CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.
CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.
CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.
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CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.
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No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium. The Royal House of Wettin, one of the oldest ruling dynasties in Europe, ruled over areas of Saxony and Thuringia in modern-day Germany for over 950 years. The Treaty of Leipzig in 1485 marked the division of the family’s titles and lands into the ‘Ernstine’ and the ‘Albertine’ branches. In 1547 the title of Elector passed to the Albertine line. Under August (r. 1553-86) Saxony went through a social and economic boom. August was the first Elector to build up the artistic and scientific collections at Dresden. At the end of the Second World War the Wettin collection was seized and removed to the GDR State collection. The following works are being sold as a result of restitution to the Royal House of Wettin A.L. from the Free State of Saxony in 2014, presenting a unique opportunity to acquire books from the shelves of this Royal House for the first time since these entered this noble collection.
CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.

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CELLARIUS, Andreas (fl.1656-1702). Harmonia Macrocosmica seu atlas universalis et novus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson, 1661.

2° (511 x 330mm). Hand-coloured engraved allegorical frontispiece, letterpress title with woodcut printer's device, 29 hand-coloured double-page engraved celestial charts, some heightened with gold, all on guards. (Plate 17 torn and lacking half of the engraving, plate 23 with some margins strengthened and some losses, some plates with repaired tears occasionally reaching into the engraving, some plates with light wear and small losses near the crease, some plates lightly browned, text with some repaired marginal tears and some marginal soiling and staining.) Publisher’s original vellum panelled in gilt, the sides centred with a large arabesque, gilt corner tools, flat spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, spine titled in manuscript in a later hand (endpapers and ties renewed, vellum with some staining, some wear to spine head). Provenance: Carl Gottfried, Sonderherr von ?Bosenoff (the gift of his father with a title inscription dated December 1683 presenting the book) – Johann, King of Saxony (1801-1873; title stamp) – Dresden Central Art Library (stamps).

KING JOHANN OF SAXONY’S COPY OF ONE OF THE FINEST CELESTIAL ATLASES EVER PUBLISHED. It is the only celestial atlas published in the Netherlands, and one of the highlights from the golden age of Dutch cartography. The 29 double-page maps, with contemporary hand-colouring and touches of gold, depict the planetary systems of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Brahe, the motions of the sun, the moon, and the planets, and delineates the constellations in the form of classical and biblical figures, animals and instruments. This 1661 edition is a variant of the first edition of 1660, identical except for the change of date on the title. Koeman IV, Cel I & 2; cf. Brown Astronomical Atlases, pp. 40-41.
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