Oh Danny Boy...

Sebald BehamTwo Street-Players and a Girl 16th cent.

Michael Rossler A Female Flutemaker, 1730

(copy) Nicolay Villageois grec from 1577

'The Visitation' Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry 1413

Lucas van Leyden Tyl Eulenspeigel 16th century

Giuseppe Maria Mitelli Sonatori Sconcertati 1686

Erhard Schoen The Devil playing the Bagpipe c. 1530

Luttrell Psalter 14th century

An American bagpipe rock band, Prydein, have a website with a large collection of pipe images - woodcuts, engravings, etchings, paintings and photographs.
An excellent and eclectic set via gmtPlus9 (-15).

The Philosopher's Stone

"In the bodies of metals,
Of men, and of beasts.
From it the Sages derive their science,
And through it they attain the Heavenly Gift,
Which is called the Philosopher's Stone,
Possessing the power of the whole world.
This gift the Sages impart to us with loving hearts,
That we may remember them for ever."

Be warned and understand truly that
two fishes are swimming in our sea
[full double page image]

A wolf and a dog are in 1 house,
and are afterwards changed into 1

Here you straightaway behold a black beast in the forest

Hear without terror that in the forest
are hidden a deer and a unicorn

Here you behold a marvel - 2 lions are joined into 1

We hear 2 birds in the forest but
we understand them to be only 1

This surely is a great miracle and without any deception -
that in a venomous dragon there should be the great medicine

Here are 2 birds, great and strong the body
and the spirit; one devours the other

These images come from a curious handwritten 1607 manuscript known as 'The Book of Lamspring' (Tractatus de Lapide Philosophorum - how to obtain the philosopher's stone), translated into latin from german (I think) by Nicholas Barnaud Delphinas [at least that's what the secondary sources say - the site these images comes from, and indeed the text itself reads as Nicolaus Majus or Nicolaum Majum]

I have been very confused and spent ages searching around with different spellings but I finally found a complete english transcript of this 50 double-page oddity at Sacred Texts from whence the opening quote above derives.

So it appears that this is an allegorical work written for adepts and augmented with painted emblems which are described in the text. This is definitely a very early manuscript and there are more (not online I don't think) in other European repositories.

I'll leave the explication to Adam McLean from Levity -

"The Book of Lambspring is an important work that points us especially to the inner aspect of the alchemical process. The indications I have presented here are only hints at one possible way of entering into the Lambspring process. However, as with all such hermetic systems of inner exercises, we cannot entirely grasp it through our thinking and if we wish to work this process we must take an inner journey into the strange landscape of Lambspring's work. By studying the text and meditatively penetrating each emblem in sequence we will be able to experience the symbols working within our souls."

• The Book of Lamspring at the University of Salzburg (thumbnail page)
• Translation at Sacred Texts [Link updated Feb '09].
• Essay by Adam McLean at Levity.
• The captions (probably not so accurate) for the above images come from here.

The Miller's Tale

"Finally the mill was ready to be set into operation. The first grain was ground and the mill was tested. No one dared ask the millwright about his work, he went about it in silence, few people were lucky to watch him work, he safe guarded his knowledge and the secrets of his craft. No one dared ask him questions, what he was doing or why, because it is a well know[n] fact that a millwrights spit could kill a toad." [TR Hazen]

Oliver Evans (1755-1819) was an apprenticed Delaware wheelwright and wagonmaker who studied science and mechanics on the side. At 22 when working in a textile workshop he invented a couple of machines to help in the carding of wool. He then went into a flour mill venture with his brothers.

It was at the mill that Evans' extraordinarily inventive abilities were given an outlet. Over a 7 year period he devised an updated water-driven milling system by creating hoppers and conveyors and elevators and by integrating various existing mill components. This system (illustrated above in the final image) is the first fully automated factory operation ever described {I suspect this might be a little arguable viz: renaissance marvels/sketches} - predating Ford's assembly line by more than 100 years. Although he endured myriad problems in relation to patent and licensing litigation, this new system increased flour production 5-fold. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were early licensees.

Evans was also an aficionado of steam power and his other great invention was a high pressured steam engine which helped fuel the industrialization of America. He established a workshop in Philadelphia to produce engines for various types of mills, waterworks and steamboat companies. These efforts he described in the curiously titled The Abortion of the Young Steam Engineer's Guide in 1805 (the first 2 words were a last minute inclusion to signify his anger about the way his inventions had been treated).

Beyond the realized practical applications of his inventions, Evans stands out as a farsighted thinker, ahead of his time: by way of example, he designed the first refrigerator and described a long distance railway system, both of which came into existence after he died. {He was told of his workshop burning down in 1819 and suffered a fatal stroke.}

• The images here come from an 1834 2nd edition of The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide (1795) hosted by The Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library [KMODL] at Cornell University.
• KMODL biography of Evans.
• 1 page biography at PBS.
• Industrial Revolutionary by John Steele Gordon at American Heritage Magazine.
• Transcript of The Abortion of the Young Steam Engineer's Guide at the Steam Engine Library.
• A Mill-Wright Miscellany or Mills and the Trades Necessary for their Construction, Repair and Operation 200 years ago by Theodore R. Hazen Master Millwright, Miller, & Millstone Dresser. [This is a 10 year old website labour-of-love and is worth poking around - for instance, there are many sections on the milling works of Oliver Evans].
• Engines of Our Ingenuity on Evans.
• How Products are Made - Flour (with an historical perspective).

The Bookplate Book

"Bookplates are no longer merely guards and warnings to borrowers nor have they been only these for the last half century because so many library owners recognize them rather as expressions of fine art calling for the joint interest of the artist, engraver, and printer.

So now it comes to pass that of the many functions that a plate may have these three stand out; pasted in the front or mayhap the back cover, it marks the ownership of the volume; if it is of artistic value it contributes too a certain embellishment to the tome; and lastly, it may well take its place in the treasures of the art collector, offering him [..] an opportunity to own and store in very modest space a vast number of graphic gems or strange sentiments in print."

Ex libris, by Carl S. Junge; with an introduction by Leroy Truman Goble was a private issue of Junge's bookplates (45, I think) in 1935 and is online at the Posner Library at Carnegie-Mellon University. {this is the first bookplate and then one every 2nd page}

• Bookplate at wikipedia.
• American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers.
• Czech bookplates.
• Ex Libris Museum.
• Ex Libris - Design and Art (commercial)
• Previously - Heraldic Bookplates.

The Penman's Leisure Hour

"We who follow a gentle and quiet muse, do not intend to call out those vile calumniators of calligraphy into the arena of honor.

We know well that they will be banished to the centaurs and lapiths by the decree of persons of quality and accomplishment who follow the arts and sciences.

But enough! Farewell kind reader, and embrace me and all champions of calligraphy in your perennial favor."
[Johann Georg Schwandner 1755 in Calligraphia Latina]

'The tongue is not the only way
Through which the active mind is heard
But the good pen as well can say
In tones as sweet a gentle word'

Penman's Leisure Hour with calligraphic artwork by FF Wildish was an 1894 trade book 'giveaway' from the McDonald Business Academy {Penmanship Department} in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - the thumbnail page is hosted by The International Association of Master Penmen,Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting.

Would it were my leisure hour could be so productive!

Previously: The Art of Penmanship; Arabic Calligraphy; Hebrew Micrography.

Sailing in the East of Siberia

A product of the Russian Royal Navy, Gavriil Sarychev (1763-1831) joined a veteran of the Captain Cook voyages, Joseph Billings, in an 8 year geographical and ethnological expedition to the coasts of Siberia and Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

Their trip was supported by Catherine the Great who instructed them "to bring to perfection the knowledge acquired under her glorious reign." Her instructions, issued through the Russian Academy of Sciences, also asked that they detail ' "all the remarkable places" and "the natural curiosities" they encountered both on land and at sea. They were also to interview, observe, and describe all the peoples they met.'

Although the mission was something of a financial disappointment, there was an emphasis placed on gaining cooperation of native groups in all facets of their investigations. Consequently for instance, the maps (still considered to be of high quality) included local names, many of which persist. Sarychev went on to become an Admiral, an Honorary member of the Science Academy, Hygrographer-General and ultimately head of the Naval Ministry.

• The translated title of the resulting book (48 plates of which are on display in the Meeting of Frontiers section at the Library of Congress) is Geographic Atlas. North-east part of Siberia. Expedition of Capitan Sarychev to North-east part of Siberia, the North Sea and the East Ocean during eight years with the expedition of Capitan Billing. 1785-1793. (published in 1804)
• Learning from Each Other: On a History of Russian-Native Contacts in the Exploration and Mapping of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands (Late Eighteenth- Early Nineteenth Centuries) by Alexei V. Postnikov Russian Academy of Sciences, S. I. Vavilov Institute of the History of Science and Technology.
• Some commentary (near bottom of page).
• There is a remarkable likeness between a few of the images here and those from Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. My ignorance lead me to read up to find out that Cook also sailed in the Aleutian Islands area.