Hæmisphærium Stellatum Boreale Antiqvum

Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665)
Plate 24 – Hæmisphærium Stellatum Boreale Antiqvum
From: Atlas Coelestis seu Harmonia Macrocosmica
Amsterdam: Schenk and Valk, 1708
Hand-colored copperplate engraving

36 1/2” x 32" framed

This plate continues the mapping of the constellations began with plate 22. This plate is the first in a series of plates that depict the constellations in their traditional form. The constellations are depicted as mythological figures and Cellarius beautifully maps these constellations out, by having the figure beautifully detailed and sprawled over its corresponding star set. “Constellations shown are mainly those identified in the second half of the first millennium BC by Greek uranographers and adhere in their appearance to the detailed descriptions provided by Ptolemy in his Almagest.”

In this plate there are 33 Ptolemaic constellations depicted and 7 of the ones depicted in this plate are from Petrus Plancius. Plancius was a Dutch-Belgian cartographer and theologian.