Book of hours (use of Rome), 15th Century

Massacre of innocents

Probably the best illuminations I've never seen before in a conventional Book of Hours. This use of Rome Book of Hours was partially illustrated by Jean Fouquet and Jean Bourdichon (his pupil). Jean Fouquet, also referred to as Souquet, is considered the master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination during 15th Century. Born in France (Tours), decided to travel to Italy and experience at first hand the Italian Early Renaissance (his first work here was aportrait of Pope Eugene IV, who died in that year). I'll not extend on Fouquet's bio as he's well known. Only remark his -probably- best work: the Melun Diptych, a two panel oil painting stored in the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame in Melun (link goes to the official website of the city in french).

This amazing codex has 227 vellum folios in small format (116x110 cm) and has a total of 37 full page illustrations (which is over average for this type of manuscripts during 15th Century), some of them posted below:

St. Luke reading, wearing primitive glasses

The Death (armed with a lance and riding a bull)

Calendar section represents each month on two pages, with header written in silver letters; major festivals written in letters of gold. At the end of each month, a Latin phrase written in golden letters summarizes the activity of the month as follows: Janus Pocula amat. Februarius clamat Algeo. Arva fodit Martius. Aprilis prodit florida. Mayo sunt amorum floras. Junius fena dat. Julius resecatur avenam. Despicat Augustus [sic: Augustus Spicas colligit ]. September colligit uvas. Seminat October. Spoliat virgultam November. Querit cibum amare, porcum mactare December.

Month of December

External references related I could find:

• English version of online exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, I do recommend the "manuscript paintings" section -res fair- link
• Further lectures as follows: Paul R. Wescher, "Jean Fouquet and His Times" (1945; trans. 1947). Trenchard Cox, "Jehan Foucquet, Native of Tours (1931)". Klaus G. Perls, "Jean Fouquet (1939; trans. 1940)".
• Wikipedia link to "Melun Diptych", link here

For a high resolution, pdf version of this manuscript, contact me (facsimilium AT gmail DOT com).

Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 17th Century

Always felt the profoundest admiration for Robert Hooke. Probably was for me the better representative of that golden-crazy age of science revolution in all Europe during second part of 17th Century. Unfortunately Hooke was contemporary of Isaac Newton, who did more than much -his best- as president of the Royal Society to obscure Hooke's legacy and even memory (no authenticated portrait of Robert Hooke exists, and even this fact is attributed to Newton).

Hooke deduced that gravity follows an inverse square law, and that such a relation governs the motions of the planets, an idea which was subsequently developed by Newton. The complete compilation of correspondence between Hooke and Newton has been recently published: when Hooke started this letter exchange, he provided Newton a complete list of matters of his interest, and most important was about "compounding the celestial motions of the planetts of a direct motion by the tangent and an attractive motion towards the central body".

I always thought that the experiment related by Neal Stephenson on his historical fiction in which Hooke demonstrated that a dog could be kept alive with its thorax opened, providing pumped air in and out of its lungs was only fiction, but the real thing is that Hooke made this experiment with a helper and stayed pumping air during more than 20 hours, manually. Was in this experiment where Hooke noted difference between venous and arterial blood.

Robert Hooke´s experiment on the respiration of a dog. Looks cruel but there's a marvellous consequence: the first clinically useful ventilator equipment was used, for pumping air into the trachea via tubes, based on Hooke’s principle 250 years later (two bellows to produce a positive pressure through rapid pumping). Experiment paper with conclusions should be available here. (Until July, 9th this link was broken. I reported to London Royal Society).

Other investigations and discoveries attributed to Hooke were about mechanics, microscopy (Micrographia), palaeontology (supported the theory that extinction was a fact, that was theologically unaccepted then), astronomy (studies about measuring distances to stars, using gamma draconis; studied lunar craters, observed rings of saturn, etc), and also Architecture (helped to tebuild London after the great fire of 1666).

For a high resolution, pdf version of this manuscript, contact me (facsimilium AT gmail DOT com).

Spanish cryptography, 16th Century

Original title for this codex is "Discursos de la cifra", and is basicly a complete treatise on cryptography, including technical description of different methods for enciphering and deciphering using tables, volvelles, movable sleeves, and grilles. Codex was written by an unknown (at least for me so far but my investigation is still on progress) cryptographer in the service of Martin de Cordova, viceroy of Navarre, and dedicated to Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Condestable de Castilla, a Spanish official who held also government posts in Italy, under domination of Spain in that age.

Delicious poem that serve as a preface for first volume: In this borrowed life/ where good life is the key/ the one that is saved knows/ that the other knows nothing.

This codex is complex, because it's composed of two different books or treatises. Cryptography is the second volume. The first is more theoretical and describes ciphers based on subjects such as arithmetic, non-Roman alphabets (Greek, Hebrew) and writing systems (Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, the writing of Indians of New Spain), astrology, musical notation, geography, currency, orthography, armorials, emblems, and enigmas.

Codex was sold by Martayan Lan -New York office- in Sept. 2001 and donated to the Pennsilvania University by Lawrence Schoenberg, an active philanthropist founder of the computer firm AGS.

Horace Howard Furness Legacy, 19th Century

Introducing theater at facsimilium... with a delicious collection of 19th Century American theatrical posters from the 1890s and -some of them- images from the collection of the Charlotte Cushman Club and mainly from the Horace Howard Furness Collection, hosted at University of Pennsilvanya dedicated to the study of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and, more generally, to the English Renaissance and the history of Shakespearean theatrical presentations.

The Furness Image Collection comprises more than 2,000 prints and photographs. The majority date from the nineteenth century, but the Collection also holds earlier and later images. These images illustrate and interpret Shakespeare's plays and also document theatrical performers and performances of works by Shakespeare and other dramatists.

Horace Howard Furness (1833–1912) collected in a single source 300 years of references, antecedent works, influences and commentaries about W Shakespeare opus. Member of  the WS Society of Philadelphia and also lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, was the intendent of the "New Variorum" editions of Shakespeare. He Studied at Germany and after returning to the US, married Helen Kate Rogers, sister of Fairman Rogers, and heir to an enormous ironmaking fortune. His son Horace Jr. donated his father's Shakespearean collection to the University of Pennsylvania, whose Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library honors both.  

Ancient Fauna of Nebraska, 19th Century

Oreodont specimen 

Joseph Leidy (1823 – 1891) was an American paleontologist, professor of anatomy and natural history at University of Pennsylvania and later on the Swarthmore College. Very prolific, wrote several treatises about extinct fauna in North America and was a pioneer on paleontology: named and studied –although discovered by William Parker Foulke- the first complete fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur ever recovered.

Mr. Leidy also announced discoveries on the field of Parasitologism and Protozoologism: In 1846 revealed that trichinosis was caused by a parasite in undercooked meat and published “Fresh-water Rhizopods of North America” in 1879. This codex is a masterpiece, still referenced and studied today around the world.

But probably the most amazing fact on his bio arrived in 1846 as a forensic innovator:  Mr. Leidy became the first person ever to use a microscope to solve a murder mystery, analyzing blood on suspect clothes that finally confessed when Leidy demonstrated the truth.

About the "Ancient Fauna of Nebraska", is a 126 page monograph presenting information on 20 new fossil species, most of these were unique to North America and differed dramatically from known European forms. After a brief introduction of the state of American mammalian paleontology, Leidy presented detailed descriptions and illustrations for a total of 15 mammals and 5 tortoises. Featured among these are an early camel (Poebrotherium wilsoni), an oreodont (Merycoidodon culbertsonii), two rhinos (Hyracodon nebraskensis and Subhyradocon occidentalis), and a sabertooth (Hoplophoneus primaevus).

For a high resolution, pdf version of this manuscript, contact me (facsimilium AT gmail DOT com).

Native north american rhino.

Turtle casing

Introduction and description of Bad Lands (Nebraska). See map below.

Astronomy calculations, 16th (?) Century

Original title for this rare codex is "Kitab hisab al-nimar wa huwa fi 'ilm al-nujum", that could be translated into English as "On the calculation of numbers in the science of astronomy". I found this nice example of arabic caligraphy in a collection of ancient manuscripts from the desert libraries of Timbuktu, Mali the legendary city founded as a commercial center in West Africa nine hundred years ago.

The codex explains mathematical calculations and their use in astronomy and astrology, and is a nice example of Arabic script, style developed in Timbuktu and the surrounding regions of Mali and West Africa. As far as I could investigate, manuscripts are digitized and published mainly thanks to Mr. Abdel Kader Haidara, Owner and Director of the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library. A complete catalogue of selected manuscripts from the exhibition is available on the web page, under "publications" directory. Looks like they're continuously working to complete digitized materials and a big work to do: another location in Mali, Jenne (in the Inland Niger Delta region), was like Timbuktu also part of the trans-Saharan trade route and became an important centre of Islamic scholarship, with a huge legacy of recent found islamic ancient books.

This codex, "On the calculation of numbers in the science of astronomy" is part of the Timbuktu Manuscripts family. The collection includes more than 700,000 medieval African documents, ranging from scholarly works to short letters, that have been preserved by private households in Timbuktu. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and are mostly in poor condition. Some of the manuscripts date back to the 13th century.

In 2009, the French/German cultural TV channel ARTE produced a feature-length film about Timbuktu's manuscript heritage called (French) "Tombouctou: les manuscrits sauvés des sables" or (German) "Timbuktus verschollenes Erbe: vom Sande verweht". So far it's available online as part1, part2 and part3. Film was directed by Lutz Gregor.

“Human muscles” 19th Century

This collection of human anatomy drawings was issued by German Architect (¿?) and Painter Anton Hallmann (1812 - 1845). The original manuscript is located in Nuremberg, but I couldn’t find information about Hallmann’s bio, probably because he died young, was only 33.

This collection of anatomy sketches is really inedited: most of Hallmann well known drawings are architectural paintings in oil like Fossa Nuova Monastery in Roma (1841), The King of Prussia Villa (1844) and several monuments and buildings in Munich, St. Petersburg, London and Paris. I found some of his drawings at askart.com (direct link with 2 examples, auctioned?), and also at artnet.com -see oil on canvas arabic scene, auction pending for around 7000 EUR / 9100 USD, but for me the best drawing of all collection, issued one year before he died- on direct link here. My surprise arrived when I found a Hallmann's drawing on arcadja.com -direct link here- auctioned on March this year 2012 for only... 700 EUR (900 USD).

Some of the sketches available on this manuscript are: facial and neck muscles structure, sore muscles, trunk muscles, upper/lower arm muscles, forearm muscles, pelvic, high/lower leg muscles, foot muscles, several back & oblique views, etc.

For a high resolution, pdf version of this manuscript, contact me (facsimilium AT gmail DOT com).

"Civil Architecture" by Eduard Mezger; 19th Century

Missing Architecture at facsimilium? At least I really was... This amazing collection of civil architecture sketches were drawn by Friedrich Eduard Mezger (1807–1894) a German Architect, Professor and civil Officer of the Royal buildings administration. Mezger studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (direct link to the academy as it is today founded in 1948, but this Bavarian Academy of fine Arts can be considered as the revival of the "original" Royal Academy, established in 1808). During this period at the academy, Mezger took part in some monumental works in Athens, Greece; promoted by the Academy. After his return in 1833 from Greece, He became professor in civil engineering at the Technical University of Munich (link here to the TUM as it is today), and then in 1846 became "Oberbaurat", that can be literally understood as "Top Architect Officer".

Apart of his sketches, Mezger's collection of aquarelles really impressed me first time I saw it. Following my investigation, I could find that some of them were auctioned by Sotheby's in May 2004, with an average price of around 5.000 EUR (6.500 USD)... fair isn't it? More info see Arcadja web page, link here. Type "Eduard Mezger" on search by artist window (3 results). I couldn't obtain same results by a direct search on Sotheby's (¿?).

For a high resolution, pdf version of this manuscript, contact me (facsimilium AT gmail DOT com).

Amazing aquarelle, see left hand side light entry effect, mixed with colour -turquoise- intensity on top..