The Graphic Mercenary

Urs Graf (1485-?1528) was the most important artist of the early renaissance from German Switzerland. He was active in Basel and Zurich from about 1507 until his mysterious disappearance from Basel in 1527.

Graf was a member of the Goldsmiths Guild, a die-cutter, woodblock book illustrator, stain glass designer and painter, engraver, and a mercenary who periodically escaped his artisan life for military adventures in Italy. He produced the world's first etching print in 1513 (not shown) and pioneered the white-line woodblock technique (first image below).

By all accounts Graf's was something of a tumultuous life, frequently involving legal problems from fighting, beating his wife and consorting with prostitutes. He fled Basel for a year in 1518 after an attempted murder.

Through it all Graf produced unique artworks reflecting the violence and social circumstances in which he was immersed. These lively prints and drawings incorporate elements of fantasy or the grotesque and erotic (or at least perverse) but are frequently tinged with a satirist's sense of humour. Conversely, his legacy also includes a sizeable number of purely religious prints and book illustrations. Graf almost always signed his drawings, a practice which helped establish sketch work as an individual artistic discipline rather than a mere transitional process.

Urs Graf was certainly influenced by his more famous contemporary, Albrecht Dürer, and in fact copied at least one of Dürer's prints; but overall Graf pursued his own style which has influenced latterday artists such as surrealist Kurt Seligman (last image below: 'Homage to Urs Graf') and also Otto Dix.

Unfortunately, there are very few large Graf images available online. The great majority of the images above (everything was uploaded at full size so click the images to enlarge them) come from the Kunstmuseum in Basel.

Biographic and/or images can be found here: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, xvii [Italian], xviii [German], xix [Russian], xx.

These dagger prints were engraved by Graf - they were made from
the early drafts by Hans Holbein for his famous 'Dance of Death' series.

Les belles Figures et Drolleries de la Ligue

[click to enlarge the images - almost all are spliced from Zoomify screencaps]

During the civil and religious wars of the late 16th century in France, a Parisian lawyer - Pierre de L'Estoile - collected the popular pamphlets, poems, handbills, woodcut illustrations and articles in circulation and saved them in a scrapbook.

This is a very complex historical period and one I'm not comfortable attempting to summarise..at all. The full title of the work, which was ostensibly compiled to show the deception, folly and wickedness of the Catholic League, is:

'Les belles Figures et Drolleries de la Ligue, avec les peintures, placcars et affiches injurieuses et diffamatoires contre la memoire et honneur du feu Roy que les Oisons de la Ligue apeloient Henri de Valois, imprimées, criées, preschées et vendues publiquement à Paris par tous les endroits et quarrefours de la Ville l'an 1589. Desquelles la garde (qui autrement n'est bonne que pour le feu) tesmoingnera à la postérité la meschanceté, vanité, folie, et imposture de ceste ligue infernale, et de combien nous sommes obligés à nostre bon Roi qui nous a délivrés de la serviture et tirannie de ce monstre.'

It is regarded as one of the Treasures of the BNF.

Exploring the Galaxy

Celestial Globe IN: 'Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica'
by Tycho Brahe, 1602. [previously]

Schematic of Saturn's rings IN: 'Systema Saturnium' by Christiaan Huygens 1659.

Jules Verne: 'From the Earth to the Moon Direct in Ninety-seven
Hours and Twenty Minutes, and a Trip around it.' 1874.

'Jules Verne, The World's Greatest Prophet' IN: 'Science and Invention' 1920.

'Polichinelle et son Vélocipéde' IN: 'Musée Rétrospectif de la
Classe 100. Jouets à l'Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1900,
à Paris' - a report by Henry D'Allemagne. [I wish this whole work was online] Wow. Uncannily, the first place I went after posting this entry - zenonannexe - has collected some images from this book. Too odd.

'M. Garnerin's Ascent and Descent with his Balloon and Parachute'
IN: 'Air Ballon & Parachute; a Circumstantial Account of the Three
Last Aerial Voyages Made by M. Garnerin' 1802. [touched up]

André Jacques Garnerin made the world's first successful parachute jump:
from a hot air balloon in 1797. He designed and tested the device while he was
considering escape options in prison. He went on to make about 200 successful
jumps but was eventually killed - while still on the ground - during a ballooning accident.

This is one of the (if not the) earliest depictions of a
pseudo-Museum or Cabinet of Curiosities or Wunderkammern from
'Dell'historia Naturale' by the Apothecary, Ferrante Imperato, 1599.

'Museo Cospiano Annesso a Quello del Famoso Ulisse Adrovandi'
by Lorenzo Legati - , 1677. [Watson Antiquarian]

• NYPL Wunderkammern link list
• A Historian's Brief Guide to New Museum Studies by Randolph Starn.

'Altre Scoverte Fatte Nella Luna dal Sigr. Herschel or Great
Astronomical Discoveries', 1836 by Leopoldo Galluzzo and Gaetano Dura.
I'm not sure of the manner of publication of this print but it satirises
'The Great Moon Hoax' of 1835 in which articles attributed to RA Locke
appeared in the New York Sun newspaper advising readers that noted
astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered fantastic life on the moon.
An expedition using a ship supported by hydrogen balloons was proposed.
Herschel, who was not in any way part of the hoax, was not particularly
amused - his reply [small pdf].

'Portrait of Mr Golightly experimenting on Mess Quick & Speed's
new patent high pressure, STEAM RIDING ROCKET'

This image doesn't show it but written above the pilot is 'The Flight of Intellect'. {B&W image} The rear label reads: ‘Warranted not to Burst’. The satirical illustration relates to a Charles Golightly, who secured a place in history by taking out a British patent in 1841 for a flying machine that employs a steam rocket. The vehicle was never built. Steam engines were notorious for exploding and being generally unreliable in the first half of the 19th century, explaining the skeptical nature of the cartoon. My guess, from 1/2 sentences seen in search results from pay sites, is that the original Golightly patent has now been lost.

Neither the artist's name nor the date published is known for the above print and so I'm not particularly sure if this picture pre- or post-dates an/other publication(s) in which the Golightly enterprise is lampooned.

Rufus Porter was a painter, founder of Scientific American, inventor of the revolver (the idea was sold to Samuel Colt for $100) and author of the eccentrically titled: 'Aerial Navigation: The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days, Fully Demonstrated, with a Full Description of a Perfect Aerial Locomotive' from 1849. He aimed to build an 800-foot steam powered airship to convey miners to the Californian Goldrush and gave talks in New York where he demonstrated his idea with a hydrogen-filled clockwork model craft that circled above his audience. Although he is known to have constructed working models, disasters afflicted each of the full sized versions he attempted to build up to 1854 when I suppose he abandoned the project.

How does this enigmatic entrepeneur connect to our Golightly steam rocket you may wonder? Truthfully, I'm not altogether sure, or at least it's tenuous, but the Rufus Porter story is really fascinating and got me happily sidetracked. There are a couple of satirical prints from 1849 (one in particular, which is very very similar to the above image) that could hardly have been included in Porter's book but were nonetheless inspired by both the Golightly patent and the 'Aerial Locomotive' hoopla. A 1935 re-issue of Porter's book (also described as a pamphlet) included 3 such contemporary illustrations so the connection may only have been established last century.

Frontpiece from 'Almagestum Novum Astronomiam Veterem Novamque'
by Jesuit astronomer, Giovanni Battista Riccioli from 1651. The book
includes a detailed lunar map by FM Grimaldi with a geographical
naming system of the moon's surface, much of which persists today.

World Champion Studebaker President Eight Four-Season Convertible
Roadster for Four, with Free Wheeling Under Positive Gear Control, 1931.

IN: 'Description des Travaux Entrepris pour la Construction de la
Tonnelle ou Passage sous la Tamise.' 1840-1841 (Thames tunnel)

The Galaxy of Images from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries presents thousands of images drawn from their book and print collections. There are many more themes than those from which I've sampled in collecting the above motley bunch.
Thanks for the reminder Martin [I note you've seen the world's largest book. Lucky you.]

An Apothecary's Chemistry

"Armes d'Antoine Vallot de Magnant Dandeuille"

Frontpiece - 'Traicté de la Chymie'

"Tour d'Athanor, Bain de sable, Bain marie, Vaisseau
pour séparer les huiles distillées, Fourneau et vaisseaux
pour la distillation des eaux, des esprits, et des huiles"

"Vaisseau pour alkoholiser [alcooliser] l'esprit de vin
dès la première distillation, Fourneau commun."

"Fourneau et vaisseaux pour distiller les végétaux."

"Explication des caractères chimiques."

"Fourneau et vaisseaux pour faire l'huile de soufre,
Cloche pour faire l'aigre ou l'esprit de soufre."

"Calcination solaire de l'antimoine."

"Four à lampe, Thermométre, Fourneau pour les sublimations."

"Four à vent ou le fourneau de fonte, Réfrigéré complet, Aeolipile"

Nicaise Le Févre (1610-1669) didn't have formal tertiary education. Instead, he apprenticed under his apothecary father until his father died, and subsquently he was taught by a medical Professor from L'Académie de Sedan.

Le Févre worked as a Master Apothecary at his father's business when his training was completed and later moved to Paris where he gave private lessons in pharmaceutical chemistry and became well known as an educator among the Parisian aristocracy. His elite connections resulted in Le Févre being appointed "demonstrator in chemistry at the Jardin du Roi and in 1654 he obtained the privilege of a royal apothecary and distiller."

One of his students was King Charles II who set up Le Févre with a laboratory in St James Palace in London as part of his appointment as Royal Professor of Chemistry and Apothecary to the Royal household. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Le Févre is best remembered for his 1660 publication in 2 volumes, 'Traicté de la Chymie', one of the foremost chemistry texts of the 17th century. It was translated into english, latin and german and a number of editions were released in the following 80 years. The extended title of the work translates (by me, in updated language) as:

***'Compendium of Chemistry' - The first volume will be used as an introduction and for instruction both in relation to the theory of this science in general, and as a means to outline the experimental methods of the art which can be applied to animals, plants and minerals without loss of their essential virtues. The second volume continues to outline the process of making extractions ('juices') from plants and minerals.***

'Traicté de la Chymie' is perhaps a good example of a work that manages to straddle both the middle ages and the modern scientific world. It belongs at once to the fields of alchemy and chemistry and was written by an apothecary and a pharmacist. His 'Traicté' is said to be modelled after the 1636 'Abrégé des secrets Chymiques' by famous alchemist, Pierre Jean Fabre and I noted a passing reference to another famous alchemist, Raymond Llull, in the preface.

"Le Févre's eclectic chemical theory combined Paracelsian, Helmontian and Aristotelian ideas. He believed in five elements, adding phlegm and earth to Paracelsus' tria prima of salt, sulphur and mercury."

Le Févre: "Chymistry is the art and knowledge of nature itself; it is by her means that we examine the Principles, out of which natural bodies do consist and are compounded; and by her are discovered unto us the causes and sources of their generations and corruptions; and of all the changes and alterations to which they are liable."

This notion of an emerging scientific logic from a philosophical or (some might say) superstitious belief system is one that has greatly interested me during the life of this site. It's fascinating observing with hindsight the development of rational thinking from a quagmire of folklore and spurious ideas. The laboratory equipment in the engravings above convey that alchemy/chemistry duality well. Click the images for full size versions - there are no further illustrations in the 2 volumes which are online in full at Pôle Universitaire Européen Lille-Nord.

• Nicaise Le Févre at The Galileo Project.
• Abstract: 'Chemical Textbooks in the Seventeenth Century' by Antonio Clericuzio.
• 'Foreign bodies: Travel, empire and the early royal society of London' by Robert Illiffe (p.21).
• €2415 for a 1669 edition (with notes) {halfway down page}
• The title page from an english edition.