The Microcosm of Man

The image features a central, athletic, nude man in an 'ideal' proportions pose, arms and legs extended to touch the inner concentric rings. Above his head, a radiant star symbol emanates light downward, while the rings contain labels identifying cosmic and spiritual layers such as 'Mens', 'Intellectus', and 'Ratio'. Below the figure, the text 'Pituita, Sanguis, Cholera' refers to the humoric physiology of the body, while the bottom of the surrounding circles lists the nine celestial hierarchies of angels from 'Angeli' to 'Seraphin'.

This engraving serves as the frontispiece for Robert Fludd's 'Utriusque Cosmi', a foundational text of 17th-century Hermeticism and Neoplatonism that argues for the structural correspondence between the human microcosm and the macrocosmic universe.