Cellarius' Hæmisphærium stellatum Australe aequali sphærum proportione is an imagined view from distant space through the constellations of the Southern celestial hemisphere to Earth's southern hemisphere. It shows a large "Terra Australis" where Antarctica was found several centuries later, South America and a portion of North America, including the representation of California as an island.

This classical Aristotelian view placed the stars on a transparent sphere that rotated around Earth, the planets and the sun. Cellarius believed that the star sphere moved in coordination with the earth, an integral relationship in the overall celestial harmony that is the title of his atlas, Harmonia Macrocosmica.

In 1660, the European voyages of discovery had only recently ventured far enough south to actually observe the Southern Cross and other constellations depicted in this spectacular image. This Cellarius star chart advanced general knowledge of the constellations just reported by the early southerly global expeditions. Adult figures at the lower left and right support the earth to reveal to a child at lower right this unusual new view of the planet.

This is an exquisite work of art that comprehensively expressed the state of scientific knowledge of the southern heavens. Our Perfect Recreation™ of this spectacular image transports to the 21st century this perfect example of the marriage of art and science that characterizes the Art of Discovery.

About Andreas Cellarius

Andreas Cellarius produced the most elaborately beautiful celestial atlas of the 17th century, the Atlas Coelestis seu Harmonia Macrocosmica. This startlingly gorgeous and imaginative work presented powerful visual explanations of the theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Brahe as well as ingenious star charts and lunar diagrams.

Cellarius was born in Germany in 1596; he lived and worked in Holland from 1625 until his death in 1665, a period coinciding with the Golden Age of Dutch map-making and engraving.

Simultaneous with with the era's geographic and scientific discoveries, the art of graphically representing and disseminating these new ideas via engraving and printing was perfected.

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