The
Flammarion woodcut is an
anonymousAnonymous may refer to:*Anonymity, the state where a person's name and other personally identifying information is not known*Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an anonymous, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author...
wood engravingWood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used.-Origin and technique:...
(once believed to be a
woodcutWoodcut — formally known as xylography — is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
), so named because its first documented appearance is in
Camille FlammarionNicolas Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer and author. He is commonly referred to as Camille Flammarion.-Life:Camille Flammarion was born in Montigny-le-Roi, Haute-Marne, France...
's 1888 book
L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire ("The Atmosphere: Popular
MeteorologyMeteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting . Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century...
").
Description
The engraving depicts a man, dressed as a
mediaevalThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
pilgrimA pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious or historic significance; often a considerable distance is traveled...
and carrying a pilgrim's staff, who peers through the
skyThe sky is the part of the atmosphere or of outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object. It is difficult to define precisely for several reasons. During daylight, the sky of Earth has the appearance of a deep blue surface because of the air's scattering of sunlight. The sky is...
as if it were a curtain to look at the hidden workings of the
universeThe Universe comprises everything that physically exists, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy, and the physical laws and constants that govern them...
. One of the elements of the cosmic machinery bears a strong resemblance to traditional pictorial representations of the "wheel in the middle of a wheel" described in the visions of the Hebrew
prophetIn religion, a prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans...
EzekielAccording to religious texts, Ezekiel was a priest in the Bible who prophesied for 22 years sometime in the 6th century BC in the form of visions while exiled in Babylon, as recorded in...
(see
MerkabahThe Hebrew word Merkabah is used in Ezekiel to refer to the throne-chariot of God, the four-wheeled vehicle driven by four "chayot" , each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle.Several movements in Jewish mysticism, including...
).
The caption that accompanies the engraving in Flammarion's book translates as
The text that accompanies the image reads, in part,
The engraving is often described as being medieval due to its visual style, its fanciful vision of the world, and what appears to be a depiction of a
flat EarthThe Flat Earth model is a view that the Earth's shape is a flat plane.Various cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including ancient Babylon, Ancient Egypt, pre-Classical Greece and pre-17th century China. This view contrasts with the realization first recorded around the 4th century BC...
. Flammarion does not provide any attribution for the image in his book.
History
In 1957,
astronomerAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
Ernst ZinnerErnst Zinner was a German astronomer and noted historian of astronomy. After studies in Munich and Jena he obtained his PhD in 1907 at the University of Jena, followed by stays at the University of Lund, the University of Paris, and the Königstuhl Observatory in Heidelberg...
claimed that the image dated to the
German RenaissanceThe German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which originated with the Italian Renaissance in Italy...
, but he was unable to find any version published earlier than 1906. Further investigation, however, revealed that the work was a composite of images characteristic of different historical periods, and that it had been made with a burin, used for
wood engravingWood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used.-Origin and technique:...
only since the late
18th centuryThe 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini/Common Era numbering system.However, Western historians sometimes specifically define the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work...
. The image was traced to Flammarion's book by Arthur Beer, an astrophysicist and historian of German science at
CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
and, independently, by
Bruno WeberBruno Weber is a Swiss artist and architect of fantastic realism.- Life :Bruno Weber was born 1931 in Dietikon, Switzerland. 1947 Weber completed the college of arts and crafts in Zurich under Johannes Itten, the founder of chromatics. Afterwards he began training until 1949 as a lithograph in...
, the curator of rare books at the
ZürichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
central library.
According to Weber and to astronomer
Joseph AshbrookJoseph Ashbrook was an American astronomer.Ashbrook was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.He was one of the first to study Cepheid variables as tools for establishing galactic distances...
, the depiction of a spherical heavenly vault separating the earth from an outer realm is similar to the first illustration in
Sebastian MünsterSebastian Münster , was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar.- Life :Münster was born at Ingelheim near Mainz, the son of Andreas Munster. He was appointed to the University of Basel in 1527...
's
CosmographiaThe Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster from 1544 is the earliest German description of the world. It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French , Italian, English, and even Czech. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death...
of 1544 (see
http://www.istitutodatini.it/biblio/images/it/lazzer/munster/dida/dida2.htm), a book which Flammarion, an ardent bibliophile and book collector, might have owned. The idea of a pilgrim finding the place where the Earth and sky meet might have been inspired by a legend associated with Saint Macarius of Rome, a legend which Flammarion recounts in detail in his book
Les mondes imaginaires et les mondes réels ("The Imaginary Worlds and the Real Worlds", 1865).
Flammarion had been apprenticed at the age of twelve to an engraver in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and it is believed that many of the illustrations for his books were engraved from his own drawings, probably under his supervision. Therefore it is plausible that Flammarion himself created the image, though this has not been conclusively ascertained. There is no reason to believe that this earliest version was intended to be deceptive as to its date of creation. In the context, it seems plausible that Flammarion intended it merely as a fanciful illustration of the fact that the sky is not actually a physical barrier.
The image was used as an illustration in C. G. Jung's
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (1959), and in
The Mathematical ExperienceThe Mathematical Experience is a 1981 book by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh that discusses the practice of modern mathematics from a historical and philosophical perspective...
(1981) by
Philip J. DavisFor other persons named Philip Davis, see Philip Davis .Philip J. Davis is an American applied mathematician. He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He is known for his work in numerical analysis and approximation theory, as well as his investigations in the history and philosophy of mathematics...
and
Reuben HershReuben Hersh is an American mathematician and academic, best known for his writings on the nature, practice, and social impact of mathematics. This work challenges and complements mainstream philosophy of mathematics.After receiving a B.A...
. It served as the cover illustration for
Daniel J. BoorstinDaniel Joseph Boorstin was an American historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until 1987.- Biography:...
's
The DiscoverersThe Discoverers is a non-fiction historical work by Daniel Boorstin published in 1983 and is the first in the Knowledge Trilogy that also includes The Creators and The Seekers.-Contents:...
(1983), a bestselling account of the
history of scienceScience is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, explanation, and adequate prediction of real world phenomena by experiment...
. The Flammarion woodcut has also been used in many other contexts to illustrate either the
scientificScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
or the
mysticalMysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or...
quests for knowledge.
External links
Georg Peez: "Zum Beispiel; Anonymer und undatierter Holzschnitt".