Hanna Stegemann

Media and Techniques

The images in the books discussed in this exhibit were made using a range of printmaking techniques that developed and expanded over the course of the more than three centuries covered by this exhibition. Examples of woodcut, engraving, and etching are each represented. These distinct print media allowed for different, but complementary expressions of scientific …

Media and Techniques Weiterlesen »

Visualizing Forces

Elemental, divine, magical, astronomical, magnetic or mechanical forces, to name just a few, were omnipresent in the life of early modern people. With the growing number of books made for the purpose of pedagogy and scientific communication, and the important role of images in these books, the question of how one could bring these forces to …

Visualizing Forces Weiterlesen »

Visualizing Harmony

It is obvious, Athanasius Kircher declared in his voluminous Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650), that nature is ordered harmonically. To describe this harmony he uses the term “natural music,” by which he includes the harmony of the heavens, the elements, and the human body. Only “artificial music” is actually sounding music. By viewing harmony as an …

Visualizing Harmony Weiterlesen »

Visualizing Scale

How can we picture scale? In a text we can use descriptions filled with adjectives or comparisons to allow the reader to imagine the actual size of the object in question. However when making an image – be it in drawing or print – a series of different strategies are needed to convey size and …

Visualizing Scale Weiterlesen »

Visualizing Seeing and Hearing

How does vision work? How does sound arrive to our ears? And how can one visualize these sensory perceptions convincingly to a diverse readership, that might see and hear things differently? These questions became increasingly pertinent in the early modern period. With the introduction of instruments such as the microscope and telescope, the senses were transformed …

Visualizing Seeing and Hearing Weiterlesen »

Visualizing Scientific Practice

Expertise is predicated on cumulative experience. In order to make informed observations or develop scientific know-how individuals had to become active practitioners. It was embodied knowledge that served as the basis of scientific practice. Why then, did authors choose to include illustrations of practitioners at work in their treatises? In some cases like, Fra Giocondo’s …

Visualizing Scientific Practice Weiterlesen »

Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger: Historischer Schulatlas

Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger: Historischer Schulatlas. Von der Altsteinzeit bis zur Gegenwart [1877], 74th ed., Bielefeld/Berlin/Hannover: Velhagen & Klasing 1958 Signature: ZH 300-5590 Figures: Frontispiece; Map (“Europa 1914 bis 1918”); Map („Europa nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg“); Map („Bombenschäden“) Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger’s (1849–1913) Historischer Schulatlas / Historischer Weltatlas was first published in 1877. Its author, as he …

Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger: Historischer Schulatlas Weiterlesen »

Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli: Atlante internazionale del Touring Club Italiano

Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli: Atlante internazionale del Touring Club Italiano [1927], 2 vols., Milano: Touring Club Italiano 1956–1957, vol. 1 (1956) Signature: Zh 300-5561 1/[1] gr Figures: Frontispiece; Map (S.S.S.R.); Explanations to the map; Detail The Touring Club Italiano (TCI) was founded in Milan in 1894 to foster the use of bicycles. Later, its primary interest …

Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli: Atlante internazionale del Touring Club Italiano Weiterlesen »

Karl Baedecker: Russland nebst Teheran, Port Arthur, Peking. Handbuch für Reisende

Karl Baedecker: Russland nebst Teheran, Port Arthur, Peking. Handbuch für Reisende [1883] Baedekers Reisehandbücher], 7th ed., Leipzig: Baedeker 1912 Signature: Mg 20-5120 raro II  Figures: Frontispiece; Map („Russland“); Map („Kiew“); Map („Crimea“) The 1912 edition of the Baedeker travel guide of Russland nebst Teheran, Port Arthur, Peking represents the pre-World-War I world order. The territory …

Karl Baedecker: Russland nebst Teheran, Port Arthur, Peking. Handbuch für Reisende Weiterlesen »

Karl Sohr: Eisenbahn- und Dampfschiffrouten-Karte von Europa, Glogau

Karl Sohr: Eisenbahn- und Dampfschiffrouten-Karte von Europa, Glogau: Carl Flemming 1891 Signature: Zh 305-4910 Figures: Cover; Map; Details The map of European railway and steamship routes by a certain Dr. Karl Sohr was published by Carl Flemming (1806–1878) in Glogau and reached its 34th edition in 1901. At the time, the publishing house had dominated …

Karl Sohr: Eisenbahn- und Dampfschiffrouten-Karte von Europa, Glogau Weiterlesen »