This stunning engraving is an early view of the sun shown with solar flares and surface eruptions based on the observations of Kircher and Christoph Scheiner in 1635. Kircher's masterpiece, titled Mundus subterraneus (The Underground World) was the first serious effort to describe the physical makeup of the earth, proposing theories (sometimes fantastic) in the areas of physics, geography, geology, and chemistry. Published in a Dutch edition of Kircher's famous Subterranean World by Johann Waesberger.

References: De Vorsey (Mercator's World) Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 28-31.

Condition: A

A fine impression on paper with a horn coat of arms watermark and an expertly and nearly invisibly repaired tear that enters title cartouche at top. There are small chips in top and bottom margins that have also been expertly repaired, two of which enter map border, with a minor amount of the border replaced in facsimile.