Well, I am in love.
I stumbled upon a description of a new batch of images released by the Wellcome Collection in the UK.
Engravings and colored illustrations from old books continue to fascinate me.
And today, taking a look at medical and botanical images from as early as the 14th century, I am reminded of the importance of our curiosity throughout human history.
Illustration and drawing are ways of observing closely, ways of wondering about the world. And they are a way of communicating how we see.
When I look at these images from centuries ago, I connect with these humans’ wonder and fascination and desire to understand and appreciate the world around us.
What images will we leave behind?
L0041071 WMS 990 Monks performing eye surgery Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org A monk performs a delicate eye operation on one of the fellow members of his order, who is held in place by another monk. ca. 1675 Arzneibuch. Compendium of popular medicine and surgery, receipts, etc., in German. Compiled for the use of a House of the Franciscan Order, probably in Austria, or South Germany. Published: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
C0000713 Anatomical fugitive sheet, 1566 Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Anatomical fugitive sheet (Viscerum…1539) bound at the end of Valverde, Vivae imagines partium corporis humani…1566. Part of the engraving is composed of printed paper flaps that, when lifted, reveal the internal organs of the figure. This is one of a pair of male and female figures. Engraving 1566 By: Lambert van Noort and Frans Huys and Pieter Huys and Gaspar Beccera and Nicolas BeatrizetVivae imagines partium corporis humani aereis formis expressae. Juan Valverde de Amusco Published: 1566. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
L0038345 Tibetan plant manuscript Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Illustrations of Tibetan materia medica, plant and animal, used in the production of medicine. Title: ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras’ This anonymous manuscript is written in the ‘Trungpa’ (‘khrungs dpe) genre of Tibetan medical literature. Entitled, ‘Sman bla’i dgongs rgyan rgud bzhi’i nang gi ‘khrungs dpe re zhig’, it deals with various material medica, plant and animal, used in the production of medicine. The book comprises unbound sheets of thick (perhaps Russian?) paper held together by two boards and wrapped in a piece of cloth. The medical illustrations are finished in colour. The manuscript is very rare and obviously very expensive. Its owner made a significant effort to obtain illustrations for every medicine mentioned, including plants, stones and animals. There are several suggestions about the origin of the manuscript. It might well be a copy from Sangye Gyatso’s ‘tankas’, possibly written by a painter or doctor who travelled from Mongolia to Lhasa. It could have been transcribed in Tibet and subsequently sold to Mongolia. There is a similarity between the images of material medica in this manuscript and those found in the 19th century Tibetan xylographs of medical works, like the ‘Mdzes mtshar mig rgyan’, which circulated in the territory of Mongolia in the nineteenth century. 18th century Sman bla’i dgongs rgyan rgud bzhi’i nang gi ‘khrungs dpe re zhig ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras Published: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
L0038483 Tenga, Hortus Indicus Malabaricus Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Tenga Engraving Hortus Indicus Malabaricus … Johannis van SomerenJoannis van Dyck Published: 1678-1703 Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
L0051248 L. Fuchs; De historia stirpivm commentarii… Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Papaver {poppy} 1542 De historia stirpivm commentarii insignes … adiectis eorvndem vivis plvsqvam quingentis imaginibus … Accessit … uocum difficilium & obscurarum passim in hoc opere ocurrentium explicatio … / Leonhart FuchsLeonhard Fuchs Published: 1542. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
L0029214 An onion, woodcut, 1547 Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org An onion Coloured Woodcut 1491 Ortus sanitatis Arnaldus de Villanova, Published: 1491 Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
L0030035 Japanese herbal, 17th century Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Contains various drawings of European plants with names/text in Old Dutch, Chinese, Japanese & Latin. “Kruid Boek getrokken uyt Dodoneaus”,- “Herbal extracted from Dodoneaus” Published: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Created February 17, 2016, by Lisa Chu. Brainstorming for artwork to be created for a children’s garden education activity.
Images from the Wellcome Collection used under a Creative Commons Attribution Only license.