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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original file"Mappa fluxus et reflxu rationes in Isthmo Americano in freto Magellanico, caeterisque Americae littoribus exhibens" (22043383109)
This black-and-white print features a detailed cartographic rendering of North and South America, set against a backdrop of hatched ocean currents. The map includes sailing ships in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a large interior lake in the South American continent, and a decorative cartouche in the lower-left corner containing the Latin title. The coastlines are marked with 'FR.' notations, likely denoting locations of tidal flow, with mountain ranges rendered in profile.
This map is a plate from Athanasius Kircher's 'Mundus Subterraneus' (1665), a foundational work of 17th-century natural philosophy that attempted to map the subterranean and hydraulic systems of the earth according to Hermetic and Aristotelian principles.
Tomus I. 144 A M E R I C A S E P T E N : T R I O N A L I S M A R D E S N O R D Circulus Aequinoctialis C N O V A G R A N A T A N O V A S P A G N A C a l i f o r n i a S i n u s M e x i c a n u s C u b a I s t h m u s B R A S I L I A A M E R I C A A U S T R A L I S P A R A Q U A Y M A R D E S Z U R M a g e l l a n T e r r a d e l F u e g o Mappa fluxus et reflxu rationes in Isthmo Americano in freto Magellanico, caeterisque Americae littoribus exhibens.
Translation
Volume 1, 144. North America. North Sea. Equinoctial Circle. New Granada. New Spain. California. Gulf of Mexico. Cuba. Isthmus. Brazil. South America. Paraguay. South Sea (Pacific). Magellan. Land of Fire. Map showing the reasons for the flux and reflux in the American Isthmus, in the Strait of Magellan, and the other shores of America.
Athanasius Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus
This is an original plate from the 1665 publication of Kircher's comprehensive treatise on the subterranean earth.
Object
engraving
laid paper
Baroque
German
map
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
5160 × 4280 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 20, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.