![Julius Schiller Constellatio XXVIII [Constellation XXVIII: Libra (Philip the Apostle)] Antique Celestial Map 1627](http://delakeltd.com/cdn/shop/products/IMG-4069_{width}x.jpg?v=1652982159)
![Julius Schiller Constellatio XXVIII [Constellation XXVIII: Libra (Philip the Apostle)] Antique Celestial Map 1627](http://delakeltd.com/cdn/shop/products/IMG-4069_grande.jpg?v=1652982159)
Antique 17th Century Celestial Map
Libra
SCHILLER, Julius [d. 1627].
Constellatio XXVIII [Constellation XXVIII: Libra (Philip the Apostle)]
Coelum Stellatum Christianum, Augsburg: 1627.
9 1/2" x 12 1/4" (24.1 x 31.1 cm).
Original antique map - modern colour, heightened in gilt (margins foxed with few short tears).
Schiller's great Christianised star atlas was a part of the Counter-Reformation attempt to de-paganise the heavens and substitute Judeo-Christian imagery believed to be conducive to piety. For example, the twelve zodiacal signs became the twelve apostles. In this remarkable map the Libra constellation is represented by Philip the Apostle.
Schiller's Coelum Stellatum Christianum [Augsburg: 1627] is "...an interesting and curious old work in which...numerous saints are enshrined among the stars. Biblical names are substituted instead of the so-called heathen ones, an idea obtained from early MSS. It is said that Judas or Julius Schiller revived the names given to the Zodiacal groups centuries before by the Venerable Bede, and completed the reformation with all the constellations...". (Brown)
Warner, The Sky Explored, pp. 229-232. Brown, Astronomical Atlases, pp. 31-32.