A. Kircher: Mundus Subterraneus

Volume 2 Index to Contents

Updated 11/2024

Frontispiece

Dedication to Leopold I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

Preface to the reader.

Concept of the work.

BOOK VIII. On the stony substance of the Earth On the Bones, Horns, and Fossils, and also of Underground Animals, Humans, and Demons.

Preface.
Section I. Common stones.
Chapter I. On multiple differences among stones.
Chapter II. Stony Substance seen in the Geocosm and the origin of mountains.
Chapter III. The power of stone-working is spread throughout the entire body of the Geocosm.
Chapter IV. Origin of stones and rocks, and how they become so hard over time.
Chapter V. Color of stones and gems, and how their color variation is inscribed in them by nature.
Chapter VI. On colors, which are called apparent.
Chapter VII. In which the cause and origin of transparent stones and gems is discussed, first of crystalline gems, then of diamonds.
Chapter VIII. On various figures, forms, and images with which nature has adorned stones and gems. Also, on the shapes found in eggshells and the birds depicted in wood by nature.
Chapter IX. On the marvelous works of nature, the painter; the forms, figures, and images that she delineates in stones and gems, and their origin and causes.
Section II. On transformation. Juices, salts, herbs, plants, trees, animals, and humans transformed into stone, or the power of petrification.
Chapter I. On the origin of petrifying juices.
Chapter II. Observations on various things turned into stones.
Chapter III. Stones that grow in various parts of animals.
Chapter IV. Genesis of subterranean bones and horns.
Chapter V. Fossilized horns, which have a close affinity with subterranean bones, are discussed here, especially the unicorn's horn.
Chapter IV. On fossilized wood and coal.
Section III. On asbestos and amber and other bituminous gums and the fossil wonders that they possess.
Chapter I. On asbestos, or amiantus.
Chapter II. Preparation of asbestos linen for weaving and paper making.
Chapter III. Amber or succinum, commonly known as amber.
Chapter IV. How various types of small animals found their burial place in the center of amber.
Chapter V. The attractive power of amber.
Chapter VI. Medicinal properties of amber or electrum.
Chapter VII. The Twelve Stones placed in the rational of the High Priest and in the foundations of the Apocalyptic City.
Section IV. Subterranean animals.
Preface.
Chapter I. On animals, and other things that cannot live outside the Earth and perpetually dwell within its bowels.
Chapter II. On subterranean dragons.
Chapter III. On subterranean human beings.
Chapter IV. On subterranean demons.

BOOK IX. On the Poisonous and Lethiferous Fruits of the Underground World.

Section I. Poisons and their nature, origin and admirable properties.
Preface.
Chapter I. Definition of poison.
Chapter II. On certain terrestrial minerals, from which all poisons are primarily derived from the subterranean world.
Chapter III. On accidental genesis of poison in other plants and animals, both living and dead.
Chapter IV. On different types of poisons.
Chapter V. On the difference between food, medicine, and poison: Likewise on the harmony and discord of things, which they call sympathy and antipathy, with various distinctions, and whether the enmity and friendship of things are accomplished through primary or elemental qualities, or through the specific virtues of things.
Chapter VI. On the alignment and discordance of veins, their origins, and underlying causes.
Section II. Poisons in sensitive and vegetative nature.
Chapter I. How poison arises in the human body.
Chapter II. How poisons can arise in us in many ways.
Chapter III. How animal poisons infect and kill humans, or on the causes of poisons.
Chapter IV. This chapter discusses the venom of snakes, including vipers and asps, which belong to the first class of poisonous creatures. It describes where the lethal venom is stored in their bodies and how it causes death in humans.
Chapter V. How poisons do not harm some animals, and how poisons from the bite of a rabid dog and a tarantula only manifest at a specific time.
Chapter VI. On the origin of diseases.
Chapter VII. On the treatment of poisonous diseases.
Section III. Imperfect metallic substances. The principal causes that contribute to the genesis of metals. The poisons of minerals, as well as their medicinal properties, are more fully explained.
Chapter I. On the marvelous nature and property of sulfur.
Chapter II. On other minerals that originate from sulfur.
Chapter III. The origin, nature, and properties of antimony or stibium.
Chapter IV. On quicksilver or mercury, its nature, and its wonderful properties.
Chapter V. On bituminous substances.
Chapter VI. On the fruits of the sea, coral, and shells.

BOOK X. Metallurgy and Metallic Arts

Section I. The requirements of the metallic art, and the conditions of mines.
Chapter I. On metallurgy and the material and formal causes of metals.
Chapter II. Whether the sky and stars converge, and how stars can contribute to the production of metals.
Chapter III. How does nature refine the oily moisture that forms the basis of metals, and what role do sulfur, mercury, and salt play in this process?
Chapter IV. How the efficiency of earthly moisture and heat produces everything; the factors responsible for causing metals to melt when exposed to fire while stones and other plant materials do not; the methods employed by nature in the dissolution and refinement of substances.
Section II. On metals, other mineral mines, as well as the diseases and remedies of miners.
Chapter I. What is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the art of metallurgy, or the qualifications expected of a superintendent of mines.
Chapter II. On diseases of miners.
Chapter III. On the treatment of metallic diseases.
Chapter IV. On remedies for purging noxious air in mines.
Chapter V. On a method of draining water sediment, which greatly hinders miners.
Chapter VI. On the many ducts of veins and mineral fibers.
Chapter VII. Metallognomy, or on the signs of hidden metal and how to recognize veins of metals.
Section III. The nature of metallic mines, their properties, various occurrences, and different responses to the author.
Preface.
Report I. On the mines of Hungary and the memorable things that occur in them. Chapter I. Response from Schemnitz to the nine points proposed by the author.
Report II. Response to the proposed questions of Johann Schapelmann, Superintendent of copper mines in Herrengrundt, Hungary, for His Imperial and Royal Majesty.
Report III. Georg Schutz, the chief in charge of minerals for the Sacred Imperial Majesty in the Chamber of Schemncensi.
Report IV. Father Andreas Schaffer's account of the different minerals found in Hungarian mines.
Report V. The Tyrolean Miners, by the Noble and Distinguished Man, Lord Johann Gervick, Serene Counsellor of the Archduke.
Chapter VI. On metallurgical machines.
Section IV. The conditions of mines. The various processes involved in extracting, washing, smelting, and separating minerals.
Chapter I. On the purification of metals.
Chapter II. Another method for preparing metals from Agricola.
Chapter III. Gold mines and extraction methods.
Chapter IV. Silver mine, its nature and properties.
Chapter V. Mixture of metals.
Chapter VI. Sympathy and antipathy.
Chapter VII. On scoria and excrements of metals.
Chapter VIII. The incredible abundance of gold and silver mines found in Peru, New Rego, and New Spain in America, according to reports of the Jesuit Fathers.
Chapter IX. On the mines of copper or brass.
Chapter X. Iron ores. The nature and properties of iron.
Chapter XI. On salt mines and the preparation of salt.

BOOK XI. Chemical Apparatus of the Earth

Preface.
Section I. The origin of alchemy.
Chapter I. On the name, definition, and division of alchemy.
Chapter II. On alchemy, also called chrysopoeia.
Chapter III. On the antiquity of alchemy.
Chapter IV. On pyrotechnics or the vessels and instruments required for alchemical operations.
Chapter V. On furnaces, vessels, degrees of heat, and other chemical operations.
Chapter VI. Methodical paradigmatic canon demonstrates chemical operations through experiments, with various examples proving each operation.
Section II. The Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter I. What the Philosopher’s Stone is, what the Philosophical Elixir or Tincture is, and whether true and natural gold can be produced by means of it.
Chapter II. Whether a true and real transmutation of one metal into another is possible.
Chapter III. The way and method of making the Philosopher’s Stone and tincture.
Chapter IV. The Magnum Opus of Perfect Art is examined by Llull, Azoth, and others.
Chapter V. Where it is taught that the processes of the alchemists of the Great Art cannot endure.
Chapter VI. Arnold of Villanova demonstrates that all attempts at chrysopoeia are futile, even by the very leaders of alchemy.
Chapter VII. Objections against the aforementioned processes and their authors are refuted.
Chapter VIII. Pseudo-alchemist. The deceits, deceptions, and methods by which alchemists have boasted about being able to create true gold, as they have done in the past and still do today.
Chapter IX. Demons often mingle with practitioners of alchemy.
Section III. Sophistic alchemy. That is, alchemy that combines gold and silver with copper, lead, and tin, ultimately producing gold through a significant transformation.
Chapter I. On various false and illicit operations of different Sophists.
Chapter II. On the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the chymists' gold-making, called apposition, or the method by which any metal joined with gold is multiplied.
Chapter III. [Chrysopoeia vs Chymistry]
Section IV. [Legal Concerns]
Chapter I. Legal or juridical. On whether Alchemical gold, made in various ways, can be lawfully sold as genuine.
Chapter II. Legal-canonical decisions. On false and true alchemical gold.
Final Chapter. ἄνευ κακῶν ἀνακαθαιρόμεναι.
Antithetical Summary, or Contradictory Summary, by which it is summarily shown from what has been said so far that everything else understood through the Mastery of the Great Art by true Philosophers is different from what false Alchemists promise.

BOOK XII. Panspermia

Preface.
Section I. The panspermia of things
Chapter I. On the origin, nature, and properties of the seed.
Chapter II. The manner in which nature proceeds in the genesis of minerals is explained.
Chapter III. On the seed of plants and the nature of vegetables.
Chapter IV. This seed is simply the salt embedded within the elements of nature, where the three essential principles of nature are intricately intertwined.
Chapter V. How the universal seed contributes to the generation of animals, and the wonderful efficacy of plastic virtue in animal seed.
Chapter VI. On the spontaneous origin of living beings from hidden seeds that are said to arise from decay.
Chapter VII. On the various classes of spontaneously generated beings.
Chapter VIII. The combinative subjects from which both plants and animals are born by spontaneous generation are exhibited.
Chapter IX. How zoophytes and insects of all kinds arise from the bodies of perfected animals.
Chapter X. On the spontaneous generation of insects from other fully formed animals of different species.
Section II. On Animals. What the Greeks call έντομο and the Latins call insects, various both in natural and artificial production.
Preface.
Chapter I. On the origins of various insects.
Chapter II. On the generation of insects called honeybees.
Chapter III. The genesis of four-winged insects.
Chapter IV. The origin of the Anelytra, also known as the "two-winged" insects.
Chapter V. On the origin of insects that have wings enclosed in sheaths.
Chapter VI. On insects that, although devoid of wings, are equipped with many legs.
Chapter VII. On worms that are born in animals, especially in humans.
Chapter VIII. Summary of experimental observations.
Chapter IX. The many and diverse types of insects that nature has willed to produce.
Section III. The Kingdom of Nature. The Botanical Philosophy, which deals with the wonderful effects of the Subterranean World in the genesis of plants and vegetation, and how marvelous arts can be deduced from them.
Preface.
Chapter I. On the wonderful power and efficacy of the seed in vegetables.
Chapter II. On the three principles of nature, from which such a variety of plants arises, and the fermentations of all things.
Chapter III. The differences among plants. What is necessary to discover their power, and how to explore their variety of strengths.
Chapter IV. On the Art of Emphyteusis or Inoculation.
Section IV. The Art of Stalactites, or Distillation,
Preface. The Art of Distillation is an imitation of nature in the underground workshop or laboratory, where everything is achieved through distillation.
Chapter I. Definition and various distinctions of distillation.
Chapter II. On species of mixed elements, and their use and benefit arranged in accordance with the rules of art, in the nature of things.
Chapter III. Botanical. On the first qualities, both manifest and hidden or specific, of plants, and their singular parts, such as leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, seeds, woods; on oils, gums, and their powers and properties in medical use, extracted from the best monuments of ancient and recent physicians, and reduced to synoptic tables.
Chapter IV. On the prodigious properties of plants that are said to have originated from underground.
Chapter V. On the various incidents or occurrences related to plants, questions have been posed in order to unravel and explain them.
Section V. Hidden workshops or studios of various arts, wherein wonderous operations are undertaken according to the prototype of the subterranean archives.
Preface.
Part I. The Art of Alchemy
Chapter I. On alchemical secrets
Chapter II. Medical-chemical investigation, in which the truth of potable gold is explored.
Chapter III. Why gold or works made from gold, as alchemists boast, obtain use, virtue, and efficacy in medicine, and whether medicine can or should be called universal.
Chapter IV. On silver or terrestrial Moon.
Chapter V. On the masters of iron, tin, copper, and lead.
Chapter VI. On metallic trees and their artificial production.
Chapter VII. The Anacephalaeotic Canons, which guide artists in chemical operations and help distinguish true from false procedures, are in accordance with the author's intentions and the perspectives of other reputable Chymists.
Part II. Metallographic art, or on the Art, through the science of weighing, enables the precise determination of metal and mineral mixtures, as well as the measurement of moisture and dryness in every blend, be it mineral, vegetable, or animal.
Chapter I. Whereby the mixture of gold is revealed.
Chapter II. On the weighing of various objects.
Part III. The art of glassmaking. This section discusses the wonderful works of glass and how to create examples of nature with precious crystals, pearls, and gems.
Chapter I. On the nature of glass.
Chapter II. On the art of crafting gems and precious stones.
Chapter III. How to make gems from smaltum or encaustum.
Chapter IV. The adulteration of gems, or on the falsification of precious stones and the composition thereof, partly proven by my own experiment, partly by the authority of expert writers, and the communication of friends.
Part IV. Pyroabolic art, also called Pyrotechnics.
Preface.
Chapter I. The preparation of pyrite powder.
Chapter II. On Preparing common incendiary ropes.
Chapter III. Medical-chemistry practices. Several proven antidotes against burns, made from pyrite powder, sulfur, red-hot iron, molten lead, and similar substances.
Chapter IV. Compositions for all types of rockets, which Italians call "Raggi" and Germans call "Rakettas," according to the ideas of Siemienov and other pyrotechnicians who work on making gunpowder.
Chapter V. On recreational water globes, which burn while floating on water.
Chapter VI. Other practices.
Chapter VII. Shining globes, such as those that we use to light up with fires, called "Lichtfugel" by the Germans.
Chapter VIII. On the various spectacles created through Pyrotechnic Art.
Final Part. The secrets of some Mechanical Arts, modeled on the example of underground nature.
Chapter I. The Art of goldsmiths and other artisans who work with metals.
Chapter II. On miscellaneous secrets.