Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Dackerman, Susan

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Description: Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

BOOKPrints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16354

An unusual collaboration among distinguished art historians and historians of science, this book demonstrates how printmakers of the Northern Renaissance, far from merely illustrating the ideas of others, contributed to scientific investigations of their time. Hans Holbein, for instance, worked with cosmographers and instrument makers on some of the earliest sundial manuals published; Albrecht Dürer produced the first printed maps of the constellations, which astronomers copied for over a century; and Hendrick Goltzius's depiction of the muscle-bound Hercules served as a study aid for students of anatomy.

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe features fascinating reproductions of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings; maps, globe gores, and globes; multilayered anatomical "flap" prints; and paper scientific instruments used for observation and measurement.

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Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Print publication date September 2011 (out of print)

Print ISBN 9780300171075

EISBN 9780300238365

Illustrations 271 Illus.

Print Status out of print

Publisher (out of print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Southern Celestial Hemisphere
Elephant
Celestial Sphere
Moon
Moon
Anatomy, or, faithful reproduction of the body of a female
Portrait of the Author
Nova reperta, Title Page
Nova reperta, Discovery of America (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Invention of the Compass (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Invention of Book Printing (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Invention of Clockwork (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Discovery of Guaiacum as a Cure for Venereal Infection (after Stradanus)
Invention of Distillation
Nova reperta, Invention of Eyeglasses (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Discovery of the Establishment of the Longitudes (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Amerigo Vespucci Discovering the Southern Cross with an Astrolabe (after Stradanus)
Nova reperta, Invention of Copperplate Engraving
Self-Portrait as Cartographer
Plan of Vienna
Beached Whale near Beverwijk
The artist and his assistants, from Beached Whale
Double Portrait of Albrecht Dürer
Portrait of Nicolaus Petri van Deventer
Anatomy of the Bones of the Human Body (Anathomia ossium corporis humani)
Urine Analysis Chart and Key in Pinder, Epiphanie medicorum (Doctors' revelations)
Portrait of Willibald Pirckheimer as Caput Physicum
Skeleton
Instruments for Use in Cranial Surgery
Study of Mouth and Tongue (left) and Study of Head (right)
Dissection of the Scalp (left) and Exposure of the Hemispheres of the Brain (right)
Removal of the Pia Mater (left) and Cross-Section of the Brain (right)
Cerebellum (left) and Rete Mirabile (right)
Cross-Section of Skull Bone (from above) (left) and Cross-Section of Skull Bone (from below) with Jawbone (right)
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a female (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Weibs leib)
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a male (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Mans leib), flaps lifted to show intestines
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a female (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Weibs leib), all flaps lifted
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a male (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Mans leib)
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a female (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Weibs leib), flaps lifted to show uterus
Anatomy, or, a faithful reproduction of the body of a male (Anathomia oder abconterfettung eines Mans leib), flaps lifted to show stomach and spleen
Female Figure with Organs
Male Figure with Organs
Male and Female Anatomical Manikins
Syphilitic Man
Syphilitic Man (detail)
On the Construction and Use of the Jacob's Staff
Horoscope and Urania Embracing the Universe
Urania with Quadrant and Armillary Spheres
Map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere
Map of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere
Map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere (Imagines coeli Septentrionales cum duodecim imaginibus zodiaci)
Map of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere (Imagines coeli Meridionales)
Map of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere (unique variant)
Brixen Celestial Globe
Celestial Globe Gores
Southern Celestial Hemisphere (detail)
Constructed reproduction of globe
Gemini
Leo
Scorpio
Gemini, detail of Map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere
Northern and Southern Celestial Hemispheres
Dragon Dial
Moon Dial
Northern and Southern Terrestrial Hemispheres
Details from celestial hemispheres
Northern and Southern Celestial hemispheres
The Ptolemaic System
Celestial Globe (Sphaera stellifera)
Celestial Globe Gores for Willem Jansz. Blaeu's Sphaera stellifera
Celestial Globe Gores for Willem Jansz. Blaeu's Sphaera stellifera
Celestial Globe Gores for Willem Jansz. Blaeu's Sphaera stellifera
Planetary System
Pleiades
Zodiac, planets, and earth
The Most Famous Discoverers of the Movement of the Heavens
Copernicus, from Most Famous Discoverers
Quadrans Muralis Sive Tichonicus (Mural or Tychonic quadrant)
Quadrans Minor Orichalcicus Inauratus (Small quadrant of gilt brass)
Portrait of Tycho Brahe
Plantago minor (Spitzer Wegerich or English Plantain), Plantago rubea (Rot Wegerich or Red Plantain)
Pictores operis (Artists of the work)
Ocimastrum (Basil Thyme)
Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove)
The Anatomy Lesson
Arterial System of the Human Body
Title Page, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Seven books on the fabric of the human body)
The Great Hercules
Skeleton from the Front
Skeleton in Left Profile
Skeleton from the Back
Écorché from the Back
Naked Manikin from the Back
Naked Manikin in Righ Profile
Elephant
Elephant
Broadsheet Publicizing Appearance of Elephant in Antwerp
Verso of broadsheet with nature prints
Rhinoceros
Sage leaf printed on manuscript page of the Codex Atlanticus, 197v
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros (1620 edition)
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rosa sativa
Iris
African Marigold
Rose
Iris
African Marigold
Portrait of Carolus Clusius
Smilax aspera (bindweed), Rosa cenitfolia (Hundred-petaled rose)
Great Lion
Three Studies of a Dragonfly
Sawbill, Bittern, Heron, and Teal
Lapwing, Long-eared Owl, and Goldfinch
Hoopoe and Linnet
Two Grey Red-Tailed Parrots
Great Tit and Starling
Two Elephants and Rhinoceros
Two Dromedaries and Camel
Leopard and Two Lions
Giraffe, Chameleon, Civet, and Antelope
Lobster and Sole
Garfish, Pipefish, Brill, and Plaice
Mullet, Whale, and Sea Lion
Gurnard, Tompot Blenny, Blenny, and Walrus
Sperm Whale beached near Berkhey
Sperm Whale
Botanical Garden
Anatomical Theater at Leiden University
Anatomical Lesson of Pieter Paaw
Practitioners of the Visual Arts
Hanging Skeleton
Pilot Whale Beached at Zandvoort
Nemesis
Adam and Eve
Title Page, Hierin sind begriffen vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Herein are contained four books on human proportion)
Proportional Study of a Standing Nude Male
Proportional Study "A" of a Man Seven Heads Tall
Title Page, Das Kunst und Lere Büchlin (Art and instruction manual)
Man's Head and Woman's Head
Letters B and C
Letters C and D
Globe Gores
Spheres
Armillary Sphere
Pillar Dial
Nocturnal Dial
Polyhedral Sundial
Polyhedral Sundial
Polyhedral Sundial
Portrait of Nicolaus Kratzer
Title Page, Geometria
Two Rhombicosidodecahedra and a Pyramid Intertwined with an Octahedron (IIVA)
Five Geometric Forms
Geometric Forms with Imperial Coat of Arms
Plate AII, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate AV, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate EIIII, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate EV, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate FII, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate FIII, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate FVI, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate GI, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate GIIII, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Plate GV, Perspectiva corporum regularium
Portrait of Wenzel Jamnitzer: Goldsmith, Mathematician, Instrument Maker
Album page of Cylinder Sundial; Turkish Sundial; Astrolabe
Album page of Astrolabe Components
Universal Instrument
Universal Instrument
Three Compass Roses
Eagle Sundial for Johannes Tscherte
Horoscope for Emperor Maximilian I
Double Horoscope for Bishop Matthäus Lang of Gurk
Horoscope for Jacob Bannisius
Imperial Astrolabe for Jacob Bannisius
Ein ewig nutzbarlich Planetisch werck von magistro Bonifacio von Czorbegk (A perpetually useful planetary device by Bonifatius von Zörbig)
Planetary Device
Polyhedral Sundial
Human Sundial
Human Sundial
Cruciform Sundial for All Latitudes
Bowl of Ahaz Sundial
Horophoebydrion
Compast oder Sonnen Ur (Compass or sundial)
Cover of conical sundial pamphlet
Cylindrical sundial sheet
Hour conversion dial sheet
Conical sundial sheet
Title Page, Instrument buch (Instrument book)
Sun and Moon Instrument
Two Dials
Base Sheet with Dragon
Brass astrolabe (recto)
Brass astrolabe (verso)
Paper astrolabe (recto)
Paper astrolabe (verso)
Astrolabe kit (recto sheet with rete)
Astrolabe kit (hour conversion dial)
Astrolabe kit (verso sheet)
Astrolabe kit (plate for 51° latitude)
Astrolabe kit (thrones, ring, alidade, and rule)
Table of Hour-Systems
Das ist der Rom Weg […] (This is the way to Rome), Nuremberg
Das sein dy lantstrassen durch das Romisch reych […] (These are the roads through the Roman Empire), Nuremberg
Das heylig Romisch reich mit allen lantstrassen […] (The Holy Roman Empire with all its roads), Augsburg
Diptych Sundial with Compass (cover)
Diptych Sundial with Compass (open)
Terrestrial Globe Gores, Ingolstadt
Natives of Africa and India
Peoples of Guinea and Algoa
Peoples of Arabia and India
People with a Herd (incomplete)
Peoples of Africa and India, Nuremberg
Terrestrial Map of the Eastern Hemisphere
Siege of Vienna, Nuremberg
Map of the Holy Land (Das Gros Meer)
Map of the Holy Land (complete)
Mediterranean Map with the Travels of St. Paul, Ingolstadt
Typus cosmographicus universalis (Universal cosmographic map)
Landscape with Wooden Bridge
Geographia and Chorographia
Moscovia (Map of Russia)
Map of Hungary
View of Amsterdam
Typus orbis terrarum (World map)
Map of Northern Netherlands
Simple Theodolite and Plane Table Rule, Antwerp
Musica
Humanae Societati Necessaria
Melencolia I
Ptolemy
Allegory of Sight
Arithmetic
Arithmetic
Geometry
Geometry
Astrology
Astrology
Grammar
Dialectic
Rhetoric
Arithmetic
Geometry
Astronomy
Music
Jupiter Presiding over the Liberal Arts
The Alchemist
Demogorgon in the Cave of Eternity
Arithmetic
Geometry
Astronomy
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell
The Physician as God
The Physician as an Angel
The Physician as Man
The Physician as the Devil
World Map (Orbis terrarum typus de integro multis in locis emendatus; Map of the world, improved and complete in all its parts), Amsterdam
Europe
Africa
Asia
America

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Contents

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Contents

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16355

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Index of Entries

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Index of Entries

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16356

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Lenders to the Exhibition

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Lenders to the Exhibition

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16357

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Director’s Foreword

Thomas W. Lentz

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Exhibitions such as Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge embody the best of what we envision for the Harvard Art Museums when they reopen following the renovation now under way. The new building will be a teaching machine for training students and emerging scholars in art history, visual thinking, curatorial practice, and conservation science. Consistent with that vision, this exhibition...

Author

Thomas W. Lentz

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16358

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Acknowledgments

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Acknowledgments

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.15-16

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16359

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Introduction: Prints as Instruments

Susan Dackerman

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe examines the participation of celebrated artists in the scientific inquiries of the sixteenth century. By investigating the close working relationships...

Author

Susan Dackerman

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.19-35

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.006

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16360

Chapter subject tags:Prints--TechniquePrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryArt and science--Europe--History--16th centuryArt and science--Europe--HistoryAnatomy, Artistic--Renaissance

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Printmaking and Knowledge

Susan Dackerman

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~In the early modern period, knowledge of the natural world was organized around such categories as natural philosophy, which examined the physical universe as it was perceptible to the senses, seeking the causes of natural phenomena; natural history, which described the particular properties of objects in the natural world, and because it included the study of...

Author

Susan Dackerman

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.37-77

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16361

Chapter subject tags:Europe--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryArt and science--Europe--History--16th centuryArt and natural history--Europe--History--16th centuryAnatomy, Artistic--RenaissanceMedicine and art--Europe--History--16th century

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Constellations and Configurations

Susan Dackerman

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~In 1515 Albrecht Dürer designed the first printed representations of the constellations of the northern and southern celestial hemispheres. Hardly an isolated artistic project, these woodcuts emerged from an environment of rigorous investigation of the heavens in Dürer’s native Nuremberg. Broadsheets describing the function of astronomical...

Author

Susan Dackerman

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.79-123

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.008

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16362

Chapter subject tags:Art and science--Europe--History--16th centuryEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryMedicine and art--Europe--History--16th centuryDürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528Pictorial maps, RenaissanceAstrology in art--Europe--History--16th century

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Observing Nature

Lorraine Daston

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~The acquisition of knowledge of the natural world in the early modern period increasingly depended on observation. Previous generations relied on ancient sources’ accounts of astronomy, geography, natural history, and anatomy—some of which were contradicted by experience and examination. A new insistence on direct observation also pervaded artistic...

Author

Lorraine Daston

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.125-161

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.009

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16363

Chapter subject tags:Europe--Intellectual life--16th centuryHumanismArt and natural history--Europe--History--16th centuryPrints, European--16th centuryPrints, RenaissanceArt and science--Europe--History--16th centuryAstronomy in artBotanical illustration, RenaissanceMedicine and art--Europe--History--16th century

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The Rhinoceros

Susan Dackerman

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~Although Albrecht Dürer never saw a rhinoceros, his 1515 woodcut was the authoritative representation of the animal for centuries. Based on drawn and written accounts sent from Lisbon, where a rhinoceros had been shipped from India as a gift to the King of Portugal, Dürer’s woodcut was a revelation because a rhinoceros had not been...

Author

Susan Dackerman

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.163-183

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.010

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16364

Chapter subject tags:Prints--TechniqueEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, European--16th centuryPrints, RenaissanceArt and natural history--Europe--History--16th centuryDürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528

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Theater of Nature

Claudia Swan

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~Writing and picturing the history of nature were popular approaches to understanding it during the early modern period. Increased emphasis on observation and experience marked a fresh approach to its study. Scholars and amateurs amassed a wealth of new knowledge of nature by collecting specimens of flora and fauna in the field, gathering images of specimens from...

Author

Claudia Swan

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.185-227

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.011

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16365

Chapter subject tags:Art and natural history--Europe--History--16th centuryPrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryBotanical illustration, Renaissance

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Measurement

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~~In his final years, Albrecht Dürer published two treatises—Underweysung der Messung (Instructions on measurement) and Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Four books on human proportion)—as textbooks for artists and other practitioners who lacked adequate training in geometry and technical...

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.229-265

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.012

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16366

Chapter subject tags:Prints, European--16th centuryEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, RenaissanceDürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528Art and natural history--Europe--History--16th centuryAnatomy, Artistic--RenaissanceArt and science--Europe--History--16th century

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Printed Instruments

Suzanne K. Schmidt

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~~Scientific instruments such as sundials, globes, and astrolabes are commonly known in examples made of such durable materials as wood, brass, and ivory. Yet in the sixteenth century they were also manufactured from printed paper. Component parts were printed on sheets that were designed to be scored, folded, pierced, cut, and pasted...

Author

Suzanne K. Schmidt

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.267-315

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.013

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16367

Chapter subject tags:Prints--TechniqueEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryArt and science--Europe--History--16th centuryAstrology in art--Europe--History--16th century

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Mapping

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~~New editions of Ptolemy’s Geography, advances in navigation, interest in expanded trade routes, and the desire for greater knowledge of the world drove an enormous growth in the making and use of maps in the sixteenth century. Maps enabled actual as well as meditative journeys. Erhard Etzlaub’s map of the...

Author

Susan Dackerman (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.317-355

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.014

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16368

Chapter subject tags:Cartography--Europe--HistoryEurope--Intellectual life--16th centuryPrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryCartographyIndigenous peoples in art

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Allegory

Katharine Park

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

~~Allegory, the depiction of abstract concepts through physical embodiments, was a common mode of representation in the sixteenth century. Allegories often took the form of personifications—classicized figures, usually female, adorned with the attributes of their subjects. Corresponding with the period’s new reliance on...

Author

Katharine Park

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

Related print edition pages: pp.357-409

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00097.015

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16369

Chapter subject tags:Allegories, RenaissanceSymbolism in art--Europe--History--16th centurySymbolism in art--EuropePrints, RenaissancePrints, European--16th centuryEurope--Intellectual life--16th century

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