Friday, August 29, 2008

Codex Manesse

medieval knight and horse
Herr Ulrich von Liechtenstein
[now where have I heard that name before?]



medieval musicians play for the king
Meister Heinrich Frauenlob



medieval man winched up castle wall
Herr Kristan von Hamle



jousting medieval knights
Herr Walther von Klingen



man reading scroll
Graf Rudolf von Neuenburg



tournament champion receiving tribute
Herzog Heinrich von Breslau



medieval falconry
Konradin von Hohenstaufen



male and female playing chess
Markgraf Otto IV. von Brandenburg



gathering in tent pavilion
Meister Gottfried von Straßburg



illuminated manuscript - male and coats of arms
Der Tannhäuser



backgammon game in medieval manuscript
Herr Goeli



knights in combat outside castle
Kristan von Luppin



medieval sailing ship
Herr Friedrich von Hausen


Codex Manesse may well be the quintessential medieval manuscript. The parade of miniatures - gallant knights and comely maidens, chess, backgammon and falconry, jousting tournaments and heraldry, castles and court musicians - feature the types of (near) cliché imagery we all immediately identify with the period.

The manuscript was compiled in the early 1300s at the request of the Manesse family in an attempt to record the major figures of the minnesang - the German tradition of composing and performing love songs, similar to the provincial troubadours of France.

The 137 manuscript illustrations depict 12th and 13th century poets (minnesänger) in scenes reflective of their names or themes from their songs. They mostly came from the nobility - Dukes, Kings and Counts - but sometimes the minnesang included educated members of the middle and lower classes.

The Manesse brothers observed that the bourgeois classes of their time were gaining in power, partly as a result of the 13th century interregnum that had seen much of the authority of the Holy Roman Empire ceded to territorial rulers. New forms of literature - particularly the fables - were replacing the minnesang as the dominant oral and written tradition, so the motivating force behind the production of Codex Manesse was as a means to preserve the history of the declining Germanic troubadour culture. Codex Manesse remains, therefore, the most important primary source document for love songs of the middle ages in middle high German.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Filipino Costumes

Male Filipino Costume

Un Yndio Natural



female Philippines costume

Una Joven, Mestiza



male guard uniform - the Philippines

A guardia de Vino
(an officer to look after the government monopolies, such as arrack and tobacco)



female Filipino costume with veil

A Damsel Going to Early Mass




male costume from Manilla

A Manila man




female attire from the Philippines

Una Yndia Natural, de Filipina



male wearing Philippines national costume: Barong Tagalog

Un Mestizo Chino



female costume Philippines

A señorita walking to church in the daytime



national costumes of the Philippines

A Spanish Mestiza of Manila



Filipino female costume

A country girl



Filipino costume - old woman

An Old Woman



Rich mestizo wearing Barong Tagalog

Rich mestizo



traditional costume of a Mandaya Woman

A Mandaya Woman

"Note the silver "patina" on her breast, and the load of armlets. The Mandaya women blacken their front teeth by holding a quid of tobacco and strongly acidic leaves between teeth and lips."
[IN: 'The non-Christian peoples of the Philippine Islands' by DC Worcester, 1913, among the Cornell University South East Asia Visions Collection]



engraving of Filipino costumes
Costumes des Habitans de Manille

[IN: 'Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse, no. 42', 1797 by Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Perouse. Drawing by JM Moreau; engraved by P Triere. [source]


All the images above (apart from the last two) come from a watercolour album from about 1841, online at NYPL. (there are a few more there I've not posted) The first half of the pictures above are displayed at full size. All of the NYPL images have been extensively background cleaned.

Incidentally, a few of the men are wearing the national male costume of the Philippines: Barong Tagalog (the female counterpart is called Baro't saya {Barbie or anime(!)})

Further Filipino costume illustrations: Skyscraper city forum and The Impact of Spanish Rule in the Philippines from the Tagalog language and cultural resources site at the University of Northern Illinois.

It's obviously an old site, but the People of the Philippines exhibition from the Museum of Anthropology at the California State University, East Bay, has some useful information, particularly about the distribution of ethnic groups across the Philippines.

I added costumes to the delicious tags recently.

Added later: See this article on the Boxer Codex (1595) that is said to depict the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanons and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid colors.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

The Gumnut Babies

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie - The Gumnut Babies
(cover detail)



They Found Mr Lizard at the Photographer's

They Found Mr Lizard at the Photographer's



At The Artist's Studio

At The Artist's Studio



Mrs Kookaburra's Dinner Party

Mrs Kookaburra's Dinner Party



Sea Dragons in Their Stable

Sea Dragons in Their Stable



Snugglepot Fights The Red Gumnut

Snugglepot Fights The Red Gumnut



Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (detail)

Little Obelia (detail)



The Banksia Men Make a Wicked Plot

The Banksia Men Make a Wicked Plot



The Cabstand

The Cabstand



The Cricket Match

The Cricket Match



The Gum Blossom Ballet

The Gum Blossom Ballet



The Lecture

The Lecture



They Began the Homeward Journey

They Began the Homeward Journey



Little Obelia

Little Obelia



May Gibbs (1877-1969) emigrated to Australia from England with her parents when she was four years old. Part of her childhood was spent at a farming homestead in Western Australia where Gibbs' love of the unique species in the Australian bush developed. The nuts, leaves and flowers she discovered as a child provided a lifetime of inspiration for her iconic and imaginative illustration work.

The daughter of talented artists, Gibbs was encouraged to draw and paint from a young age and she had her first illustration published in a Perth newspaper by the time she was twelve years old. After finishing school she returned to England for extended periods on several occasions to study art, but eventually settled in Neutral Bay in Sydney in 1913 when her Australian bush illustrations were rejected by publishers in London. In that year the first of her drawings of Gumnut babies (also known as bush babies or bush sprites, seen in many of the above illustrations) appeared as the cover art for another author.

There followed a series of Gumnut booklets which sold well and culminated in the release, during the 1918 armistice celebrations, of 'The Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'. The gentle bush story about the adventures of our eponymous half-brother Gumnut heroes, and all the anthropomorphic characters they encountered, became an instant classic. The national success was due in no small part to Gibbs' creation of an entirely local mythology. The book employed a traditional narrative style, based on the fairytale stories from Europe, but Gibbs' myriad drawings and paintings, with their faithful portrayal of Australian fauna and flora, turned familiar bush scenes into a proud national identity for childhood imaginations. {the book has never been out of print}
"Since eucalypts and banksias, not to mention all of the bush creatures, are found right across Australia, Gibbs had created images that appealed to the entire nation. Seed pod hats, gum blossom skirts, gumleaf and sea shell houses, leaf boats and stick chairs, set imaginations running wild. Children everywhere couldn't help but wonder when they saw such things, whether Gumnut Babies really did live there, especially when they could actually see their scribbly writing on the trees. Gibbs took what every child could easily find and gave it a fantasy life of its own."
The Gumnut adventures were continued in successful sequels, 'Little Ragged Blossom', in 1920; and 'Little Obelia' in 1921. Gibbs published further books within a similar fantasy bush setting and syndicated newspaper columns and comic strips. One of these, 'Bib and Bub', was published for over sixty years.


IMPORTANT: As part of the terms of May Gibbs' bequest, profits from sales of all merchandise associated with the 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie' series are used by (exceptional, longstanding and exemplary) charitable trusts to directly benefit disabled children [link].

Although this is a completely unsolicited 'moment', I would urge you to consider buying 'The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Including Little Ragged Blossom and Little Obelia' if you are in the market for an absolutely gorgeous and delightful children's book. It's also a sweet way to introduce a child to Australia; but really, the quality and uniqueness of the illustrations is ample justification alone. That it will benefit less fortunate children is simply a bonus.

The above illustrations were scanned from an edition (as linked above, although mine has a different cover) that combines all three of the Snugglepot/Blossom/Obelia books. The posted images were drawn from all three works and are in no particular order (there are more in the set). These are only a sampling. There are vignettes, sepia sketches and full colour painted scenes all through the book, reproduced from the original artworks.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Early Microscopes

"They were incredibly small, nay so small, in my sight,
that I judged that even if 100 of these very wee animals
lay stretched out one against another, they could
not reach to the length of a grain of coarse Sand."
[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek describes his discovery of bacteria]



Robert Hooke (1665)
From Robert Hooke's 'Micrographia' (1665)
at the National Library of Medicine [or turn the pages flash version]



Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1673)
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek's simplistic single-lens microscope from the ~1670s in which two screws allowed the distance from the lens and the up-and-down movement of the specimen to be adjusted. [source]



Johann Franz Griendel (1687)
Johann Franz Griendel published the first German book on microscopy in 1687. 'Micrographia Nova' was obviously greatly influenced by Hooke's classic work but it wasn't mere homage. Griendel documented significant advances in the objective lens and depth of visual field from instruments he had manufactured himself. 'Micrographia Nova' is available complete, in two sections, from the Universities of Strasbourg - Digital Old Books (SICD)



John Marshall (1700)

John Marshall's New Invented Double Microscope
for Viewing the Circulation of the Blood (~1698-1700)

"Marshall called his microscope the Great Double microscope for two reasons: he wanted to illustrate the large size of the microscope and to reinforce the fact that it was a compound microscope." [..] "One of the most significant features of Marshall's microscope was the fine focus mechanism, which was a very unique design element for the period. The mechanism functioned through a series of sleeves that attached the microscope body to the limb. One sleeve served to attach and adjust the position of the body tube to the limb, while the other moved the body tube up and down with a small focusing knob."
[By the time I removed the enormous and intrusive watermark from this image, I had *somehow* forgotten the name of the commercial art site from which it was sourced.]


Joachim Friedrich Meyen (1747)


Joachim Friedrich Meyen (1747) a


Joachim Friedrich Meyen (1747) b


Joachim Friedrich Meyen (1747) c


Joachim Friedrich Meyen (1747) d

The above images come from 'Kurzer Unterricht von der Beschaffenheit und dem Gebrauch der Vergrösserungsgläser und Teleskopien' (~Short lessons of the Constitution and the use of magnifying glasses and telescope) 1747, by Joachim Friedrich Meyen, online at SICD.



Henry Baker (1754)


Henry Baker (1754) a


Henry Baker (1754) b

From: 'Le Microscope à la Portée de Tout le Monde', the French translation of Henry Baker's 1742 publication, 'The Microscope Made Easy', available from SICD. [Googlebooks have a microfilm copy of the original]

"Simultaneously a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society, Baker was a naturalist whose microscopical observations of aquatic animals and fossils were of interest to a wide audience. In 1744, his study of crystal morphology garnered Baker the Copley Gold Medal for his microscopical work and inspired other scientists to engage in systematic microscopic studies of crystalline formations. Many of the materials he examined were observed through a compound microscope made by the English optics expert John Cuff (1708-1772), which he designed at Baker's behest."
"The works of nature are the only source of true knowledge, and the study of them the most noble employment of the mind of man.... Microscopes furnish us as it were with a new sense, unfolding the amazing operations of nature, and presenting us with wonders unthought of by former ages."


Louis Joblot (1755)


Louis Joblot (1755) a


Louis Joblot (1755) b


Louis Joblot (1755) c

The above illustrations come from 'Observations d'Histoire Naturelle Faites avec le Microscope', 1754/55, available in 2 parts at SICD.

"Louis Joblot (1645-1723), a professor of mathematics at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, combined his interest in science and art through the use of a microscope. Beginning in 1716, he devoted most of his career to exposing the wonders of the microscopic world. Although not published until 1754, the illustrations and text for his Observations on Natural History Made with the Microscope were completed thirty-six years earlier."

"Joblot's instruments represented an advancement over those available before him because of the quality of the mechanisms permitting precise focusing, the excellent design of his tubular diaphragms, which eliminated stray light, and the multitude of his well-planned attachments for mounting the most diverse types of specimens." [pdf in-browser: 'Louis Joblot and his Microscopes' by Hubert Lechevalier, 1976 IN: Bacteriological Reviews {alternative link} -- well worth reading if you are into microscope/microbiology history]


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768)


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) a


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) b


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) c


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) d


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) e


Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1768) f
All the above colour illustrations come from the Martin Frobenius Ledermüller series from the 1760s, 'Phisicalisch Mikroskopische', online at SICD. The previous Ledermüller post is definitely worth seeing for the spectacular drawings of microscopic specimens and includes some biographical details. Ledermüller seems to have taken a cue from the reception given to Hooke's work from the previous century and added elements of theatricality and embellishment with the honourable intent of making the microscopic world popular and entertaining.

-------------------------



The path to the development of the microscope really began* in 11th century Iraq. The empirical scientist and polymath, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), produced a massive treatise called 'The Book of Optics' in which he recorded experimental data and theories pertaining to lenses, binocular vision, mirrors and the observable properties of light. It is without doubt one of the most influential books ever written. 'The Book of Optics' outlined the rationale for practical scientific methodology that continues to resonate through every scientific discipline today. Translations of Alhazen's work circulated widely in Europe and his writings were a primary guiding source for all the major innovators in microscopy, astronomy and optical physics during the 16th to 18th centuries.
[*There's an intentional omission of references here to any ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman observations about crystals, glass manufacturing and magnification phenomena because they don't appear to have had a direct role in the evolution of technologies that culminated in the invention of the microscope.]

Roger Bacon gave an account of the properties of biconvex lenses and their use in magnification in the 13th century. There are also ambiguous references in his work to an instrument with telescope properties. It is probably not incorrect to attribute the invention of the magnifying glass to Bacon, but as his written legacy lacks formal instrument descriptions, it is difficult to give him further credit, save for footnote status, in reference to microscope/telescope development. There is some splitting of hairs with such a conclusion. The evaluation necessitates a drift into semantics; a microscope might be said to differ from a magnifying glass (although the former, in a simple system, is an example of the latter) in that it has an applied scientific dimension -- for use in examining cells or plants etc, smaller than can be resolved by the unaided eye, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge -- rather than being a generic instrument capable of making small things appear larger. So Bacon is important in the timeline of optical physics, but slightly less so in the specific path to the production of the task-specific instrument called a microscope. This is of course open to debate. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the 13th century saw the first lenses produced as vision correction devices.

It's a fairly safe bet to assume that the quality of glass and lens production improved over the following two centuries both as a result of the heightened exchange of information during the Renaissance and because the prevalence of eyeglass makers was on the rise. Conditions, therefore, became favourable for innovation. And although the story remains somewhat murky, the balance of opinion has it that towards the end of the 16th century, the telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey and, soon afterwards, the compound microscope (an instrument with a system of two or more lenses in series) was invented - in about 1595 - by Zacharias Janssen, undoubtedly with the help of his father, Hans Janssen. Lippershey and the Janssens were all eyeglass makers and they all lived and worked in the town of Middelburg in Holland. I have no idea whether they were acquainted but what are the chances? [Attribution to Lippershey/Janssens is not universal; some sources appear to regard Lippershey as the inventor of both and others see Galileo's contributions as warranting the title of inventor. It may well be that more than one person created a functional instrument at about the same time, independently.]

Irrespective of the exact circumstances that gave rise to the invention of the microscope, the device itself or the instructions for building a microscope had arrived in Rome during the first decade of the 17th century. Galileo included both a concave and a convex lens in the compound microscope that he built, which he called occhiolino (little eye). In the early 1620s, this instrument was being used by fellow members of the venerable scientific society, the Lynx Academy. One of the Academy members, Giovanni Faber, renamed the device 'microscope'; and by the end of the decade, Francesco Stelluti (also a member), had published the first illustrations of objects - [bees: previously] - as observed under a microscope.

The first scientific paper that relied upon the findings from microscopic studies was published in 1661. The Italian physiologist, Marcello Malpighi [previously], may not be a household name, but he was the first serious microscopist and made invaluable contributions to our understanding of microanatomy. In that original paper, Malpighi recorded his observations of blood circulation in the connecting vessels - the capillaries - between arteries and veins in frog lungs which provided the vital piece of supporting evidence for the theory of the circulation of blood, postulated by William Harvey in the year of Malpighi's birth.

In 1665, Robert Hooke published 'Micrographia' [previously] to great acclaim. This lavish work introduced the science fiction-like microscopic world of familiar items - the head of a pin, the structure of a flea etc. - to a mesmerised public. It was the sensation of the age. With its sixty highly detailed plates and articulate, yet accessible essays, 'Micrographia' simultaneously motivated the world of academia to pursue experimental science with gusto and the lay intelligentsia to obtain their own instruments so they might experience similarly amazing sights as a leisure activity.

The final character of note from the early years of microscope development was almost certainly influenced by Hooke's masterpiece. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek [books] visited England in the late 1660s and thereafter devoted his life to the pursuit of lens and microscope construction. Although he published no scientific papers, Van Leeuwenhoek was a regular correspondent with the Royal Society, who granted him membership in 1680. He was renowned as an expert in producing lenses of great clarity and resolving power (to one micron), despite the majority of his microscope designs being of the single-lensed magnifying glass variety. The incredible number of lenses made during his life points to the likelihood that Van Leeuwenhoek had perfected blown glass techniques for their creation rather than continuing with the time intensive grinding process followed by the majority of his peers. But he was always secretive about his working habits and took his lens making and illumination practices to his grave. Van Leeuwenhoek is credited with the discovery of bacteria, protozoa, spermatozoa, rotifers, hydra and volvox.


[As per usual, the choice of illustrations above was largely determined by what was available/what I found and shouldn't be taken as a 'definitive illustrated guide to the history of microscopy' or the somesuch. The same goes for the text: all care is taken (hopefully) but what I've written shouldn't be regarded as authoritative. There may be intentional mistakes. Or there may not. The history is convoluted and complex and requires reading from a number of sources. In fact, I'm not sure the internet is the best place to do this.]