Second Hemisphere with a Christianized firmament

Second Hemisphere with the Christianized firmament, Andreas Cellarius, 1660

Coeli Stellati Christiani Hæmisphærium Posterius. From Harmonia Macrocosmica, Amsterdam, 1660. Copperplate engraving.

In 1627, shortly before he died, a German lawyer named Julius Schiller published a celestial atlas that replaced “pagan” constellations with Biblical and Christian figures. The twelve apostles supplanted the old zodiacal constellations, figures from the New Testament took the place of the northern constellations, and figures from the Old Testament replaced those of the southern constellations.

This “Christianization” had some support from highly esteemed astronomers of the era, such as Tycho Brahe, Johann Bayer, and Johannes Kepler. It reached its most elaborate adaptation here at the hands of Cellarius.