Compendium Naturalis

Archive
17th century

Beautifully intricate allegorical engraving on copper, engraved by Petrus Miotte Burgundus, for the frontispiece of Athanasius Kircher‘s Ars magna lucis et umbrae (Rome, 1646). The engraving summarizes elegantly Kircher’s efforts of linking hermetic elements to Christian concepts, and his views on the metaphysics of light.

Frontispiece of Ars magna lucis et umbrae (1646), Athanasius Kircher, engraved by Petrus Miotte Burgundus.

Frontispiece of Ars magna lucis et umbrae (1646), reproduction by Beinecke Library, Yale

Read More