The Figure of a Nativity
Engraver unknown, c. 1647
$90
Print check at 8 x 12 in: 209 dpi, excellent. Trimmed 5.6% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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A square divided into twelve triangular houses, planets and signs entered around a central box — the standard figure of a nativity, or birth-chart, as astrologers cast it for centuries. This is the diagram itself, the geometry a practitioner filled in from tables of planetary positions for the moment of a birth. Drawn in the seventeenth century, it belongs to the age of William Lilly, when the casting of such figures was a learned craft with its own textbooks. Shown here as an artefact of method: a piece of applied geometry, elegant in its economy, that a whole discipline was built to complete — the sky reduced to a ruled square.
- Maker
- Engraver unknown
- Date
- c. 1647
- Medium of the original
- Engraving
- Original held by
- Wellcome Collection, London
- Credit
- Wellcome Collection, London
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00465
| Picture | 8 x 12 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 9.6 x 13.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | 209 | Excellent | Trimmed 5.6% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | 148 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | 139 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 104 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | 98 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | 83 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 69 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | 59 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 49 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | 41 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,777 x 2,516 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 37, lights 255 of 255; 8% clipped light, 0.1% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 22.36
- Notes
- Pure white on 8% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
