Annotated Bibliography: Visual Arts and Print

At first, I found this assignment very frustrating. I must have spent 2 hours straight searching on the internet for any possible source on medicine and the printing press. There was literally nothing to be found.

Then I figured out that I need to broaden my search. I searched for sources on the printing press as a whole and I was surprised to find sources that related to my subject more frequently. That is when I located Eisenstein’s book (I promise I didn’t just copy paste from Pro. Gideon’s post, the version I found was older). What was interesting is that while I was looking for connections to medicine, I discovered a subject more fascinating to research: visual arts and print. So I switched gears and went to research a new subject than what I anticipated. It’s amazing how researching one thing can lead you on a path to something else entirely.

It turned out that the advent of medicine in the Renaissance was actually closely related to the visual arts. Discoveries concerning anatomy and depictions of the human body could be more easily published when print technology improved so much that art could be replicated as well.

The actual locating of the sources was also an enriching process. There’s something in a physical hunt for knowledge that increases the quality of one’s research. I literally started on the 5^th floor and eventually ended up on the second floor. I had to keep moving. Then once you actually locate the right source, you find a more personal and meaningful connection. I knew I could trust these sources. If they are hard to find, they must be worth reading.

Bibliography

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe . Cambridge University Press, 2005. Eisenstein provides a very comprehensive study on the effects of print culture in Early Europe. The section entitled “The Book of Nature Transformed” provided key insights pertaining to how visual arts affected growth of scientific knowledge. (HBLL Search Catalog)

McMurrich, J. Playfair. Leonardo Da Vinci The Anatomist. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1930. This is a study of Leonardo Da Vinci’s contribution to the science of anatomy. His illustrations were printed and were revolutionary in changing the way people looked at the human body. (HBLL Search Catalog)

Ivins, William M. “What about the ‘Fabrica’ of Vesalius?”. Three Vesalian Essays. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1952. The essay covers the significance of Andreas Vesalius’ illustrations and how they contributed to science during the Renaissance. (This essay was cited the footnotes of Eisenstein’s book so I found the essay in the library)

Hsieh, Chia-Chuan. “Publishing the Raphael Cartoons and the Rise of Art-Historical Consciousness in England, 1707-1764.” The Historical Journal. Vol. 52 Iss. 4. Cambridge University Press, 2009. This article covers the effects of the ability to recreate famous art paintings through print beginning with the Raphael Cartoons. This new printing ability sparked a new wave of interest in the field of Art History. (HBLL Search Log, Periodical Section)

Robinson, Francis. “Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print.” Modern Asian Studies. Vol. 27 Iss. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1993. The article addresses that one of the reasons Muslims avoided using print so long was because they valued calligraphy more so. Interesting how a love for visual art can keep one from accepting technology. (The catalog said they had it, but I was misled and ended up using a scanned version online instead)