Crooke, Helkiah (1576-1648)

ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man [Mikrokosmographia, Microcosmographia]

London

Printed by William Iaggard

1615

"The head, the Castle and tower of the soule, the seate of reason, the mansion house of wisedome, the treasury of memory, iudgement, and discourse, wherein mankinde is most like to the Angels or intelligencies, obtaining the loftiest and most eminent place in the body; doth it not elegantly resemble that supreame and Angelicall part of the worlde?"

[...] These be excellent things which we haue obserued, touching the figure and frame of mans body, the temperature thereof, and the proportion of the parts; but this last exceedeth all admiration, that in it selfe alone, it should containe all whatsoeuer this whole world in his large and spacious bosome doth comprehend; so as it may worthily be called a Litle world, and the patterne and Epitome of the whole vniuerse. The ancient Magitians (for so naturall Philosophers were of olde tearmed,) as also the great wise Priests of the Egyptians, did make of this whole vniuerse, three parts: the one, vppermost or superiour, which they tearmed the intellectuall and Angelical part, the seate of the Intelligentiae, (so they called the Spirits, which by tradition from the Hebrues, they vnderstood were in the heauen) by whose direction and command, the inferiour or lower world is guided and gouerned: another middle, which they tearmed the heauenly part, in the middest whereof, the Sun ruleth, as the leader and moderater of the rest of the Stars: the 3. sublunary or Elementary, which is admirable & abundantly fertile, in procreating, increasing and nourishing of creatures and plants. The Images and resemblances of which three partes, who seeth not plainly expressed, and as it were portrayed out with a curious pensill in the body of man? The head, the Castle and tower of the soule, the seate of reason, the mansion house of wisedome, the treasury of memory, iudgement, and discourse, wherein mankinde is most like to the Angels or intelligencies, obtaining the loftiest and most eminent place in the body; doth it not elegantly resemble that supreame and Angelicall part of the worlde? The middle and celestiall part, is in the breast or middle venter, most exactly, and euen to the life expressed. For as in that celestiall part, the Sun is predominant, by whose motion, beames, and light, all things haue their brightnesse, luster, and beauty; so in the middest of the chest, the heart resideth, whose likenesse and proportion with the Sun, is such and so great, as the ancient writers haue beene bolde to call the Sun, The hart of the world, and the heart the Sunne of mans bodie. For euen as by the perpetuall and continuall motion of the Sun, and by the quickning and liuely heat thereof, al things are cheered and made to flourish; the earth is decked and adorned, yea crowned with flowers, brings foorth great varietie of fruites, and yeelds out of her bosome innumerable kinds of Hearbes, the shrubs thrust forth their buds or Iems, and are cloathed with greene leaues in token of iollity, all creatures are pricked forward with the goades and prouocations of luste, and so rushing into venereall embracements, do store and replenish with a large and abundant encrease, both Citties, Land, and Seas; (for which cause, Aristotle calleth this prosperous, refreshing, and comfortable Starre [GREEK], as beeing the procreator of all things,) and on the contrary, the same Starre of the Sunne, being departed farre from our Coasts, the earth begins to be horrid and looke deformed, the shrubs are robbed and dispoyled of their leaues, berries and verdure, and a great part of those things, which the fertility of Nature had brought foorth, is weakened and wasted: so in like manner, by the perpetuall motion of the heart, and by the vitall heate thereof, this litle world is refreshed, preserued, and kept in vigor and good life: neither can any thing therein be either fruitfull, or fit and disposed to bring foorth, vnlesse that mighty and puissant power of the heart, do affoord and yeelde an effectuall power offoecundity. The Vital faculty floweth from the heart as from the fountaine, the Celestiall faculty from heauen. This latter, is saide to be the preseruer of all inferiour things: the former kindleth, nourisheth, and refresheth the Naturall heate of euery part. The Heauen workes vpon the inferiour world by his motion and light; the Heart by his continual motion and aethereall spirit, as it were a bright light, cleareth and beautifieth all the parts of the body. The motion and light are in the superiour bodies, the instruments of the intelligencies and of the heauens; of the intelligencies, as of the first mouers vnmooued, of the heauens, as of the first moouer mooued. The vital spirits and pulsation or beating of the heart, are instruments of the soule, and of the heart: Of the soule, as of a moouer not mooued; of the heart, as of a moouer mooued by the soule.
(I.ii, pp. 6-7)

Architecture::Castle Architecture::Tower Architecture::Seat Architecture::Mansion Architecture::Treasury

Reading J. G. Bamborough's The Little World of Man (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1952), 21. Found again reading in EEBO.

Helkiah Crooke, ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man (London: Printed by William Iaggard, 1615). <Link to EEBO>

07/16/2004

09/27/2011