OLAUS MAGNUS

Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus,

earumque diversis statibus, conditionibus, moribus, ritibus ...

necnon universis pene animalibus in Septentrione degentibus,

eorumque natur

(HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES, Rome 1555)

woodcuts

SECTIONS PAGES
DOUBLE PAGES
FIGURES
CLOCKS
HARVESTING
MAGIC
MAKING THINGS
MAPS
MUSIC
MYTH
NATURE
ON THE PAGE
SIGNS
SKIES AND THE COSMOS
WAR
WEATHER

 

The great encyclopaedia is profusely illustrated with woodcuts giving rich detail of facts and beliefs, but primarily from my point of view, it is rich in devising ways in which the intangible could be communicated. In many cases the book shows things which hadn't been seen before using graphic formulae of some complexity without that easy grace associated with Mediterranean visual cultures.

 

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