Ye Butcher, Ye Baker, Ye Candlestick-Maker (1908) — Although at first glance this little book could be mistaken for an eighteenth-century English chapbook, it was in fact published in New York in 1908 as a parody: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/ye-butcher-ye-baker-ye-candlestick-maker-1908
The letter “A” from the Libellus Novus Elemntorum Latinorum, a 17th-century alphabet of organic type.
More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650 https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650
Banana Tree Flower with Io Moth, by Maria Sibylla Merian — who was born #onthisday in 1647.
From her pioneering Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (Insects of Suriname), first published in 1705.
See more prints by her in our online prints shop: https://t.co/ASX37Nx31n
Caroline Shawk Brooks (1840–1913) — also known as “The Butter Woman” or the “Centennial Butter Sculptress” — was famous for her sculptures fashioned entirely out of…. yes, butter. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-butter-sculptures-of-caroline-s-brooks
Adam Wirsing’s Marmora (1776) features hundreds of illustrations showcasing the beauty and variety of marble. Composed in numbered squares, six to a page, his images are colourful and complex odes to stone. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/adam-wirsing-marmora
.@ResObscura on the story of George Psalmanazar, the mysterious Frenchman who successfully posed as a native of Formosa (now Taiwan) and gave birth to a meticulously fabricated culture with bizarre customs, exotic fashions, and its own invented language: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/made-in-taiwan-how-a-frenchman-fooled-18th-century-london
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, fell for one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century when he became convinced that the “fairy photographs” taken by two girls from Yorkshire in the 1920s were real. Mary Losure explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sir-arthur-and-the-fairies #AprilFools
Read the remarkable story of Mary Toft who claimed to have given birth to rabbits — an elaborate 18th-century hoax which had King George I’s own court physicians fooled: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/mary-toft-and-her-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits
A few of the many beautiful Kay Nielsen illustrations for East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914), a book of Norwegian fairytales. See more illustrations, and read the stories, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/east-of-the-sun-and-west-of-the-moon-illustrated-by-kay-nielsen-1922-edition
Born #onthisday in 1746, the great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. See his wonderful series of etchings depicting “the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-whims-1799-and-the-follies-1815-23-of-francisco-goya #otd
Electrical Light in Rarefied Gas, by M. Rapine, from French science writer Amédée Guillemin’s Les phénomènes de la physique (1868).⠀ ⠀ See more wonderful images from Guillemin’s physics books on our site — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/optics-illustrations-from-the-physics-textbooks-of-amedee-guillemin-1868-1882 https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/optics-illustrations-from-the-physics-textbooks-of-amedee-guillemin-1868-1882
Images of lunar life from Filippo Morghen’s “The Suite of the Most Notable Things Seen by Cavaliere Wild Scull, and by Signore de la Hire on Their Famous Voyage from the Earth to the Moon” (1776). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/filippo-morghen-fantastical-visions-of-lunar-life
Frederik Ruysch, the Dutch anatomist and “artist of death”, was born #onthisday in 1638. He was known for his remarkable “still life” displays, that blurred the boundary between scientific preservation and vanitas art. More in Luuc Kooijmans’s essay: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/frederik-ruysch-the-artist-of-death #otd
Pudet = Face Palm.
From John Bulwer’s Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand (1644), the English physician’s attempt to record the vocabulary contained in hand gestures and bodily motions. ⠀ More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/chirologia-or-the-natural-language-of-the-hand-1644
“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose…”
From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634) — an illustrated manual for building devices relating to water works, fireworks, drawing, painting + miscellaneous experiments “confusedly intermixed”: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-mysteries-of-nature-and-art