Iconography on Early Modern Scientific Instruments
Final Report Abstract
During the Scientific Revolution scientific instruments, such as astrolabes, air pumps, microscopes and telescopes became increasingly important for the study of nature. The project Iconography on early modern scientific instruments specifically analyses the imagery on scientific instruments. It aims for the first time at a systematic analysis of the multifaceted visual material on the instruments asking for its role in the various contexts of the adorned instruments (genesis, function, use). As it turned out four types of imagery on the instruments can be distinguished, namely (1) mediation and illustration of knowledge, (2) contemporaneous standard topics, (3) imagery from the mathematical sciences, (4) legitimization strategies, construction of tradition, and self-fashioning. Most of the 251 instruments that have been analysed have been produced in the 16th and 17th centuries, with a ratio of 4:1. Most of the instruments originated from Southern Germany, especially from the prominent centres of goldsmithery, Augsburg and Nuremberg. Surprisingly, England, France, Italy or the Netherlands are scarcely featured among the instruments carrying imagery. The distribution of imagery on the various types of instruments is not homogeneous. While sun dials often carry imagery, astrolabes and table clocks are less frequently adorned, and some types rarely carry imagery at all such as microscopes (only two). As it seems other instruments such as telescopes, barometers, thermometers, and air pumps were never embellished with scenic depictions at all. Most instruments carry just one image and more complex pictorial programmes (four cycles and more) are an absolute exception. The data basis generated in the project suggests that there is a close link between the culture of cabinets of curiosity and Kunstkammern at German courts and the demand for instruments adorned with complex imagery. A surprising result is that the imagery played no role in cosmological debates. The two biblical arguments often used to argue against heliocentric ideas, the miracles of the Sun reversing its course in II Kings 20:8-11/Isaiah 38:8 (Horologium Ahas) and the Sun standing still in Joshua 10:12, can be found on instruments. These, however, did not reflect anti-Copernican intentions, but rather were finely tuned to individual interests in the respective pictorial programmes.
Publications
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Analyse des imageries des instruments scientifiques de l’époque moderne (XVIe – XVIIe siècle), in: Images des Mathématiques. La recherche mathématique en mots et en images
Remmert, Volker
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Bilderwelten auf wissenschaftlichen Instrumenten der Frühen Neuzeit und ihre graphischen Vorlagen, in: Imprimatur. Ein Jahrbuch für Bücherfreunde N.F. 27 (2021), S. 107-130
Ellinghaus, Julia
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Visual Worlds on Early Modern Scientific Instruments: Types and Messages, in: Noyes, Ruth S. (Hg.): Reassessing Epistemic Images in the Early Modern World (= Scientiae Studies Series), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (2022)
Ellinghaus, Julia/Remmert, Volker
