Saturday, December 22, 2007

The Kalender of Shepherds Miscellany

Anatomical Man with the Planets


The Wheel of the Occupations of the Months and the Zodiac


A group of shepherds


Sherperde looking at night skye


Occupation of the months - feasting - January


Labours of the Months - Treading the Grapes - October


Tables for Eclipses of Sun and Moon


Sculptor and Painter (emblem of Mercury)


Human Life as a Sea Voyage


Souls Chained to a Wheel


Souls Fed Toads


Feeding Toads closeup


Souls Chained and Tormented in Hell


Four Monsters


Souls Tormented by Serpents
Draco Souls Tormented by Serpents Text


Call to repentance by a horner

Thus endeth the Shephardes kalendere,
Drawne into English to Gods' reuerence:
And for profite and pleasure shalle Clearkes to here,
Plainly shewed their intelligence,
Our is done, now readers do your diligence,
And remember that the Printer saieth to you this,
He that liueth well may not die amis.

The 'Kalender of the Shepherdes' is a late medieval almanac first published in the 1490s in Paris by Guy Marchant and Antoine Vérard. It incorporates writing and illustrations that traverse a number of themes including astrological, feasting and Saints day calendars, farming advice, folk medicine and (most significantly) religious instruction.

The original book, 'Compost et Kalendrier de Bergiers', was reprinted nine times before the close of the century, giving a fair indication of its popularity among the aristocratic and middle class readers. The first copy in english appeared at beginning of the 16th century and many further editions followed which included irregular translations, incorporation of new text and the inclusion of illustrations from various sources. It remained very popular for more than a century but "[d]espite so many editions, and perhaps because of the miscellaneous and pragmatic nature of its content, each edition of the KS has survived in very few copies and it rarely appears on the antiquarian book market".

Although 'Kalender of the Shepherdes' is the archetype for the persisting modern interpretation of an almanac (Old Farmer's Almanac for instance), the original work, which proved to be widely influential in both literary and social terms, was fundamentally about achieving salvation. The astrological charts and sherherd's folk wisdom about harvests, diet and medicine were side dishes to the core devotional and religious instructional main course. This included outlining the ten commandments, the seven deadly sins and some of the lines first published in the 'Kalender' live on today in the modern version of the Hail Mary prayer.

It's little wonder that such a didactic miscellany included illustrations that first appeared in the book, 'L'art de Bien Viure et de Bien Mourir' ('Ars Moriendi' - The Art of Dying well), from 1492 (which in turn derived from manuscript illustrations from the 1480s) where Lazarus recalls his visions of hell (the tormented souls pictures); but it's also interesting to observe that other notable 'medieval themes' made an appearance such as Ship of Fools* and Planetenkinder (seen the other day).

Monday, December 17, 2007

Dutch Advertising Graphics

Wilhelmina Cycle 1897-1898

Wilhelmina Cycle & Co. Ltd. Zeist-Holland. rijwielen 1897-1898



Viskwekerijen (Arnhem) 1950-1975
Bezoekt onze Viskwekerijen - Koninklijke Nederlandsche
Heidemaatschappij (Arnhem) - 1950-1975



Ranja en Rojo 1925-1950
Drinkt èchte Ranja en Rojo 1925-1950



Pope globes 1939-1940
"In 1889, the light bulb factory Goosens, Pope & Co. was founded in Venlo. The driving force behind the enterprise was the English engineer Frederic Pope. In 1920, Philips acquired a controlling interest in the share capital of the factory. Nevertheless, it continued to produce light bulbs under its own name for a long time." (1930/1940)



Jaarbeurs 1934
30ste Kon. Ned. Jaarbeurs 1934



Philips Biosol 1935-1940
De zon in 'n doos. Philips Biosol
hoogtezonapparaat. Zo zit ik goed 1935-1940



Jago Shawls 1948-1949
Jago Shawls. kleding 1948-1949



Enschede 1930-1931
Enschede Zevenmijls Electriciteits tentoonstelling
voor Nederland en Westfalen. 1930-1931



Holland Amerika Lijn 1938-1939
Holland-Amerika Lijn. New York wereldtentoonstelling. 1938-1939


Gennep 1950-1975
Gennep 1000 jaar grote feesten, 29 juli tot met 6 aug. jubilea 1950-1975



Electricity 1950-1975
Er uit tijdens de piek-uren - energie - 1950-1975



De vliegende Hollander 1947-1948
De Vliegende Hollander. [KLM] (1947-1948)



Dietsch Academische 1930-1931
IIde Dietsch Academische Leergang. Amsterdam
(Stads- en Vrije Univ.) Delft, Leiden, Nijmegen. 1930-1931



Aquamarijn Amsterdam  1952
Aquamarijn.Een sprankelend waterballet
in de RAI. Een nieuwe productie van Carel Briels.
De Rijn in de RAI. Amsterdam. van 21 mei - 15 1952



Cokesfabriek 1920-1940
Cokesfabriek Staatsmijn Emma. Overzicht der te leveren
producten en hunne toepassingen (druk met vier kleuren) 1920-1940


This is just a sampling from the '150 Years in Advertising in the Netherlands' collection. I admit to remaining confused about it. They have a link that will allegedly take you to all 11,000+ objects -- mostly print graphics, but there are some tv adverts as well [none of which I could get to play] -- but it leads to 50 thumbnail pages with 20 thumbnail images per page. No matter how I calculate it, there is a 90% shortfall. Perhaps the majority are accessible from the browse links?

The Advertising history is part of the revamped History of the Netherlands site which had been in demonstrable need of some technical attention for a couple of years. On first blush, access to some of the material is not exactly enhanced by the deployment of the fancy javascript architecture I saw. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of diverse material available.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

By way of tradition on the occasion of a centenary post [800], I reiterate previous open requests for anyone to contact if they have links or are aware of online material that they believe is suitable for posting on this site. As usual, I'm most interested in hearing about books and illustration work pertaining to the under represented parts of the world, but am equally happy to hear of any attractive, twisted or superior visual materia obscura.

Feel free to either: leave a comment, email me at peacay/gmail or send a link through del.icio.us bookmarks {tag it with for:BibliOdyssey}. And for anyone who was unaware, you are welcome to subscribe to the del.icio.us feed which is updated at approximately the same time a new post appears on the site.

I'm grateful to all those who have made contact in the past. I promise I don't bite, I do look at everything, although for many, many reasons I can't guarantee that the material will end up on the site. Cheers.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Flora Sinensis

banana tree


Cieu Ko


Custard Apple


Jackfruit Tree


Lychee


Pepper Vine


Mango


Pineapple


Su Pim


Rhabarbarum


Tusked Quadruped and Snake


chickens


Sum Xu and Turtle


Tiger


Tiger (detail)


Nestorian Stele



Despite the inaccuracy of the title and the rather unsophisticated (yet charming) illustrations within, 'Flora Sinensis' is in fact one of the rarest and most important botanical works ever produced. It was published in 1656 in Vienna by the Polish Jesuit missionary, Michael Boym (Michał Piotr Boym) and is the first western book to report on the indigenous sub-tropical plants of China.

Boym spent about ten years in China, converting the family of the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to Christianity and acting as the Emperor's (unsuccessful) envoy when he returned to Europe in the early 1650s seeking western help to repel the (successful) Manchu uprising.

Boym was an astute scholar and made significant contributions to the foundation of Sinology in terms of language, medicine/pharmacy, cartography and, of course, botany. His correspondence, verbal reports and various publications were plundered became the factual backbone to the popular and widely read 'China Illustrata', by the 17th century's great polyhistor and BibliOdyssey favourite, Athanasius Kircher.

I'm unsure how a hippopotamus came to be included in a work on China and I wouldn't be surprised to learn of some other visual incongruities. The text itself was more illuminating, particularly in advising of the pharmaceutical and health benefits of Chinese plants. The final illustration was among the first depictions of the Nestorian stele, which had been discovered earlier in the 17th century and provided evidence of Assyrian Christians having settled in China as early as the 8th century [see last month's post featuring some illustrations and a little more information about Nestorians - and hats off to Dr Hypercube for mentioning the stele in the comments].

 
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