Friday, February 9, 2007

Fludd Returns

Fludd - Pars VII Liber Secundus p461


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Tertius p476


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Tertius p478


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Primus p438


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Primus p445


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Secundus Illustration after p454


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Secundus p459


Fludd - Pars VII Liber Quartus p495


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Quartus p421 battering ram


Fludd - Pars VI p543 fort


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Primus p386 fort


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Quartus p426 cannons


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Quartus p427 cannons/artillery


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Quartus p428 weapons


Fludd - Pars VI Liber Quartus p419 scuba for war


Fludd - Pars V Liber Teritius p331 eye sketches


Fludd - Pars IV Liber Primus p299


Fludd - Pars IV Liber Primus p300 eye anatomy


Fludd - Pars III Liber Secundus p277 perspective


Fludd - Pars IV Liber Quartus p31


Fludd - Pars III Liber Teritius p281


Fludd - Pars III Liber Teritius p291


Fludd - Pars IV p293 De Optica Scientia

These are further example illustrations from mystic rosicrucian Robert Fludd's 'De Naturae Simia'. This book forms part of the encyclopaedic series issued over 9 years to 1626 called 'Utriusque Cosmi Maioris Scilicet et Minores Metaphysica, Physica Atque Technica Historia'. Although it doesn't appear to be stated anywhere, I had a distinct feeling that the University of Utah website contains more than just the 'De Naturae Simia' illustrations.

The images above and in the previous post on Flood constitute a very small sampling of the veritable multitude of illustrations from Merian/de Bry seen throughout Fludd's work. Again, you can find the page/section locations for each image by checking the alt tags.

As with so many publications from this period it's difficult to speculate about the extent to which the contents may have been copied or modified from other sources. Certainly the machines and the fortification and perspective images above bear similarities to earlier works (think Dürer and Ramelli) but these subjects were at the forefront of technological theorizing during the renaissance so a certain repetition of core design principles (the waterwheel for instance) could be expected. There is also the influence and experience (and reused engraving plates!) that the printshop and illustrators brought to the projects.

Fludd is credited with one theoretical concept (not shown above) that, to an extent supports the notion that he contributed his own ideas, rather than merely extracting material from older sources. He described a perpetual motion system in which a water source would turn a wheel which in turn would be able to both grind grain and also drive an Archimedes screw pump to return the water to its origin, able to fall again and continue to power the process. It's completely fanciful of course but this was an era when there was no knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics and speculative entrepreneurs even attempted to obtain patents on aspects of Fludd's design up to the 19th century.
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