As with the study of nature on earth, the study of the cosmos (supposedly indicative of God's structuring of the universe), was a deep interest in the Renaissance. And the old way of describing the solar system, for instance--Ptolemy's description of the earth at the center and all else circling around it--persisted even when the Polish astronomer Copernicus used observation to see that the planets circled the sun. On the left below is a reproduction of Copernicus's actual drawing. On the right is a drawing of the geocentric universe, done by Apian. In the latter, note that the Latin around the outside identifies the area outside the solar system as "the imperial habitation of the elect [as in "saved"]."
Here's a more elaborate drawing, by Thomas Digges, of the heliocentric universe. Note that the outer ring is still called "the fixed stars." And note how it describes the earth: "The great orbe carreinge this globe of mortalitye."
Click here to see an emblem depicting humankind as a microcosm of the universe.