A superb plan of the Copernican Solar System

A superbly decorated chart of the solar system as hypothesised by Copernicus, with the Sun at the centre and the six known planets (Saturn the outermost) in rings around it. A final circle contains the signs of the Zodiac. The upper corners of the plate contain the title within two large cartouches; the lower corners full-length portraits of Gallileo and Copernicus. This chart was published in the 'Atlas Coelestis; seu Harmonia Macrocosmica', the only celestial atlas to be produced in the Netherlands before the nineteenth century. It was a compilation of maps of the Ptolemaic universe and the more modern theories of Copernicus and Brahe, and remains the finest and most highly decorative celestial atlas ever produced. It was originally published by Jan Jansson in 1660: this chart comes from Schenk & Valk's reissue.