Catalog Archive
Auction 121, Lot 49

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

Subject: Cartographic Miscellany

Period: 1690 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
6.5 x 10.5 inches
16.5 x 26.7 cm
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This is a very unusual and very graphic engraving is from a Dutch book on church history published by the Goeree brothers. It 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. This view shows the inside of the earth at the top and the exterior at the bottom with water coming from within the earth to form rain clouds. The earth is bisected by a torrid zone at the equator.

References:

Condition: A

A couple of very minor spots.

Estimate: $200 - $300

Sold for: $300

Closed on 9/26/2007

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