The Creation of the World (genesis mundi) from the four-volume encyclopedia on human knowledge (Ultriusque cosmi majoris, 1617-1619) by Robert Fludd, a distinguished physician of early 17th-century London. At the center are Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise, surrounded by the celestial spheres, the sphere of star, and the outermost sphere—the empyrean—of purest fire. The Copernican Revolution overthrew this medieval cosmography, but the Cartesians and Newtonians retained the principle of theistic creation of a universe of finite age. See page 940. [From The Cosmographical Glass: Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe, by S. K. Heninger, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1977]

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