The Pyrophylacia of the Earth

The image features a central, deep-green circular representation of the Earth, honeycombed with radiant orange and yellow vascular-like networks of fire. These networks culminate in volcanoes that erupt through the surface of the sphere into a surrounding gray, cloudy atmosphere. At each of the four corners of the frame, winged wind-heads (putti) blow golden streams of air toward the Earth. A cartouche at the top center displays the title, flanked by small cherubs.

This plate appears in Athanasius Kircher’s 'Mundus Subterraneus' (1665–1668), a monumental work of 17th-century natural philosophy that proposed the Earth had a complex internal anatomy driven by subterranean fires and hydraulic systems. It represents a transition between traditional alchemical notions of a living earth and early modern geological speculation.