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The Greater and Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd: Macrocosm, Microcosm, and Medicine
An illustrated reference book on a seminal figure of occult philosophy and Renaissance thought
• Explains Fludd’s thoughts on cosmic harmonies, divination, the kabbalah, astrology, geomancy, alchemy, the Rosicrucians, and multiple levels of existence
• Includes more than 200 of Fludd’s illustrations, representing the whole corpus of Fludd’s iconography, each one accompanied by Godwin’s expert commentary
• Explores Fludd’s medical work as an esoteric Paracelsian physician and his theories on the macrocosm of elements, planets, stars, and subtle and divine beings and the microcosm of the human being and its creative activities, including material never before translated
One of the last Renaissance men, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was one of the great minds of the early modern period. A physician by profession, he was also a Christian Hermetist, a Rosicrucian, an alchemist, astrologer, musician, and inventor. His drive to encompass the whole of human knowledge--from music to alchemy, from palmistry to fortification--resulted in a series of books remarkable for their hundreds of engravings, a body of work recognized as the first example of a fully-illustrated encyclopedia.
In this in-depth, highly illustrated reference, scholar and linguist Joscelyn Godwin explains Fludd’s theories on the correspondence between the macrocosm of elements, planets, stars, and subtle and divine beings and the microcosm of the human being and its creative activities. He shows how Fludd’s two worlds--the macrocosm and the microcosm--along with Paracelsus’s medical principles and the works of Hermes Trismegistus provided the foundation for his search for the cause and cure of all diseases. The more than 200 illustrations in the book represent the whole corpus of Fludd’s iconography, each one accompanied by Godwin’s expert commentary and explanation. Sharing many passages translated for the first time from Fludd’s Latin, allowing him to speak for himself, Godwin explores Fludd’s thoughts on cosmic harmonies, divination, the kabbalah, astrology, geomancy, and the rapport between the multiple levels of existence. He also analyzes Fludd’s writings in defense of alchemy and the Rosicrucians.
An essential reference for scholars of Renaissance thinkers, traditional cosmology, metaphysics, and the Western esoteric tradition, this book offers intimate access to Fludd’s worlds and gives one a feel for an epoch in which magic, science, philosophy, spirituality, and imagination could still cohabit and harmonize within a single mind.
• Explains Fludd’s thoughts on cosmic harmonies, divination, the kabbalah, astrology, geomancy, alchemy, the Rosicrucians, and multiple levels of existence
• Includes more than 200 of Fludd’s illustrations, representing the whole corpus of Fludd’s iconography, each one accompanied by Godwin’s expert commentary
• Explores Fludd’s medical work as an esoteric Paracelsian physician and his theories on the macrocosm of elements, planets, stars, and subtle and divine beings and the microcosm of the human being and its creative activities, including material never before translated
One of the last Renaissance men, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was one of the great minds of the early modern period. A physician by profession, he was also a Christian Hermetist, a Rosicrucian, an alchemist, astrologer, musician, and inventor. His drive to encompass the whole of human knowledge--from music to alchemy, from palmistry to fortification--resulted in a series of books remarkable for their hundreds of engravings, a body of work recognized as the first example of a fully-illustrated encyclopedia.
In this in-depth, highly illustrated reference, scholar and linguist Joscelyn Godwin explains Fludd’s theories on the correspondence between the macrocosm of elements, planets, stars, and subtle and divine beings and the microcosm of the human being and its creative activities. He shows how Fludd’s two worlds--the macrocosm and the microcosm--along with Paracelsus’s medical principles and the works of Hermes Trismegistus provided the foundation for his search for the cause and cure of all diseases. The more than 200 illustrations in the book represent the whole corpus of Fludd’s iconography, each one accompanied by Godwin’s expert commentary and explanation. Sharing many passages translated for the first time from Fludd’s Latin, allowing him to speak for himself, Godwin explores Fludd’s thoughts on cosmic harmonies, divination, the kabbalah, astrology, geomancy, and the rapport between the multiple levels of existence. He also analyzes Fludd’s writings in defense of alchemy and the Rosicrucians.
An essential reference for scholars of Renaissance thinkers, traditional cosmology, metaphysics, and the Western esoteric tradition, this book offers intimate access to Fludd’s worlds and gives one a feel for an epoch in which magic, science, philosophy, spirituality, and imagination could still cohabit and harmonize within a single mind.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2018
3 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Joscelyn Godwin
70 books78 followersComposer, musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism and music in the occult.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 21, 2018
Científico, investigador y místico. Filósofo, teólogo y metafísico. Estas serán todas las cualidades que Robert Fludd tomará de lleno y que se verán enormemente reflejadas en este libro. En él leeremos su biografía , cómo se hace médico y se convierte en parte integrante de los rosacruces. La edición, además, recoge todas las publicaciones y entregas anuales que el autor escribiría entre 1617 y 1621. En ellas figura todo un estudio y manifiesto de los que, más tarde, se apropiarían organizaciones como la teosofia o el movimiento new age.
Macrocosmos, microcosmos y medicina es un tratado metafísico. Un tratado sobre el sol, el cielo, las nubes, los elementos. Si vamos despojando las partes más densas de nuestra alma y nuestro cuerpo, lograremos conectar con nuestro ser más íntimo; es como si hubiéramos subido unos peldaños para estar con Dios. A ello es a lo que aspiraba Fludd y, de hecho, lo consiguió. Toda descripción del lado científico de las cosas que Fludd expone aquí es a la vez una visión completamente metafísica de ellas. Y viceversa. Para Fludd, ciencia y metafísica habrían de ir de la mano.
Fludd era un da Vinci adelantado. Abordaba tal cantidad de cosas y con tanta majestuosidad en el terreno de las ideas que podríamos tildarlo de genio y superhombre debido a todos los conocimientos que poseía. El autor se encontraría con los mitos universales y los haría suyos de tal manera que vemos aquí unos mitos capaces de existir por ellos mismos sin tener que recurrir a los originales. Son unos mitos sobre el hombre, el superhombre y el universo. Unos mitos que nos adentran en la profundidad de la materia y la no materia, en lo visible y en lo más oculto.
En los grabados que se muestran en esta edición, todos a cargo de Robert Fludd, vemos un universo completamente propio y particular, en el que la metafísica se encuentra con la ciencia, en el que la alquimia lo aborda y seduce todo. Viéndolos de a poco y observándolos con la mirada de un niño, podemos apreciar la penetrante técnica y majestuosidad del trazo de Fludd y su conocimiento, profundo y verdadero para cualquier alquimista del mundo celeste y humano. Fludd se convertiría en un Fausto que entraría al cielo y a no al infierno, en un Fausto que haría uso de sus nuevas alas invisibles para bajar a la tierra y mostrarnos con todo su esplendor los conocimientos esotéricos de la vida y su misterios últimos. Aquí lo oculto se ve revelado. Nos hallamos ante la belleza última de la vida, de las cosas.
De este modo, Macrocosmos, microcosmos y medicina es un libro para aquellos que buscan más allá de lo que este mundo nos muestra. No tanto para aquellos que se preguntan por la verdad, sino para aquellos que buscan la belleza en lo mistérico y oculto, en la ascensión de lo humano y las propiedades del mundo celeste. ¿Qué es una vida sin ascender a todo ello? Es una vida que sólo se quedaría con la materia, una vida cuya alma no se verá traspasada por las alas de un ángel o la leve brisa celestial que el gozo de Dios nos puede dar. La búsqueda de esto último es lo que los lectores de Fludd obtenemos de una manera u otra. Robert Fludd es un héroe de los cielos. Él supo verlos, los conoció y volvió a la tierra para mostrárnoslos.
Macrocosmos, microcosmos y medicina es un tratado metafísico. Un tratado sobre el sol, el cielo, las nubes, los elementos. Si vamos despojando las partes más densas de nuestra alma y nuestro cuerpo, lograremos conectar con nuestro ser más íntimo; es como si hubiéramos subido unos peldaños para estar con Dios. A ello es a lo que aspiraba Fludd y, de hecho, lo consiguió. Toda descripción del lado científico de las cosas que Fludd expone aquí es a la vez una visión completamente metafísica de ellas. Y viceversa. Para Fludd, ciencia y metafísica habrían de ir de la mano.
Fludd era un da Vinci adelantado. Abordaba tal cantidad de cosas y con tanta majestuosidad en el terreno de las ideas que podríamos tildarlo de genio y superhombre debido a todos los conocimientos que poseía. El autor se encontraría con los mitos universales y los haría suyos de tal manera que vemos aquí unos mitos capaces de existir por ellos mismos sin tener que recurrir a los originales. Son unos mitos sobre el hombre, el superhombre y el universo. Unos mitos que nos adentran en la profundidad de la materia y la no materia, en lo visible y en lo más oculto.
En los grabados que se muestran en esta edición, todos a cargo de Robert Fludd, vemos un universo completamente propio y particular, en el que la metafísica se encuentra con la ciencia, en el que la alquimia lo aborda y seduce todo. Viéndolos de a poco y observándolos con la mirada de un niño, podemos apreciar la penetrante técnica y majestuosidad del trazo de Fludd y su conocimiento, profundo y verdadero para cualquier alquimista del mundo celeste y humano. Fludd se convertiría en un Fausto que entraría al cielo y a no al infierno, en un Fausto que haría uso de sus nuevas alas invisibles para bajar a la tierra y mostrarnos con todo su esplendor los conocimientos esotéricos de la vida y su misterios últimos. Aquí lo oculto se ve revelado. Nos hallamos ante la belleza última de la vida, de las cosas.
De este modo, Macrocosmos, microcosmos y medicina es un libro para aquellos que buscan más allá de lo que este mundo nos muestra. No tanto para aquellos que se preguntan por la verdad, sino para aquellos que buscan la belleza en lo mistérico y oculto, en la ascensión de lo humano y las propiedades del mundo celeste. ¿Qué es una vida sin ascender a todo ello? Es una vida que sólo se quedaría con la materia, una vida cuya alma no se verá traspasada por las alas de un ángel o la leve brisa celestial que el gozo de Dios nos puede dar. La búsqueda de esto último es lo que los lectores de Fludd obtenemos de una manera u otra. Robert Fludd es un héroe de los cielos. Él supo verlos, los conoció y volvió a la tierra para mostrárnoslos.
February 8, 2025
As human consciousness has evolved, the changing forms and traditions of its ingenuity, or even its retrogression, are magnificently imprinted in the bygone folds of antiquity. There are dimensions of ancient occult knowledge and mysteries that have been dismembered from their magic origins and fragmented into the rippling sluice of modern sensibilities and technological advances of the present day.
I was introduced to Dr. Robert Fludd (1574-1637), unbeknownst, through the German artist Anselm Kiefer in 2003. Kiefer explored certain themes of Fludd’s work and dedicated multiple works to him. This fascination with Dr. Fludd was not so much from agreement of the Dr.’s multi-faceted philosophical framework, but in elaborating the essence of Fludd’s mode of thinking that affirmed the living continuity of mankind’s place in the cosmos. Fludd’s templates for reality eventually went out of fashion and were ruled out as approaches to science and nature left the renaissance behind. However, Fludd’s elaborate philosophy about the relationships between the microcosm (the human body) and the macrocosm (the universe and the heavens) and the analogy of “resemblances” had a major impact on western culture through the 16th century and arguably to this day, 2025.
Michael Foccoult once said, “It was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible the knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them.” Indeed the art representing Fludd’s ideas were a cornerstone of his wide-ranging intellect, philosophical, alchemical, and medical practice; not to mention his admiration and deep understanding of Christian Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Astrology, Hermeticism, and magic. His engravings are legendary for their ornate detail and ability to tell a story.
This edition is full of crisp and beautiful illustrations of his most seminal works, over 200 illustrations. The biographical sketch is incisive but, for me, needed more elaboration. There are multiple biographies of Fludd’s life and times that would suffice for this. This is more of an interesting curiosity for the coffee table and reference to Fludd’s overarching ideas.
Fludd was one of last true renaissance men. He lived with great style and dedication to his beliefs and had major successes and controversies in his life. He may have had, as it were, a twinge of small-man’s syndrome and self-important grandiosity. Even so, he was a master of exploiting the similarities that exist between systems, whether, corporal, skyward, symbolic, or in the alchemical spirit of the ether. Essentially, His chief obsessions were an attempt to harmonize different religions, cultures, traditions and schools of thought to glorify God by a lost esoteric means that might reveal mystical truth.
His ideas and inventions were brimming with life (and still are). He is more interesting than anyone I have ever heard of and as eccentric as you please; he entered the forge and became a mirror to the fire of vivid of countenance. He believed that each plant had a corresponding star in the sky. Perhaps he has joined those ranks and is wandering up there somewhere, with all that room to shine and just be.
I was introduced to Dr. Robert Fludd (1574-1637), unbeknownst, through the German artist Anselm Kiefer in 2003. Kiefer explored certain themes of Fludd’s work and dedicated multiple works to him. This fascination with Dr. Fludd was not so much from agreement of the Dr.’s multi-faceted philosophical framework, but in elaborating the essence of Fludd’s mode of thinking that affirmed the living continuity of mankind’s place in the cosmos. Fludd’s templates for reality eventually went out of fashion and were ruled out as approaches to science and nature left the renaissance behind. However, Fludd’s elaborate philosophy about the relationships between the microcosm (the human body) and the macrocosm (the universe and the heavens) and the analogy of “resemblances” had a major impact on western culture through the 16th century and arguably to this day, 2025.
Michael Foccoult once said, “It was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible the knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them.” Indeed the art representing Fludd’s ideas were a cornerstone of his wide-ranging intellect, philosophical, alchemical, and medical practice; not to mention his admiration and deep understanding of Christian Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Astrology, Hermeticism, and magic. His engravings are legendary for their ornate detail and ability to tell a story.
This edition is full of crisp and beautiful illustrations of his most seminal works, over 200 illustrations. The biographical sketch is incisive but, for me, needed more elaboration. There are multiple biographies of Fludd’s life and times that would suffice for this. This is more of an interesting curiosity for the coffee table and reference to Fludd’s overarching ideas.
Fludd was one of last true renaissance men. He lived with great style and dedication to his beliefs and had major successes and controversies in his life. He may have had, as it were, a twinge of small-man’s syndrome and self-important grandiosity. Even so, he was a master of exploiting the similarities that exist between systems, whether, corporal, skyward, symbolic, or in the alchemical spirit of the ether. Essentially, His chief obsessions were an attempt to harmonize different religions, cultures, traditions and schools of thought to glorify God by a lost esoteric means that might reveal mystical truth.
His ideas and inventions were brimming with life (and still are). He is more interesting than anyone I have ever heard of and as eccentric as you please; he entered the forge and became a mirror to the fire of vivid of countenance. He believed that each plant had a corresponding star in the sky. Perhaps he has joined those ranks and is wandering up there somewhere, with all that room to shine and just be.
January 28, 2020
This review originally appeared on The Magical Buffet website on 01/28/2020.
Get yourself a cold shower ready, because today we are talking about some seriously sexy book porn. We’re talking about the 250-page, illustration packed, “The Greater & Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd: Macrocosm, Microcosm & Medicine” by Joscelyn Godwin. This gorgeous book is hardcover with a built-in ribbon bookmark.
Robert Fludd was an interesting man. Godwin describes him as a Renaissance man, and he is correct. Fludd was a doctor who was heavily influenced by the Christian theology of the time. You would recover if it was the Lord’s will. And yet, he was a man of science, conducting experiments that we would describe as alchemy. Along with this, he was a supporter of the Rosicrucians, an inventor, and with his fascination of how the Earth operates he would link music and math, and study astrology. For being a man who I feel allowed his religious beliefs to limit his scope, he truly was a man deeply involved in all of the proto sciences of what we regard as science today. Robert Fludd created the encyclopedias of his day.
What truly set Robert Fludd’s work apart from others was his extensive use of illustrations. He understood the value of an image, and if Godwin is to be believed (which I think he is), the illustrations are much easier to understand than Fludd’s writing. Surprisingly, Fludd didn’t do these himself, however, some of the best of the era created them for his writings.
“The Greater & Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd” has 201 GORGEOUS illustrations, each with thoughtful commentary from Godwin.
Joscelyn Godwin and Inner Traditions have put together a truly covet worthy work.
Get yourself a cold shower ready, because today we are talking about some seriously sexy book porn. We’re talking about the 250-page, illustration packed, “The Greater & Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd: Macrocosm, Microcosm & Medicine” by Joscelyn Godwin. This gorgeous book is hardcover with a built-in ribbon bookmark.
Robert Fludd was an interesting man. Godwin describes him as a Renaissance man, and he is correct. Fludd was a doctor who was heavily influenced by the Christian theology of the time. You would recover if it was the Lord’s will. And yet, he was a man of science, conducting experiments that we would describe as alchemy. Along with this, he was a supporter of the Rosicrucians, an inventor, and with his fascination of how the Earth operates he would link music and math, and study astrology. For being a man who I feel allowed his religious beliefs to limit his scope, he truly was a man deeply involved in all of the proto sciences of what we regard as science today. Robert Fludd created the encyclopedias of his day.
What truly set Robert Fludd’s work apart from others was his extensive use of illustrations. He understood the value of an image, and if Godwin is to be believed (which I think he is), the illustrations are much easier to understand than Fludd’s writing. Surprisingly, Fludd didn’t do these himself, however, some of the best of the era created them for his writings.
“The Greater & Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd” has 201 GORGEOUS illustrations, each with thoughtful commentary from Godwin.
Joscelyn Godwin and Inner Traditions have put together a truly covet worthy work.
November 18, 2021
esoterica from the Elizabethan age was fascinating and arcane but a mishmash of weird folk ideas passed from antiquity to the middle ages to just before the scientific revolution. Interesting stuff of erudite yet ultimately ignorant scholastic studies.
November 24, 2021
Un libro en el cual, a través de los cientos de grabados que acompañaban los textos originales, se resume el pensamiento, las teorías y la interpretación del mundo de Robert Fludd.
Tratados de urinomancia, quiromancia, geomancia y otras artes adivinatorias, explicaciones herméticas y platónicas sobre el origen del mundo, teorías astrológicas sobre música, anatomía y remedios médicos astrológicos, descripciones del microcosmos y el macrocosmos, en fin, un libro muy divertido si se acompaña de los textos originales, que afortunadamente hoy, se encuentran disponibles para su consulta:
https://archive.org/details/integrvmm...
https://archive.org/details/anatomiae...
https://archive.org/details/utriusque...
https://archive.org/details/utriusque...
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zI...
Tratados de urinomancia, quiromancia, geomancia y otras artes adivinatorias, explicaciones herméticas y platónicas sobre el origen del mundo, teorías astrológicas sobre música, anatomía y remedios médicos astrológicos, descripciones del microcosmos y el macrocosmos, en fin, un libro muy divertido si se acompaña de los textos originales, que afortunadamente hoy, se encuentran disponibles para su consulta:
https://archive.org/details/integrvmm...
https://archive.org/details/anatomiae...
https://archive.org/details/utriusque...
https://archive.org/details/utriusque...
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zI...
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