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Wednesday, November 8th, 2017
| Time | Event |
| 9:00a | A Digital Archive of the Earliest Illustrated Editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy (1487-1568)
Book history buffs don’t need to be told, but the rest of us probably do: incunable—from a Latin word meaning “cradle,” “swaddling clothes,” or “infancy”—refers to a book printed before 1501, during the very first half-century of printing in Europe. An overwhelming number of the works printed during this period were in Latin, the transcontinental language of philosophy, theology, and early science. Yet one of the most revered works of the time, Dante’s Divine Comedy—written in Italian—fully attained its status as a literary classic in the latter half of the 15th century.
In addition to numerous commentaries and biographies of its author, over 10 editions of the epic Medieval poem— the tale of Dante’s descent into hell and rise through purgatory and paradise—appeared in the period of incunabula, the first in 1472. The 1481 edition contained art based on Sandro Botticelli’s unfinished series of Divine Comedy illustrations. The first fully-illustrated edition appeared in 1491. None of these printings included the word Divine in the title, which did not come into use until 1555. The Commedia, as it was originally called, continued to gain in stature into the 16th century, where it received lavish treatment in other illustrated editions.
You can see Illustrations from three of the editions from the first 100-plus years of printing here, and many more at Digital Dante, a collaborative effort from Columbia University’s Library and Department of Italian. These images, from Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, represent a 1497 woodcut edition, at the top, with a number of hand-colored pages; an edition from 1544, above, with almost 90 circular and traditionally-composed scenes, all of them probably hand-colored in the 19th century; and a 1568 edition with three engraved maps, one for each book, like the carefully-rendered visualization of purgatory, below.
Of this last edition, Jane Siegel, Librarian for Rare Books, writes, "the relative lack of illustrations are balanced by the fineness and detail made possible by using expensive copper engravings as a medium, and by the lively decorated and historiated woodcut initials sprinkled throughout the volume at the head of each canto." Each of these historical artifacts shows us a lineage of craftsmanship in the infancy and early childhood of printing, a time when literary works of art could be turned doubly into masterpieces with illustration and typography that complemented the text. Luckily for lovers of Dante, finely-illustrated editions of the Divine Comedy have never gone away. You can see more images by entering the Digital Dante collection here. Related Content: Artists Illustrate Dante’s Divine Comedy Through the Ages: Doré, Blake, Botticelli, Mœbius & More Botticelli’s 92 Surviving Illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy (1481) Mœbius Illustrates Dante’s Paradiso A Free Course on Dante’s Divine Comedy from Yale University Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness A Digital Archive of the Earliest Illustrated Editions of Dante’s <i>Divine Comedy</i> (1487-1568) is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.  |
| 12:00p | Watch a 17th-Century Portrait Magically Get Restored to Its Brilliant Original Colors
Every week, five million people in the United Kingdom alone tune in to the BBC's Fake or Fortune?, a television show about the provenance and attribution of notable works of art. That may well say something about the British character, but it says even more about its host and co-creator, art dealer Philip Mould. Involved with antiques from a very early age, he displays in Fake or Fortune? and his other media projects a keen sense of not just how a piece of art appeals to us, but what hidden potential it carries within. Take, for instance, the grimy 17th-century portrait you can see partially restored in the clip above, which he posted on Twitter this week. At first glance, the painting might not look that much worse for wear than anything else from the Jacobean era, but even the first few minutes of work reveal the true brilliance of the colors hidden underneath what turn out to be layers of brown and yellow. They've actually built up in the name of preservation: over about 200 years, a few (or more than a few) coats of varnish had been applied to the canvas in order to protect it, but that varnish turns color over time. Luckily, with the right tools and the right technique, it comes off. “The painting was originally in a private collection in England,” Mould told the Telegraph. “A mixture of gel and solvent was created, specifically just to remove the varnish and not to damage the underlying paint." Certainly the portrait's subject would approve of her appearance's return to its former splendor, though little information remains as to the identity of the lady herself: “We don't know the identity yet but certain iconographic clues are starting to emerge,” said Mould. “All we know is she is 36 and it was painted in 1617.”
And so we happen upon another of the compelling aspects of art history: its potential to turn into a detective story. But if you'd like to accompany the narrative experience with a little more technical knowledge, have a look at the short video above showing what it takes to revive a 400-year-old masterwork. People once commissioned portraits so that posterity could know their likenesses, but one wonders if they understood just how far into posterity their likenesses would make it — some of them, thanks to art restorers, looking fresher than they have for centuries. Related Content: The Art of Restoring a 400-Year-Old Painting: A Five-Minute Primer The Art of Restoring Classic Films: Criterion Shows You How It Refreshed Two Hitchcock Movies Short Film Takes You Inside the Recovery of Andy Warhol’s Lost Computer Art Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. Watch a 17th-Century Portrait Magically Get Restored to Its Brilliant Original Colors is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. |
| 3:00p | Watch 94 Free Lectures From the Great Courses: Dystopian Fiction, Astrophysics, Guitar Playing & Much More
I can certainly appreciate that many of us spend too much time reading news and opinion, seeking firmer footing amidst alarming current events. But let us not neglect our intellects, and become easier marks for the con-artists constantly preying on our attention. As we try to do our best at Open Culture to show week after week, despite creeping online toxicity, the web is still a great place to get an education on virtually any subject, often up to the college and graduate level, often for free, and on your own time/at your own pace. Learn a language, learn to play an instrument, learn physics, math, biology, philosophy, read novels and poems, hear symphonies, see the world’s museums…. Or here's another option for you: Watch 94 half-hour lectures on the Great Courses YouTube channel. As we have told you before, the Great Courses Plus is a video subscription service that lets you watch free courses across a wide range of subjects, all taught by some of the best lecturers in the country. The topics cover everything from literature, physics, history and economics, to math, photography, cooking, drawing, stress management, and “How to Grow Anything.” If you want to watch complete courses from the Great Courses Plus, feel free to try sign up for a free trial (get details here). But if you're looking for something a little less sustained, then the 47 hours of free lectures on Youtube might have some good options for you.
For example, learn the history of the Islamic Golden Age, British India, the Fall of the Roman Empire, or the Ottoman Empire during World War I. And learn about the political imagination of earlier periods in history, such as the first Gilded Age, at the end of the nineteenth century, a period of staggering economic inequality and dizzying industrial development. That's when Edward Bellamy published his 1888 Looking Backward, a futurist utopian novel set in the year 2000, drawing on Marx and utopian socialist Charles Fourier.
Bellamy foresaw a technologically advanced American utopia that reflected, he wrote, “the true self-interest of a rational unselfishness, and [appeals] to the social and generous instincts of men.” His book became the top-selling novel of the 19th century after Uncle Tom's Cabin and kicks off a lecture on “Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature” offered by the Great Courses and taught by Professor Pamela Bedore of the University of Connecticut. See her lecture at the top of the post, then leap to an entirely different academic frame with a talk on "Two Prototype Theories of Everything" by Don Lincoln, Senior Scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, further up, or on Astrophysics, just above, with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
You can even learn to play guitar, or at least get a 30-minute lesson on how to practice, with Colin McAllister, above. Take a look at all 94 of the Great Courses free video lectures on their YouTube channel here. And again find out how to sign up for a free trial to watch complete courses here. Related Content: A Free Trial Offer for The Great Courses Plus: A Special Deal for Open Culture Readers 1,300 Free Online Courses from Top Universities Free Online Philosophy Courses Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness Watch 94 Free Lectures From the Great Courses: Dystopian Fiction, Astrophysics, Guitar Playing & Much More is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. |
| 6:14p | Journey to the Center of a Triangle: Watch the 1977 Digital Animation That Demystifies Geometry
In 1977, Bruce and Katharine Cornwell used a Tektronics 4051 Graphics Terminal to create animated short films that demystify geometry. The films have now reemerged on the Internet Archive. Journey to the Center of a Triangle appears above. You can also watch below Congruent Triangles, which features the memorable 'Bach meets Third Stream Jazz' musical score. Enjoy them both. And find them in the Animation section of our collection, 1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.
Follow Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and share intelligent media with your friends. Or better yet, sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox. If you'd like to support Open Culture and our mission, please consider making a donation to our site. It's hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us provide the best free cultural and educational materials. Related Content: Watch “Geometry of Circles,” the Abstract Sesame Street Animation Scored by Philip Glass (1979) The Complex Geometry of Islamic Art & Design: A Short Introduction The Geometry of Sound Visualized <i>Journey to the Center of a Triangle</i>: Watch the 1977 Digital Animation That Demystifies Geometry is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. |
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