (a change in the Earth’s axis of rotation) with a table based on a constant precession rate. The constellations are said to be in the tradition of 

, but this is not the case. For this globe, Blaeu relied on the style used by Johannes Bayer in his ‘Uranometria’ of 1603. After Willem Blaeu's death in 1638, his son, Joan Blaeu (1596–1673) undertook a major update of the globe to incorporate new discoveries. These were carried out with a combination of reengraving the plates and printed overlays pasted on to the relevant portions of the globe.

The Blaeu family is synonymous with the finest mapmaking of the Golden Age of Dutch 

. Following Willem Blaeu’s death (1638), Joan Blaeu expanded on his father’s works, such as the ‘

 Maior’, the largest and grandest atlas of its time. In 1599, Willem Blaeu had designed a completely original globe and by 1616, his greatest globes measured twenty-six inches in diameter, the largest ever produced and remained unsurpassed in scale until the end of the seventeenth century.

’s twenty-six inch globes are the apotheosis of Dutch Golden Age cartography. Their size and grandeur stand testimony to the confidence and wealth of a great maritime and trading nation at the height of its powers.

Rotating on brass pinions within a brass meridian ring with graduated scale; each set into a seventeenth-century Dutch wooden base with ebonised baluster supports, bun feet and central column, including an engraved horizon ring, adumbrating scales, calendar, and almanacs.

Blaeu's Celestial Floor Globe