I was dusting out my computer folders and came across the 4th image (the others are details from it) that I had snaffled in passing a few weeks ago. I remembered that it came from the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon but I didn't find any associated pictures with which to make a post - as I thought I needed at the time - so I forgot about it.
The larger version of the picture (if you click the actual image you'll get a less bandwidth taxing screen-sized jpeg ) shows the engraver to be "Math. Greuter" and the date to be 1589. It turns out that this is Matthaeus (Matthäus) Greuter (1566-1638), a cartographer, astronomer and engraver. He was responsible for the amazing Melissographia which I've posted about previously (incidentally, that is the first engraving produced from a drawing made with the use of a microscope). He was also famed for engraving world globes.
The detail above showing the figures wearing spectacles reminded me of a link I was sent by the wonderful Boynton a while back. It's the Antique Spectacles site gallery of early copperplate engravings from multiple sources in which subjects are wearing glasses. Now they can add one more image to their collection.
The Lyon library site is the french equivalent of the Beinecke image gallery. It's a question of doing random (french) word searches to find the goodness (and there is definitely digital goodness) within. Searching on 'Greuter' brings up a few architectural engravings together with the above image. {I'm guessing he had a brother who was also an engraver as I noted when I was searching for background information}
Oh, Greuter actually lived in Lyon at one stage too ... and is no doubt also an ancestor of Kevin Bacon.
Addit: The title of this image is: Allégorie exprimant la puissance des richesses et le malheur attaché à la pauvreté [Allegory expressing the power of the richnesses and the misfortune attached to poverty]- information page in french.
No comments:
Post a Comment