Andreas Cellarius’s best known work, the Harmonia Macrocosmica, was first published in 1660, and reprinted in 1661 and 1708. Intended as a cosmographical supplement to his Atlas Novus, it is regarded as one of the most spectacular cosmographical atlases of the period.

Born in Neuhausen (a small town near Worms, Germany) in around 1596, the son of a Protestant pastor, Andreas Cellarius enrolled at the University of Heidelberg in 1614. By 1625 he was employed as a schoolmaster in Amsterdam, and by 1630 at a Latin School in The Hague. In 1637 he moved to Hoorn (a town north-east of Amsterdam), to become rector of the Latin School at Hoorn, from where he produced several major scholarly works, including the Harmonia Macrocosmica.