Coelum stellatum christianum : ad maiorem Dei omnipotentis, sanctaeque eius tam triumphantis, quam militantis ecclesiae gloriam, obductis gentilium simulachris, eidem domino et creatori suo, postliminio quasi restitutum
Coelum stellatum christianum is a 1627 star atlas by Julius Schiller, with star charts drawn by Johann Bayer and Johann Matthias Kager and engraved by Lucas Kilian, printed in Augsburg for a Catholic readership. Its plates show constellations recast as Christian saints and biblical figures, each drawn as a robed figure with its stars plotted over the body in dotted outlines. A designer could draw on the framed plate layouts, the dotted star-field patterns and the engraved drapery to see how astronomy was once illustrated as figurative art.






















