Octo Mundi Miracula
Octo Mundi Miracula is a series of engravings published in 1572 by the Flemish engraver Philips Galle, based on a set of eight drawings by Dutch painter Maarten van Heemskerck, with accompanying elegiac couplet verses written by Hadrianus Junius. Heemskerck's primary source was Pedro Mexía's 1540 Silva de varia lección, which noted how the classical sources for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World do not agree on a consistent list.
The series is considered the first known complete visual representation of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and created the modern canonical list of seven wonders – the specific list had not existed in the various classical sources. Despite creating the modern canonical seven, the engravings included an eighth monument—the Colosseum—following van Heemskerck's 1533 Self-Portrait with the Colosseum.
Architectural historian Professor Andrew Hopkins of the University of L'Aquila wrote that the Octo Mundi Miracula's "images of these monuments were so visually compelling they became the roster, akin to the standardizing order of the orders achieved by Sebastiano Serlio in 1537, with his treatise Regole generali di architetura".
History
The series was published during the late Northern Renaissance, in the Habsburg Netherlands during the early states of the Dutch Revolt. Heemskerck had been influenced by his travels to Rome where he had studied ruins and the monuments of classical antiquity. Philips Galle was an engraver and publisher, whereas Hadrianus Junius was a humanist poet.Heemskerck's primary source was Pedro Mexía's 1540 Silva de varia lección, as the classical descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World do not agree on a consistent list. Mexía wrote as follows:
Those who have read the histories, orators, and ancient poets will often have found mention of the Seven Wonders of the World: sometimes of one, sometimes of another, depending on the purpose of what the authors are writing. And because this material is so scattered, as I said, and no one that I know of has compiled or treated it in particular, at least in our common tongue… among the great and excellent ancient buildings, seven are mentioned especially by all, and they were considered marvelous, and thus were called wonders. And on six of them everyone agrees on which they are, and there are no differing opinions; but on the seventh, some list one, and others another, as we shall discuss. There is also variation in the order in which they are listed; but that matters little: I will proceed according to my own preference. Let us begin with the walls of Babylon, which are counted among these wonders… Those I have mentioned are the ones considered the seven miracles; although the last, the tower, some do not include it, and instead list the Hanging Gardens, which we say were in Babylon… Ludovico Celio, in the twelfth book of his ancient lectures, recounts these seven wonders; and instead of including the Lighthouse of Pharos or the Hanging Gardens, he includes the Obelisk of Semiramis.
Work
Engravings
The eight engravings are as follows:Heemskerck's inclusion of the Colosseum deviates from the traditional "seven" and reflects a personal reverence, having studied the Colosseum firsthand in Rome and included it in his 1553 Self-Portrait with the Colosseum. It was the only one of the eight engravings pictured as an actual ruin, rather than in idealized form, and was the only one that could be easily visited by van Heemskerck’s audience at the time.
Each engraving follows a formula: the wonder occupies the center, surrounded by its historical or mythical context, with rulers, workers, and gods. Junius' Latin elegiac couplets often reference the builder, the architectural marvel, or its legendary origin.
Verses
Humanist Hadrianus Junius composed Latin poems for each engraving. While not direct descriptions, the verses offer thematic context and moral reflection. They refer to figures such as Semiramis and Artemisia II and contain technical anecdotes from Roman sources, such as the use of charcoal under the Temple of Artemis.| Original Latin | Translation | |
| Great Pyramid of Giza | Svrgentes gradibvs moles, monvmenta sepvltis, Struxere, et rapidi docvere Hyperionis ignes Vicinos ferre, ad magnae confinia Memphis | Built stepped structures, as monuments for the buried, They raised them, and showed the sun's rays To fall nearby, at the boundary of great Memphis |
| Lighthouse of Alexandria | Nocturnis pharon, vt qvvm nox tenebrosa sileret, Clara, vicem in Phaebes, vomerent funalia lvcem, Infida vt nili sic tvtivs ora svbirent. | A lighthouse for the night, so when dark night lay still, Bright torches, in the moon's place, would shine light, So that the Nile's treacherous shores be approached more safely. |
| Walls of Babylon | Ivsset coctilibvs Babylona Semiramis altam Moenibvs incingi, lento qve bitvmine portas Adiecit centvm, et super his sibi nobile bustum | Semiramis ordered lofty Babylon enclosed With baked-brick walls, and gates with firm bitumen One hundred added, and above them her noble tomb |
| Temple of Artemis | Aedem, lvxvriosae ingens asiae ornamentvm. Fvndamenta palvs tenvit, carbonibvs ante Far ta, vti tellvris starent immota fragore. | Temple, a luxurious and great Asian ornament. A marsh held its deep foundations, laid upon charcoals beforehand, So earth might stand unmoved in a quake. |
| Statue of Zeus at Olympia | Nobilibvs fastos lvdis, miracvla clavdit: Phidiacvm qve iovem ostentat niveo ex elephanto Qvalis caesarie ac nvtv concvssit olympvm. | With famous games and records, she houses wonders: Showing Phidias' Zeus, carved from white ivory, Whose hair and nod once shook Olympus. |
| Colossus of Rhodes | Dictvs, par turri mole svb nomine solis Aere cavo factvs, saxorum vasta caverna Intvs, apvd Rhodios sacros accepit honores. | Equal in mass to a tower, under the Sun's name, Was made of hollow bronze, with a cavern of stone inside Among the Rhodians it received sacred honors. |
| Mausoleum at Halicarnassus | Deposcens conivnx cineres, pietatis advitae Exemplo posvit tvmvlvm spirantia cvivs Artifices svmmi caelarunt marmore signa. | Imploring lifelong devotion to his ashes. Setting an example she erected a tomb, on which Artists carved the greatest statues from marble. |
| Colosseum of Rome | Iactat, caesarei sacrvm decvs amphitheatri: Qvae mvndi speciem moles mentita globosam Accepit cav a popvlos, lvdos qve paravit. | The sacred glory of the imperial amphitheatre: A structure that mimicked the globe's round shape, Hollow, it held the crowds and staged their games. |
Influence and legacy
Octo Mundi Miracula was copied and adapted in many works by artists such as Louis de Caullery and Willem Janszoon Blaeu.The series was seminal in shaping the iconography of the ancient wonders, as no standard visual tradition had previously existed.
Collections and conservation
Prints from the Octo Mundi Miracula series are preserved in various museums and libraries, including:- British Museum, London
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Louvre, Paris
- Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel