Diagram of the four elements

[Adam McLean]

Gregoire Mariette (1646-1710) Region elementaire ou sublunaire qui comprend les corps simples.
Gregoire Mariette, Paris, 1696  (51x36 cms)

A late 17th-century diagram summing up the nature of the four elements and their influences.

"Celestial chart hand coloured, presents the universe as a place that is simultaneously ordered and chaotic, spiritual and temporal, familiar and fantastical. A rare separately issued map of the cosmos, integrating ancient Pagan and medieval Christian cosmology with Renaissance beliefs and experiences. Originally published in Italian by Antonino Saliba in 1582, the map was later reissued in Latin by Cornelis de Jode in a slightly modified format (lacking one of the nine rings). This copy is a new edition published by Gregoire Mariette. Shows eight concentric rings, from the inner ring depicting the infernal regions to an encircling ring of fire populated by demons, phoenixes and salamanders. The fourth ring is a hemispheric map on a south-polar projection. Within the spandrels are decorative images of the sun and moon. The diagram is surmounted by a title with flanking hemispheric maps. The cosmic model of concentric rings was derived from Aristotle and Ptolemy, which in modified forms prevailed until the seventeenth century. The Ptolemaic model comprised nine spheres around the earth: five planets, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the primum mobile. This departure from the classical content of the nine spheres while retaining the structure, is entirely typical of the fluid state of Renaissance science."


   

[Adam McLean]

The original map was produced by Antonino Saliba, a Gozitan who lived in the time of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, and who possibly knew at least one of them. He graduated in Canon and Civil Law, was a Doctor of Philosophy and excelled in mathematics, astronomy and astrology. It is thought that he was educated outside Malta since in those times such studies were impossible to pursue locally. He was also the first Maltese to earn international fame as a scientist, and the first Maltese to have his work printed since the invention of printing.


The original version of Saliba’s map was engraved by Mario Cartaro of Naples and published in Italian in 1582. It was copied many times over by important European map makers for longer than a century, as it was considered to be a very fine piece of work. Only one example of the 1582 original is known worldwide. This copy is preserved in Germany at the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel.

The version purchased by Heritage Malta is in Dutch and was printed in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in around 1700. It was issued by Ambrosius Schevenhuyse, a seller of charts and works of art. Heritage Malta acquired it from a London dealer of rare books.

Saliba’s map is truly beautiful and fascinating, consisting of nine concentric rings representing the world as seen from the eyes of a 16th century astronomer. The spheres depict fire, comets, winds, clouds, storms, people, houses, trees, and even the subterranean world and the inferno.




   

[Adam McLean]

The original chart of 1582, now in the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Signatur K 3,6, Lizenz