Turris Babel, sive Archontologia qua Primo Priscorum post diluvium hominum vita, mores rerumque gestarum magnitudo, Secundo Turris fabrica civitatumque extructio, consusio linguarum, inde gentium transmigrationis...

[14], 219, [13] pp. With copper-engraved added pictorial title-page; double-page folding copper-engraved map; 11 copper-engraved plates, 8 of them folding or double-page; 12 copper-engravings on text pages, 6 of them full-page; woodcuts in the text. (Folio) 40.5x24 cm. (15¾x9¼), later half vellum and boards, The seventeenth century Jesuit Athanasius Kircher explores the mysteries of the ancient world, particularly the Tower of Babel, the great city of Babylon, and related subjects. The work contains marvelous fold-out engravings of the awesome tower; the magnificent walled city of Babylon in its glory; labyrinth-like Egyptian tombs; a plan of Ninevah; a pictorial map of the Tigris-Euphrates Vally from the Persian Sea to the Caspian, with Mount Ararat; etc.