Book Set #1

One book that I spent a lot of time with was The complaint and the consolation, or Night Thoughts by Edward Young, illustrated by William Blake (1797).  What I liked about the book was that I could see how it was restored and rebound years ago.  (I’m guessing) that the paper wasn’t very strong, and so it ripped over time.  When it was fixed, the restorer used a different, stronger type of paper, much like the Asian paper sample we saw in class.  I would have preferred if the restorer had made it look as similar to the original as possible, but I also loved being able to more easily see its history.

Another book that I spent a lot of time with was De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome, by Andreas Vesalius (1566).  The detail in the illustrations was incredible, especially when it is so old.  I found it interesting that, in some of the drawings, the humans were still dressed and they were usually in very strange poses.  There was one page with a man in full battle armor, but the section covering his stomach was missing to show his intestines.  It made me think that it was drawn so that when killing someone on the battle field, you would know what you are stabbing at.  Other diagrams looked like he was peeling the man apart layer by layer, which may be because he was a teacher, and that is how he did dissections in lectures.

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