heavy and dissolved

Views of castles and manor houses in the southern Swedish province of Scania (Skåne). 1816-1823.

The topographic work Skånska utsigter, consisting of copper-engraved or lithography plates accompanied by descriptions in Swedish and French, published by Ulrik Thersner in 1816-1823, is considered a high point in Swedish romanticism. Several different artists were involved in this work that was envisaged to encompass all Swedish provinces, but never developed beyond Scania. This copy, with hand-coloured plates, is from the University Library of Lund.

There's no summertime like late Gothic summertime.

Library designs by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)

Proposal for a Neclassical library, by Carl Fredrik Sundvall (Swedish, 1754-1831)

Design for a Neoclassical library, by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)

Alexandre Serebriakoff, watercolours of Château de Groussay (France). Serebriakoff (1907-1995) was a Ukrainian-born watercolour artist who lived and worked most of his life in France. He developed contacts with French and English high society, and made watercolour albums depicting the richly furnished interiors of French chateaux and London flats, so-called Zimmerbilden or portraits d'intérieur. It was once a popular and charming genre of art, of which older examples are often of interest for the cultural historian, but has faded from the mainstream. Serebriakoff was one of the last masters of the genre.

The Master of the Brussels Initials is the notname of an artist who decorated gorgeous illuminated manuscripts for royalty like Charles the Noble and the Duke of Berry - perhaps the most extravagant book collector ever to have lived.

This artist, active at the turn of the 14th to 15th century, is notable not only for making works of great beauty, and having an important role in the development of late Gothic art, but also for being a keen observer of nature. The small bug in this full-size miniature depicting the Annunciation, is perfectly identifiable as a firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus. In fact, G. Evelyn Hutchinson, the "father of modern ecology", wrote an entire fascinating article about the Master of the Brussels Initials and insects depicted by him, available here. He argued that this was more than a curiosity, it was an example of a development within manuscript decoration towards a more naturalistic world view, "part of the same movement that produced the contemporary studies of optics and mechanics in England, France and Germany" and which continued with the production of formal natural history treaties in the 16th century.

So, while it may not have been the only such seed, one impulse to the modest beginning which would eventually give us modern science could be said to be found in the beautiful decorations of medieval manuscripts.

One last bookplate which is so charming I have to provide some comments (See the other ones here, here and here.)

This is the bookplate (or ex libris) of German politician, lawyer and Enlightenment figure Johann Daniel von Olenschlager (1711-1778), It depicts an ideal of a library which is made clear already in the Latin motto inscribed in the elaborate, Rococo frame, which translated into something like “I wish to be both useful and to be of enjoyment.” 

A third (see also here and here) very charming bookplate or ex libris (mark of book ownership) is this, the bookplate of Louis or Ludwig (or quite possibly Lodewijk) Bosch, priest in Temse, modern day-Belgium. It is from the first half of the 18th century.

The owner displays himself seated in an ornate but comfortable char by the table, covered in a thick, frilled tablecloth, and is busy jotting some recent thought or discovery down in a notebook. All around him are books. The walls are covered by bookshelves from floor to ceiling, bar the window behind the priest that gives light enough to read and write, and books are also on the table and even on the floor. The scene is framed in a Rococo-style frame, a bit pompous but also playful.

The Latin motto at the bottom translates into something like “a hunt in such a forest never wearies” - a phrase that will bring a smile to anyone who has ever had the pleasure of diving in after some faint trace from some fascinating subject in a well-equipped library, and making joyful new discoveries on the way.

Another (see also my earlier post) very charming ex libris or bookplate is that of Georg Andreas Weise (1737-1792), a German theologian. Curiously, he was born in Astrakhan in Russia. 

In any case, his bookplate captures much of the simple, dignified atmosphere of German Neoclassicism and Biedermeier style. It also indicates a serious relationship to books and learning, with the overfull stacks behind the plain but pleasant desk and not least the lit and shaded lamp. Here is the bookplate, it seems to say, of a man perhaps with limited means, but with a great thirst for knowledge and love of books, who would stay up late, reading and working hard, with only the sound of the quill against the paper impeding on that peaceful yet creative atmosphere.