The Emblem Shelf
Terra Damnata, the Damned Earth
Two triangles: heaven above, earth below.
- Work
- from Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer
- Maker
- Anonymous; published at Altona
- Date
- 1785
- Source
- Published Altona, 1785 · 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
A red triangle points up and a green one points down, meeting at a cross, with the words Terra Damnata, damned earth, across the lower one. Below, a woman holds a pair of scales between two small round scenes. The sheet comes from the Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, printed at Altona in 1785, a book of hand-coloured charts that mapped spirit, soul and body onto one geometry. The colours carry the argument: fire above, earth below, joined in the middle.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
Terra Damnata, the Damned Earth 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 Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer (1785), held by Published Altona, 1785 · 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.
