- Title: Planisphaerium Arateum
- Author: Andreas Cellarius
- Date: 1708
- Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
- Condition: Excellent
- Inches: 21" x 18" [Image]
- Centimeters: 53.85 x 46.15 [Image]
- Product ID: 003195
PLANISPHAERIVM ARATEVM Sive Compages ORBIVM MVNDANORVM EX HYPOTHESI ARATEA IN PLANO EXPRESSA. From Harmonica Microcosmica, Valk & Schenk, Amsterdam, 1708.
Geocentric celestial chart based on the observations of Greek poet Aratus (c. 315/310 – 240 BC) in 'Phaenomena,' his major extant poem which describes various constellations and celestial phenomena.
Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665) was a Dutch-German cartographer, best known for his Harmonia Macrocosmica, a major star atlas published in 1660 by the Amsterdam publisher Johannes Janssonius (1588-1664) as a cosmographical supplement to his Atlas Novus. Cellarius had already started working on this atlas before 1647 and intended it to be a historical introduction for a two-volume treatise on cosmography but the second part was never published. The plates of his Harmonia Macrocosmica were reprinted in 1708 by the Amsterdam publishers Gerard Valk (1651-1726) and Petrus Schenk the Younger (1660-1711), and it is from this edition that our plates derive.
These celestial charts are among the most beautiful engraved and hand-colored works of their era, and are highly sought after by collectors.