Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe Susan Dackerman

An unusual collaboration among distinguished art historians and historians of science, this book demonstrates how printmakers of the Northern Renaissance, far from merely illustrating the ideas of others, contributed to scientific investigations of their time. Hans Holbein, for instance, worked with cosmographers and instrument makers on some of the earliest sundial manuals published; Albrecht Durer produced the first printed maps of the constellations, which astronomers copied for over a century; and, Hendrick Goltzius' depiction of the muscle-bound Hercules served as a study aid for students of anatomy. "Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe" features fascinating reproductions of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings; maps, globe gores, and globes; multilayered anatomical 'flap' prints; and, paper scientific instruments used for observation and measurement. Among the 'do-it-yourself' paper instruments were sundials and astrolabes, and the book incorporates a facsimile of globe gores for the reader to cut out and assemble.

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 Winner of the 2012 International Fine Print Dealers Association Book Award

Susan Dackerman is Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Harvard Art Museums. Lorraine Daston is Director, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Katharine Park is Samuel Zemurray, Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University. Suzanne Karr Schmidt is Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Prints and Drawings, Art Institute of Chicago. Claudia Swan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History, Northwestern University.

Winner of the 2012 Roland H./div>--2012 Roland H. Bainton Prize in the Art History category"Sixteenth Century Society and Conference" (11/14/2012)

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