Author Description

Robert Fludd (1574-1637) had a remarkable mind. He was steeped in the hermetic philosophy of previous generations, yet was open to all the intellectual and technological developments of his time. The opening books of his great work, the History of Both Worlds, deal with the Macrocosm. In the second of these books, he deals with the fabric of the Macrocosm, looking at its component parts, explores why these are spherical, the importance of light in forming this world, the nature of the highest heaven, the spiritual heaven from which all lower structures emerged. Fludd illustrates the profund ideas in this book by some of his best known engravings, which are explained here for the first time.