Southern Celestial Sphere

A celestial chart showing 'The southern stellar hemisphere with equally proportioned spheres'. It shows the classical constellations superimposed over a globe on which can be seen the Americas and 'Terra Australis Incognita'. The globe is being balanced by Atlas on one side and Hercules on the other. 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.