Kircher, Athanasius | Second edition of Kircher’s exploration of the natural world beneath the Earth’s surface

Kircher, Athanasius

Mundus subterraneus, in XII libros digestus. Amsterdam: J. Jansson & E. Weyerstraet, 1668

Two volumes in one, folio (391 x 234 mm). Engraved title-pages with vignette on letterpress title, 19 engraved plates (some folding or double-page), numerous engraved and woodcut text illustrations, maps, and diagrams, 3 volvelles, 2 diagrams printed on slips and tipped to D3v and Bbb4v, 7 tables (some folding); portraits of Kircher and Pope Alexander VII lacking, light browning, occasional foxing, minor tears to three maps (two repaired). Contemporary German pigskin, decorated in 3 outer panels of a double-crested roll, with center-panels and cornerpieces, two clasps, all edges blue; upper clasp damaged, a little cuffed and scratched.

Second edition of Kircher’s monumental investigation of subterranean phenomena. Inspired by his ascent of Vesuvius in 1637 and his experience of the devastating Calabrian earthquakes of 1638, Kircher attempts nothing less than a unified theory of the earth’s internal structure—its volcanoes, winds, tides, springs, fossils, minerals, and thermal zones. Here he first proposes that temperatures increase with depth, anticipates the existence of underground reservoirs and naphtha springs, and attributes volcanic eruptions and hot springs to extensive subterranean fiery regions.

The work’s more speculative elements—such as the idea of a spiritus plasticus responsible for the formation of fossils, illustrated by “naturally” generated images including a Madonna and alphabetic forms—draw heavily on Aldrovandi’s Musaeum metallicum (1648), and testify to Kircher’s blending of empirical observation with imaginative cosmology.

REFERENCES

cf. Duveen p.322; Ferguson I, 467; Nissen ZBI 2196; Sabin 37967

PROVENANCE

The Augustinians of Rottenbuch (inscriptions, one dated 1672) — Library of the Princes Oettingen-Wallerstein (library stamp) — Dr. Kurt Herberts (shelf mark) — Sotheby’s London, 15 December 1998, lot 85