Here, I have collected various world pictures from old books.
How Homer imagined the world ca. 900 B.C.
Illustrated by Björn Landström in his book Vägen till Indien(1964)
The Ptolemaic geocentric system was the typical world view in the middle ages. The outermost circle is the Firmament, and beyond that is the "crystal heaven" which is the home of God and "the elected ones".
Cannot find the origins of this Danish illustration, but it is reprinted in Astronomi i billeder(1972)
Kepler's view of the world and the heavens. Also geocentric, but with the added complexity, that each sphere fits with one of the Platonic solids. Resulting in a harmony of the spheres.
Image originally from Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum(1596). This reprinting from Astronomi i billeder(1972)
The expanding unverse - each white dot represents millions of galaxies.
Illustration by Antonio Petrucceli from Life's The World We Live In, Danish translation and print: Vor Underfulde Verden(1957)
The globe in full darkness. As unreal as the very first picture in this post, but much more realistic.
From Det Bedstes Store Verdensatlas(1966), which is some sort of Danish adaptation of a Reader's Digest Atlas.
The structure of a universe. Based on a simulation of the universe evolving from the big bang. The area shown in the picture is about 4 billion light years on each side, and each tiny dot of light is a galaxy.
From Himlen set fra Jorden(2007)
Books referenced in this post. all from the local second hand shops.
