Alchemy: image and text in the late Renaissance
Modern scientific argument is primarily delivered in the written word – but that was not always the case. In issue 22 of Varoom Adrian Holme explores the moment in history when visual argument, and the rich use of illustration in the field of ‘Alchemy’, disappeared from the field of science. How can science, and our understanding of it benefit from using the image?
The Varoom article considers the nature of image and text in early 17th Century alchemical publications, exemplified by the works of Dr Robert Fludd and Michael Maier, and the shift in the nature of illustration in science that followed the rejection of alchemy by Francis Bacon and others. This shift is further contextualised in terms of wider cultural and philosophical trends that downgraded the status of visual imagery in serious discourse. For more see Varoom 22.
Michael Maier, (1613), Atalanta fugiens, 12-13. Oppenheim: de Bry. In: Klossowski de Rola, S, (1988), 71 (c) Thames and Hudson Ltd. London, 1988
Top image: Robert Fludd (1617). Utriusque cosmi. Vol. 1, p29. Second of the eighteen images depicting the creation of the Macrocosm. This image shows the appearance of Light in the Darkness Source: http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (c) UC Berkeley and Bill Heidrick 2010
Adrian Holme is a lecturer on the BA Hons. Illustration course at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL, and an associate editor of the Journal of Illustration. He is also a practising artist and writer.
Bibiography for Alchemy: image and text in the late Renaissance
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Primary Sources
Fludd, Robert (1607-1621). Utriusque cosmi maioris salicet et minoris metaphysica. Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry. Warburg Institute, London, (July 2010) and online at http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (Accessed 1 June 2013)
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Quarles, Francis, (1639). Emblemes. [With “Hieroglyphikes of the life of man.” With engravings by William Marshall.] London: John Dawson for Francis Eglesfeild, British Library
Radio
In our time (2005) Alchemy BBC Radio 4, broadcast Thursday 24 February, 2005 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20050224.shtml (Accessed August 6, 2010)
Figures
Figure 2. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c1558). The Alchemist. (pen and brown ink, 308 x 453 mm), Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. http://www.learn.columbia.edu/dbcourses/publicportfolio.cgi?view=591#
Figure 2. Hans Weiditz, (c1520) An alchemist http://www.levity.com/alchemy/weiditz.html
Figure 3. Michael Maier, (1613), Atalanta fugiens, 12-13. Oppenheim: de Bry. In: Klossowski de Rola, S, (1988), 71 (c) Thames and Hudson Ltd. London, 1988
Figure 4. Michael Maier, (1613) Atalanta fugiens, Oppenheim: de Bry. Copperplate engraving. In Klossowski de Rola, S, (1988), 76 (c) Thames and Hudson Ltd. London, 1988
Figure 5. Robert Fludd (1617). Utriusque cosmi historia (The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser). Volume 1, Title page. Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry. Copperplate engraving. Source: http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (c) UC Berkeley and Bill Heidrick 2010
Figure 6. Robert Fludd (1617). Utriusque Cosmi historia (The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser). Volume 1, p29. Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry. With copperplate engraving. http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (c) UC Berkeley and Bill Heidrick 2010
Figure 7. Robert Fludd (1617). Utriusque Cosmi historia (The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser). Volume 1, p132. Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry. With copperplate engraving. Source: http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (c) UC Berkeley and Bill Heidrick 2010
Figure 8. Robert Fludd (1617). Utriusque Cosmi historia (The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser). Volume 1, p109. Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry. With copperplate engraving. Source: http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/RFludd/ (c) UC Berkeley and Bill Heidrick 2010
Figure 9. Ioannis Kepler (1619), Harmonices Mundi, Liber V, page 181, First edition, Lincii: Austriae. Source: Facsimile, Posner Memorial Collection http://posner.library.cmu.edu/Posner/books/book.cgi?call=520_K38PI (c) Posner Memorial Collection 2010