Jean-Jacques Manget (1652-1742) was a Swiss doctor, writer and collector who published works on the European black plague, heart rhythm disturbances and anatomy. He is also known for publishing one of the most complete compilations of alchemical writings ever published. Manget’s Bibliotheca Curiosa Chemica from 1702 collected 140 alchemical treatises in 2 massive volumes andContinue reading “Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa”
Category Archives: Inspiration
Boris Kustodiev’s Eternal Light
Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev (7 March [O.S. 23 February] 1878 – 28 May 1927) was a Russian painter and stage designer. He was an extremely talented genre-painter and authored many powerful works. His poetic paintings have a strong theatrical vibe to them; they are incredibly vivid, yet subtle and reserved and raise people’s experiences to anContinue reading “Boris Kustodiev’s Eternal Light”
Monet’s Nymphéas Bleus
Claude Monet was extremely passionate about his garden and his water lilies and painted an entire series of beautiful images depicting these flowers. He actually grew white water lilies in the water garden he arranged in his property at Giverny in 1893. His garden became his only source of inspiration from the 1910s until hisContinue reading “Monet’s Nymphéas Bleus”
17th Century Multimedia
Atalanta Fugiens (Atalanta Fleeing) is an emblem book signed by Michael Maier, which was published by Johan Theodor de Bry in Oppenheim in in 1617 (2nd edition 1618). An emblem book is a book composed of allegorical illustrations with accompanying explanatory text, typically morals or poems. Atalanta Fugiens consists of 50 discourses next to illustrationsContinue reading “17th Century Multimedia”
Splendor of the Sun
Splendor Solis (literally “The Splendor of the Sun” but also “The Splendor of the Soul”) is a manuscript dated around 1582 containing a well-known alchemical text and a series of stunning images. The earliest version, written in Central German, is dated approximately 1532–1535 and is currently housed at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin at State Museums inContinue reading “Splendor of the Sun”
Martin Merz’s Feuerwerksbuch
Martin Merz was a gun master who lived in the 15th century in modern-day Germany. He worked in the service of Frederick I, the victorious, Elector Palatinate. In 1469, he was the supreme canon master of Frederick’s army and remained in the service of Frederick’s successor, Philip the Upright, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. Between approximately 1460-1480,Continue reading “Martin Merz’s Feuerwerksbuch”
Boris Kustodiev’s Eternal Russia
Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927) was a Russian painter and stage designer from the city of Astrakhan. He was fascinated with old, rural Russia which he felt was steadily but surely vanishing. At the time of the Russian Revolution (1917), he created a series of paintings which were intended to be a farewell to the provincial “Holy Russia”Continue reading “Boris Kustodiev’s Eternal Russia”
Photocrom Travel Images
A series of prints that was published primarily from the 1890s to the 1910s was recently assembled by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division in the USA. The prints were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. The boldly colored images appear at first glanceContinue reading “Photocrom Travel Images”
The Flower Garden
Flowers are one of those things we take for granted: they are everywhere and thus, more often than not, we tend not to see their beauty and natural elegance. To many, flowers are a cliche, much like sunsets and landscapes. However, illustrations (and later photographs) of flowers are daily reminders of the beauty, grace andContinue reading “The Flower Garden”
Nuremberg Calligraphy
Stephan Brechtel the Elder (1523 – 1574) was a German mathematician. However, he was also a gunsmith, globe, sundial and surveying equipment maker and learned much about the art of calligraphy in Nuremberg, Germany, under the scribe Johann Neudörfer. He was active in his native Bamberg and Leipzig, as well as Nuremberg, where he alsoContinue reading “Nuremberg Calligraphy”