Julius Schiller

Julius Schiller (1580–1627) was a German lawyer and amateur astronomer from Augsburg. Though not a professional scientist, he moved in the same intellectual circles as leading astronomers of his age, including Johann Bayer, with whom he collaborated. Schiller is remembered chiefly for his attempt to reform celestial cartography in line with Christian tradition. In 1627, the year of his death, his atlas Coelum Stellatum Christianum was published in Augsburg as a counterpart to Bayer’s Uranometria.

In this work, Schiller replaced the classical pagan constellations with figures drawn from the Bible and Christian history: the zodiac became the apostles, northern constellations were associated with New Testament figures, and southern constellations with Old Testament ones. Though innovative, his Christianized star atlas did not achieve lasting popularity, as traditional constellations remained in universal use. Nevertheless, the atlas is valued today as a rare and striking example of seventeenth-century celestial cartography, reflecting both the religious culture of its time and the creativity of an amateur seeking to reshape how the heavens were imagined.