Andreas Cellarius

Cellarius was born around 1596 in Neuhausen, near Worms.^[1] His family name was originally Keller, which he later Latinized to Cellarius.^[3] He was educated in Heidelberg.^[3]

The Protestant Cellarius may have left Heidelberg at the onset of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 or in 1622, when the city came into Catholic hands. His activities during this period are unclear, but based on his later works it is conjectured that he spent time in Poland where he may have worked as a military engineer.^[3]

In 1625 he married Catharina Eltemans in Amsterdam, where he worked as a schoolmaster at a Latin school. After a brief stay in The Hague, the family moved to Hoorn. There he first worked as a teacher at the Latin School before being appointed rector in 1637. From 1637 until his death in 1665 he was rector of the Latin School in Hoorn, where Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater was conrector.^[3]

All of Cellarius's known scholarly works were produced during his years as rector in Hoorn.^[3]

During his career, Cellarius produced several scholarly works on cosmography, geography, and military science while serving as rector of the Latin School in Hoorn. His earliest known publication was Architectura Militaris (1645), a treatise on the design and construction of fortifications.^[3] In 1659 he published Regni Poloniae, Magnique Ducatus Lituaniae… Novissima descriptio, a geographical description of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.^[3]

Cellarius is best known for his celestial atlas Harmonia Macrocosmica, first published in 1660 (with a second edition in 1661) by the Amsterdam publisher Johannes Janssonius.^[3] The atlas was conceived as the historical introduction to a planned two-part work on cosmography, although the second volume was never published.^[3]

The minor planet 12618 Cellarius is named in his honour.^[4]

• Works by Andreas Cellarius at Open Library
• Works by or about Andreas Cellarius at the Internet Archive