![](images/explain.gif)
The Tao is called the Great Mother;
Empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching
Earth
Views of the Earth
![---](images/line.gif)
Jaina World View
Jainism, an Indian religion distinct
from Hinduism and Buddhism, was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira,
called "the Jina" (conqueror), who lived in the sixth century
B.C. Among other variations from Hindu culture, Jainism has
its own version of geography and cosmology. This chart from
the nineteenth century shows the world of human habitation
as a central continent with mountain ranges and rivers, surrounded
by a series of concentric oceans (with swimmers and fish)
and ring-shaped continents. |
![Manusyaloka](images/s106-th.jpg)
Manusyaloka (The Human
World).
Western Rajasthan: late nineteenth century.
Fabric. Southern Asian Section,
Asian Division. (106)
|
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![Ngapuragorakshanasabh](images/wt0106.1s-th.jpg)
Vidynandasvm, Director,
Ngapuragorakshanasabh
[Nagpur Cow Protection League].
Mumbai (Bombay).
Published by Khemarja Srkrsnd, Srvekatevara Chpakhn, Samvat
Era 1947 (A.D. 1890).
Southern Asian Section,
Asian Division
(106.1)
|
Sacred Cows
This poster represents the figure of
the cow as containing all the Hindu gods and quotes Sanskrit
texts: O noble folk, protect the cow, who protects your stomach,
for . . . "Brahma is in her back, Vishnu in her throat, Rudra
(i.e. Shiva) is established on her face . . . Sun and Moon
are in her eyes . . ." This poster was published by an organization
dedicated to the protection of cattle and to convincing all
people that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten. |
The world was made, not in time, but simultaneously
with time. There was no time before the world.
St. Augustine, Confessions,
397
Medieval Islamic Map
of the World
At the center of the map are the two
holiest cities of Islam: Mecca and Medina. The map shows China
and India in the north and the "Christian sects and the states
of Byzantium" in the south. The outer circles represent the
seas. The manuscript is a cosmology, not meant to be accurate
geographically, but only to present the reader with a systematic
overview of the existing knowledge about the world at the
time. |
![Kharidat al-'Aja'ib wa Faridat al-Ghara'ib.](images/s104.1-th.jpg)
'Umar bin Muzaffar Ibn al-Wardi.
Kharidat al-'Aja'ib wa Faridat
al-Ghara'ib.
(The Pearl of Wonders and the
Uniqueness of Things Strange).
Late seventeenth century.
Near East Section,
African and Middle Eastern Division (104.1)
|
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![Acaib-ül Mahlûkat](images/s104-th.jpg)
Zekeriya Kazvinî.
Acaib-ül Mahlûkat
(The Wonders of Creation).
Translated into Turkish from Arabic.
Istanbul: ca. 1553.
Near East Section,
African and Middle Eastern
Division (104)
|
Islamic World Map
This geographical treatise and collection
of wondrous tales was exceedingly popular in mediaeval and
early modern Islamic society. The map shown here is unusual
in its portrayal of several creatures supporting the world
in the firmament. While it uses a traditional Islamic projection
of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas
which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf, the
map also shows the Ottomans' early use of geographic information
based upon European cartographic methodologies and explorations. |
![](images/line.gif)
T-O Map
of the World |
![Etymologiae](images/s105p1-th.jpg)
Isidore, Bishop of Seville.
Etymologiae (Etymologies).
Page 2
Augsburg: Guntherus Ziner, 1472.
Vollbehr Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (105)
|
![Etymologiae](images/wt0105_2s-th.jpg)
Isidore, Bishop of Seville.
Etymologiae (Etymologies).
Venice:1483.
Hain Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (105.2)
|
This
is the first printing of the earliest example of a map of
the world, called a "T-O Map" because of its symbolic design.
Originally drawn in the seventh century as an illustration
of Isidore of Seville's (d. 636) Etymologiarum,
an early encyclopedia of world knowledge. The design had great
religious signifcance, with the "T" representing a mystical
Christian symbol of the cross that placed Jerusalem at the
center of the world. The "T" also separated the continents
of the known world--Asia, Europe, and Africa--and the "O"
that enclosed the entire image, represented the medieval idea
of the world surrounded by water. |
![](images/line.gif)
![Atha Srimadvarahamahapuranam](images/s107-th.jpg)
Atha Srimadvarahamahapuranam
(Varha's Great Ancient Tale).
Kalyananagaryam: Laksmivenkatesvara
Mudranalaye, 1923.
Southern Asian Section,
Asian Division
(107)
|
Rescuing the Earth
The Hindu view of the world is cyclic.
The universe is destroyed and re-emitted again in endless
cycles. Periodically, Vishnu, the great god whose function
is to maintain the world, comes into it temporarily in bodily
form to rescue it from one disaster or another. Once a great
flood swallowed up the entire earth, and Vishnu, taking the
form of a gigantic wild boar, plunged to its bottom and brought
the earth back up on his tusks. In this illustration, the
boar incarnation is flanked by two images of Vishnu in his
normal four-armed human shape. |
![](images/line.gif)
Rescuing the Earth
In the second illustration, Vishnu in
triumph tramples the demon who had abducted the earth to the
ocean bottom. Scroll books are exceedingly rare in India,
and this handwritten scroll with its ultra-minuscule script
was probably meant as a tour de force and work
of piety rather than a reading copy. |
![Bhagavatapurana](images/wt0107.1s-th.jpg)
Bhagavatapurana.
Ink and gouache on paper.
Alwar, Rajasthan, India: eighteenth or
nineteenth century.
Southern Asian Section,
Asian Division
(107.1)
|
![](images/line.gif)
![Srid pa'i khor lo](images/s109-th.jpg)
Srid pa'i khor lo (Wheel
of Life).
Painting on cloth, twentieth century.
Tibetan Collection,
Asian Division (109)
|
Wheel of Life
In the Tibetan Buddhist world view,
the six realms of existence (Gods, demigods, humans, animals,
hungry ghosts, and hell-beings) are all held in the grasp
of the Lord of Death. In the center of the wheel are the three
root poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance symbolized by
the cock, snake, and pig, and on the outer rim are the twelve
links of dependent origination by which all causes and effects
are determined. The ultimate goal, shown by the monks in the
left inner circle and the Buddha in the upper right, is to
follow a path that frees one from these cycles. |
![---](images/line.gif)
The Burmese Buddhist World
In Buddhist cosmology, deriving from
Indian origins, the world is viewed as a system of continents
and oceans, either in rings (as in the center here) or floating
detached in the ocean. This nineteenth-century Burmese manuscript
shows in one image both sorts of continents, and a cosmic
ocean symbolized by fish, crabs, and snails. Other sections
of the book show and describe the various heavens and hells.
Folding accordion-style manuscripts on thick paper are common
in Southeast Asia, along with loose-leaf manuscripts made
from palm leaves. |
![Srid pai khor lo](images/wt0109_1s-th.jpg)
Srid pai khor
lo
(Wheel of Life).
Painting on cloth, twentieth century.
Tibetan Collection,
Asian Division
(109.1)
|
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![The Earth with the Milky Way and Moon](images/wt0110_1s-th.jpg)
Wladyslaw T. Benda.
The Earth with the Milky Way
and Moon.
Charcoal on paper, ca. 1918.
Published in "The Future of the Earth" by Maurice Maeterlinck,
Cosmopolitan, March 1918.
Cabinet of American Illustration.
Prints and Photographs
Division (110.1)
|
Celestial View of Earth
Polish born Wladyslaw T. Benda (1873-1948)
created eye-catching cover art and illustrations for short
stories and essays in leading magazines during America's golden
age of illustration (1870-1930). Benda depicts two timeless
figures that frame and contemplate his imagined vista of the
earth and moon suspended on the edge of the Milky Way. Light
from the lower right throws land masses of North America,
Europe, and Africa into bold relief, accentuates the earth's
majestic beauty, and illuminates a visn of earth within its
galactic context. |
For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose
the history of the celestial motions or hypotheses about them.
Since he cannot in any certain way attain to the true causes,
he will adopt whatever suppositions enable the motions to be computed
correctly from the principles of geometry for the future as well
as for the past.
Andreas Osiander, 1543
Mapping is fundamental to the process of lending
order to the World.
Robert Rundstrom, 1990
Early Maps
![Cosmographia](images/s113-th.jpg)
Hotan.
Nansenbushã bankoku shoka no zu
(The World Map of Buddhism).
Kyoto: 1710.
Geography and Map
Division (113)
|
Buddhist World Map
Compiled during Japan's age of national
isolation (1636-1854), this world map is representative of
Buddhist cosmology. Drawn in 1710 by Htan (1654-1738), a Buddhist
monk, it is characteristic of a type of early East Asian map
that were not based on objective geographic knowledge, but
on the more or less legendary statements in Buddhist literature.
The map is centered on India and shows the mythical Anukodatchi-pond,
which represents the center of the universe and from which
four rivers flow in the four cardinal directions. |
![---](images/line.gif)
Early View
of the World |
![Cosmographia](images/s116-th.jpg)
Claudius Ptolemy.
Cosmographia.
Ulm: 1482.
Hand-colored woodcut print.
Geography and Map
Division (116)
|
![Cosmographia](images/wt0116_2-ths.jpg)
Claudius Ptolemy.
Cosmographia.
Stasbourg: J. Scotus, 1520.
Hand-colored woodcut print.
Geography and Map
Division (116.2)
|
Although
published in 1482, this map is based on the writings of Claudius
Ptolemy (87-150 A.D.) and presents a composite geographical
image of the world as known to classic Greek and Roman scholars.
Ptolemy's geographical writings, known as Geographia
or Cosmographia, survived through the Middle
Ages in various manuscript copies and was one of the first
geographical texts to be put into print. This edition was
the first edition to be printed outside Italy and the first
to include maps printed from woodcuts. |
The fascination of maps as humanly created documents
is found not merely in the extent to which they are objective
or accurate. It also lies in their inherent ambivalence and in
our ability to tease out new meanings, hidden agendas, and contrasting
world views from between the lines on the image.
J. B. Harley
![---](images/line.gif)
First National Atlas
Christopher Saxton's (ca. 1542-1606)
atlas of England and Wales is the earliest atlas of a country.
Based on a monumental survey conducted 1574-1578 under the
authority of Queen Elizabeth I, the atlas consists of thirty-four
maps depicting fifty-two counties and a general overview of
the entire country. The work is graced by a striking illuminated
frontispiece that shows the enthroned queen holding a scepter
and a globe, reflecting her ambitions of creating a global
empire, as well as her role as a patron of astronomy and geography. |
![An Atlas of England and Wales.](images/s56.1-th.jpg)
Christopher Saxton.
An Atlas of England and Wales.
Page 2 - Page
3
London: 1579.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (56.1)
|
![---](images/line.gif)
![Leo Belgicus de Noort](images/wt0058.1s-th.jpg)
Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612).
Leo Belgicus de Noort.
Amsterdam: 1611.
Engraved map.
Geography and Map
Division (58.1)
|
Low Country Portrayed
as a Lion
With the rise of European nationalism,
map making became a tool for fostering emerging national identities.
Besides the compilation of detailed national maps and atlases,
which established boundaries for individual states, cartographers
also developed easily recognized iconography. In the case
of the seventeen provinces known variously as "Germania Inferior,"
"Les Pays Bas," "the Netherlands" or "The Low Country" encompassing
today's Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, and part of northern
France, were often represented as a lion, referred to as Leo
Belgicus. |
![---](images/line.gif)
Measuring the Yellow River
This pictorial map of the Yellow River
is both an artistic masterpiece and scientific source of information.
The work was completed by ten famous painters representing
China's northern and southern schools. Ordered by T'ai-tsu,
the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) the work,
executed in true proportions, was an invaluable tool to assess
the impact of the frequently flooded Yellow River. The houses
in the map indicate the population of the cities, each house
representing one hundred families. |
![Pictorial Map of Yellow River](images/s60-th.jpg)
Huang He Wan Li Tu
(Pictorial Map of Yellow River).
China, facsimile of 1368-1378 original.
Chinese Rare Book Collection,
Asian Division
(60)
|
![---](images/line.gif)
![Edo yori Nagasaki made yadotsuke, funamichi meisho kyseki](images/s61-th.jpg)
Edo yori Nagasaki made yadotsuke,
funamichi meisho kyseki
(Edo to Nagasaki, Inns and Historic Sites),
ca. 1660-1736.
Watercolor.
Geography and Map
Division (61)
|
Route from Edo to Nagasaki
This scroll map depicts an aerial view
of one of the most famous roads in old Japan--the Tkaid--as
it looked from 1660 to 1736. This highway was the main land
route from Edo to Osaka, which is depicted in the lower portion.
The map also shows the land-sea routes from Edo to Nagasaki
and includes inns and historic sites. The view is rendered
pictorially in watercolor, and there are places where inscriptions
are pasted on. The Tkaid became the route of super-express
highways and high-speed railroad lines in twentieth-century
Japan. |
Let us look at the map, for maps, like faces, are
the signature of history.
Will Durant
Evoking Spiritual Powers
![Sefer Raziel](images/s118p1-th.jpg)
Sefer Raziel (The Book
of Raziel).
Page 2
Grodno, Belarus: Bi-defus
Stanislaus Agustus Melekh Polin, 1793.
Hebraic Section,
African and Middle Eastern
Division (118)
|
Book of Incantations and
Magical Formulae
Often reprinted, this popular book of
practical kabbalah includes incantations and magical formulae.
The opening shows an amulet to protect women in childbirth
and newborn infants from harmful spirits, in this case, the
spirit of Lilith. According to legend, Lilith was Adam's first
wife (before Eve), but left him when he refused to share power
equally. |
![](images/line.gif)
African Fertility Symbol
In Ghana, a pregnant woman carries an
Akuaba doll, the symbol of fertility, productiveness, and
fruitfulness, in hopes that her expected child will attain
the qualities of the doll. The flat, oval head of the Akuaba
doll, with stylized eyes and nose, symbolizes holiness, innocence,
and beauty. A barren woman may also carry an Akuaba doll in
hope that she may become fertile. |
![Akuaba Doll](images/s120-th.jpg)
Akuaba Doll.
Ghana, ca. 1970s.
Wood.
African Section,
African and Middle Eastern
Division (120)
|
![](images/line.gif)
![Wheel of Fortune with the Zodiac Sign of the Moon](images/s119-th.jpg)
Lorenzo Spirito.
"Wheel of Fortune with the Zodiac
Sign of the Moon"
in Libro de la Ventura (Book of Fortune).
Milan: 1508.
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (119)
|
Wheel of Fortune
The concept of the "wheel of fortune"
was a common idea in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance
period. For many people, good fortune and chance were as reliable
indicators of personal fate as faith and good works. The spin
of the wheel or the toss of the dice were "tried and true"
methods of explaining how the unknown worked and gave meaning
to what transpired in everyday life. Lorenzo Spirito's (d.
1496) Book of Fortune, first published in 1482,
went through over a dozen editions by 1525, and was especially
popular in Catholic countries like Italy. |
![---](images/line.gif)
Wheel of Fortune
This illustration from a popular sixteenth-century
book is a "wheel of fortune," which provides the reader an
opportunity to ask questions about the future and receive
predictions and advice about things to come. The text is entirely
in verse and contains witty and sometimes ribald anecdotes,
mostly having to do with the choice of a good wife, the quality
of this year's harvest, health, and family relations. The
woodcut artists were Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder and Hans
Beham, both noted for their broad line design and and strong
impressions. In the sixteenth-century books on fortune telling
were heavily used, and only a few survive. |
![Loossbuch, zu Ehren der Roemischen, Ungerischen unnd Boehemischen Keunigin](images/wt0119.1s-th.jpg)
Paul Pambst.
Loossbuch, zu Ehren der Roemischen,
Ungerischen unnd Boehemischen Keunigin.
Strasbourg: B. Beck, 1546.
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (119.1)
|
![---](images/line.gif)
![Incantation bowl from Mesopotamia](images/s121-th.jpg)
Incantation bowl from Mesopotamia,
ca. seventh century.
Clay.
Hebraic Section,
African and Middle Eastern
Division (121)
|
Mesopotamian Incantation
Bowl
Usually buried in a building's foundation,
magic bowls were designed to protect a house and its inhabitants
from demons and evildoers. Opinion differs as to the actual
ritual or rite associated with these incantation bowls, but
it is generally believed that they were thought to entrap
and reject evil powers. The inside inscriptions, in concentric
circles, are in Aramaic. |
![---](images/line.gif)
Early Chinese Handwriting
The cryptic inscriptions engraved on
bones such as these are the earliest known forms of Chinese
handwriting. The inscriptions are questions relating to the
ancient Chinese practice of divination, an attempt to foretell
the future or discover hidden knowledge by the interpretation
of omens. Since the "oracle bones" were first discovered in
China at the end of the nineteenth century, more than a hundred
thousand pieces have come to light. These pieces came into
the Library's collection before 1928 through a gift to the
Library. |
![Oracle Bones](images/s122-th.jpg)
Oracle Bones.
1766-1123 B.C.
Animal bone.
Chinese Rare Book Collection,
Asian Division
(122)
|
When Science from Creation's face
Enchantment's veil withdraws
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws.
Thomas Campbell
Early Science
Medieval Medicine
Medieval medicine was linked closely
to mysticism and astrology as depicted by this vellum manuscript
page showing a naked man and astrological symbols (e.g., Pisces,
the fish, governs the feet). Since prevailing medical theory
stated that each specific part of the body was related to
one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, it was commonplace
for a physician to first consult the stars in order to cure
the sick. |
![Encyclopedic manuscript containing allegorical and medical drawings.](images/s128-th.jpg)
Encyclopedic manuscript containing
allegorical and medical drawings.
South Germany: ca. 1410.
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (128)
|
![](images/line.gif)
![Mechanical anatomical plate](images/wt0128.1s-th.jpg)
Daniel Ricco.
Mechanical anatomical plate
from
Ristretto anotomico.
Venice, 1790.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (128.1)
|
Anatomical Illustration
with Movable Parts
In this book, Venetian physician Daniel
Ricco illustrated the anatomy of the body. When a flap is
lifted, the body's organs become visible, showing their relation
to other organs and to the circulatory system. Though by the
end of the sixteenth century the study of anatomy was common
throughout Europe, in Italy, dominated by the Catholic Church,
study of the human body was severely restricted. Ricco's mechanical
plate, although unsophisticated by comparison to anatomical
illustrations printed elsewhere in Europe, was a useful tool
for Italian students of anatomy. |
The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the
phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call
the laws of Nature.
T. H. Huxley
![Yizong Jinjian](images/s129-th.jpg)
Yizong Jinjian.
(Complete Survey of Medical Knowledge).
Beijing: Imperial Edition, 1743.
Page 2
Chinese Rare Book Collection,
Asian Division
(129)
|
Chinese Herbal Medicine
In 1869, the Emperor of China Tung-ji
presented the United States Government with 933 volumes of
materials on the subjects of Chinese herbal medicine and ancient
Chinese agricultural techniques, thus marking the beginning
of the Orientalia Collection of the Library of Congress. This
illustrated volume from the Complete Survey of Medical Knowledge
demonstrates the proper usage of pertinent Chinese herbal
medicine for illnesses. |
![---](images/line.gif)
"The eyes are the
windows. . ."
This popular book on science by the
much traveled physician Tobias Cohen (1652-1729) contains
sections on astronomy, geography, physiology, pharmacology,
and medicine. Of the many fine illustrations that fill the
volume, none is more striking than this full-page engraving
of the human body compared to a house in the function of its
parts and organs: "The eyes are the windows, the nose the
aperture to the attic. . . ." |
![Ma'aseh Tuviyyah](images/s130-th.jpg)
Tobias Cohen,
Ma'aseh Tuviyyah
(The Work of Tobias).
Venice: s.n., 1708.
Hebraic Section,
African and Middle Eastern Division (130)
|
![](images/line.gif)
![Fasciculus medicinae.](images/s131-th.jpg)
Johannes de Ketham.
Fasciculus medicinae.
Venice: J. and G. de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, 1495. Rosenwald
Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (131)
|
Illustrated Medical Text
In this first printed medical text to
contain illustrations, the author pays homage to the Arab
influence on Western medicine by showing the seated teacher
surrounded by Arabic as well as classic Greek texts. In addition
to the works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen on the top
shelf, are those of Avicenna, Haly Abbas, Rhazes, and Mesue,
while Isaac Judaeus and Avenzoar are pictured below. The three
patients in the foreground wait to have their urine examined. |
![](images/line.gif)
Influence of Islamic Astronomy
On Europe
This image shows "Alfraganus," the Latinized
name by which AbuŽl-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathir al-Farghani
(d. ca. 861), one of the most distinguished Islamic astronomers,
was known in Europe. This book is his most important work.
Written between 833 and 857, it is a thorough, readable, and
non-mathematical summary of Ptolemaic astronomy. This book
was largely responsible for the transmission of the Greek
astronomical system of Ptolemy to the West. It circulated
in several Latin editions and was widely studied in Europe
between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. |
![Breuis ac perutilis co[m]pilatio Alfragani . . . totu[m] id continens quod ad rudimenta astronomica est opportunum](images/wt0131.1s-th.jpg)
AbuŽl-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad
ibn Kathir al-Farghani.
Breuis ac perutilis co[m]pilatio Alfragani
. . . totu[m] id continens quod ad rudimenta astronomica est
opportunum.
Translated by Johannes Hispalensis.
Ferrara: Andreas Belfortis, Gallus, 1493, frontispiece.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (131.1)
|
![](images/line.gif)
Newton's Laws of Motion |
![Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica](images/s123-th.jpg)
Isaac Newton.
Philosophiae naturalis principia
mathematica
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy).
London, Jussu Societatis Regiae
ac Typis J. Streater, 1687.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (123)
|
![images/wt0123_1s.jpg](images/wt0123_1s-th.jpg)
Isaac Newton.
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica
(Mathematical principles of
Natural Philosophy) 3rd ed.
London: Royal Society, 1726.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (123.1)
|
One
of the key works of what was called the "Age of Reason" is
also considered one of the greatest scientific works ever
written. In Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) Sir Isaac
Newton (1642-1727) presented his three laws of motion, which
laid the groundwork for his law of universal gravitation.
By stating that gravity is a universal property of all bodies,
Newton is said to have "democratized" the universe and shown
that the entire cosmos is subject to knowable laws. |
![](images/line.gif)
A Fly Under the Microscope
Beyond his own great accomplishments
as experimenter, discoverer, and ponderer of science, Robert
Hooke (1635-1702) was a pivotal intellectual figure of his
day. He served as curator of experiments (and later, secretary)
of the Royal Society and collaborated, or jousted, with such
luminaries as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and Christopher
Wren. Hooke's Micrographia is the first great
harvesting in book form of the structures and contours of
things as seen through the microscope. |
![Micrographia](images/s124-th.jpg)
Robert Hooke.
Micrographia.
London: John Martyn and James Allestry, 1665. Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (124)
|
![](images/line.gif)
![](images/line.gif)
Science
and Alchemy |
![Masabih al-Hikma wa Mafatih al-Rahma.](images/s126.1-th.jpg) |
![Masabih al-Hikma wa Mafatih al-Rahma](images/wt0126.1s-th.jpg) |
Mu'aiyid
al-Din al-Tughra'i.
Masabih al-Hikma wa Mafatih al-Rahma.
(The Lanterns of Wisdom and the Keys of Mercy).
Page 1 - Page
2
Seventeenth century.
Near East Section,
African and Middle Eastern Division (126.1) |
Al-Tughra'i
(1061-1121 or 1122) was an Arab poet, politician, soldier
and scientist. He served during the reign of the Saldjuk Sultans
and rose to become a grand vizier, but was eventually executed.
Despite a very full and active life he wrote numerous poetic
and scientific works. This is a page from one of only four
copies known to be in existence today. It describes various
instruments that weigh, measure, and mix metals and chemical
compounds. Shown here are scales for weighing the four known
elements at the time -- air, water, fire and earth. |
![Muhammad Mirza Tunakaboni](images/wt0126_3p1s-th.jpg)
Muhammad Mirza Tunakaboni.
Tufat al-momanin (Gift to the Faithful).
Page 2
Shiraz, Iran: mid-nineteenth century.
African and Middle Eastern
Division (126.3)
|
Persian Herbal Medicine Text
This illustrated, handwritten book is
a later copy of a fifteenth-century work. It is based on a
famous eleventh-century Persian textbook of herbal medicine
by the noted Persian botanist Muhammad Ayyudin Tahari. The
book is dedicated to those who are faithful in taking care
of their bodies, considered a gift from God. In this illustration,
a man takes his wife to a physician, sitting on a platform
with his medicine jars in the background. According to the
caption, the woman asks what she should eat, and the doctor
replies "Eat enough to carry you. If you eat more, you have
to carry it."
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Revolutionizing European
Medicine
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) published
the Epitome as a severe abridgement (for students
and others) of his great work of anatomy. Both works have
the woodcut frontispiece that portrays Vesalius himself at
work in a crowded dissection theater. Vesalius had revolutionized
European medicine by building on past tradition and by radically
modifying it through learning from hands-on dissection of
human cadavers. The frontispiece makes the point that Vesalius
had actually worked a revolution: his doings had attracted
notice, crowds, and disciples. |
![De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome](images/s127-th.jpg)
Andreas Vesalius.
De humani corporis fabrica librorum
epitome
(On the Fabric of the Human Body).
Basel: I. Oporinus, 1543.
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (127)
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![Compendiosa totius Anatomie Delineatio . . . .](images/wt0127.1as-th.jpg)
Thomas Gemini.
Compendiosa totius Anatomie
Delineatio . . . .
(Compendium of all anatomy delineated. . . .)
London: John Herford, 1545.
Image 2
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (127.1)
|
Portraits of the Human
Skeletal System
This rare first edition based on the
work of Andreas Vesalius ( 1514-1564) is illustrated with
original copper engravings by Thomas Gemini (ca. 1510-1562),
a Flemish surgeon, printer, and manufacturer of scientific
instruments. The study of human anatomy was in its infancy
in the middle of the sixteenth century, and the Catholic Church
opposed human autopsies, creating a demand for accurate and
detailed anatomical illustrations. These images demonstrate
how the then-new medium of copperplate engraving could transmit
detailed and intricate information on a complicated subject,
in this case the human skeletal system. |
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Renaissance Physician's
Handbook
This hand-colored woodcut shows a wheel
and chart that classify urine samples in order to aid physicians
in diagnosing diseases. In the middle of the wheel, a doctor
follows the medical practice of uroscopy--the meticulous inspection
of a patient's urine by sight, smell, and taste. The color
and consistency of the urine was particularly important, as
indicated by the vials on the wheel and the chart. Ulrich
Pinder (d. ca. 1510 or 1519), a Nuremberg physician, wrote
this richly annotated practical medical handbook that contains
sections on uroscopy, the heart and pulse, and classification
of fevers.
|
![Epiphanie Medicorum. Speculum videndi urinas hominum](images/wt0128_2s-th.jpg)
Ulrich Pinder.
Epiphanie Medicorum.
Speculum videndi urinas hominum.
Clavis aperiendi portas pulsuum. Berillus discernendi causas
& differentias febrium.
Nuremberg: 1506.
Rosenwald Collection.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (128.2)
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![Urtriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia, in duo volumnia secundum cosmi differntiam diuisa](images/wt0157s-th.jpg)
Robert Fludd.
Urtriusque cosmi maioris scilicet
et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia,
in duo volumnia secundum cosmi differntiam diuisa.
Vol. 1
Enlarged version
Frankfurt: J. T. Bry, 1624
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (157) |
The Great Chain of Being
In this engraving, English physician
and mystical philosopher Robert Fludd (1574-1637) portrays
his idea of creation's plan. God reaches out from a radiant
cloud to hold the chain that binds Nature, the soul of the
world. Nature holds a chain attached to the physical world,
represented by a monkey. Humans, plants, animals, the arts,
the four elements, and the planets all have their assigned
place in what was known in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
as "the Great Chain of Being." The outermost rings represent
Paradise. Fludd was a prolific writer, and many of his works
on alchemy, occult medicine, philosophy, and various scientific
theories, such as this two-volume encyclopedic work, survive. |
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When the first baby laughed for the first time,
the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping
about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan,
1904
Children's Stories
![Anansi Company: A Collection of Thirteen Hand-made Wire and Card Rod-puppets Animated in Colour and Verse.](images/s138p1-th.jpg)
Ronald King and Roy Fisher.
Anansi Company: A Collection of Thirteen
Hand-made Wire and Card Rod-puppets
Animated in Colour and Verse.
Page 2
London: Circle Press, 1992.
Courtesy of Ronald King.
Rare Book And Special
Collections Division (138)
|
Anansi the Spider
Anansi the spider is a popular figure
in Ghanaian folk literature. This animal trickster is featured
in creation tales, myths, legends, and fables that teach and
moralize and, have been passed down orally and, more recently,
through written texts to generations of West Africans, West
Indians, and African Americans. In Anansi Company,
this colorful poem and its corresponding wire puppet capture
the flavor of Anansi in Caribbean folk literature and theatre. |
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Pride Comes Before
a Fall
A hermit in the forest saves the life
of a mouse by magically turning him into a giant tiger. The
tiger begins to lord it over all the other animals. After
belittling the hermit who reminds him of his lowly beginnings,
he is turned back into a mouse and is never seen in the forest
again. |
![Once a Mouse ... A Fable cut in Wood](images/s142-th.jpg)
Marcia Brown.
Once a Mouse ... A Fable cut in
Wood.
Woodcuts.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961.
General Collections (142)
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