A most attractive Mercator style projection of the entire night sky, showing all the heavenly bodies

Sterre Kaert of Hemels Pleyn, waer door men kan wee hoe laet dat het is over de gehele aertkloot, op alle meridiane en polus hoogte en, opwat lengte en brete de voorsz sterre staen, bezuyde de liniae aequinoctiael.

63,5 x 53 cm. /  25 x 20,87 inches

A most attractive Mercator style projection of the entire night sky, showing all the heavenly bodies and with panels of astrological notations below.

Prepared by Remmet Teunisse Backer. It incorporates the twelve constellations that Dutch explorers added to the canon of constellations in the Southern Hemisphere in the late 16th century. The twelve new constellations were: the Chameleon, the Phoenix, the Toucan, Grus (the crane), Indus (an Indian warrior with a spear), Hydrus, Pavo, Phoenix, Triangulum, Musca (the fly), Volans (a flying fish), and Dorado (the goldfish).

Notice that the figures are mirror-imaged. This is because the chart is drawn as if looking towards the Earth from beyond the stars, rather than being drawn from the Earth looking out. The plate has a long and convoluted history: originally published c.1684 by Johannes van Keulen, it was subsequent republished by de Ram (whose imprint is imperfectly erased outside the printed border at bottom te bekoomen te Amsterdam: by Joannes de Ram, Caertverkooper op den Dam.), de la Feuille (who had married de Ram’s widow), Ottens and finally an edition by Elwe and engraved by J. de Broen.

Koeman, El 2 # 2, Carole Stott, Celestial Charts, p. 88-89