VISUAL COMMUNICATION HISTORY BLOG: May 2020

Michelangelo's Shopping List

Owned by the Casa Buonarroti museum in Florence, Italy, this 500-year-old list was written and illustrated by the sculptor / painter / poet / personality on the back of a letter. Michelangelo’s servant was likely illiterate, so Michelangelo sketched out what he wanted to eat.

Victoriana Cats

Just a whimsy of mine today. Victorian trade cards and advertisements featuring cats that I found online. ;-)

Al Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars

The Book of Fixed Stars is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964. The book was written in Arabic, although the author himself was Persian. It was an attempt to create a synthesis of the comprehensive star catalogue in Ptolemy’s Almagest (books VII and VIII) with the indigenous Arabic astronomical traditions on the constellations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Fixed_Stars

Ray Gun Magazine

Founded in 1992, Ray Gun was the only magazine wherein a die-hard culture seeker could find information on alternative music and the street-inspired style that really mattered. Punk rock had torn pop music to shreds and created a hunger for an original lifestyle beyond mainstream culture, and Ray Gun was its graphic chronicler: across its pages blasted a visual feast made up of era-defining artists such as Sonic Youth or Iggy Pop, music-inspired art, and a complete redefinition of sartorial style. The magazine’s original art director, David Carson, and his peers who followed, created an entirely new visual culture that shattered the limitations of graphic design.

https://www.vogue.com/article/ray-gun-magazine-anthology
https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847863150

A Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson

This is a star atlas by British author Alexander Jamieson, published in 1822. The atlas includes 30 plates, 26 of which are constellation maps with a sinusoidal projection. Some of the plates are hand-colored. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Celestial_Atlas

Anatomical Diagrams from 19th century Iran

From a manuscript dated 1893 with a seal which bears the words: Murajiah va taftish shud.

Found on the Wellcome digital library: https://wellcomecollection.org/works

Paul Rand: Sparkle and Spin

A 1957 children’s book illustrated by legendary designer Paul Rand, and written by his then-wife Ann. Read more here:

https://www.paulrand.design/writing/books/sparkle-and-spin.html

English Herbal: Cotton MS Vitellius C III

The illustrations that adorn more than 100 of the herbal’s pages are captivating on their own. Each accompanies short descriptions of a remedy and how people may prepare it (although these entries may not have actually served as practical guides). Small winged creatures appear above a treatment for spider bites, for example, and a snake and scorpion in battle illustrate a recipe made from dried heliotrope and wine, which was purportedly used to heal a serpent’s bite or a scorpion’s sting. A drawing of a dog accompanies one of a mandrake because those seeking the root were supposed to use a canine to successfully deceive and trap the magical plant.

Processionale

An antiphonal from France/ Burgundy, 1st half of 16th Century

https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/salVIII16/0029/thumbs

When Bauhaus sends you a postcard...

In 1923, a flurry of colorful postcards heralded the first major Bauhaus school exhibition. Both students and established artists including Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky, and Herbert Bayer offered snapshots of the German modernist aesthetic that would majorly influence art and design for the rest of the 20th century.
https://hyperallergic.com/221572/the-exuberant-postcard-art-of-the-first-bauhaus-exhibition/

Transparent Solar System

One of a set of 12 hand-tinted astronomical prints with an explanatory card. The publisher is identified on each print as J. Reynolds or James Reynolds of the Strand, London. These cards were first issued by Reynolds in 1846, although he and other publishers continued to produce them throughout the second half of the 19th century.
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/263841.html

Ulisse Aldrovandi

Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. He is usually referred to, especially in older literature, as Aldrovandus; his name in Italian is equally given as Aldroandi. https://peoplepill.com/people/ulisse-aldrovandi/