A beautiful and decorative leather pyro engraving showing the "Old World", or eastern hemisphere. Shows the continents as they were understood, with a wonderful simplicity, noting nations and some key cities. Includes a crude depiction of the Australian coast, not yet shown as a complete continent, here noted as "Nova Hollandia", and with a land bridge reaching up to connect to New Guinea. Throughout the map the different climate zones are noted from "Frigida Borealis" to "Torrida". A large surrounding cartouche is full of creatures and cherubs, as well as several other conceptual spheres. This plate is from Andrea Cellarius' Harmonia Macrocosmica, the only celestial atlas published in the Netherlands during the golden age of Dutch cartography. The 29 cosmological engravings - together a compendium of theories of the universe as of the late 17th Century - are richly engraved in the Baroque style, with elaborate decorative classical figures in the banners and four corners of each print. Cellarius illustrated various theories of astronomy, including the Ptolemaic theory that the earth was at the center of the universe, the revolutionary Copernican theory that the sun was at the center of the solar system, and Tycho Brahe's compromise intermediate theory. The magnificent constellation charts show star formations in traditional classical mythological forms, as well as an alternative interpretation of the stars in biblical forms. The Cellarius atlas was originally issued by Jan Jansson in 1660. The first edition, second issue is identical except for the change of date to 1661. Peter Schenk and Gerard Valk reissued the copperplates of the original Cellarius atlas in 1708.