The Emblem Shelf
The Obelisk for Ferdinand III
A made-up hieroglyph for a living emperor.
- Work
- from Oedipus Aegyptiacus
- Maker
- Athanasius Kircher
- Date
- 1652–1654
- Source
- Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
An obelisk covered in signs stands between two columns of Latin, under the heading Aegypti prisca sapientia, the ancient wisdom of Egypt. It is Athanasius Kircher's tribute to Emperor Ferdinand III, the patron of Oedipus Aegyptiacus, written as if in hieroglyphs with a Latin translation beside it. Kircher spent decades on the obelisks of Rome and was sure he could read them. He could not; that came only with the Rosetta Stone, two centuries later. The page records a confident scholar and a beautiful mistake.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
The Obelisk for Ferdinand III printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), held by Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons. The work was published before 1931 and is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper; framed pieces sit behind acrylic, no mat.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our plates cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans available, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the emblem line, the letterpress bite, the registration of colour — on stock made to outlive its owner.
