The Cosmographical Glass: Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe

What are the parts of the universe? How are they arranged? Where are its center and its boundaries? What forces control its motion? Cosmographical Glass features more than 100 astronomical and mythical diagrams from books printed before 1700, revealing how people of the Renaissance answered these complicated questions. Throughout this period, which one historian has called "the most psychically disturbed era in European history," the universe was depicted as a rational arrangement of disparate parts. The author bridges the gap between the Renaissance and today by explaining in detail these astronomical, mythical, and alchemical maps of the universe.