Picturing Knowledge: Scientific Images in Printed Books (1450–1800)

European Explorations of the Natural World

European Explorations of the Natural World

Michael Gribbon, Avery Longdon, and Shruti Shakthivel

Knowledge about the natural world was especially important for scholars and learned people in the early days of printed books. Images were a way to understand what could not be seen in normal life and share specific knowledge that could not be garnered from printed text alone. The fifteenth and later centuries were periods of immense exploration outside of Europe, and as scholars left their countries to chart new lands and bring back novelties, information spread about these natural curiosities that were not native to Europe. Sketches of plants and animals new to Europe were reproduced by artists using wood blocks and later copper plate engravings, allowing them to be inserted as images in books. Often accompanied by informational text, scholars debated for decades the idea of learning about plants and animals through the use of images. Some argued that one must learn by seeing and examining the specimens firsthand. At the same time, other scholars noted the breadth of knowledge that could be gained from books in the comfort of one's own home. For example, historian Sachiko Kusukawa discusses how in the sixteenth century authors, such as Janus Cornarius, did not think images were essential to learning about plants, while authors like Leonhart Fuchs used images to visually express the details described in their texts, and further, to represent ancient knowledge about the plants they depicted.[1] As further technological and scientific advancements were made, books eventually included images of more than just novel animals and plants from faraway places but also things that were difficult to see with the naked eye. Ultimately, images related to natural history in early modern books allowed readers to visualize and experience plants, animals, or objects with which they were not familiar.
Case 6: Unfamiliar Animals

Images of animals in early printed books made the unfamiliar familiar by allowing Europeans to see and learn about animals from faraway lands. The animals were illustrated based on sketches and information from other books; many if not most of the images were therefore not entirely accurate or realistic. Technological advances like the microscope also played an important part in efforts to understand and perceive previously

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Rhinoceros, woodcut, in Conrad Gessner, Historiae animalium (Zurich, 1551–1587)
“Quadrupeds,” in John Hill, A General Natural History (London, 1748–1752)
Ant, in Robert Hooke, Micrographia (London, 1665)
Authors included images of animals in their books to give European readers the opportunity to experience and learn about unfamiliar animals. For example, Europeans could open a book in their home country and see animals native to faraway lands. One of these animals was the Indian rhinoceros, which was brought to Europe in 1515. An anonymous description and sketch of this rhinoceros was turned into a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, and this same image was used repeatedly in books like Conrad Gessner’s Historiae animalium and John Hill’s A General Natural History. There are many possible reasons why the same image was reused: there were no more rhinoceri in Europe to draw, it was more cost effective to use the same woodblock, or that specific rhinoceros image came to serve as an emblem. This highlights yet another goal many authors considered when including images in their books: often, animals in ancient books served as emblems that supported larger arguments about society.[2] Whether the image displayed qualities of glamor, simplicity, or functionality, the image often included hints about the animal’s land of origin. Dürer’s rhinoceros is depicted in hard plated armor and shows the novelty, prestige, and glamor of this gift from India. In addition to representing foreign animals, images of animals allowed people to witness a level of detail previously invisible to them. Robert Hooke’s Micrographia depicts images of everyday objects and insects as seen through a microscope, allowing readers to observe the intricate structures and composition of such objects. After seeing the hairs on an ant or the thousands of circular visual receptors that make up a fly’s eye, readers could consider how differently ordinary subjects appeared up close, whether these were insects, needles, pens or other everyday objects. Ultimately, images of animals in early modern books allowed readers to see creatures in ways they had never experienced and to learn about the societies from which they came.
Case 7: Discovery and Value of Plants

The images of plants in early modern books allowed authors to make botanical knowledge more widely accessible to readers. Naturalists sometimes voyaged to non-European regions with unfamiliar plant species, other times they studied plants in their own gardens or conducted research using botanical books. By the 1700s, authors used images to provide a detailed visual record of the plants they discovered and also to offer contextual information about the uses and cultural meanings of plants. (Michael Gribbon, Avery Longdon, and Shruti Shakthivel)

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“The Cacao Tree,” in Hans Sloane, Voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica (London, 1707–1725)
“The Laurel Tree of Carolina,” in Mark Catesby, The Natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (London, 1747)
Pineapple and insects in Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium (Amsterdam, 1705)
In this section of the exhibition, we feature books about plants examined by scholars who voyaged to new regions in the Americas and documented their findings through illustrations. Three prominent naturalists and physicians of the early modern era include Hans Sloane, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Mark Catesby. The approach they took to natural history reflected their access to wealth and their perspective on the value of the plants they researched. Sloane had the backing of the Royal Society, the oldest and most prominent scientific society in Europe, which allowed him to produce large, detailed images of the plants he studied in Jamaica. Given his social status, he valued plants based on their potential commercial benefits, as is evident in his choice to include an image of the cacao plant. Sloane was well known for making a fortune by selling chocolate milk as a delicious, drinkable medicine. Merian sold her artwork in the Netherlands to finance her trip to Suriname, which was motivated by her desire to learn and experience a new world of plants and insects. In contrast with Sloane, who focused on the commercial value of plants, Merian emphasized the importance of understanding plants in the cultural context of Suriname and their value to the people who lived there. In one of her most famous illustrations of a pineapple, she explored how insects were intricately interwoven with agricultural practices. Finally, Catesby was fascinated by the natural world but lacked robust financial resources. He therefore studied engraving techniques himself instead of depending on illustrators, which is why most of his images combine animals and plants on the same plate. His image of the laurel tree stands out among his other images because of the contrast coloring and amount of detail used to illustrate the characteristics of a single plant. Together, the work of these three authors reflect how knowledge about natural history is conveyed through images and ethos is established through voyages around the world outside Europe.
 


[1] Sachiko Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature: Image, Text, and Argument in Sixteenth-Century Human Anatomy and Medical Botany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 111–28.

[2] William B. Ashworth, “Emblematic Natural History of the Renaissance,” in Nicholas Jardine and James Secord (eds.), Cultures of Natural History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 17–37.

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