Coeli Stellati Christiani Hæmisphærium Posterius

Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665)
Plate 23 – Coeli Stellati Christiani Hæmisphærium Posterius
From: Atlas Coelestis seu Harmonia Macrocosmica
Amsterdam: Schenk and Valk, 1708
Hand-colored copperplate engraving
36 1/2” x 32" framed

This plate continues in respect to plate 22, in that it further documents the Christianized constellations of Julius Schiller. The numbering in the plate refers to Schiller’s Stellar Atlas.

It is understood today that his constellation designation to Christianity did not last, we still refer to the constellations by their mythological alias. Astronomers of the time found the system “needlessly complicated, especially for astronomers wishing—then as now—to compare their own stellar observations with those by earlier astronomers.”