Saturday, November 04, 2006

Fragmented by Design

Chronica Hungarorum - Knight


Chronica Hungarorum - Coat of Arms


Chronica Hungarorum - Knight on Horseback
I like the 'Bibliotheca Corviniana Digitalis' in Hungary not least because I stole lifted the Magpie emblem - top right of BibliOdyssey - from there (it's actually a 15th century family crest, from memory). But the main reason I like it is because it's easy to view the material. The above book - 'Chronica Hungarorum' - has many battle scenes and royal portrait miniatures, available in thumbnail images.

"János Thuróczi wrote his history of Hungary in 1487. The work was printed in 1488 in Brünn and again in the same year in Augsburg. The publisher of the Augsburg edition dedicated the work to Matthias and used gold paint for the dedication of this luxury copy printed on parchment. Today this is the first known book printed with gold paint"

The Spider and the Fly
'The Spider and the Fly' by Calvert 1915.
I only found 2 images from the mysterious 'Calvert' - both at NYPL. I love this.


Orgues de la Major
'Orgues de la Major par J. Matthial, élève de Pierre Puget.
Dessiné à la plume d'après nature par J. Jarry 1842'


Napolen - Plan du feu d'artifice
'Plan du feu d'artifice projeté à l'occasion du passage de Napoléon
Bonaparte à Marseillle en l'an 13. Trouvé en 1M528 du Cabinet du Préfet'

The organ sketch and the plan for fireworks for Napoleon are both spliced from screencaps taken from the modest gallery at 'Archives Départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône' (of course, the site is down right at the moment but click: 'Archives en ligne' then 'Documents figurés' to start the session).

Geometria et Perspectiva
Misteraitch points out the wonderful
sampling of manuscript images on show at Verlag
from 'Geometria et Perspectiva' by Lorenz Stoer, 1567.


Padron


Iron Jugiri


Feather Plant


Birdfish
Etchings by printmaker Briony Morrow-Cribbs, who is also an
aficionado of Wunderkammer/Cabinets of Curiosity [more here].
Briony told me that her work published in books is unfortunately not online.


2 images of devils 1904 book
Spliced page images from 'Devils' by Charles J Wall, 1904
and although the seller at ebay would have us believe this
relates to the occult and devil worship etc, it looks much
more like a study of devils in culture to me.


fort design from llustrations de Des Fortifications et Artifices


llustrations de Des Fortifications et Artifices
You'll be forgiven if, like me, your first thoughts upon seeing the above 2 images was some sort of decal or floor tile pattern. They are actually design sketches for military forts from 'Illustrations de Des Fortifications et Artifices, Architecture et Perspective' from the late 16th century by Jacques Perret with illustration work by Thomas de Leu. 3 pages of thumbnail photocopy quality images at the BNF-Gallica website. (description in french)


clown at Gallica


Hautecoeur Martinet, 1833


Illinois Glass Company
"Specialties. Carboy, Naked or Boxed. Regular or Special Finish."

Indeed. This odd page (displaying my reversion to adolescence perhaps) comes from an odd book called 'Illustrated Catalogue and Price List Illinois Glass Company. Manufacturers of Bottle and Glass Containers of Every Kind' 1906 which is to be found in the equally odd but definitely interesting Bureau of Land Management 'Bottle Typing (Typology) and Diagnostic Shapes' site. [via Makowski und Pepe]


Totentanz 1858
This is from a book (on ebay) published in Switzerland in 1858 - a
(what looks like) dual french/german issue of 'Hans Holbein's Totentanz
- 'Le Triomphe de la Mort' - with a slightly more sinister tone to
the engravings by Christian de Mechel in my view. [previously]

[I tend to irregularly but persisently fossick at ebay rather than say, flickr (for example), simply because sellers are much much more likely to provide fairly accurate and/or detailed background when it comes to rare books. I just mention this because there is no specific desire to send them traffic - in fact I know I've posted images previously from completed auctions. But it is definitely a good source of materia obscura.]


Scottish clan map
"In 1991, the historical cartographer, John Garnons Williams,
using many early sources, set out to map Scotland with the spellings
of place names and clan names as they were at 1314, the year of
Robert the Bruce's great victory over the English at Bannockburn."


Zeeland map 1631
I've had this rather elegant 1631 map of the dutch province of
Zeeland by Jodocus Hondius on my desktop for months and months.
It comes via a Lower Saxony digital portal site in Germany


historical maps of australian states
'Historical Diagrams Showing the Subdivision of Australia'
(which taught me a few things) comes from the recently begun
Strange Maps site and was pointed out by the eclectic and prolific Great Map.


shell book 1813
I've always found it difficult to find well illustrated shell books. I've posted one from the Smithsonian in the past which I still think was less outstanding than I would otherwise have expected (I maintain for one that the digitization quality was lacking compared with most of their other online stock). Perhaps my standards are too high or fickle or something. In real life, shells are incredibly beautiful, as are flowers and sunsets but there are myriad gorgeous illustrations of flowers and sunsets. Anyway, I'd love to see the above book up close and personal: 'Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte' by GT Wilhelm 1813, again snagged from ebay.

***When I had a quick search to see if this Wilhelm book was online I discovered J Jeffrey's Print Gallery in Japan. Although the image quality is not always fantastic, it has a swag of rare natural history (for the mostpart) and childrens book illustrations and prints - the vast majority of this collection I've never seen anywhere else that I recall. There are quite a few female author/illustrators among them too. Click everywhere.***


Uncle Wiggly Halloween
Better late than never. Halloween is but one of the subjects
covered in 'Uncle Wiggly's Apple Roast' from 1927 at Glyph Jockey.

[Get well soon Olivia!]

Friday, November 03, 2006

An Album of Indian Gods

The Narasimha (man-lion) avatar

The Narasimha (man-lion) avatar


Kali, a wrathful consort of Shiva
Kali, a wrathful consort of Shiva


Shiva Mahadeva and Pavarti riding Nandi
Shiva Mahadeva and Pavarti riding Nandi


Sarasvati, Goddess of language and literature
Sarasvati, Goddess of language and literature


Lakshmi, Goddess of fortune and consort of Vishnu
Lakshmi, Goddess of fortune and consort of Vishnu


Pavarti (2-armed) nursing Ganesha
Pavarti (2-armed) nursing Ganesha


Pavarti (10-armed) nursing Ganesha
Pavarti (10-armed) nursing Ganesha


Durga riding a lion killing Mahishasura
Durga mounted on a lion fighting the demon Mahishasura



Ganga, Goddess of the River Ganges
Ganga, Goddess of the River Ganges


Brahma Enthroned
Brahma Enthroned


A Peri, a fairy of Persian tradition
A Peri, a fairy of Persian tradition


The Kalighat pictures "Indian gods" album was created in 1875 in West Bengal and is on display in 2 pages of thumbnail images in the Oxford Digital Library. (Kalighat painting)

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

The Mirror of Folly

"I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men"
[Sir Isaac Newton, after losing a fortune (£20,000) in the bubble]


The end of the stockworld
The end of the stockworld


rector magnificus
The rector magnificus of un-acti[o]ned (shareless) literature.


Natural stock doctor
Natural stock doctor, or bubbling bubble master.


The night singer of shares
The night singer of shares, with his magic-lantern.


Contemplation for the greedy world
Contemplation for the greedy world on the rise and fall of the stock-jobbery


inventor of stock-jobbery in his triumphal car
The inventor of stock-jobbery in his triumphal car.


The God of schemes has spent his fury
The God of schemes has spent his fury and leaves only destruction behind.


foolish shareholders
The foolish shareholders on the way to Vianen or the pepperland


falsely-fair share-sphinx
The falsely-fair share-sphinx springs down from the high
rocks, Oedipus having discovered the false secret.


Atlas of share-paper
The Atlas of share-paper à la mode with his accomplices.


The active bellows and the spirit of Erasmus
The active bellows and the spirit of Erasmus, leaving
the city where he was born to visit the three
cities of Holland not affected by share-trading.


very famous island of Madhead
Picture of the very famous island of Madhead, situated
in the Sea of Shares, and inhabited by a collection of all kinds
of people, to whom are given the general name of actionists.


Pasquin's wind cards
Pasquin's wind card[s] on the wind trade of the year 1720


Many became crazy because they believed in schemes
Many became crazy because they believed in schemes.


Encounter of the carousing bubble lords
Encounter of the carousing bubble lords and menacing poverty.


Ball or the world in masquerade.
Ball, or the world in masquerade.


The world's first great stockmarket crash occurred in 1720 in England, France and, to a lesser degree, Holland. Without going much into specifics, if only to prevent my eyes glazing over, there are a few notable names and events associated with these speculative episodes of financial history that help give the illustrative response some context.

John Law acquired the Mississippi Company and established a bank that issued paper money in France and he was given a monopoly to trade with North America. With an effective marketing campaign based on the notion that there were vast quantities of precious metals to be had from the French Louisiana delta, shares were issued and paid for by government debt. Share trading escalated, the price soared on paper, other speculative ventures came out of the woodwork and a large slice of the population lost money when the expected wealth was not forthcoming and both confidence and the stock price eventually plummeted.

In England, a similar scenario developed with the South Sea Company when it was given exclusive trading rights with Spanish South America. The company tried to emulate the same level of public credit manipulation across the English Channel by converting the government debt into company shares and by artificially inflating the share price.

Amsterdam was perhaps the most important trading centre during this period so the fervour for buying and selling shares in dreams and the resulting inflationary pressures was imported.

None of this is rocket science and if hyperinflated share prices, pernicious greed, government and company corruption with attendant price crash and wealth destruction sound familiar, it's because the Mississippi and South Sea bubbles were the forerunners to contemporary collapses like Enron.

The bubbles burst in September 1720 leaving many companies and individuals financially ruined. The artistic response was strongest in Holland although a modest number of satirical cartoons and poems were produced in England and France. The imbalance here probably derives from the uniquely dutch episode in the first half of the 17th century known as tulipomania, where similar overpricing and fevered trading and eventual collapse had resulted in illustration work lampooning wayward business speculation. In other words, there was already something of a tradition, a body of illustration work, from which contemporary artists in Holland could draw upon for inspiration as the stock trading madness unfolded during the year 1720.

The most puzzling aspects are how, why, when and by whom the book containing the above illustrations came into existence. 'Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid : vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der actie, bubbel en windnegotie, in Vrankryk, Engeland, en de Nederlanden, gepleegt in den jaare MDCCXX' has a title page that translates as:

'The Great Mirror of Folly, showing the rise, progress, and downfall of the bubble in stocks and windy specualation, especially in France, England and the Netherlands in the year 1720, being a collection of all the terms and proposals of the incorporated companies for insurance, navigation, trade, &c. in the Netherlands, both those of which have gone into actual operation and those which have been rejected by the legislatures in various provinces. With prints, comedies, and poems, published by various amateurs, scoffing at this terrible and deceitful trade, by which various families and persons of high and low condition were ruined in this year, and possessions lost, and honest trade stopped, not only in France and England but in the Netherlands.
As long as the avaricious
Own money and property,
The deceitful man gains his end,
For the miser and the fool will always feed him.
Printed as a warning to those who come after, in the ill-fated year, for many fools and wise men. 1720.'

Each particular issue of the book is said to be unique, cobbled together on demand so it appears, by an unknown Amsterdam printer and containing anywhere from 49 to 74 illustrations from the work of up to 56 different engravers. It seems astonishing that such a publication could be compiled in the few months following the financial collapse in September and be released in the same year. The inclusion of the date in the title may otherwise have been part of the compiler's desire to give immediacy to the sense of moral indignance they wished to convey, if, as has been supposed by some, that it was in fact first released after 1720. Many editions were published throughout the 18th century. This is one bibliographic record worth reading about (says he who usually shys away from the printing history) - in the extended 1949 essay by Arthur Harrison Cole: 'The Great Mirror of Folly ('Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid') an Economic-Bibliographical Study'.

So the illustrations here are worth looking at in detail as they variously combine contemporary allusions (names, companies etc) with classical themes ( ancient Gods for instance) and mocking satire (trading in 'wind' is a prevalent visual metaphor, as is money being shat out by many of the characters). I had seen a few of these before (the caricatured little people are at NYPL if I remember correctly; and the fools map is also quite common) but never knew any of the background. Incidentally, this evolving mélange of a book also included one of the first maps to name New Orleans.

'The Mirror of Folly' illustrations are part of a larger website at Harvard University - The South Sea Bubble Collection - but I've hardly looked into the rest of the site which includes further satires, playing cards (different to the set above), poems and songs among other things.
{via Tellurianmonkey at Hanuman } [previously]

 
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