Typus Hydrophylacy intra Alpes Rheticas

This black-and-white print features a stylized, top-down map centered on a large mountain range containing a gaping cavern. From the mouth of this cavern, multiple distinct rivers flow outward in various directions toward labeled bodies of water, such as the Mare Gallicum and Mare Adriaticum. The landscape is dotted with symbols for mountain peaks and small forests, and major European cities and regions like Geneva, Lyon, Italia, and Germania are identified by text labels.

This map comes from Athanasius Kircher’s 'Mundus Subterraneus' (1664), a seminal work of early natural philosophy. It illustrates Kircher's theory that the Earth contains an internal system of subterranean channels and reservoirs that function like a circulatory system, reflecting the 17th-century intellectual effort to systematize geological and hydrological processes.