Recently added pictures scanned from old books
Some people with spears and axes stand (or in one case sit) in the foreground, while in the background, behind the city walls and the city, looms the great cathedral. To the side and above, the sun’s rays make stripes in the sky. (read more...)
A female winged figure, topless, holds a sword inone hand and a flaming torch in the other. Her hair is flowing with wind, as is her billowing skirt, and her mouth is open. From iron manacles on her wrists dangle broken chains, and she is stepping towards us through a portal to the stars. (read more...)
This woodcut (or engraving) was included in a section on the invention of the printing press, but the book did not mention the 1462 destruction of the presses. Mainz was sacked in 1462, but it is not clear that the printing presses were destroyed for any specific reason. (read more...)
“Sing to me a story of the wandering man, Muse” opens the famous poem. Well, it’s in Ancient Greek actually, and people translate the opening in many different ways. (read more...)
This wood-engraving is the frontispiece at the beginning of the book. It is very large, and has an ornate border round it. (read more...)
This is a large book, roughly 11x15 inches (28x38cm), with a red cover with gold foil stamped lettering and border. HOMERS [ sic ] ODYSSEE [ sic ] Mit zeichnungen von Friedrich Preller (read more...)
The margins are uneven because this is a right-hand (recto) page. (read more...)
We see the white marble walls, pillars, arches of the Red Fort of Delhi, Diwan-I-Khas, where the Peacock Throne once stood, and the ceiling was covered in silver and gold. (read more...)
This is rather like the Hexagram of Solomon except it has five points instead of six, and is equally improbably, having Latin on it! (read more...)
The baptismal font here stands on a raised stone platform and is next to a pillar. It does not feature angels, and hence is a sans-seraph font. (read more...)
Here we see a man leading what looks to me more likea horse than an ox, which in turn is pulling a harrow made of a rectangular frame with spikes in it; behind follows another man, bearded, sowing seeds. (read more...)
Ein Fest am Kiserlichen Hofe zu Berlin (read more...)
This top-piece is a sketch-like drawing from a double-page spread in an article about an English couple visiting France. We see two winged cherubs standing facing one another either side of a pediment on which rests an arrow pierving two hearts. The boys have loin-cloths. One is carrying perhaps a stick, the other holding a bow. The festoons that curve down and away from the boys’ feet are in the…
The woodcut illustrated the Emperor of Germany, King Henry IV, waiting barefoot in the snow for three days along with his wife and son, outside Canossa Castle in italy, to beg the Pope for forgiveness—so incredibly elevated in power and corrupt were the Popes of the time. This was in the year 1077. (read more...)
The title given to this painting, Moselblümchen , can refer to a swet blend of wine from the Mosel region in Germany, or it can refer to a traditional folk dress worn at wine festivals in the same region. It could also refer to flowers found in the Mosel Valley (little flower from the Mosel region), or to the woman herself, or perhaps all of these at once. (read more...)
A naked young man (a piece of black cloth hiding his loins) is tied to the back of a horse which appears to be about to try to roll over onto its back, presumably in an effort to rid itself of its burden. In the background a large black bird, a raven with a pointy beak, is diving and the boy or youth on the horse looks up a it worriedly. (read more...)
This engraving, after a painting by Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842 – 1915) shows a lioness lying down resting her head on the back of a lion, with the bars of a cage door visible in the background. Meyerheim was known for painting lions, and today his paintings sell at auctions for tens of thousands of pounds / euros / dollars. The engraving was done by Richard Brend’amour of Düsseldorf.…
A detail from Lions in a Cage showing just the face of the lion. (read more...)
A decorative initial, vignetted, inhabited: a drop cap. (read more...)
The title of this painting, Hexenschlaf , refers to the idea that witches went into a lethargic state and became insensitive to pain during torture. (read more...)