The Greater and Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd: Macrocosm, Microcosm, and Medicine

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments

One
Fludd’s Life and Work

Two
How the World Is Made

Three
Nature’s Ape

Four
How Man Is Made

Five
Psychology and Divination

Six
Kabbalah

Seven
Anatomy

Eight
Meteorology

Nine
Universal Medicine Appendices

1. Astrology Solves a Crime

2. The Wisdom of the Ancients

3. Fludd on His Own Times

4. Symbolic Ornaments

5. Fludd Finds “Star Jelly”

6. Three Stories of Prophecy

Bibliography
Abbreviations
Plan of Fludd’s History of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm
Plan of Fludd’s Medicina Catholica
Fludd’s Writings
Manuscripts
Modern Editions and Translations
General Bibliography

Index

About the Author :
Educated at Cambridge and Cornell, Joscelyn Godwin, Ph.D., is the author, editor, and translator of more than 30 books, including Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World, and was a professor of music at Colgate University for over 40 years until his retirement in 2016. Known for his translations of the works of Fabre d’Olivet and Julius Evola as well as Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, he lives in Hamilton, New York.

Review :
“Joscelyn Godwin has written a clearly expressed explanation and analysis of Robert Fludd’s enigmatic, voluminous encyclopedic works. This definitive volume will always be essential for understanding in detail what Fludd’s massive tomes encompassed.” “Beautifully written, this book allows the reader to skim or go deep with no danger of sinking. Never apologizing for Fludd’s idiosyncrasies and excesses, Godwin gets one thinking as Fludd did and hoped others would." “This lavishly illustrated book is the definitive guide to Robert Fludd’s remarkable attempt at a grand synthesis of all human knowledge. Joscelyn Godwin’s superb scholarship and crystal-clear prose are without equal." “Robert Fludd attempted to embrace the whole of nature and man and of theory and practice in his volumes on the macrocosm, the microcosm, and medicine and worked out his ideas through striking images. Joscelyn Godwin, in this masterly book, lays out the whole of Fludd’s world in all its splendor.”