Before the Deluge

"The observer who glances over a rich and fertile plain, watered by rivers and streams which have, during a long series of ages, pursued the same uniform and tranquil course; the traveller who contemplates the walls and monuments of a great city, the first founding of which is lost in the night of ages, testifying, apparently, to the unchangeableness of things and places; the naturalist who examines a mountain or other locality, and finds the hills and valleys and other accidents of the soil in the very spot and condition in which they are described by history and tradition - none of these observers would at first suspect that any serious change had ever occurred to disturb the surface of the globe. Nevertheless, the earth has not always presented the calm aspect of stability which it now exhibits; it has had its convulsions, and its physical revolutions, whose story we are about to trace."

'The Earth in a gaseous state circulating in space'

'Ideal Landscape of the Silurian Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Devonian Period'

'Ideal view of marine life in the Carboniferous Period'

'Ideal view of a marshy forest in the Coal Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Permian Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Muschelkalk Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Saliferous or Keuper Period'

'Ideal Scene of the Lias Period with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus'

'Ideal Landscape of the Liassic Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Lower Oolite Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Middle Oolite Period'

'Ideal Scene of the Lower Cretaceous Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Cretaceous Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Eocene Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Pliocene Period'

'Skeleton of the Mammoth in the St. Petersburg Museum'

'Ideal View of the Quaternary Epoch -- Europe'

'Deluge of the North of Europe'

'Appearance of Man'

"The object of "The World before the Deluge" is to trace the progressive steps by which the earth has reached its present state, from that condition of chaos when it "was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the the deep," and to describe the various convulsions and transformations through which it has successively passed."

'The World Before the Deluge' by Louis Figuier (1872 revision of the 1862 text) is online at 19th century science.

****UPDATE: A full (and better quality) 1863 edition of this book has now been uploaded by Strasbourg Digital Library.

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

I've been more than a little busy this week. In other news...

• The Library of Congress have a blog.
• Brian Sawyer (Craftzine, Makezine) has a blog - bookbinding and craft.
• The only thing I've seen at the British Library's 'Sacred' online gallery is an exquisite Ethiopian bible in the Turn the Pages section (I haven't quite worked out yet what exactly is 'new' here).
• 'Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean' contains >600 artefacts from 14 countries in 18 exhibition sites, assembled by 90 curators from the productive output of 1200 years. (multiple languages) For each exhibition site, click the 'more information' and any other links around to find everything available. (first appearances are a little deceptive).
• Revolutionary Players is another vast site I've hardly looked at "focusing on the history of the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands in Britain between the years 1700 and 1830." [via]

Royal Navy Sketchbooks

POW Sketchbook

"A bound sketchbook containing a series of 36 pencil and watercolour sketches drawn by Commander Mervyn Scott Lindslay whilst a prisoner of the Japanese at North Point Camp in Hong Kong from 1942 to 1945. The sketches include views from the camp, of the interior and exterior of huts, the galley, scullery, inmates' footwear, wood cutting parties, the barber's shop, furniture, portraits of Lindslay and other inmates, and designs for a house that Lindslay hopes to build after his release."

849 Squadron HQ Vol. 2. 1964 by PAF Grant.

There are no specific notes for this sketchbook - something of a satirical
tradition for this naval aviation squadron formed in 1942.

"Sketches from notebooks kept by Petty Officer Wren Margaret Field. They were completed whilst she was attending various Women's Royal Naval Service aircraft maintenance training courses. The courses were held at HMS Fledgling, a WRNS training establishment located near Eccleshall in 1943 and at HMS Kestrel, a Royal Naval Air Station located near Worthy Down, Winchester in 1945."


Sea Your History is a new British archive documenting the history of the Royal Navy in the 20th century. It is an evolving project but already there's a lot of interesting material, particularly in the Image Gallery (including a number of journals, sketchbooks - obviously, and cartoon/satire books; and of course photographs). The site is what I might describe as 'fair' to negotiate. [via]



"The crossing the Arctic Circle certificate of Chief Petty Officer Betram Lagard. He received it whilst serving as part of an Arctic convoy onboard HMS Fitzroy, on 23rd October 1944. He was now entitled to be called a Loyal Member of the Most Ancient Order of the Bluenose." [from the 'Crossing the Line' section]

Tyukanov Revisited

'Fish-Island', 1991

'The Moon', 2006

'Musicians', 1985

'New Stomatology', 1996
[The perfect ex libris for any dentist]

'Nemesis of A Durer', 1997

'Pawns', 1985

'Project Grasshopper', 2006

'Alchemist', 1986

'Baba-Yaga', 2005
[Russian fairy tale]

'Hommage a Hendrik Avercamp', 1988

'Flying Bottle', 2005

All images © Sergey Tyukanov.

I posted about this Russian artist about 18 months ago, when reaching the sites carrying his etchings, drawings, paintings and ex libris prints was a very time consuming process. But Sergey wrote to advise that he has a new slick site with high resolution images available. I love the retro fantasy folk whimsy.

Splintered Remainders

{alternative image}

I *think* the top picture shows the crude breathing device made by Sieur Freminet in 1771. Unfortunately it was a closed rebreathing system and he died after 20 minutes under water from a lack of oxygen.
[Later: the origin of that picture is a mystery. It's not Freminet. The citing about Freminet's death pretty well contradicts the description in the french article below, which attests to his diving over a 10 year period using the rebreathing device. Hm. Thanks w o.]

The other 2 images show views of what is considered by many to be the first recognised diving suit (Karl Heinrich Klingert , 1797). "It consists of a jacket and trousers made of waterproof leather, a helmet with a porthole, and a metal front. It is linked to a turret with an air reservoir. The reservoir cannot replenish itself, so the suit has a limited dive time duration."

• My thanks to Zazie for tweaking my interest and for providing the 3rd image.
• Underwater history and timeline.
• Wikipedia /Inventors /Scuba UK history.
  
• Historical Diving Society Monographs.
• 'L'historique de la plongée de l'antiquité à nos jours'. (source of first image)

The above images come from a selection of historical geology, mineralogy and mining books from Hungary (some are in german and some, hungarian). I know the first image comes from 'Fichtel - Beytrag zur Mineralgeschichte von Siebenbürgen 1-2.Nürnberg, 1780'.

'Slaying the Big Bear and the Sea Monster' - 1883

This is a satire about the impeachment of the incumbent political heavyweights, the founder of Mitsubishi and the largest Japanese ship owner by politicians from a rival party. (somewhere in the Kosho section at Waseda University)












The Tahitian jungle scenes and maps of Tahiti and Hawaii come from 'Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. By Charles Wilkes, U.S.N. Commander Of The Expedition, Member Of The American Philosophical Society, Etc. In Five Volumes, And An Atlas. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 1845.'

And at the time of posting this I've found that the Smithsonian Institution has a large web exhibition devoted to the expedition ('The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842') but they have posted their maps in greyscale so the above images are better in my opinion, despite the age related damage.

'The cacina, a sacred dance, at the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico'

IN: 'Report upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, in charge of Capt. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army' 1875-1889.

The Tahiti/Hawaii and Native American images are part of the new upload (>1000 images) to the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (via: The Map Room).




From: 'Description des octants et sextants anglois, ou quarts de cercle a reflection, avec la maniere de servir de ces instrumens, pour prendre toutes sortes de distances angulaires, tant sur mer que sur terre : précédée d'un mémoire sur une nouvelle construction de ces instrumens; et suivie d'un appendix, contenant la description et les avantages d'un double-sextant nouveau' (1775) - João Jacinto de Magalhães.






















From: 'O engenheiro portuguez..' in 2 volumes (1728, 1729) by Manuel de Azevedo Fortes.










From: 'Diccionario dos termos technicos de historia natural extrahidos das obras de Linnéo..' by Domenico Vandelli 1788.

There is an extensive selection of historic science monographs from Portugal at the University of Porto's Faculty of Science. It's a great site with thumbnail views. (probably via Archivalia)










From the Polish childrens' book 'Treny' with illustrations by Zofia Stryjenska from 1930 (accompanying 16th century poetry by Jan Kochanowski).










From: 'Heraldica to iest osada kleynotow rycerskich y wiadomosc znakow herbownych' by Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski, 1772.

[These 2 Polish books were found somewhere among the extensive and exceptional Digital Library of Poland]

From 'Niederländische Historienbibel', 15th century
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).

This (truncated and spliced) image depicts half-buried statues from Cornelis de Bruijn's 1718 book 'Voyages de Corneille le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Occidentales'. The statues are from the area near Persepolis (Naqsh-i-Rustam in Iran). They date to the Achaemenid Empire (~550-330 BC).

It comes from the extensive MAVI site (Musée Achéménide Virtuel et Interactif) which presents an inventory of the heritage relating to the historical space and time during which the Middle East from the Indus to the Mediterranean was under the control of the Achaemenid Persian empire. Many world universities are involved. I have to say that when I was playing around in this site a week or 2 ago I found it to be quite frustrating/annoying. But there is a 15 minute film in computerspeak english that explains how to use the site, which of course I didn't watch because I'm a male. [pdf background]

'Delight of Hearts' -
an early 17th century copy of a Persian cosmography map
by Zakariya' ibn Muhammad Qazwini. (from Rylands Library)

'Allegory on the death of the Earl of Arundel' by Wenceslaus Hollar.

'Aeneas in the underworld. State 2' by Wenceslaus Hollar.

The University of Toronto Libraries have a brand new and very large web exhibition of some 2,500 works by 17th century Czech-English artist, Wenceslaus Hollar. It is a fantastic site with mouseover enlargements, print categories for easy browsing and a flash zoom if the large images somehow aren't good enough.










The 3 images above come from a 15th century compilation manuscript featuring the 2 major works of German humanist, Albrecht von Eyb: 'Ehebüchlein' (The Marriage Book) and 'Spiegel der Sitten' (The Mirror of Morals). The manuscript has quite a few (what appear to be) zodiac-like vignettes through its 60 pages and is online at Die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. {illustrations start p26; click 'Miniaturansicht').




The University of Hamburg have a number of beautiful historic maps and views of the city including the 1730 map (spliced from screencaps) above by J Covens & C Mortier.


[click everything in sight for larger versions (in most cases)]

Many of these books and illustrators could have made up material for individual posts (and may do in the future) but sometimes I just have to at least partially empty the desktop and clear my head.