The complete catalog
The Gallery
Forty-three charts of the heavens, drawn in gold by the great astronomers — the whole firmament, whenever you wish to browse it plainly.
On walls around the world
Not a poster — the centerpiece of a room
Printed large on matte art paper or gallery canvas, or box-framed under acrylic. Here, Andreas Cellarius’s the northern star hemisphere hung in four very different homes.
ALT 23° — THE ECLIPTIC
The Zodiac
1603
Aries, the Ram
The Golden Fleece, first sign of the zodiac.
Restored1655 edition of 1603
Taurus, the Bull
Zeus in disguise, carrying off Europa.
Illuminated1655 edition of 1603
Gemini, the Twins
Castor and Pollux, bound beyond death.
1603
Cancer, the Crab
The crab that pinched Hercules.
Restored1655 edition of 1603
Leo, the Lion
The lion Hercules could not wound.
Illuminated1655 edition of 1603
Virgo, the Maiden
Justice, the last goddess to leave the Earth.
1603
Libra, the Scales
The balance of the heavens.
Restored1603
Scorpio, the Scorpion
The sting that felled Orion.
Illuminated1603
Sagittarius, the Archer
The centaur with his bow drawn.
1655 edition of 1603
Capricorn, the Sea-Goat
The strangest creature in the zodiac.
Restored1655 edition of 1603
Aquarius, the Water-Bearer
The cup-bearer of the gods.
Illuminated1655 edition of 1603
Pisces, the Fishes
Two fishes, bound by a cord.
ALT 45° — THE FIGURES
The Constellations
engraved 16th–18th c.
Orion, the Hunter
The most magnificent figure in the sky.
Restoredengraved 16th–18th c.
Ursa Major, the Great Bear
The Big Dipper, and the pole of the sky.
Illuminatedengraved 16th–18th c.
Cygnus, the Swan
A swan in eternal flight down the Milky Way.
engraved 16th–18th c.
Pegasus, the Winged Horse
The horse born of sea-foam and blood.
Restoredengraved 16th–18th c.
Andromeda, the Chained Lady
The princess saved from the sea-monster.
Illuminatedengraved 16th–18th c.
Draco, the Dragon
The dragon coiled around the pole.
c. 1693
Coronelli's Celestial Globe Gores
The printed sheets that once wrapped the greatest globes.
Restored1801
Cetus, the Sea-Monster
The whale-beast of myth, from the last great hand-drawn atlas.
ALT 60° — THE GREAT CHARTS
The Celestial Atlases
1660
The Northern Star Hemisphere
The most beautiful star chart ever printed.
Haemisphaerium Stellatum Borealeas mapped 1660
1660
The Christian Sky
When someone tried to replace the pagan constellations.
Coeli Stellati Christiani Hemisphaerium
1603
Bayer's Uranometria
The first atlas of the whole sky.
1687
Hevelius's Uranographia
The sky, drawn from the outside.
1729
Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis
The grandest star atlas of the age.
1742
The Southern Star Hemisphere
The far southern sky, gathered into one ornamented disc.
Hemisphaerium Coeli Australeas mapped 1742
1693 edition of 1674
Pardies' Globe of the Heavens
The celestial globe flattened onto six great sheets.
as mapped 1674ALT 75° — OTHER WORLDS
Sun, Moon & Planets
1647
Selenographia — The First Moon Atlas
The founding map of another world.
1610
Galileo's Moon
The drawings that ended a perfect heaven.
1679
Cassini's Moon
The first true map of the Moon — with a secret.
c. 1690s
The Phases of the Moon
The lunar cycle, by a forgotten woman astronomer.
1626–1630
The Face of the Sun
The spots that marred a perfect star.
1742
The Spiral Motions of the Planets
The wandering planets, traced as hypnotic looping spirals.
Motus in Coelo Spiralesas engraved 1742
1763
The Transit of Venus, 1769
The broadside that measured the solar system.
1715
Halley's Eclipse Map of 1715
The first map to predict an eclipse's shadow across a nation.
ALT 90° — THE ZENITH
The Systems of the World
1660
The Ptolemaic System
The universe with the Earth at its heart.
Planisphaerium Ptolemaicum
1660
The Copernican System
The universe remade, with the Sun at its centre.
Planisphaerium Copernicanum
1660
The Tychonic System
A brilliant compromise between two heavens.
Scenographia Systematis Mundani Tychonici
1668
Cometographia
The great book of comets.
1598
Tycho's Great Instruments
The machines that measured the heavens.
1742
The Solar System
The Sun-centred cosmos, engraved as a jewelled machine.
Systema Solare et Planetariumas engraved 1742
1660
A View of the Copernican System
The Sun-centred universe, staged in three dimensions.
Scenographia Systematis Copernicanias mapped 1660
1651
The Weighing of the World Systems
Urania holds the scales as two cosmologies are weighed.
Almagestum Novum, frontispiece