In Engraving Virtue , Young Kyun Oh investigates the publishing history of the Samgang Haengsil-to , a moral primer of Chosŏn , and traces the ways in which woodblock printed books contributed to shaping premodern Korea.

This text deals with the relationships between the phenomenalizations of hand and engraving art, especially against the background of Gaston Bachelard’s philosophical commentaries on the works of Albert Flocon. Special space is devoted to the interpretation of Flocon’s engraving of two hands in connection with Escher’s similar lithography. Another thematic field is the role of the tool and the hand equipped with the tool. However, the central axis of this thinking is the interconnection or intertwining of body and (...) matter, the interactive relationship between human being and matter, between visual observation and dynamic haptics, which require a certain force and thus also experience the back pressure of matter. The conclusion of the text draws attention to a specific engraving, such as writing, especially the writing of a philosophical text, as we read about it in Bachelard’s book The Flame of a Candle, the last word of which is—surprisingly—engraving. (shrink)

Images in the service of scientific knowledge (broadly construed) in early modern Europe have received much scholarly attention in recent years. Given that this was a period where there was a large...

A rich intellectual encounter, revolving around the hands of the experimenter and those of the artist, highlighting the relation between the sciences and the arts. This book is the first to explore in detail the encounter between Albert Flocon and Gaston Bachelard in postwar Paris. Bachelard was a philosopher and historian of science who was also involved in literary studies and poetics. Flocon was a student of the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, who specialized in copper engraving. Both deeply ingrained (...) in the surrealist avant-garde movements, each acted at the frontiers of their respective métiers in exploring uncharted territory. Bachelard experienced the sciences of his time as constantly undergoing radical changes, and he wanted to create a historical epistemology that would live up to this experience. He saw the elementary gesture of the copper engraver—the hand of the engraver—as meeting the challenge of resistant and resilient matter in an exemplary fashion. Flocon was fascinated by Bachelard’s unconventional approach to the sciences and his poetics. Together, their relationship interrogated and celebrated the interplay of hand and matter as it occurs in poetic writing, in the art of engraving, and in scientific experimentation. In the form of a double biography, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger succeeds in writing a lucid intellectual history and at the same time presents a fascinating illustrated reading of Flocon’s copper engravings. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger is Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany. Kate Sturge is a translator and editor based in Berlin, Germany, and Visiting Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at Aston University, United Kingdom. (shrink)

Vasari said that Marcantonio Raimondis first engraving after a design by Raphael was the Suicide of Lucretia, but he most likely confused it with the similar but much smaller Suicide of Dido, also engraved by Marcantonio. Following the Didos success Raphael no doubt wished Lucretia to be larger and bolder. The two figures were probably recycled from a group of dancers, perhaps the Muses, projected for a mural decoration; a drawing by Raphael adapted to Lucretia is precisely in the (...) style of his Parnassus studies The hypothesis that Dido and Lucretia were initially conceived as dancers is supported by a montage of the two figures silhouetted and by a glance at contemporary representations of dancing Muses. (shrink)

Within the framework of this article, the authors analyze the cycle of engravings "Apocalypse" by Albrecht Durer in the context of the categories of space and time that have developed in the history and philosophy of culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The metaphysical essence of time, defined by Christian eschatology, found its vivid embodiment in the activities of many figures of artistic culture of that era. Apocalyptic moods, which largely determine the consciousness of people of the Reformation era, (...) were also inherent in A. Durer. The cycle of engravings "Apocalypse" in many ways should be considered as the quintessence of these moods and a reflection of the image of death that develops in this era. Space also acquires metaphysical characteristics, becomes heterogeneous, emotionally colored. The authors conclude that in the "Apocalypse" there is a mixed (and therefore very peculiar) interpretation of the category of time and space. It clearly shows the transition of the space-time representations of the Middle Ages to the ideas of time and space inherent in the New Time. It is also possible that we have before us one of the variants of the Renaissance mastery of the categories of time and space in the art of Europe. Attention is drawn to its openness and conscious demonstrativeness, because two artistic systems interact with each other on an equal footing; their stylistic potential and expressive means are used entirely, with full dedication and as a result, with maximum impressive force. (shrink)

Cet article propose d'étudier l'organisation de la frappe monétaire dans le Péloponnèse entre le règne d'Hadrien et celui de Septime Sévère. Sur la base de l'examen stylistique des monnaies produites à cette époque, l'auteur tente d'établir que, comme l'avait démontré K. Kraft pour l'Asie Mineure, plusieurs cités s'adressaient alors au même atelier pour réaliser leurs émissions monétaires ; des liaisons de coins de droit entre des monnayages différents sont d'ailleurs attestées. L'étude révèle également l'existence, à l'époque de Septime Sévère, de (...) séries particulières, qualifiées ici de « coordonnées » : il s'agit d'émissions où l'on a manifestement tenté d'uniformiser les types monétaires de nombreux monnayages péloponnésiens. (shrink)

Coming from a prosperous London Quaker family, the author Priscilla Wakefield wrote educational books for children, and one work for adults, Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex, also reissued in this series. This 1796 book on botany, a science which 'contributes to health of body and cheerfulness of disposition' but is difficult to study because of its Latin nomenclature and the cost of textbooks, offers a simple introduction for children through the medium of letters between sisters, as (...) 'Felicia' shares with 'Constance' her growing understanding of plant science. Felicia's governess is a follower of Linnaeus, whose classificatory system is described as 'the one universally adopted', and by the twenty-eighth and final letter, Felicia is describing the class Cryptogamia. This illustrated account in simple language gives an insight into the level of education thought appropriate for young girls at the end of the eighteenth century. (shrink)

Sir Richard Phillips was a London-born author and publisher of educational textbooks who used a vast array of pseudonyms, including that of Reverend C. C. Clarke. Phillips' marketing techniques - the systematic borrowing of famous authors' names for his textbooks, along with the multiplication of easy to produce related educational products - were key to his success. No doubt meant as an accessible encyclopaedia, this 40th edition of 1834 - attributed to Phillips himself - is a surprisingly vast and heterogeneous (...) survey, which compiles natural and man-made curiosities across the world. The Himalayas and Mont Blanc share a chapter with the Peak of Derbyshire; famous rivers lead to mysterious subterranean forests; and Stonehenge is closely followed by St Paul's cathedral. Halfway between reference book and textbook, this richly illustrated volume is a fascinating catalogue of the world's wonders as perceived in the early nineteenth century. (shrink)

Process engraver and printer Emery Walker was a pivotal figure in the English, American, and continental European Private Press Movement from the 1880s until his death in 1933. This article looks at his theories for the typography, design, and production of books, and how those theories were developed by key designers and close associates of Walker such as William Morris, T. J. Cobden Sanderson, and Bruce Rogers and through the practical teaching of figures such as J. H. Mason and Edward (...) Johnston. It examines how the theories were then taken up by the exponents of fine printing from the early 20th century through to the 1930s, focusing on the presses of Bernard Newdigate, Harry Kessler, Harold Curwen, and Francis Meynell. From these presses, and also via Stanley Morison and the Monotype Corporation, Walker’s theories are shown to have spread into mainstream book publishing in the first half of the 20th century. The article considers questions of whether the improvement in the readability of books in the early 20th century has had a continuing impact in book publishing, and makes suggestions how to access the incunabula referenced by the designers discussed, as well as collections of private press books and other early 20th-century fine printing. (shrink)

Engraved portable objects from Upper Palaeolithic and earlier sites are argued to be cognitive tools designed to store information for the purposes of calculation, record-keeping, or communication. This paper reviews the surprisingly long intellectual history of comparisons between these ancient objects and message sticks: marked graphic devices traditionally used for long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia. I argue that, while such comparisons have often been misguided, more cautious applications of ethnographic analogy may yield useful insights. A systematic analysis of historical observations (...) together with more recent fieldwork, indicate that Australian message sticks are primarily tools of social cognition, as opposed to cognition tout court, and rely on orality and other context to become meaningful. Further, the practice of message stick communication may help clarify ongoing problems in the interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic objects including their possible role in aggregation activities, the distinction between decoration and notation, and the interplay between graphic sequences and speech. (shrink)

The article discusses the features of interaction and mutual influence of the art of woodcut of China and the USSR. Chinese woodcut and Soviet engraving reveal the greatest mutual influence and rich genre palette in the middle of the XX century. Chinese woodcut gave a creative impulse, enriched the visual possibilities, brought new ideas to the Soviet art of woodcut. It served as an impetus for the rise of graphics, which realized and asserted its specificity. In this regard, it (...) seems relevant to identify common features of Chinese woodcut and Soviet engraving of the mid-20th century, as well as to identify differences in the development of this art form in the two countries. The article analyzes the works of famous woodcuts of two countries: Chen Yanqiao, Yang Han, Qi Baishi, V. A. Favorsky, A. A. Ushin. As a result of the analysis, the common features of Chinese woodcut and Soviet engraving of the mid-20th century were revealed, for example, similar plots and themes, as well as a special dynamic, lively and pulsating rhythm of the works. In addition, differences in the development of this type of art in both countries have been established, largely due to the preservation of their own national style by graphic artists. It is claimed that Soviet graphics contributed to the variety of Chinese woodcuts. In turn, Soviet artists adopted the subtleties of filigree technique from Chinese woodcuts. (shrink)

Summary Colourful plant images are often taken as the icon of natural history illustration. However, so far, little attention has been paid to the question of how this beautiful colouring was achieved. At a case study of the eighteenth-century Nuremberg doctor and botanist, Christoph Jacob Trew, the process of how illustrations were hand-coloured, who was involved in this work, and how the colouring was supervised and evaluated is reconstructed, mostly based on Trew's correspondence with the engraver and publisher of his (...) books, Johann Jacob Haid in Augsburg. Furthermore, the question of standardizing colours, their uses and their recipes is discussed at two examples of the same time period: the colour charts of the Bauer brothers, arguably the most renowned botanical draughtsmen of the period, and the colour tables by the Regensburg naturalist, Jacob Christian Schaeffer. Hand-colouring botanical illustrations, it is argued, was far from a straightforward task but confronted botanists and their employees with a plethora of practical and methodological problems, to which different solutions were developed in the course of time. Analysing these problems and solutions reveals some new and interesting aspects of the practices of eighteenth-century botany and of the production of scientific illustrations in general. (shrink)

Presents an interpretation of the famous engraved title page of Hobbes's Leviathan, in which the ‘person’ of the state is depicted as a colossal figure composed of smaller individual figures. It argues that the origins of this design can be found in an optical device developed by the French scientist Jean François Niceron, which used a specially cut lens to create a single composite figure out of separate smaller figures; and it explores the significance of this for Hobbes's theory of (...) ‘representation’. (shrink)