I'm offering for sale some engravings from Athanasius Kircher's Mundus subterraneus... (1678) which, in spite of its title, explores/classifies/theorizes on the grand scheme of all creation, hardly limited to just the world going on underground. Kircher (who has appeared on this blog numerous times, simply enter his name in the Google search box at left and you'll find many entries) approaches the nature of terrestrial heat, volcanoes, the origins of lakes and rivers, optics, fossils/agates (in "de lapide philosopherum"), distillation, alchemy, ocean currents, insects, plant life, and so on, a real summa cum laude tour de force, Kircher being the Renaissance man's Renaissance man.
All images are printed on 14 3/4 x 8 7/8" sheets (375x220mm) and have been removed from a defeated and dead copy of the book, the full title of which is Athanasii Kircheri ... Mundus subterraneus, in XII libros digestus: quo divinum subterrestris mundi opificium, mira ergasteriorum naturae in eo distributio ... universae denique naturae maiestatis & divitiae summa rerum varietate exponuntur ... This copy (lacking the title page and much else) I believe was printed in Amsterdam in 1668 (I believe--the other somewhat later editions to 1678 that I have checked all seem to have added material and different and later pagination, leading me to believe that this is an earlier edition.) The pagination ran 346+487pp, being two volumes printed as one.
- Please keep in mind that the scans leave off the top 1.5" or so of each image as well as the bottom half-inch--the paper was simply too long for the scanner bed. The pages are complete (in real life).
And so the list (of 18), thus far:
Gallus...serpentina cauda conspicuus...In the chapter, "de Animalibus Subterraneis", p 97.
Image 6 1/2 x 5 inches, 160x120mm. $300 (There is some chipping at the top of the sheet, though it does not extend into the sub-head.)
(Underground animals) Draco Helveticus bipes et alatus.
Image 3 1/4 x 7 1/2", 80x185mm. $375
On the other side of the page: Hic Dracunuculus...
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