Easy Pickings

IN: 'Costumes of all nations - 123 plates, containing over 1500
coloured costume pictures by the first Munich artists. 1913 Tyrolean'

The above 2 are IN: 'Dessiné d'après les modéles en cheveux de
P. Florentin in Album de dessins en cheveux. 1870s'
(I had no idea that hair art/jewellery and death went together. But then again,
I had no idea that hair art even existed.) There are more images in this series.
[And just because I found it: 'A Bibliography of books & other materials
on gravestones, cemeteries, epitaphs, mourning, funerals, and
related subjects' at (where else) A Grave Affair]

Deutsche Karikatur auf die hohen Haarfrisuren, am 1780.
IN: 'Die Frau in der Karikatur'. 1906.

'Supplice des banqueroutiers [torment of the bankrupts]
au XVIe siècle. Le musée criminel - crimes et peines d ' autrefois.'
('1899' is pencilled below the picture)

'Druckmaschine für zwölf Farben - [Printing machine
for 12 colors] - IN: Der Zeugdruch . Bleicherei, Färberei,
Druckerei und Appretur baumwollener Gewebe. 1890'

At the risk of repeating (??) myself, one of the strange (few) rules I impose upon myself is that I'm not allowed to visit any of the NYC library sites unless it's by 'accident' - from a search or from a secondary link. I don't ever steer the browser there as a primary destination. Partly this is because it's like shooting fish in a barrel so BibliOdyssey might just become a mirror site for their wonderful collections, in which case I would tend to feel a tad redundant; and partly it's because of the great swathes of time the sites steal from my life when I get there.

On this occasion, some forgotten search led me to the Picture Collection Online at the Mid-Manhattan Library, from where I staggered out after some hours or days with the above clutch of images.

Robert Wu Miniature Bindings [studio]

Left to right, top to bottom, Triumphs of Chastity and Time,
Love and Death. [I *think* they come from a latin translation
of Petrarch by Francesco Philelpho from the late 15th century]

Hermes/Mercury Holding a Caduceus, Standing Over a Goat
IN: 'Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetvstatis non illae qvidem romanae, sed
totivs fere orbis svmmo stvdio ac maximis' by Peter Apian early 16th cent.

The above 2 images again come from Cornell University's Rare Book and Manuscript Collection which I have steadily ransacked lately. Incidentally, this page gives a list of all the Luna Insight browser collections, including Cornell. They are kind of finicky but I've finally decided (after some substantial timesinks and trial and error) that I like them.

Pigskin bound book by faeryshaman at the Handmade
Book LJ Community [faeryshaman's website: kelfae]

IN: 'Hungarian & Highland Broad Sword' by Henry Angelo, c.1790.
(previously) There are a whole host of fencing/combat manual links
from Todds Sabelhörna's website. The above image comes from a pdf at
the ARMA website. The rest of the grey scale book is filled with paintings of
moustachioed officers engaged in pitched sword battle aboard their trusty steeds.

"13 maps; Draught of Boston harbour.; harbour of Placentia.; harbour of Anapolis Royal.; Plan of the town and harbour of Louisbourg in the island of Cape Breton ...; Draught of New York and Perthamboy Harbour.; Harbour of St. Augustine.; Harbour of Providence.; Havana.; Bay of St. Jago de Cuba.; Town and harbour of Charles Town in South Carolina.; Fort Royal in Martinico.; Plan of the town and harbour of Cartagena.; Plan of the harbour town and forts of Porto Bello when taken by Admiral Vernon on Nov. 22. 1739 with 6 ships only."
IN: 'A complete atlas or distinct view of the known world.' London : Printed for W. Innys, R. Ware, 1752. [from the University of South Florida Map Collection -- also accessible from the Luna Insight browser exhibits page via David Rumsey]

Bearing such imaginative names as 'decorated end paper' and
'marble paste paper', the Manchester Metropolitan University
Library has a vast collection of printed paper samples in their Image Archive. There are also book illustrations, artbooks and ceramics
on show but the paper samples make up the bulk of the online offerings.

The Russian Birch Bark Library - more than 900 samples of
medieval birch writings from East Slavic peoples {11th to 15th centuries}.
The website is completely in russian - I just threw in random numbers to
the search field to retrieve these images. [page in english]

'Burgkmair, Hans, the elder 1493 - 1531 Gefecht (Hungarian Men)
39 from series The Triumph of Maximillian'
[from Bucknell University, Pennsylvania - Luna Insight browser collection]

When Microsoft Vista was launched in the UK last week, Bill Gates announced that he had contributed a digital edition of a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript to the British Library's Turn The Pages site. So I went across there and downloaded a huge add-on to my XP platform so that I could view the Arundel manuscript, owned by the British Library - from which the above screencaps were taken. [more info/via]

Personally speaking, I find most of the turn the pages websites to be more gimmick than enhancement. This one in particular was a huge resources hog but at least the manuscript pages can be flipped to read Leonardo's mirrored writing (if medieval Italian is your thing). And to add insult to injury perhaps, I also think examining *some* of the Leonardo's manuscripts to be an overrated experience. I am generally more inclined towards the Leonardo sites that Bibi catalogued the other day (but there are lots more). I'm still not sure whether the manuscript Gates bought for $30 million in 1994 can be viewed without actually having the Vista operating system.

Speaking of the British Library...

"..the future of the British Library as a world-class, free resource is under threat from plans to cut up to 7 per cent of its £100m budget in this year's Treasury spending round.

To survive, the library proposes to slash opening hours by more than a third and to charge researchers for admission to the reading rooms for the first time.

All public exhibitions would close, along with schools learning programmes. The permanent collection, which includes a copy of every book published in the UK, would be permanently reduced by 15 per cent. And the national newspaper archive, used by 30,000 people a year, including many researching their family trees, would close."

On a completely different and decidedly more uplifting note, go visit Le Divan Fumoir Bohémien.

The Temple of Music

[click images for larger versions]

You know how sometimes when you first come across a new topic or thing and you see it from one particular angle that makes you like it so you retain a sympathetic viewpoint as you rummage around for more information?

That's how I felt about the enigmatic and controversial Robert Fludd (1574-1637) as I made my way through his 'De Naturae Simia' book from the enormous 'Utriusque Cosmi Maioris Scilicet et Minores Metaphysica, Physica Atque Technica Historia' series, published by Theodore de Bry in batches between 1617 and 1626, online at the J Willard Marriot Library at the University of Utah.

Paging through the website's edited but extensive selection of Fludd's work, it was easy to develop admiration and respect for this polymath who was attempting to document the logical world. He sets down theories and descriptions in latin (all extensively illustrated) covering mathematics, geometry, music, artistic and architectural perspective, horology, military fortifications, astronomy, engineering machines and no doubt other subjects I'm forgetting. Some of the ideas are of course fanciful or perplexing at best, but overall there's this sense that Fludd had an orderly and enquiring scientific mind.

History doesn't have such a singularly supportive view of our man Fludd. After completing his medical studies, he toured the continent for 6 years during which time Fludd became interested in alchemy and Rosicrucianism. From then on his views and extensive publications present a mystical, hermetic philosophy as Fludd attempted to incorporate the ideas of Paracelcus into an essentially staunch religious framework. His medical practice involved a fair sampling of astrology and faith healing and Fludd's forceful and magnetic personality was said to help cure his patients.

Fludd was accused of being a magician and a heretic and even the astronomer Johannes Kepler was moved to publish criticisms of the hermetic approach to knowledge. Much of the prolific output of Fludd was devoted to defending the cosmic harmony proposed by alchemists and the Rosicrucian movement. While on the one hand he may come across as a champion of the esoteric sciences, Fludd was also the first to support Harvey's theory about the circulation of blood, he believed in a heliocentric universe, was thought by some to have invented the barometer, obtained a patent from the Privy Council for making steel and he still had time to be a Censor for the Royal College of Physicians.

That initial positive reaction I felt leafing through 'De Naturae Simia' was due in no small part to the sections devoted to music. I can't read latin almost at all and I have no academic knowledge in relation to music or music history, but there is a distinctly studious feeling attached to the musical maps and musical notation illustrations (many done by Matthäus Merian), beyond the allegorical fancy of the Temple(s) of Music. Perhaps it's naive on my part but I couldn't help thinking that this was an intellect worth exploring.

Virtually all the above images were uploaded at full size. A few have been touched up - which ones? One or two of the illustrations are borderline non-musical and in fact, that last image, with the 4 illustrations, are mathematical calculation maps. I've got a whole load more images for a second post in a day or 2 and it was a toss up how to divide them between entries. If you want to find any of the above images in the cumbersome Utah University website, the page numbers are all listed in the image alt-tags (right click the image & choose 'properties').

• The complete 'Utriusque Cosmi Maioris Scilicet..' (grey scale illustrations) is actually available as multiple zip files or as an enormous pdf for download.
• Biographies: NNDB; Galileo Project; Wikipedia; Fludd chronology.
• At Levity, about halfway down the page, is an interesting exchange about the allegorical nature of our simian friend on the titlepage above.
• 'Robert Fludd: A Picture in Need of Expansion' © Ron Heisler.
• Doctor Robert Flood by Sharon MW, also at Levity.
• 'Robert Flood and the End of the Renaissance' (W. Huffman 1988) - book review by John Henry.
• The last alchemist.
• Images at JR Ritman Library, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica.
• First page from a subscription only article on the musical instruments in Fludd's books.
• Pink Floyd ?!
• See part 2 --  Fludd Returns.

Death Becomes Her

Une chambrière et une entremetteuse
AND Une régente et une femme de chevalier.

Une femme d'accueil (ou hotesse) et une nourrice
AND Une femme mariée et une coquette

Une vieille fille et une cordelière
AND Une reine et une duchesse

Une bergère et une infirme
AND Une sage-femme et une petite fille

Une bigote et une folle
AND Une revendeuse et une amoureuse

La gueule du Leviathan et la mort sur son cheval
AND Les âmes damnés aux Enfers.

In the 'Danse Macabre' genre that derives from the now lost paintings on the walls of the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris [1424], the famous Parisian printer Guyhot Marchant is said to have preserved the original illustrations in his 1485 publication, 'Danse Macabre'.¹

Following from the success of the original work, a second Marchant book was released in 1491: 'Danse Macabre des Femmes' from which the first 6 images above are taken (all 36 woodcuts are available at BNF - scanned from a microfilm of 'Cy est la Danse Macabre des Femmes Toute Hystoriée et Augmentée', 1491 in 2 volumes)

The series follows the traditional pattern of a 2-part didactic poem whereby death calls women from all walks of life to join the inevitable 'Dance of Death', and the women respond. An illuminated manuscript was also made of the series and together they contribute some further understanding about the lives of medieval women - as investigated in the 1994 'The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. fr. 995 of the Bibliotheque Nationale' Ed. Ann Tukey Harrison, Kent State University Press.

Both the original and female versions of Marchant's 'Danse Macabre' books came to be combined in a single publication and the Médiathèque de l’Agglomération Troyenne have a wonderful web presentation of a late 17th century ammalgamated text (click the image for a flash 'turn the pages' view or click bottom left for a zoomable html version).

The second set of images above come from the Cornell University Rare books Luna Insight browser collection. The only information available states: 'Dis des estats (Les dis des eites) 1513' in the 'Heures a lusaige de Paris' collection. [You can see those words - actually, I think Cornell have transcribed them wrong - in the 3rd last illustration, in red. I read it as something like: 'A talk with the citizens and death's response'.] I feel quite confident they belong to the 'Danse Macabre' genre but alas, I couldn't uncover any further information. (there are no more of these images at Cornell)

• See: 'Guyot Marchant’s Danse Macabre. The Relationship Between Image and Text' by David A. Fein, 2000 [pdf]. {html}
  
• ' 'Oh Death!': Death, Dying, and the Culture of the Macabre in the Late Middle Ages' Prepared by Emily Rebekah Huber as part of the Camelot Project at the University of Rochester, New York state.
• ¹I've now found the earliest book version of the 'Danse Macabre' online, from the 1460s, which I'll post somewhere along the line.