Catalog Archive
Auction 105, Lot 61

"[Creation of the Earth]", Goeree, Willelm & Jan

Subject: Cartographic Miscellany

Period: 1690 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
6.7 x 11 inches
17 x 27.9 cm
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This is a very unusual print from a Dutch book on church history published by the Goeree brothers. It probably illustrates the controversial theories of Thomas Burnet, the first Englishman to attempt a scientific account of the origin of the earth. His popular treatise focused on the breaking up of "the fountains of the great deep" as the cause of the flood, as described in Genesis, and it presented a model of the earth's structure with ample stores of water within subterranean chambers. Two diagrams of the earth are surrounded by Biblical scenes including Eve offering the apple to Adam and the Expulsion, people feasting before the Great Flood and two bizarre creatures apparently representing heaven and earth.

References:

Condition: A+

Estimate: $200 - $250

Sold for: $275

Closed on 12/3/2003

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