Saturday, December 12, 2015

Breviary for Dummies (14th C)




Book of Hours, click for larger image
Christ Bearing the Cross, ff. 55v–56r. Philadelphia1

After the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) there was a growing desire by the laity to more closely imitate the devotions of the monastic monks and nuns, but the psalter or the breviary were entirely too complex and variable. What was needed was a “Breviary for Dummies” and this would be the The Book of Hours.


A Book of Hours was intended as a small, and personal, book of devotion. Although the contents varied to some extent, generally it began with a liturgical calendar followed by extracts from the four gospels, the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Holy Spirit. The book concluded with the Office for the Dead, the Seven Penitential Psalms, the Litanies, and prayers to the Virgin and other saints.


Although less expensive than, e.g., a Bible, a Book of Hours was still within reach of only the wealthy. Early examples from the 14th century are comparatively plain, but the amount of work and expense that went into their creation is still rather apparent:


Book of Hours, click for larger image
England, 14th century. Harvard

The popularity of the Book of Hours reached its peak by the middle of the 15th century. Nobility and the wealthy were commissioning increasingly deluxe versions of the manuscript; versions that required not only a scribe (or several) but also illuminators and artists for the extravagant miniatures (often including the family’s coat-of-arms), illumination and decoration.
Book of Hours, click for larger image
The Annunciation, f. 23r. France, ca.1400. NYPL
Book of Hours, click for larger image
Virgin and Child, uncollated. Italy, ca.1450. Grolier Club
Book of Hours, click for larger image

Litany, ff. 105v–106r. Bruges, ca.1485. UC Berkeley
Book of Hours, click for larger image
Gethsemene, f. 14r. Flanders, ca.1485. UT Austin
Book of Hours, click for larger image
The Virgin Mary, ff. 5v–6r. Rouen, ca.1500. Det Kongelige Bibliotek
Book of Hours, click for larger image
Jesus on the Mount of Olives, f. 1r. France, ca.1475. Columbia

The Book of Hours was produced throughout Western Europe, but it was especially popular in France and the Low countries. By 1430 stationers in Paris and Ghent (among others) began to mass-produce the books, sometimes using tipped-in plates, for “middling merchants and local gentry, people with social pretensions who would be attracted by something which looked more expensive than it really was.”

The Book of Hours was by far the most commonly produced book of the late middle ages. Even after the advent of mechanical type it was still commissioned as a luxury item for the wealthy and powerful, but by the middle of the 16th century it had been mostly replaced by a simpler, and much less costly devotion – praying the rosary.

Book of Hours, click for larger image
The Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, f. 113r. Bourges, ca.1500. Philadelphia

  • Most, but not all, of these images are from the holding institution via Columbia University’s spectacularly wonderful -I do recommend the visit- Digital Scriptorium.  
  • For more information on the Book of Hours, including a complete translation of a later English Primer version, see the appropriately named Hypertext Book of Hours.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire, 19th C

Operations on the Nose and Nasal Fosse

Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d'anatomie chirurgicale vol. 1 by Claude Bernard, Paris, 1848.

(Source: archive.org)
Operations on the Nose and Nasal Fosse
Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d'anatomie chirurgicale vol. 1 by Claude Bernard, Paris, 1848.
(Source: archive.org)


Claude Bernard (1813 – 1878) was a French physiologist. Historian Ierome Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". Among many other accomplishments, he was one of the first to suggest the use of blind experiments to ensure the objectivity of scientific observations. He was also the first to define the term milieu intérieur (property of a system in which variables are regulated so that internal conditions remain stable and relatively constant. Examples of homeostasis include the regulation of temperature and the balance between acidity and alkalinity in human body), now known as homeostasis


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Resections Performed on the Lower Extremity.

Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d'anatomie chirurgicale vol. 1 by Claude Bernard, Paris, 1848.

(Source: archive.org)
Resections Performed on the Lower Extremity.
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Amputations in the continuity of the bones

Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d'anatomie chirurgicale vol. 1 by Claude Bernard, Paris, 1848.

(Source: archive.org)
Amputations in the continuity of the bones
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Disarticulation of the two last phalanges of a finger and of an entire finger.

Jean-Baptiste Léveillé, from Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d'anatomie chirurgicale vol. 1 by Claude Bernard, Paris, 1848.

(Source: archive.org)
Disarticulation of the two last phalanges of a finger and of an entire finger.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Folies Bergère (Advertising posters, 19th C)

19th cent. french music-hall poster called: Tous les soirs, Thaumaturgie humoristique
Title: Folies-Bergère, tous les soirs, Thaumaturgie humoristique par le Comte Patrizio de Castiglione
Artist: Jules Chéret
Date: 1875


The Folies Bergère is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Established in 1869, the house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s' Belle Époque through the 1920s' Années folles. The institution is still in business, and is always a strong symbol of French and Parisian life (Source::wikipedia)


19th cent. french music-hall poster of chimney sweeps
Title: Folies-Bergère...Les Prices, ramoneurs musicaux...
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890



19th cent. french music-hall poster - girl on fire!
Title: Folies-Bergère. La danse du feu [La Loïe Fuller]
Artist: Jules Chéret
Date: 1897

19th cent. french music-hall poster - boxing kangaroo
Title: Folies-Bergère. Le plus nouveau spectacle. Le kangourou boxeur
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1895

19th cent. french music-hall poster
Title: Folies-Bergère...Tous les soirs... original's... Huline Brother's
Artist: Charles Levy
Date: 1888

19th cent. french music-hall poster
Title: Folies-Bergère. Le Capitaine Costentenus
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1895


19th cent. french music-hall poster - family of bicycle trick riders
Title: Folies-Bergère. Les Selbinis, famille de vélocipédistes
Artist: F Appel
Date: 1887


19th cent. french music-hall poster - an elephant act
Title: Folies-Bergère, tous les soirs G. Lockart et ses éléphants
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890

19th cent. french music-hall poster - sinister figure from Paganini
Title: Folies Bergère : le Spectre de Paganini
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1880


19th cent. french music-hall poster
Title: Folies-Bergère. Tous les soirs la famille birmane...
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890

19th cent. french music-hall poster
Title: Tous les soirs à 8 heures. Folies Bergère, 32 rue Richer. O. Metra. Travaux de voltige, ballets, pantomimes, opérettes...
Artist: Jules Chéret
Date: 1875


Les Griffith's Grand Succes
Title: Folies-Bergère...Les Griffith's...
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890


Lona Barrison
Title: Folies-Bergères. Lona Barrison
Artist: Albert Guillaume
Date: 1897


Tous les soirs à 10 heures
Title: Folies-Bergère. Tous les soirs à 10 heures, (trapéziste sur un taureau)
Artist: Emile Levy
Date: 1885


Les Trevally acrobates
Title: Folies-Bergère. Les Trevally acrobates tous les soirs
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890


L'orchestre des éléphants
Title: Folies Bergère tous les soirs... l'orchestre des éléphants de Sam Lockart
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1890


Les Chiens Sauteurs-------
Title: Folies Bergère. Les Chiens sauteurs...
Artist: Ateliers Chéret
Date: 1890


Nala Damajanti charmeuse hindoue
Title: Folies-Bergère. Nala Damajanti charmeuse hindoue
Artist: F Appel (lithographer)
Date: 1895