Conjuring 17th Century Japan

The Matsya (fish) incarnation of Lord Vishnu

[Addit: see Frog In A Well's post]

Christian martyrs at Singcock (Zingock)

I presume this is Nagasaki (there were a number of groups of martyrs in Japan).
In November 2008, 187 Japanese Christian martyrs were Beatified in a step towards Sainthood.

"Early modern travel writing was unquestionably the most diverse genre of literature. Newly discovered ethnographic, navigational, commercial, biological, military and cartographic information from far flung places like Asia was presented to an enthralled European audience. Collections of Jesuit missionary letters and reports gradually gave way to more formal histories and secular accounts from traders, explorers and scholars.

These works were often illustrated with engravings, both factual and fanciful, and many of the accounts and drawings were recirculated through translation, borrowing and reinterpretation. By the late 17th century, travel anthologies became an attractive printing venture for those hoping to profit from the widening interest in exotic cultures during the early days of The Enlightenment." [Source]

The coincidental isolation of Japan during this period, as a result of the Tokegawa Shogunate policy of sakoku-seisaku ('closed country'), served to limit the amount of information about Japan that flowed through to the west. It follows, in such circumstances, that there should be an even greater demand for literature that purported to give readers any knowledge about such a mysterious country and her people. And publishers were of course strongly motivated to get something - anything - into print.

One of the most important books that filled the vacuum of knowledge about Japan in the second half of the 17th century was an extensive volume by the Dutch vicar, missionary and church historian, Arnoldus Montanus. He collaborated with the Amsterdam print-shop of Jacob van Meurs to produce 'Denckwürdige Gesandtschafften der Ost-Indischen Geselschaft in den Vereingten Niederländern an unterschiedliche Keyser von Japan' in 1669. That's obviously the German title and the images above come from its second reprint in 1670. The book was very popular and John Ogilby* pirated an english translation under the title: 'Atlas Japanensis, being Remarkable Addresses by Way of Embassy of the East India Company to the Emperor of Japan Containing a Description of Their Several Territories, Religions, Laws, and Customs, Prodigious Wealth & Georgeous Habits, the Nature of Their Soil, Plants, Beasts, Hills, Rivers & Fountains With the Character of the Ancient & Modern Japanners. Collected Out of Their Several Writings and Journals.', also published in 1670 (it had been released in at least five languages within two years).

Montanus composed his book during a stay at Deshima [Dejima] Island in Nagasaki Harbour (the only place during the sakoku where foreigners could disembark, live and trade; operated by the Dutch East India Company {VOC}). The annual embassy expedition to Edo (Tokyo) by VOC representatives to pay their respects to the Shogun had been documented in the 1640s and it was these accounts, held at the VOC offices in Deshima, that provided Montanus with his primary source material. In addition he obtained earlier Portuguese mission records and cherry-picked notes from various Jesuit travel letters and books.

Obviously the first half of the images above - (orangutans!! Hindu Gods!) - suggest that the book was an altogether fanciful production, but that's only partly true. There are apparent oddities within the text as well, but on the whole, Montanus' work provided the most authentic accounts of Japanese culture available until the restrictions on foreigner travel were relaxed in the 1800s. Jacob van Meurs had lifted - or adapted - some images from Kircher's 'China Illustrata' (among other exotic books), no doubt concluding that profits would be maximized with the inclusion of as many unusual or bizarre engravings as possible. The second half of the images above indicates that reliable visual material had been obtained which, together with the many original maps prepared for the book, accounts for the fact that 'Atlas Japanensis' was a very influential and well received publication.

• 'Denckwürdige Gesandtschafften..' is available from the digital collection at the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt (click 'Übersicht' top left for thumbnail pages). There are a few other images saved in the flickr set.
• 'Travels of the Dutch East India Company in the Japanese Archipelago' by Wolfgang Michel IN: 'Japan - A Cartographic Vision', 1993 by Walter Lutz.
• [pdf] 'Nagasaki/Deshima After the Portuguese in Dutch Accounts of the 17th Century' by Alexander Curvelo IN: 'Bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies', Vol.6, 2003.
• 'Asia in the Eyes of Europe - Sixteenth Through Eighteeth Centuries' (Chicago Library exhibition catalogue text) by Donald D Lach, 1991.
• Previously: The Americas of 1671 -- the most significant collaborative work produced by Montanus and van Meurs.
• Previously: The Red-Haired Barbarians -- how the Japanese viewed the foreigners.
• 'Atlas Japannensis' at Rare Oriental Books (short review)
• Addit: Just as I've gone to post this entry I found an alternative source for the plates from 'Atlas Japannensis' at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto. The images are nowhere near as good in quality but it *does* have the plate titles in english.

Insignia Nobilium

'Insignia ... XI. Insignia Nobilium Veronensium, Vicentinorum - BSB Cod.icon. 276' is online at the Bavarian State Library. There are perhaps fifty illustrated pages in total.

This album of heraldic devices or family crests of the noble families of Verona and Vicenza is one of a series of fifteen manuscripts prepared for Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria in the 16th century. So far, only two of these works have been digitised. The other one was featured in a post from 2007, Insignia Neapolitanorum.

The catalogue page (in German) [trans.] offers little by way of background.

My new word for the day: escutcheon.

One of these days I will get around to adding a 'heraldry' tag to the delicous links.

The Ripley Scroll

Of my blood and water I wish
Plenty in all the World there is
It runneth in every place
Who it findeth he hath grace

In the World it runneth over all
And goeth round as a ball
But thou understand well this
Of the worke thou shalt miss

Therefore know ere thou begin
What he is and all his kin
Many a name he hath full sure
And all is but one Nature

Thou must part him in three
And then knit him as the Trinity
And make them all but one
Lo here is the Philosophers Stone

George Ripley (?1415-1490) did not let his Augustinian monk role in Yorkshire prevent him from furthering his education in alchemy by travelling in Europe. After spending time in France and Germany, Ripley settled in Rome for about twenty years with Papal support.

At the time of his return to England in 1477, it is alleged that Ripley was already in possession of the secret of transmutation. Some believed that the sizeable donations given by Ripley to help the Knights of Malta* in their war against the Turks came from his having produced gold out of base metals. This can only have enhanced his reputation and emerging fame.

Ripley was one of the first to publish works by the renowned 13th century alchemist, Raymond Lull (Lully). Of his own writings, in two hundred or more manuscripts:

"Ripley adopted an allegorical approach to alchemy, and his most important writings are his 'Compound of Alchemy' in verse which describes the alchemical process as undergoing twelve stages or 'Gates', and his emblematic 'Ripley Scrowle' ".

The remarkable Ripley Scroll is, in simple terms, an alchemical manuscript that shows in pictorial cryptograms the production of the philosopher's stone (the elusive ingredient that produces incorruptible gold out of lesser metals; and/or the elixir of life).

There are in fact twenty-one extant Ripley Scrolls, held in major institutions in the UK (most) and the States. Most of these - including the Yale version above - share similar graphical and layout features and are regarded as a single type. Four scrolls are so dissimilar to these that they are grouped together as a second type. They were all copied from (an) earlier, original work(s) which might date to the end of the 15th century. Although of varying size, most of the scrolls are about twenty feet long and a foot and a half or so wide.

Ripley's name is associated with the scrolls because his allegorical poetry is included in many of the later versions. (There is a suggestion that the horse's hoof on the staff held by the figure at the bottom of the page constitutes his 'signature'). The twenty one scrolls were produced after Ripley's death; in the 16th and early 17th centuries. The version above dates to about 1570. Some others are uncoloured or crudely drawn, so the Yale scroll is definitely one of the best quality manuscripts in existence.

I'm reluctant to delve very far into the complex symbolism presented in the scroll both because those who are most interested will find better resources than anything I might adduce by way of summary and because it is an esoteric language unto itself and is generally resistant to simplistic reduction. Interpretation requires contemplating all the visual components and the way they interact with each other in combination with the textual elements.

It may well be easy, for instance, to identify the figure at the top as an alchemist (perhaps Hermes Trismegistus) and a bunch of alchemical symbols in roundels chained to a sacred book and a variation on the iconic Adam & Eve fall from grace scene and the bird of Hermes gnawing its own wing to make itself tame, or any number of other visual emblems that have possible referential meaning outside of the scroll, but it's the role they play in the cryptic totality of the work in which they are found that overrides any drive-by partial deductions. It's not so much "the feathers signify the spirit", as it's: feathers are often associated with depicting the spiritual and here they are of two colours and seemingly link the vertical scenes and their significance may well be modulated by other visual tropes and the text. Like that.

• Beinecke Early Modern blog reports that the Yale Ripley Scroll (subtitled: 'Emblematic Alchemy in English verse, with an English version of the Visio mystica of Arnold of Villanova') will be on show as part of the 'Book of Secrets: Alchemy and the European Imagination, 1500-2000' exhibition from Jan 20 to April 18, 2009.
• The Ripley Scroll {Mellon MS 41} has been digitised in segments and is available from the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library [Digital Images & Collections Online homepage]
• This pdf is the best overview to me: 'The Ripley Scroll of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh' by RI McCallum 1996.
• A shorter, illustrated version of RI McCallum's article is available from the library website of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
• The Alchemy Website has a number of pages devoted to Ripley & his works. (Also, I only just recently found out that Adam McLean has a weblog)
• Technical note: the above image was spliced together as a 'best approximation' from cropping and minor resizing of the Beinecke website images (all the segments are the same size but the resolution varies). I contacted the library staff and they said they were happy with me doing this and uploading the full scroll. As far as I can tell there are no comparable versions online. Most images I found were either in segments or uselessly small.
• NOTE: If you have a flickr pro account, you can access the full sized version (~4.3Mb: 1600 x 16000px) of the scroll here. (If anyone really really wants the large version and you can't access the flickr version, drop me a line and I'll work something out) UPDATE: To see the full version, click on the image on this Ripley Scroll Wikimedia page.
• Previously: Alchemy.

Birds of New Zealand

'A History of the Birds of New Zealand', 1888 by Sir Walter Lawry Buller is available from the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. Some of the images above were spot-cleaned and a few more examples were saved in this set (that's the majority from the publication). {The 2-volume series is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence}.

Homepage of NZTEC - "free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, which offers an ever expanding, fully searchable, set of images and full-text books, manuscripts and journals [..] contains over 2,600 texts (around 65,000 pages)" [via Armchair Aquarium Annex]

UPDATE: Definitely see Bookn3rd's posts (one & two) for background.

The Jewel Book

Puppies and members of the royal court look on as the serious Duchess Anna and Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria face each other across a chessboard. We can only speculate as to why such a modest scene was chosen as a prelude to an album recording, in stark contrast, the ostentatious display of wealth from their marriage and position in society.

Perhaps they wished to stress that, in spite of the precious stones and extravagant jewellery in their possession, their lives were driven more by intellectual pursuits than by the mere trappings of office?

But when we look closely, the attendants aren't even watching the game, are they? Well, one is at least, the chap on the left, and perhaps another; the rest of them appear to have their eyes (and thoughts?) diverted from the issue presently before the crown. Is there an inference here about a lack of trust or treacherous shenanigans afoot? I have no idea. What say you Wikipedia?

"Albert was educated at Ingolstadt under good Catholic teachers. In 1547 he married Anna von Habsburg, a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547), daughter of King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix, the union was designed to end the political rivalry between Austria and Bavaria.

Albert was now free to devote himself to the task of establishing Catholic conformity in his dominions. A strict Catholic by upbringing, Albert was a leader of the German Counter-Reformation. Incapable by nature of passionate adherence to any religious principle, and given rather to a life of idleness and pleasure, he pursued the work of repression because he was convinced that the cause of Catholicism was inseparably connected with the fortunes of the house of Wittelsbach. He took little direct share in the affairs of government, nevertheless, and easily lent himself to the plans of his advisers, among whom during the early part of his reign were two sincere Catholics, Georg Stockhammer and Wiguleus Hundt. The latter took an important part in the events leading up to the treaty of Passau (1552) and the peace of Augsburg (1555)."

As tempting as it may be to finesse these 'facts' to account for the chess game scene, I'll resist. It was just as likely an editorial choice on the part of the artist, Hans Mielich, who simply cranked out a dutifully solemn scene on a whim, without any specific subtext in mind. Still, I wonder can anyone decipher the latin* in the frames on either side of the page?? It all just struck me as a bit curious... [*see comment below]

The paper and parchment manuscript displays more than one hundred gouache sketches of seventy pieces of jewellery, the vast majority belonging to Duchess Anna and the remainder to the Duke. Mielich spent at least two years preparing the sketches and the work was completed in 1555.

To be honest, my attention was primarily drawn - at first - not to the jewellery itself, but to the borders and frame decorations. It's essentially a parade of Renaissance and classical motifs featuring strapwork, grotesques, caryatids, arabesques, cartouches, foliage and the occasional animal and trophy. Bearing in mind that the above selection is just a sampling, the manuscript as a whole offers a dizzying array of these decorative forms. The jewels themselves are exquisitely detailed. It may have taken me a while to warm up to it, but this really is a gorgeous manuscript.

• 'Kleinodienbuch der Herzogin Anna von Bayern - BSB Cod.icon. 429' is online at the Bavarian State Library. [Link Updated] There is no easy/thumbnail way. It's one hundred and fifty-odd page turns (three hundred if you want to view the oversized versions: the 100% views show the jewels at their actual size. Fortunately they omitted the blank interleaved protecting pages so the illustrations are on every page.)
• In addition to the images above, I've saved a few more in this flickr set. I actually have the whole set of the sketches at 150% so I might did add a handful and a half more in the next day or so. {update: done}
  
• The catalogue entry has background on the manuscript (in German) [trans.].
• Previously: Ornamental Silverware Designs.
• I've also lately set up a store on Amazon which is slowly being populated with some choice titles. It's worth a browse.