Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Untitled [Geocentric Universe]
- Title:
- Untitled [Geocentric Universe]
- Alternate Title:
- Geocentric Universe
- Collection:
- Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Master of the Gruninger Workshop
- Date:
- 1529
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 1005.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1005_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- Before 1800
- Subject:
- Religion
Ethnocentrism
- Measurement:
- 18 x 15 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- The collection includes three cosmological maps of the universe on the geocentric model: ID #1002.01, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493); ID #1005, from an edition of Virgil (1529); and ID #1018, from a Mallet atlas (1719). All three support the Christian view of the sun revolving around the earth, although the Mallet version was published more than 170 years after Copernicus' De revolutionibus and more than 80 years after Galileo's Dialogo.
This illustration appeared in a renaissance edition of Virgil's Georgics, a guidebook to nature, agriculture, and rural life. Surrounding the large diagram of the geocentric universe are images of the planting and cultivation of crops (at the top), a ship in the kind of storm that disrupts man's plans, and tippling farmers at the bottom right, a reflection of Virgil's epicureanism. It "functions simultaneously as calendar, cosmological diagram, and moral illustration. It visually encodes the structure of time as understood in early modern Europe—regulated by the heavens, enacted through labor, and punctuated by chance and festivity. . . . [It] stands as a key document in the transmission of classical learning through the medium of the illustrated book." https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/119750/geocentric-universe, accessed January 20, 2026.
This woodcut was created by the Master of the Grüninger Workshop and first appeared in the 1502 Virgil edited by Sebastian Brant and published in Strasbourg. The woodblock was used in editions of 1517 (Lyon: Jacques Sacon) and 1529 (Lyon: Jean Crespin). This copy is from the 1529 edition.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact
- Source:
- Vergilius Maro, Publius. Opera virgiliana cum decem commentis . . . (Lyon: Jean Crespin, 1529).
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.
