Atlas Coelestis seu Harmonia Macrocosmica & Nova Totius Geographica Telluris Projectio
DESCRIPTION
One of the grandest achievements of Dutch cartography, this remarkable composite atlas unites a comprehensive terrestrial atlas published by Gerard Valck and Petrus Schenk with Andreas Cellarius's celebrated Harmonia Macrocosmica.
Together, the two folio volumes present a complete vision of the known world and the heavens as understood during the height of the Dutch Golden Age. Bound in richly gilt contemporary calf and retaining nearly complete original hand-coloring, they represent both the scientific ambition and artistic refinement that defined Amsterdam's map trade at the opening of the eighteenth century.
Containing 198 engraved maps and plates, including 29 celestial charts, the atlas was assembled and marketed by Valck and Schenk from the finest available Dutch and French mapmakers rather than from a single engraved series. The terrestrial volumes include 169 maps and engravings comprising three world maps, two polar projections, 128 maps of Europe, 21 of Asia and the Middle East, 6 of Africa, and 7 of the Americas, together with three engraved plates illustrating naval architecture, sea flags, and military engineering. Thirty-nine of the maps originated in the scarce Atlantis Sylloge Compendiosa issued by Gerard and Leonard Valck around 1702, while others derive from Petrus Schenk's Atlas Contractus. Throughout the atlas appear the names of Gerard Valck, Leonard Valck, Petrus Schenk, and Petrus Schenk II, alongside engravings adapted from the work of Blaeu, Janssonius, Visscher, Jaillot, Sanson, Moses Pitt, Van Loon, Pirnacker, and other leading European cartographers.
Gerard Valck & Petrus Schenk
Gerard Valck (1652-1726) was one of Amsterdam's foremost engravers, globe makers, print sellers, and publishers. After training under Abraham Blooteling in London, he returned to Amsterdam where he established one of the city's leading publishing houses. His former apprentice, Petrus Schenk the Elder (1660-1711), later became both his business partner and brother-in-law, and together the two families dominated the Dutch market for maps, globes, prints, and scientific instruments during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Rather than limiting themselves to newly engraved works, Valck and Schenk acquired the copperplates of earlier publishers, preserving many of the finest Dutch maps while assembling ambitious composite atlases tailored to the interests and budgets of individual collectors. As a result, surviving examples frequently differ in composition, making each atlas a unique reflection of its original owner's preferences.
The second volume concludes with Andreas Cellarius's magnificent Harmonia Macrocosmica, represented here by its allegorical frontispiece, title page, index, and 29 double-page celestial engravings, all but one beautifully preserved in original hand color. First published in 1660, Cellarius's work is widely regarded as the most decorative celestial atlas ever produced. Engraved principally by Johannes van Loon after designs by Cellarius, with an elaborate frontispiece by Frederik Hendrik van den Hove and constellation figures adapted from the engravings of Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam, the atlas transformed the latest astronomical knowledge into one of the great masterpieces of Baroque engraving.
Andreas Cellarius and Harmonia Macrocosmica
Little is known of Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596-1665), a German-Dutch mathematician, educator, and cosmographer who spent much of his career in the Dutch Republic. His Harmonia Macrocosmica appeared during a period of extraordinary advances in astronomy and remains the only major celestial atlas published in the Netherlands during the Golden Age of Dutch cartography.
Across its twenty-nine charts, Cellarius illustrates the competing cosmological systems of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe, diagrams the motions of the sun, moon, and planets, and adorns the constellations with elaborate mythological figures, animals, scientific instruments, and biblical imagery. Particularly memorable are the rare "Christian heavens," inspired by Julius Schiller's attempt to replace the classical constellations with saints and sacred imagery, as well as the celebrated southern hemisphere chart in which the constellations are ingeniously superimposed upon a terrestrial globe. Although these imaginative compositions were of limited practical value to working astronomers, they elevated the atlas into one of the most visually extraordinary works of scientific illustration ever published.
These volumes embody the dual ambitions of 17th-century cartography, to document both the physical world and the celestial realm with equal precision and beauty. The terrestrial atlas records the geographic knowledge accumulated during the great age of European exploration, while Cellarius's celestial atlas captures humanity's evolving understanding of the universe at the dawn of modern astronomy. Few composite atlases survive in such complete and harmonious form, making this an exceptional example of one of Amsterdam's greatest publishing achievements.
CONDITION
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