Flammarion engraving (nonfiction)
The Flammarion engraving is a wood engraving by an unknown artist, so named because its first documented appearance is in Camille Flammarion's 1888 book L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire ("The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology").
The engraving depicts a man, clothed in a long robe and carrying a staff, who kneels down and passes his head, shoulders, and right arm through a gap between the star-studded sky and the earth, discovering a marvellous realm of circling clouds, fires and suns beyond the heavens.
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 prophet Ezekiel.
It has been used to represent a supposedly medieval cosmology, including a flat earth bounded by a solid and opaque sky, or firmament, and also as a metaphorical illustration of either the scientific or the mystical quests for knowledge.
The caption that accompanies the engraving in Flammarion's book reads:
"A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch..."
The engraving has often, but erroneously, been referred to as a woodcut.
Fiction cross-reference
Giant Dirigibles to Operate in U.S., maybe be key to Flammarion engraving.
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Flammarion engraving @ wiki.karljones.com
- Flammarion engraving @ Wikipedia
- Georg Peez: "Zum Beispiel; Anonymer und undatierter Holzschnitt".