Calling all history buffs and astronomy fanatics: a fascinating and ‘spectacular’ 360-year-old ‘star atlas’ is going to be on display in the UK for the first time.
Going on show at the National Trust’s Blickling Estate in Norfolk, the 17th century Dutch star map has been described as one of the world’s ‘finest and rarest’ star atlases surviving today.
Titled ‘Harmonia macrocosmica’, the map was created by Dutch cartographer Andreas Cellarius during a period of time when artists and thinkers from the Netherlands dominated culture and science around the world. Think Rembrandt, Vermeer and Frans Hals. It’s thought that only 20 copies of the atlas, published in 1661, have survived to today.
The atlas describes theories about the movement of the stars, as they were understood in the 1600s. The book was created at a pivotal time, when scientists started to move away from the belief that the Earth was at the centre of the universe, and towards the idea that the Sun was at the centre of the solar system.
Rebecca Feakes, a librarian at Blickling, said: ‘Some of the ideas in the book seem strange to us now, but the stunning illustrations leave no doubt that Cellarius and his contemporaries were just as awestruck by the night sky as we are today.
‘This large folio was meant to be displayed and celebrated for its size and opulence. Owning it told the world about your status and intelligence.’
Now you can see this piece of history for yourself. The atlas is on display at Blickling Estate from Saturday, November 30 until Sunday, January 5.
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