Who? Only one of the supreme German graphic artists of his time, that's all. Long an acknowledged influence among illustrators, animators and cartoonists, he is probably known primarily for a couple of Dover Books collection of his sketchbook art that were published back in the 60s and are now hard to find.
posted to MetaFilter by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:21 AM on July 3, 2008 (13 comments)

The Prague Bible (1489) is a splendid three-volume MS of the Tanakh, once in the possession of Enlightenment luminary Moses Mendelssohn. There are several other beautiful examples of medieval and early modern Hebrew MSS online, including the Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts collection (New York Public Library), the Illuminated Haggadah Exhibit (Klau University), selections from Moses Maimonides' Moreh Nevukim (Leiden University), and the Prato Haggadah (Jewish Theological Seminary). See also the introduction to the Hebraic Collections at the Library of Congress.
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 3:21 PM on June 7, 2008 (7 comments)

The invention of the Hindu : "Hinduism is largely a fiction, formulated in the 18th and 19th centuries out of a multiplicity of sub-continental religions, and enthusiastically endorsed by Indian modernisers."
posted to MetaFilter by dhruva at 8:52 PM on April 2, 2005 (72 comments)

"While we are generally horrified by monstrosities in the case of human beings, we love them in fruit" - Giovanni Battista Ferrari (naturalist, "discoverer" of the blood orange and the cure for scurvy). Illustrations in Ferrari's book Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura (1646) are based on close collaboration with Cassiano dal Pozzo and his Paper Museum, called one man's project to "commission drawings of all known antiquities, and to attempt to systematically categorize this vast repertory of visual images."
posted to MetaFilter by jessamyn at 2:53 PM on February 27, 2008 (12 comments)

" . . . every second was the narrow gate, through which the Messiah could enter."
There is a lot we do not know about September 27, 1940. On that day, Walter Benjamin found out that he needed a visa to cross the border from France into Spain. By September 28, he was dead. Was it a suicide? Was he murdered by Stalin? He carried trunks with his last works. What was in them? These questions will never be answered, but Benjamin is not lost to us. He told us about the culture of print and photograph. He probed the metaphysics of hashish. Through fashion, feuilleton, and flânerie, he traced the lineaments of the modern city. His task, as he saw it, was one of reading and critique, the illumination of modernity.
posted to MetaFilter by nasreddin at 11:01 AM on September 4, 2007 (17 comments)

Harmonie/Harmony: a beautiful flash of birds,poetry imbedded 435 clicks
posted to MetaFilter by hortense at 10:57 PM on October 29, 2005 (8 comments)

John Tenniel and the American Civil War. Best known for his illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, John Tenniel also produced political cartoons for the British magazine Punch. This sites collects 54 of Tenniel's cartoons dealing with the American Civil War. In addition to the cartoons themselves, the site gives an explanation of the symbols and props in each cartoon and places them context with then-current events and issues.
posted to MetaFilter by marxchivist at 5:51 AM on December 3, 2007 (24 comments)

Are they music? Unusual ideas about musical notation.
posted to MetaFilter by Wolfdog at 4:56 AM on June 27, 2006 (18 comments)

Is this poetry? How about this, this or this? They're all examples of visual or concrete poetry, which has a long history. The modern version grew out of Lettrisme and helped give birth to the worldwide mail art movement. Two leading visual poets, Uruguayan activist Clemente Padin and Argentinian Edgardo Vigo, both had serious run-ins with dictators during the 1970s. The huge Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry puts gem after gem at your fingertips. Another great collection: Brazilian Visual Poetry. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 12:35 PM on September 28, 2002 (39 comments)

Beatrice Coron is a paper cutting artist, who has a wonderful collection of paper cutting links, including images of her own work, the extraordinary cut paper art of Hina Aoyama, Kako Ueda, Masaaki Tatsumi, Virginia Rose Kane, Drew King, Rick Jones, Andrea Dezsö, Bette Burgoyne, Justine Smith and papercutting art from around the world.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:03 PM on September 30, 2007 (12 comments)

Can you point me to any documents or websites that give a generally agreed upon guideline on how to build webpages?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Brandon Blatcher at 7:18 PM on September 22, 2007 (5 comments)

In the 1890s, an unknown woman was found drowned in the Seine. Known as the l'Inconnue de la Seine, her death mask became a fixture in the homes of artists and writers, and her look the ideal of the age. Many have speculated on her identity, and she has inspired a long list of artistic works by Nabokov, Rilke, Man Ray, and others. She has since become the "most kissed girl in the world" thanks to the Norwegian toymaker that used her mask to create Resusci Anne, the standard CPR doll.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 9:43 AM on August 21, 2007 (56 comments)

The Russian Avant-Garde Book is an online version of the MoMA exhibit, featuring 112 books originally published in Russia during the intensely creative period between 1910 and 1934, before Stalin outlawed any style but social realism. The site is separated into three chronological themes and includes examples of futurist works, constructivist graphic design, children's books, propaganda, photography and photomontage, revolutionary imagery, architecture and industry, war themes, folk art and judaica...
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 9:08 AM on October 8, 2002 (16 comments)

Art & Life in Africa. A resource on African art and culture. Key Moments in Life is an interesting page which deals with different phases of life. The Peoples Index gives overviews of the different cultures. The snapshots of daily life in Mali and Burkina Faso are also worth a look.
posted to MetaFilter by plep at 9:21 AM on March 7, 2003 (7 comments)

Greek Temple Architecture: They were houses--houses for cult statues, storehouses of treasures given to the gods--they were not churches. Worship consisted, by and large, of sacrificial ritual--animal sacrifice: killing animals and eating them, for the most part--and, hence, it was done out of doors. The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook's Accounts of Hellenic Religious Beliefs and Accounts of Personal Religion give additional flavor and context. Greek religious architecture evolved from wooden structures and was tradition bound--they built in stone as they had in wood according to variations on a traditional canon called the orders, first and foremost, the Doric Order , the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order. Here are some restorations. I love restorations, on paper or models rather than at the actual sites. The first in a series.
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 5:05 AM on June 19, 2003 (15 comments)

I'm looking for the best little low-budget movies that few people you know have seen, but ought to have.
posted to Ask Metafilter by melissa may at 1:45 AM on July 9, 2007 (67 comments)

Highway 61 Revisited: Like a Rolling Stone (1966); Tombstone Blues (2000); It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (1971); (Rolling Thunder version); From a Buick 6 (NOT DYLAN); Ballad of a Thin Man (1966); Queen Jane Approximately (1998); Highway 61 Revisited (1969); Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (1995); Desolation Row (1998).
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 10:12 AM on July 23, 2007 (29 comments)

Is there one great source for finding the original publication date of a book?
posted to Ask Metafilter by greendress at 12:48 AM on June 10, 2007 (12 comments)

What is the History of English Language Capitalization?
posted to Ask Metafilter by freebird at 9:41 AM on December 27, 2005 (35 comments)

"My deepest sympathies for posting this. I lack all attempts at rhythm and meter, and don't even have a nice English accent to back things up!"
posted to MeFi Music by chrismear at 9:10 PM on May 23, 2007 (49 comments)

Librarians and book collectors have many tales about ephemera left in books. While the legend of the bacon bookmark may be among the more pervasive reports of strange finds, a smallpox sample is probably the most bizarre. There are blogs and discussion boards that record other makeshift markers. Some readers prefer designated over spontaneous markers. Mirage Bookmark has an extensive collection of bookmark ephemera, with Bookmark of the Week and Bookmark Collector also offering noteworthy collections.
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 9:34 AM on May 9, 2007 (68 comments)

A rose red city half as old as time. Petra, which means "stone" in Greek, is perhaps the most spectacular ancient city remaining in the modern world. The city was the capital of the Nabateans - Arabs who dominated the lands of Jordan during pre-Roman times - and they carved this wonderland of temples, tombs and elaborate buildings out of solid rock nearly 3000 years ago. By the end of the Byzantine Empire (circa A.D. 700), the once dignified and gracious buildings in the center of town had deteriorated to near ruins. For centuries, Petra fell into the mists of legend, its existence a guarded secret known only to the local Bedouins and Arab tradesmen. Finally, in 1812, a young Swiss explorer and convert to Islam named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt heard locals speaking of a "lost city" hidden in the mountains of Wadi Mousa. Burckhardt disguised himself as a pilgrim seeking to make a sacrifice at the tomb of Aaron. He managed to bluff his way through successfully, and the secret of Petra was revealed to the modern Western world.
posted to MetaFilter by amro at 2:10 PM on January 3, 2006 (30 comments)

The Jules Verne Collecting Resource. If you're a Verne fan or a book collector at all, this site is an absolute treasure. There are pictures of almost every single edition of his works, major and minor, as well as everything even slightly Verne-related, including: movie posters, matchbooks, autographs, playing cards, cards for stereoscopes, postcards he sent, board games, Jules Hetzel's excellent covers and posters for his work (more here, and this one is amazing), the man himself, and god knows what else - pretty much everything.
If it's not here, it's somewhere else, like the extraordinary maps which adorned some editions, or the virtual library with links to all of his works, the many, many incredible illustrations therein, and even one scanned manuscript (in French, obviously). Hope this makes somebody's day as much as it made mine.
posted to MetaFilter by BlackLeotardFront at 2:04 PM on February 25, 2007 (16 comments)

Everyone’s got one. From the boys and girls who go to school, to the working women and men of India, who depend on the Dabba Wallahs to bring them their meals. The margin of error for these tiffin carriers has been clocked at an astonishing 99.9999999%, which has earned them the Sigma 6 rating, and has made them popular in other parts of the world.
posted to MetaFilter by hadjiboy at 1:50 AM on February 2, 2007 (68 comments)

Karakuri automata are representative of the highest technology in the Edo period (1603 to 1867). Automata were also crafted hundreds of years ago in Europe: The Dulcimer Player by Pierre Kintzing , made in 1772; The Singing Lesson, created by Robert-Houdin; three androids by Jaquet-Droz; the Pooping Duck by Vaucanson (the first link at the top). Ancient robots. The first automaton was created by Al-Jazari: video of his clock. The history of automata [pdf]. Contemporary toy automata. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 4:51 PM on January 14, 2007 (18 comments)

Since the Middle Ages, German craftsmen have gone 'auf der Walz' (taken to the road) as part of a kind of working-pilgrimage that artisans make after completing an apprenticeship with a master craftsman. These travels are meant to teach them about work and life and takes precisely three years and one day; they are not allowed to return home before this time. The trip can take these young craftsmen and women (all must be under the age of 30) halfway around the world (and often does) and they are allowed only a small rucksack. Other than that, they can bring along their uniform (a simple black and white affair that almost defies description), their tools, undergarments, a sleeping bag, a book and their trademark walking stick.

Although today this is a dying tradition, and is often more traditionally known as being a Journeyman today, it still exists and has inspired some to write about the strage travellers they see on the road. Indeed, perhaps the most famous work this tradition inspired is Australian poet Banjo Patterson, whose work Walzing Matilda is believed to have been inspired by this fascinating yet waning custom.
posted to MetaFilter by Effigy2000 at 6:11 PM on December 14, 2006 (28 comments)

Henry's Machyn's sixteenth-century Chronicle was nearly destroyed in an eighteenth-century fire, but editors Richard W. Bailey, Marilyn Miller, and Colette Moore have just published a new online scholarly edition, comprising both a reconstructed text (thanks to the very posthumous assistance of John Strype) and images of all the pages. There are several other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century diaries and chronicles online, including Dana F. Sutton's edition of William Camden's Diary (in both Latin and English), J. G. Nichols' Victorian edition of the Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, and the Earls Colne project's transcription of the diary of clergyman Ralph Josselin. (Machyn link via the very handy Textual Studies, 1500-1800.)
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 2:32 PM on December 11, 2006 (4 comments)

The King's Kunstkammer - en vogue in Renaissance Europe, kunstkammers were status symbols of kings, vast collections of art, curiosities, and scientific and natural objects. This is a partial reconstruction of the Royal Danish Kunstkammer, established by King Frederik III in the mid-1600s. Exploring the collection's 250 objects offers insight into princely preoccupations of the era.
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 11:03 AM on November 22, 2006 (13 comments)

According to Persian mythology, God is a painter who has painted the world with his kelk. More Persian calligraphy here.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:12 PM on December 5, 2004 (10 comments)

The Renaissance saw the publication of many great romantic epics: Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso in 1516; Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered in 1581; and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in 1590 and 1596. But perhaps the most ambitious and mysterious of them all was the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili published in 1499 by Aldus Manutius (previously discussed here). The Poliphili has usually been attributed to an Italian monk named Francesco Colonna, although recently some have claimed that it was the work of architect and humanist Leon Battista Alberti, even though he died in 1472. The Poliphili has long fascinated scholars because of its amazing typography, the cinematic style of its woodcuts, and the strange messages seemingly hidden in this multi-lingual text. Written in Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean, and even some hieroglyphs, it has only recently been translated into English. This strange text has inspired a great deal of research and even a New York Times best-selling murder mystery.
posted to MetaFilter by papakwanz at 5:47 PM on February 4, 2005 (18 comments)

Alciato's (or Alciati's) Book of Emblems, first published in 1531, began the craze for emblem books. You can see the international scope of the emblem book's popularity by visiting the Emblem Project Utrecht (Dutch love emblems), the English Emblem Books Project, Glasgow University Press Emblem Website (French emblem books), the Bavarian State Library Project (international collection; German-language site), German Emblem Books, and Literatura Emblemática Hispánica (Spanish; utterly bonkers search engine). Bryn Mawr and the University of Iowa have online exhibitions from their collections. See also this scholarly exploration of the emblem book's influence on William Blake. (A different work by Alciati was discussed in this thread.)
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 5:26 PM on September 10, 2006 (7 comments)

Two little html touches can really help make complex FPPs much better. I am convinced that more people would use them if they knew how. Any chance of mentioning these to prospective posters on the "New Post Page," if not actually incorporating them into the MeFi menus?
posted to MetaTalk by blahblahblah at 11:43 PM on August 6, 2006 (40 comments)

The World in Contemporary Islamic Art (via bbc) 18 May – 2 Sept; at the British Museum in London. Among the exhibitors are The Iraqi calligrapher Hassan Massoudy Iranian photographers: Shadi Ghadirian and Malekeh Nayini and artists Farhad Moshiri and Khosrow Hassanzadeh The Egyptian artist Sabah Naim The Palestinian artist Laila Shawa and the Saudi Arabian X-ray artist Fahad Mater-al-Ziad (pdf) If, like me you can’t get to see the real thing maybe these will help. Enjoy.
posted to MetaFilter by adamvasco at 5:49 AM on May 17, 2006 (11 comments)