- Title: Mundi Subterranei
- Author: Athanasius Kircher
- Date: 1665
- Medium: Copperplate engraving
- Condition: Very Good Plus - light age toning and foxing, some areas of surface dirt
- Inches: 7 1/2 x 13 [Image]
- Centimeters: 19.05 x 33.02 [Image]
- Product ID: 319084
"Constitution of the Arctic Pole, Constitution of the Antarctic Pole"
Map of the North and South Poles demonstrating the flow of ocean currents. Labeled landmasses include America Borealis (North America), Groenlandia (Greenland), Spitzberga (Svalbard, Norway), and Tartaria (Asia). The South Pole appears devoid of any landmasses, as the first recorded sighting of Antarctica did not occur until the early nineteenth century.
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was a celebrated Jesuit Scholar and one of the first compilers of semi-scientific knowledge about the physical features of the Earth. His interpretations were based on personal observations and beliefs about how the world's geological systems worked. He suggested the tides and currents of the ocean flowed through subterranean tunnels, and that mountains represented the exposed skeletal structure of the Earth.