Images

Silva rerum

Image | | Paul Greer
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).”

via

The Vallard Atlas

Image | | Paul Greer
'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.

 

Viennale-Trailer 2011: The 3 Rs (by David Lynch)

Image | | Paul Greer

With a sledgehammer approach a man, clad in a hat and coat, tries to cast out the nonsense on Earth. Every time he wields his tool and lets it come crashing down a pitiful screeching can be heard underground. The air is humming and buzzing aggressively with the sound of invisible insects flying to the attack. Nature is defending itself. Perhaps the man is having a psychotic episode. Or he is trapped in a film by David Lynch. The 3 R’s may be a reference to the three basic educational skills Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic; cultural techniques that, as Lynch’s dense school nightmare makes quite clear, are simultaneously techniques of manipulation, restriction and control. The question posed at the beginning regarding the number of stones in Pete’s hands is not trivial. Why two? Why not three? Or 14? In accordance with the Lynchian dissolution of cinematic narratives in an associative tangle of terror, everything that seemed to be linear, firmly established and secure is breaking down. Liberated images liberate thoughts. Or do free thoughts free images? There are spaces where experiences beyond the scientific-technical conception of the world can be made. In cinema even a squeaky bathtub duck can bleed if you cut off its head.