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CELLARIUS, Andreas (c.1596-1665)
[The Sun's Eccentric Orbit without Epicycles] Theoria Solis per eccentricum sine epicyclo
[Amsterdam: G. Valk & P. Schenk, 1708]. Copper-engraved celestial map, with full original colour. Sheet size: 19 3/4 x 22 3/4 inches.
One of the finest and most highly decorative celestial charts ever produced, from the Valk & Schenk edition of Cellarius
This chart is from the Harmonia Macrocosmica seu Atlas Universalis et Novus (Harmonious Universe or New and Universal Atlas) by Andreas Cellarius, the finest celestial atlas ever produced. It depicts the supposed orbit of the Sun around the Earth according Ptolemaic theory. The circular path of the Sun centers on a point other than the Earth, which is shown to be the center of the Zodiacal Circle, this being at odds with the Solar path. If the Earth were stationary, as was supposed, and the path of the Sun circular, it would necessarily follow the same path at the same distance every day. Clearly, this is not the case, such that this chart endeavors to articualte the Classical explaination for such irregularities of the Sun's motions, without resorting to epicycles.
This chart was originally engraved during the greatest era of Dutch map-making, and was first published in 1660 by Johannes Janssonius of Amsterdam. It was reprinted by Janssonius in 1661, and again in 1708 by Gerard Valk and Petrus Schenk, who added their names to the plates.
Andreas Cellarius was born in about 1596 in Neuhausen, a small town near Worms in the Rhine-Hesse region of Germany. From 1625 to 1637 Cellarius worked as a schoolmaster in Amsterdam and The Hague, and in 1637 moved to Hoorn, where he was appointed as headmaster or rector of the Latin School. He published a number of works during his lifetime, but the last and greatest was the Harmonia Macrocosmica. Cellarius resigned from his post as headmaster in early 1665 and died in Hoorn in November of the same year.
Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, Cel. 3
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#9381 $2,750.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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