Outsider Science

"Whoever reads or studies it
May spread the word to Another
that he may see and hear."

Between 1577 and 1580 Adriaen Coenensz from Scheveningen in Holland, wrote and painted over 800 pages for a work that has come to be known as 'Het Visboek' (The Fish Book).

Coenensz laid out all the knowledge he had acquired from his time as a fisherman and fish auctioneer and it's obvious he also had access to some of the well known 'natural history' books of his day. There is reference to his earning money from displaying the work at a local fair.

Despite being in Dutch, the Visboek [flash] website at Koninklijke Bibliotheek is just excellent. A+. With thumbnails, seamless zooming and a few different viewing options, the site is a very pleasant timesink. Grab the page to move it around.
There is a short commentary in (near) english from the Hundred Highlights exhibition.
Outsider art meets natural history. Wonderful stuff.

Snips

'Speculum sophicum Rhodostauroticum' --
"The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians. The Detailed Unveiling of the
College and Axiomata of the specially illumined Fraternity of the Christian
Rosy Cross to all those desirous of and expecting wisdom and to the further
confounding of those who don't understand (Zoiles) and to their inextingishable
shame and mockery. Theophilus Schweighardt Constantiensem.
With the Privilege of God and Nature, not to be overturned in Eternity, 1618."

I really couldn't decide which version of this amazing
engraving I liked more which means: A. You get both,
and B. In my hesitation, I lost the link to the coloured version.
(Search around on 'Daniel Mögling', the psuedonym of Theophilus Schweighart)

There are a few other images from this text at the JR Ritman Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. More information as always on matters alchemical from Levity.

'Seagrass Hunters' by Rachell Sumpter.

Also by Rachell Sumpter.

by Gaston Caba.

The above 3 illustrations come from the recent Ruby Mag, out of Argentina.
Some fine illustration and photography work. [via Illustration & Art Livejournal].

'Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques Laudonnierus et rex athore ante
columnam a praefecto prima navigatione locatam quamque venerantur
floridenses Charles IX, King of France' 1564.
[single image at NYPL]

Some interesting and unusual illustration work by Zachary Rossman
(the site is currently unavailable - I hope it's not permanently borked).
I think I found it via Suzanne G where you might also want to visit Thee Shoppe.

'Legriffon' by Jean Alessandrini.

Concrete Poetry by Ferdinand Kriwet. More at Ubuweb.

[the above 2 images were snagged from the
continuous visual carnival that is: design et type]

I have no recollection about this image other than
it comes from the Mitchell Library in Sydney.

'Python [Mercurius as three-headed dragon]' 1600, Germany.
Search on 'dragon' at Yale University's Beinecke digital image
repository and click on the Call Number for a few less visually
stunning images from the same work. If you use the zoom feature,
this 'dragon' (Python) image above is H.U.G.E.
[I've posted a photocopy of an earlier version of this
image before - by Giovanni Battista Nazari]

Guido Bonatus de Forlivio: 'Decem Tractatus Astronomie'
2nd Ed. 1506. (first published 1491) [at ebay]

Bonatus was a 13th century Italian astrolger and I'm not sure if this
work (with many astrological woodcuts on display at the ebay site) was
developed into the english translation of 'Anima Astrologae'. This title page image
had actually been used before in Sacrobosco's 'Opus Sphericum' from 1501.

The above 2 images are 4 pages from a very interesting
12th century Arabic manuscript allegedly by Claudius Galenus
- 'Kitâb al-Diryâq' or 'Le livre de la Thériaque'.

Essentially it's a botanical pharmacopeia - a theriac - a concoction of
some 64 ingredients (including opium and viper flesh) originally used
as an antidote for snake bite. Apparently the making of the product
was quite a ritual during the renaissance and it was still made up
until the 19th century. There are a few more images at BNF.

A 15th century Coptic bible manuscript from Ethiopia -
'Dawit: Le Livre du Psaumes' or Book of Psalms.
There are a few more wonderful miniatures at BNF.

'Codex Ixtlilxochitl' is a Mexican Aztec manuscript from the beginning
of the 17th century. It's attributed to Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl
and is basically a calendar of Gods/festivals.
There are no more images at the BNF site unfortunately.

Everything here has been uploaded at full size, even the mashups, so click on the images to enlarge. I think I might have to give these multifaceted posts away. They are doing my head in. Too many windows, too many tabs, too many links.

Youthful Science

There are 30 plates ('tafel') in the 1853 natural science text for school students - 'Naturgeschichte in Bildern' by Dr Hugo Reinsch with illustrations by Ernst Fröhlich at Universitätsbibliothek Braunschweig. (click: 'Start.html')

I've toned down some of the background artifact and the majority of the above images are details from files of about 300kb each in size.

The Visual Context of Music

"A musical notation is a language which determines what you can say;
what you want to say determines your language." [Cornelius Cardew 1961]

'Cantorinus ad Eorum Instructionem' Luce Antonii Junte, 1540.
*I think* that the image of the hand was meant as a mnemonic device to be used
in staggered singing of hymns so as to remember the allowed notes...or something.

"Robert Fludd (1574-1637). Opera, [Francofurti : Goudae], Oppenhemii,
J. Th. de Bry et haeredes, C. F. et G. Fitzer, P. Pammazenius, 1617-1638."

Gabriel Sizes
'Etude Expérimentale d’Acoustique Musicale' 1920
[me: I have no idea]

Randy Raine-Reusch 'Leaves 2' 1993.
"This score can be performed aurally, visually, kinesthetically,
synesthetically, interactively, literally, symbolically, or philosophically."

Toru Takemitsu 1962 'Study for Vibration' (from 'Corona for Pianists').
"The performance may start at any point of the perimeter no matter clockwise or counterclockwise." [nb. There's a chance this was mislabelled and is actually by Sylvano Bussotti]

Murray Schäfer 1977
'Divan I Shams I Tabriz' for Orchestra, seven singers and electronic sounds.

'Bird Gong Game' ~1990s Barry Guy

Cornelius Cardew 'Treatise' (detail) 1967.

George Crumb 'Makrokosmos II - 12. Agnus Dei [Symbol] Capricorn'. 1973.

George Crumb 'Makrokosmos I - 12. Spiral Galaxy [Symbol] Aquarius'. 1973.

'The Art of Fugue' bookart by Elizabeth Harington.

[A literary use or response to the fugue can be found in Joyce's 11th episode in Ulysses ('Sirens') in which the wording and chapter structure attempted - with some poetic license - to mimic or work within the rules of the fugue. Unsurprisingly, a quick search on 'Sirens' revealed that John Cage, a leading musical experimentalist and graphic score 'artist' names James Joyce as an influence. See: 'James Joyce and Avant Garde Music' © Scott W. Klein 2004 at the Contemporary Music Centre.]

'For Andrea section 4' Kerry John Andrews [detail]

Screen capture from See Music Project: Kircher/Monteverdi.

This post had been left on the backburner for many months. Graphical scores are a modernist trend so of course copyright and commercial interests means that there are not as many examples online as I had otherwise hoped.

• Wikipedia has a very basic introduction to experimental music.
• The Block Museum's 'Pictures of Music' exhibition at Northwesten University in Illinois has a great presentation about the history and exponents of graphical scores. Alas, all the links to large images are dead, as they were months ago when I first checked out the site.
• The first 3 images above come from a wonderful exhibition in french at La Bibliothèque de Toulouse (click on 'expos virtuelle') - 'Entre les lignes de la portée : quand la musique se donne à voir' - something like: 'Between the lines of the range: when the music is seen.' Lots of rare music book images and music samples.
• A Young Person's Guide to 'Treatise' - Cornelius Cardew.
• Score gallery at a Japanese site.
• Barry Guy graphical scores at Maya Recordings.
• The Experimental Music Catalogue (including the Journal of Experimental Music).
• The official George Crumb homepage.
• The New Music Box on George Crumb - pdf scores at the bottom of the page.
• 'A Performer Drawn to the Piano's Wild Side' [New York Times] : Why Margaret Leng Tan has 16 toy pianos and three Steinways in her Brooklyn apartment.
  
• Karlheinz Stockhausen homepage. (googleimages)
• Graphic scores by Randy Raine-Reusch at Asza.
• Kerry John Andrews graphic scores at the Digital Art Museum.
• John Kannenburg graphic scores.
• The final image above comes from the See Music Project - we have finally worked out the loading glitch (truncated URL). It's a flash program that definitely requires a high speed connection and is well worth a look.
• What does music look like? The Shape of Song.
• 'The Art of Fugue' bookart by Elizabeth Harington.

Many thanks variously for known and unknown assistance to Panopticist, Waggish, Giornale Nuovo, Languagehat and Boynton.

Some of the links will play music. As always, click the above images for larger versions.