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Original fileSystema Ideale Pyrophylaciorum (Ideal System of Subterranean Fire-Reservoirs)
Kircherearthfires
About This Work
The image features a large, dark circular representation of the Earth against a background of clouds and four wind-blowing cherubic heads in the corners. Within the dark sphere, a brilliant, radiating central fire is linked by white, vein-like channels to smaller fire pockets marked with the letters 'B' and 'C', which erupt into flames at the sphere's periphery. The upper margin contains a decorative cartouche, while a lengthy explanatory paragraph in Latin occupies the lower margin. The composition is highly symmetrical, balancing the chaotic energy of the internal fires with the orderly, cartographic precision of 17th-century natural philosophy.
This plate originates from Athanasius Kircher's 'Mundus Subterraneus' (1665), a seminal work in the history of geology and natural philosophy that attempted to model the subterranean world as a complex system of interconnected waters, winds, and fires.
Inscriptions(Latin)
Tomus I. 189. Systema Ideale PYROPHYLACIORUM Subterraneorum, quorum montes Vulcanii, veluti Spiracula quaedam existant. Hoc Schema exprimit Caloris sive Ignis nidos, vel quod idem est, pyrophylacia per universa Geocosmi viscera admirando DEI opificio, varie distributa ne alicubi deesset, quod conservationi Geocosmi tanto-peze foret necessarium; Nemo autem illuc penetravit unquam ex hominibus? Hoc itaq; Schemate solummodo ostendere volumus, Telluris viscera plena esse aestuariis et pyrophylaciis, sive ea jam hoc modo, sive alio, disposita sint, ex centro igitur Ignem per omnes Subterrestris mundi semitas usq; ad ipsos exteriores superficiei montes Vulcanios deduximus; Ignis Centralis signetur A litera. Reliqua sunt aestuaria Naturae, signata B. Canales pyragogi C. minimi vero rivi sunt fissurae Terrae, per quas Ignei spiritus pervadunt.
Translation
Tomus I. 189. [Volume 1, page 189]. Ideal System of Subterranean Fire-Reservoirs, of which volcanic mountains act as certain vents. This diagram expresses the nests of heat or fire, or what is the same, the pyrophylacia (fire-reservoirs) distributed in various ways throughout the entire bowels of the geocosm by the wonderful workmanship of God, so that there should be no lack of anything necessary for the preservation of the geocosm; but has any man ever penetrated there? Therefore, with this diagram we only wish to show that the bowels of the Earth are full of estuaries and fire-reservoirs, whether they are arranged in this way or another. Therefore, we have traced the Fire from the center through all the paths of the subterranean world up to the very external volcanic mountains on the surface; the Central Fire is marked with the letter A. The rest are the estuaries of Nature, marked B. The 'pyragogi' (fire-leading) channels are C; the smallest streams are the fissures of the Earth, through which the fiery spirits permeate.
Connected Texts
Athanasius Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus
This image is the original copperplate illustration defining Kircher's theory of global volcanic activity.