The Treasures of Troyes

Troyes Musées, inv 2003.3.463. 'Charte de Charles V - Charles V
et Pierre de Villiers en Prière' (Parisian gothic style from c.1367)

ms.129 'Nicolas de Lyre, Postilles - Maître Enseignant', illuminated
by 2 artists from Troyes in the 1470s as part of a body of work
that was produced for the rich families of Troyes.

ms.512 'Epîtres de Saint Paul Glosées' from the Roman period
of the 11th and 12th centuries - produced in the Abbey of Clairvaux.

Trésor de la Cathédrale: ms.12 'Psautier du Comte Henri'.
A carolingian manuscript from before AD 850.

The above 2 images are from ms.28 'Bible de Montiéramey' from about 1160,
a monumental transition work between Roman and gothic style periods.

ms.92 'Pierre Lombard, Commentaire sur les Psaumes - David Jouant de la Harpe'.
The 'Manerius' style from the late 12th century (see previous post)

ms.103 'Gratien, Décret - Pouvoir Ecclésiastique et Pouvoir Laïc' - 12th century.

ms.27 'Grande Bible de Clairvaux' also produced in the Abbey of Clairvaux
which was established by St Bernard in 1132. This 12th century manuscript
is the oldest example of the monochromatic style that became fashionable
when certain embellishments were proscribed by St Bernard.

[click images for larger versions]

As part of a current exhibition (until October 14) La Médiathèque de l’Agglomération Troyenne in NE France have a flash website displaying extracts from 27 illuminated manuscripts produced between the 9th and 15th centuries.

The media library in Troyes are said to have the richest collection of illuminated manuscripts in France, outside of the french national library. Documents have been contributed to the exhibition from a number of local public, private and religious sources. The site is in french.

In addition to the flash presentation there are downloadable quicktime (.exe) movies but I'm not sure they are worth the bandwidth. I watched the smallest one (~60Mb) and it was a nicely produced montage, although not particularly additive to the plain jpeg manuscript images. But the films are are also available in smaller format streams.

The Common Sole

'A Treatise on the Common Sole (Solea vulgaris): Considered Both as an Organism and A Commodity' by JT Cunningham 1890 with 18 illustration plates (half in colour) by Miss Annie Willis, is available from the National Marine Biological Library in UK. It is sectioned into pdf files - but the plates can be downloaded separately. Unfortunately pdf copying is disabled so the above images are screen captures (click on them for larger versions).

Neither common nor vulgar, for mine. Unlike your host.

Young Japanese 100

1940 [Military-tinged] fairytale released by or
with the approval of the Ministry of Education

1922 A book about play theory or therapy

1899 A series for boys with foreign biographies
- in this case, [the Indian] Buddha

1926 Cover and page illustration
from the first girl club book series

1914 First boy's anthology book
- in this case poems about water

1913 Aiko series

1914 Aiko series

1891 A boy's book, marking the beginning of modern
childrens' literature, influenced by german works.

1921

1928

About three images from each of 100 japanese books issued between 1869 and 1944 are on display at the International Institute for Childrens Literature in Osaka. They are accompanied by descritpions (in japanese; hence the captions here are rough paraphrasings). I think the above examples give a fair indication of the great diversity, graphic design and printing quality in japanese book production in the early/modern era. I was pleasantly surprised with the standards and there is obviously a styling influence from abroad, particularly France. [via lotusgreen]

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Some other places, in addition to the sidebar links, that I either admire, am jealous of, subscribe to, am inspired and/or entertained by and/or wish I had the time to visit more often:

It's Olivia, Popaula, The Wit of the Staircase, Sorrow at Sills Bend, Scarlet Letters, JuJu Loves Polkadots, BLDGBLOG, swissmiss, Oink!, Inky Circus, The 7 Deadly Sinners, Graphic Design Bar, Gatochy, Tinselman, MODE, Blogging the Renaissance, Barista, Archaeoastronomy, La Boîte à Images, Drink Me, Hooting Yard, Foreword, Ample Sanity, Pink Tentacle, Shao Kelake, Newsgrist, Generator.x, ShiftBlog, Corsinet, The Cartoonist, Blue Tea, dataisnature, What is Going On?, Dirty, Mefi/Mofi/MeCha, Ober Dicta, Transfer, Punio, Vvork, Danny Yee, monochrom, Livre Ancien, Erebos, Paperholic, Sepia Mutiny, RecordBrother, Girl Wonder, Panopticist, Make Ready, Bezembinder, Rabbits, Toyen and so forth, Monsterbrains, loreto martin, MadMeg, Catatau, O'Connors O'Pinions, Eye Level.

Not in any order and certainly not a complete list of everywhere I go (well in fact, I spend more than 1/2 my web life crawling upside down through musty caves in digital repositories, but those links I post each day). All the major food groups are represented. Bon appétit!

The Journal of Ottoman Calligraphy

"The Journal of Ottoman Calligraphy is dedicated to Islamic art and Ottoman calligraphy and it is currently a Online journal. {update: new location} The JOC is a semi-academic online periodical devoted to the subject, and has been spearheading the ongoing discussion defining Islamic and Ottoman calligraphy, since its founding in 2006. JOC is a refereed online journal that publishes essays and reviews on all aspects, areas and periods of the history of Islamic and Ottoman calligraphy, from a diversity of perspectives.

Most articles are in English, with a few appearing in other European languages and in Turkish. Each volume also includes a calender of events and a list of puplications concerning Islamic and Ottoman calligraphy worldwide.

The mission of the JOC is to delight, inspire, and educate a diverse public through the collection, preservation, exhibition and interpretation of works of Islamic and Ottoman calligraphy. The JOC is a non-commercial project."

via the (just discovered but also excellent) Fine Books Blog.

Equus

I've added this image later, just because I stumbled across it and
because it's so bizarre (click to enlarge). It's from an 1816 book entitled:
E.D'Alton's 'Naturgeschichte Des Pferdes' from Anna Amalia Bibliothek.
I saw only one other illustration of a skeleton in normal stance.
An earlier edition has interesting schematic sketches.

All the above images are from the 5 volume set:
'Dizionario Ragionato di Veterinaria Teorico-Pratica..'
by Francesco Bonsi, 1795.

'Della Cavalleria' by Georg Engelhard Löhneyss, 1624.

'The Anatomy of the Horse: Finished Drawing of the Muscles
for the Fourth Anatomical Table' 1756-1758 by George Stubbs.

'Anatomia del Cavallo Infermita..' by Carlo Ruini, 1618.

Frontpiece from 'Equile, in Quo Omnis Generis..' by Johanes Stradamus, 1634.
(I'm 99.3% certain this is actually Johannes Stradanus, although he died in 1605
- either this is from a later edition or the engravings are after his drawings)

Frontpiece from 'La Methode et Invention Nouvelle de
Dresser les Chevaux' by William Cavendish, 1658
[published in english as 'A General System of Horsemanship' in 1747]

'Zodiac Horse' from 'Obras de Albeyteria..' by Martín Arredondo, 1704.

'De Humana Physiognomonia Libri IIII' by Giambattista della Porta, 1586.

• These are just a collection of random images sparked off by finding the Francesco Bonsi book. As it turns out, that became the excuse to post a link to the National Library of Medicine's exhibition site - 'The Horse: A Mirror of Man: Parallels in Early Human and Horse Medicine' (including thumbnail gallery page) which went online earlier this year. [The della Porta and Arreondo images come from here]
• The 5 volumes of 'Dizionario Ragionato di Veterinaria Teorico-Pratica..' by Francesco Bonsi are online at Centro Interbibliocario dell'Universita' di Bologna (click 'Accesso al full-text' at the bottom of the page and then choose one of the 5 'Tomo' from the pulldown menu and 'Tav.' from the other sidebar menu for an illustration.)
• It's rather disappointing to find that there are no highish resolution images* online of George Stubbs' famous and extensive portfolio of anatomical drawings of horses. The image above comes from a series of 17 drawings for 'The Anatomy of the Horse', on display at the Royal Academy of Arts. [*Addit: Some of the anatomy drawings can be seen with a zoom box at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco] {Artcylopedia}
• Carlo Ruini's 'Anatomia del Cavallo' was the first real treatise on equine anatomy and its illustrations are famed for their eccentric or outlandish presentation. The image above was snagged from the Danish Veterinary Library site. It isn't included with the higher resolution examples from Ruini at the NLM's Historical Anatomies on the Web exhibition. [also see: french exhibition site] [the whole 2 volume book is available in downloadable pdf chunks from Hannover Library but I didn't so can't vouch for the quality]
• The Strandanus 'Equile..' frontpiece is also from the Danish Veterinary Library - a series of naturally posed engravings of the then known breeds.
• The Cavendish frontpiece comes from Lista Oggetti (no other images available).
• The Georg Engelhard Löhneyss engraving, also from the Danish Veterinary Library, is from a series that were inspired by/copied from Carlo Ruini.
• Just to give a vague indication of the enormous body of literature relating to veterinary science, here's a bibliographic list of 5 centuries worth of monographs, journals, pamphlets, manuscripts, archival records, and ephemera, from the Washington State University Veterinary History Collection (they also have gallery pages with small images).
• I've previously posted a link to the Michigan State University Library Rare Veterinary Books exhibition - most of the illustrations are frontpieces.
• Good quality images of some old illustrations of horses by some master engravers.
• Just because I found them: A History of Veterinary Anatomy at Cambridge University (the last large image wouldn't have looked too out of place among the Industrial Anatomy post from the other day); 'The Tao of Horsemanship' Ch. 1 © Dr T Ritter; Farriery articles from (where else!?) horseshoes.com.

Symphony of the Absurd

Siamois

Voitures Pisciformes

Tuba Detail

Champs Noirs

Char II

Sax Noir

Cycliste a Trois

• Copper and wood engravings © Jean Coulon from Belgium.
• More images at LaGalerie.be (also, click on 'dessins' and there are details of an ensemble book towards the bottom of the page [small review].
• Also see this page at Le Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image Imprimée.
  
• Print Europe (in english) with a couple of images.
• Via Galerie de Prêt d’Oeuvres d’Art (gravures).