manuscript

Silva rerum

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Silva Rerum of Krassowscy (Ślepowron coat of arms) family from Ziemia Drohicka in Podlasie
Silva Rerum of Krassowscy (Ślepowron coat of arms) family from Ziemia Drohicka in Podlasie

“In historical Poland [silva rerum] was written by members of the Polish nobility as a diary or memoir for the entire family, recording family traditions, among other matters; they were not intended for a wider audience of printing (although there were a few exceptions); some were also lent to friends of the family, who were allowed to add their comments to them. It was added to by many generations, and contained various information: diary-type entires on current events, memoirs, letters, political speeches, copies of legal documents, gossips, jokes and anecdotes, financial documents, economic information (price of grain, etc.), philosophical musings, poems, genealogical trees, advice (agricultural, medical, moral) for the descendants and others – the wealth of information in silva is staggering, they contain anything that their authors wished to record for future generations).”

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The Vallard Atlas

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'Terra Java' (east coast of Australia?)
‘Terra Java’ (east coast of Australia?)

From BibliOdyssey:

  •  “It was (anonymously) produced by the Dieppe school (France) in 1547 and was either copied from Portuguese maps or was completed with the input of (a) Portuguese cartographer(s)
  • The maps are known as portolan (navigational) charts [previously]
  • Unusually, north is shown at the bottom of the maps in the style of Muslim cartographers (very rare in European Christian mapping)
  • Allegedly, this atlas shows the first ever European record of Australian coastline — some 250 years ahead of Capt. Cook and 60-odd years before the earliest official European discovery/sighting/mapping of any Australian coastline by William Janszoon in 1606 [see: Landing List].<
  • The miniatures and marginalia depict 16th century native and colonisation scenes
  • The first[?] use of the name “Canada” in a map “

 

North America, East Coast
North America, East Coast

 

 

Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea

See lots more at BibliOdyssey.

 

Edo Period (1603-1868). Anatomical illustrations, late 17th century.

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Anatomical illustrations, late 17th century [+]

“These illustrations are from a late 17th-century document based on the work of Majima Seigan, a 14th-century monk-turned-doctor. According to legend, Seigan had a powerful dream one night that the Buddha would bless him with knowledge to heal eye diseases. The following morning, next to a Buddha statue at the temple, Seigan found a mysterious book packed with medical information. The book allegedly enabled Seigan to become a great eye doctor, and his work contributed greatly to the development of ophthalmology in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries.”

Anatomical illustrations, late 17th century [+]

More on Pink Tentacle.

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Zeeatlas. Frankrijk, 1538. Perkament, 39 folia, 440 x 312 mm. – 129 A 24, fol. 16r

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“In the south of Brazil, in the centre of the picture, two opponent Tupi-tribes are fighting against each other. Further southward a Native American lumberjack is felling a tree for a European merchant. In the north tree-trunks are transported and a second group of natives is moving westward, accompanied by two Europeans. The Europeans are probably Frenchmen, although Brazil had been held by the Portuguese since 1500. As neither gold nor silver was found, Portuguese interest rapidly decreased, and for many years only French privateers came there after Brazilian wood.”

“This chart, displaying part of the Atlantic coast of South America, with Uruguay and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata at the top as the most southern point, and the area around Pernambuco as the most northern region, is one of the charts in an atlas that was made in Dieppe about 1538. The Dieppe cartographers were known for their reliable cartographic material, which they also presented in a very artistic way. They had excellent contacts with Portuguese cartographers, the experts *par excellence *of maritime cartography at the time. No wonder that the basic material for this atlas also came from the Portuguese: the geographical representation, the windroses indicating the points of the compass, and the spelling of the plotted place-names, all point to this origin.”

— Koninklijke Bibliotheek [NL]

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Chansons d’Amour : (Thott 291 8º ) : 37 verso

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Chansons d’Amour : (Thott 291 8º ) : 37 verso

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‘This Chansonnier, named by Knud Jeppesen as the perhaps most interesting and valuable medieval music handwriting in the Royal Library, occupies a special position among the relatively few manuscripts that surrender the French-Burgundian Chansons repertoire from the late 1400s. The script contains text and nodes for 33 three-star songs. A song – “Iactens secours” – was added in the 16th century. In conclusion, there are a number of “modulation exercises.”‘