Angels Turn the Engine of the World

Angels Turn the Engine of the World. Manuscript illumination: Psalms. Psalterium Cantuariense [Psautier anglo-catalan, dit Psautier de Canterbury], 12th c., or 1200-1350. As of February 2025 available to be seen here.[1] Also as Figure 4. The Paris Psalter (BnF MS. lat. 8846), Psalm 11, folio 20r.[2] For further bibliographic details, at least approximately, see posting for sale of facsimile copy as the Great Canterbury Psalter (vt. Anglo-Catalan Psalter or Paris Psalter [see above]).[3]

Most relevant for an image bottom center of four adult male beings (with a fifth leaving and a sixth entering) turning a variation on a ship's capstan or windlass.[4] Significant as a beautifully rendered early entry in a tradition of the divine and mechanical merging in images of the physical and spiritual universe, the Machina Mundi: Machine of the World illustrated — with the music of the spheres from a cosmic instrument added — in The divine harmony of the universe, tuned by the hand of God[5] in an engraving in Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia in two volumes (Oppenheim, 1617-1619).[6]

RDE, finishing, with thanks to Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, 20Feb25