Robert Fludd was one of the last of the true Renaissance men who tool all learning as their preserve and tried to encompass the whole of human knowledge. Born in Elizabethan England, he became a convinced occultist while traveling on the Continent. His voluminous writings were devoted to defending the philosophy of the alchemists and Rosicrucians and applying their doctrines to a vast description of man and the universe. All of Fludd's important plates are collected here for the first time, annotated and explained together with an introduction to his life and thought.

Joscelyn Godwin was born in England and lives in Hamilton, New York, where he is professor of music at Colgate University. He graduated with bachelors and masters degrees from Cambridge University and has a PhD from Cornell University. He is a composer, musicologist, and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism, and music in the occult. He has written, edited, or translated more than twenty books for multiple publishers worldwide.