celestial chart of the Northern Sky
1660
Andreas Cellarius turned the night sky into a spectacular Baroque theater in 1660 with this stunning map of the Northern Hemisphere. Instead of just plotting stars, he filled the celestial sphere with vividly colored mythological beasts and heroes, like the great bears and the dragon, all held aloft by muscular figures at the bottom. Created during the golden age of Dutch cartography, this page from his Harmonia Macrocosmica was so beautifully illustrated that people bought it purely for art, long after its astronomical data became outdated.
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