1694 Burnet View of the Earth without Its Oceans, w/ California as an Island

This is Thomas Burnet's curious c. 1694 depiction of the Earth's hemispheres, from the Dutch book Voor-Bereidselen Tot de Bybelsche Wysheid…. Meant to demonstrate Burnet's idiosyncratic cosmogony, this sheet reveals the state of natural philosophy at the time, just as the mapping of California as an island and other oddities reflect the ongoing development of geographical knowledge.

A Closer Look

The globe at top presents the Eastern Hemisphere while the lower globe is the Western Hemisphere. The map stands out for its presentation of submarine topography. Without its oceans (which Burnet believed to be contained beneath the surface until Noah's Flood), the Earth resembles an asteroid or moon that has been pockmarked by repeated meteoric impacts.

Aside from Burnet's philosophical views (discussed below), the map is notable for reflecting the state of geographical knowledge at the time, including several cartographic myths. The most obvious of these is the large insular California. North America is also home to a single massive lake in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Antarctica is not referenced, while the Arctic is presented as a landmass rather than an ocean, and moreover is connected to North America, precluding the possibility of a Northwest Passage (an unusual position for an Englishman of this era). Conversely, Australia is partially mapped, reflecting somewhat recent discoveries by Dutch mariners.

Burnet's Cosmogony

As the title of his work (in English, Sacred Theory of the Earth) indicates, Burnet aimed to pursue scientific investigations grounded in Christian theology. This may seem odd from the perspective of modern science, but is indicative of the era; if anything, Burnet was provocative for using Scripture as a supplemental evidentiary base for scientific explanations rather than being the sole base of evidence. For instance, Burnet laid out purely physical, 'secular' explanations for natural processes, and cited Biblical verses that, to him, were references to the natural processes described.

In this case, Burnet is demonstrating the formation of the world's oceans and mountains, along with related geological processes. He believed that Noah's Flood was the defining event in the geological history of the world. Influenced by Descartes, Burnett approximated the amount of water on the Earth's surface and deemed it insufficient to have submerged the surface in Noah's Flood. To account for this incongruity, he argued that the Earth was hollow and that most of the water now covering the Earth's surface had previously been contained below a thin outer crust. Due to being dried and cracked by the sun, this crust fractured and collapsed, allowing the subterranean waters to burst forth thus initiating Noah's Flood, the waters of which eventually pooled to form the Earth's oceans, lakes, and rivers. The ruins of the former crust formed in piles, which became the Earth's mountains.

Burnet was strongly influenced by his reading of the Epistles of St. Peter, especially the Second Epistle of Peter, which references the Flood in a manner that Burnet interpreted as consistent with his cosmogony. But it is again worth emphasizing the subtle but important shift in Burnet's philosophy, which begins with empirical observation, then posits a physical explanation, and only then turns to theology for theoretical deduction rather than using Christian theology as the a priori basis for any theories about the natural world. Burnet was not eschewing God by any means, he simply believed that God had set the natural world in motion along a particular path, thus all physical processes were ultimately attributable to God even if in their particular instances His intervention was not always apparent. In this, Burnet influenced fellow Enlightenment thinkers, including Isaac Newton, who, like him, was a committed if unconventional Christian who did not see a contradiction between rationalism and theology, but who may have inadvertently laid the groundwork for later thinkers who did.

Publication History and Census

This sheet was prepared for the second volume of the Dutch book Voor-Bereidselen Tot de Bybelsche Wysheid en Gebruik der Heilige en Kerkelijke Historien ('Preparations for the Biblical Wisdom and Use of Sacred and Ecclesiastical History'), published by Wilhelm and Jan Goeree in three volumes between 1690 and 1700. It originally appeared in Burnet's Telluris Theoria Sacra and then in its English translation. But in the original Latin and English editions of the work, the hemispheres appeared on separate sheets. Some other minor differences are apparent, but there can be little doubt that the Goerees effectively translated Burnet's untitled original. It is a companion to another sheet (also offered by us) derived by the Goerees from Burnet that depicts the Earth after Noah's Flood. This sheet is not independently cataloged in any institution, while the entire Voor-Bereidselen Tot de Bybelsche Wysheid… is held by some twenty-five institutions worldwide, mostly in Continental Europe.