'Sammelband Scientia': Experimentation in Renaissance German Instrument Print Albums and Manuals

Research Seminar

  • Online event via Zoom
  • Date: Sep 15, 2021
  • Time: 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Suzanne Karr Schmidt
  • Contact: boehm@biblhertz.it
'Sammelband<i> </i>Scientia': Experimentation in Renaissance German Instrument Print Albums and Manuals
Albrecht Durer, "Underweysung der Messung", 1525, title page; Georg Hartmann, Astrolabe kit, 1551, woodcut: ; Jost Amman (?) and unknown artist after Hans Lencker, Perspectiva, after 1595, woodcut frame and drawing.
Printed sundials, astrolabes, and other devices constitute an imperfect ephemeral record of early modern experiments with instrumentation on paper and the growing demand for it. This talk marks the beginning of a book project on such proto-scientific publications and the hybrid assemblages in which they survived.

These include creations from Nuremberg by an artist, an instrument maker, and an unidentified draftsman: Albrecht Dürer's three books edifying artists and craftsmen were often bound together, meriting closer inspection of these personalized 'Sammelbände'; Georg Hartmann's workshop album boasts proof prints of his seventy-five instruments in various states of completion and construction; finally, a manuscript copy of Hans Lencker's Perspectiva interspersed with 17th c. instrument pamphlets reveals the hands-on use of this intriguing volume, which has been pricked for pouncing transfer.

Suzanne Karr Schmidt (PhD Yale) is Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Newberry Library. An historian of early modern art, books, prints, and science, her monograph Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking in the Renaissance appeared in 2018.



Participation possible via Zoom previous registration, following the link HERE.

Scientific organization by Katherine Reinhardt and Ashley Gonik

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