Ars magna lucis et umbrae, frontispiece engraving
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), reproduction by Beinecke Library, Yale
The copy of Ars magna lucis et umbrae held at the Max Planck Institute, Germany, can be viewed here. Catalog entry is here.
Also the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, has digitized and put online their copy, viewable here (complete PDF can be downloaded). Catalog entry is here.
A description of the Brigham Young University copy of the Ars magna lucis et umbrae book can be found here.
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Source of the image:
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3439822
Catalog entry of the book (call no. 1983 +123)
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/588710