- Title: Triton et al
- Author: Athanasius Kircher
- Date: 1678
- Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
- Condition: Very Good Plus - slight age toning and scuffing
- Inches: 9 x 14 [Image]
- Centimeters: 22.9 x 35.6 [Image]
- Product ID: 312001
Athanasius Kircher 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 the mountains were the exposed skeletal structure of the Earth.
Illustrations of various sea monsters and semi-human marine creatures. Kircher provides the creatures' names and descriptions, and in some cases the locations and years in which they were found.
Fig. 1: Triton sive bellua marina humana specie
Triton with the appearance of a marine human beast.
Fig. 2: Monstrum marinum specie monachi
Sea monster with the appearance of a monk.
Fig. 3: Vir marinus episcopi specie An. 1531 captus in mari Baltico
Marine man with the appearance of a bishop captured in the year 1531 in the Baltic Sea.
Fig. 4: Haleces monstrosi in Dania et Norvagia capti An. 1578
Monstrous herrings captured in Denmark and Norway in the year 1578
Fig. 5: Piscis monstrosus in Silesia captus Anno 1609
A monstrous fish caught in Silesia in the year 1609
Fig. 6: Stella et Crux in Lucio
Star and cross on a Northern Pike