1665 Tabula Geographico-Hydrographica Motus Oceani, Currentes, Abyssos, Montes Ignivomos
DESCRIPTION
One of the earliest world maps to illustrate ocean currents, this remarkable seventeenth-century engraving by Athanasius Kircher attempts to explain the movement of the world's oceans, the locations of volcanoes, and the existence of vast underwater abysses.
Originally published in Amsterdam in 1665 as part of Kircher's celebrated Mundus Subterraneus, the map presents an ambitious theory of the Earth's physical systems at a time when the scientific understanding of oceanography and geology was still developing. Sweeping engraved lines trace the supposed movement of seawater across the globe, while symbols identify volcanic activity and deep oceanic cavities.
Kircher's Theory of a Subterranean World of Waterways
Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), a German Jesuit scholar and one of the great polymaths of the seventeenth century, believed that the Earth's oceans, volcanoes, and underground passages formed an interconnected natural system. He proposed that seawater circulated through enormous subterranean channels, helping explain the tides and ocean currents. Small circles with central dots identify what Kircher believed were enormous oceanic whirlpools, through which seawater descended into underground passages. Dotted lines indicate supposed subterranean connections between otherwise separated bodies of water, including the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Black and Caspian Seas. Elsewhere, small illustrations of erupting volcanoes, particularly concentrated along the western coast of South America, identify regions of volcanic activity. Together, these features illustrate Kircher's theories about the movement of water and heat beneath the Earth's surface.
An Unusual Vision of the World
The map's geography is equally fascinating, particularly in its treatment of the largely unexplored polar regions. A vast Terra Australis Incognita occupies the southern portion of the map, beginning below the Strait of Magellan, where a small island appears to represent Tierra del Fuego. This hypothetical southern continent, long believed to exist by European geographers, extends northward across the Pacific, nearly reaching New Guinea. Although Antarctica would eventually be discovered much farther south, Kircher's depiction illustrates the considerable uncertainty surrounding the geography of the Southern Hemisphere.
In the north, an extensive network of waterways suggests the possibility of both Northwest and Northeast Passages, reflecting the continuing European search for navigable routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These conjectural waterways interrupt an otherwise nearly continuous northern landmass, presenting a geography considerably different from modern maps.
Combined with Kircher's elaborate depiction of ocean currents, subterranean passages, and volcanic activity, these features make the map an important early example of thematic cartography, using the geography of the entire world to illustrate theories about the Earth's interconnected natural systems.
CONDITION
1200 W. 35th Street #425 Chicago, IL 60609 | P: (312) 496 - 3622