That's a fish painted in the 1780s. A still life by Giuseppe Artioli. And there is also a used handmade paper sheet, with calculations on it. In #earlymodern Europe, paper was used and re-used regularly.
In fact, the contemporary paper markets offered 'fresh' and blank paper sheets as single-sheets, in units of 5 sheets, in units of 24/25 sheets etc.
But fishmongers often used used papers for wrapping purposes.
There is a lot going on in Pieter van Laer's 1630s "Self-Portrait with Magic Scene" (e.g. #earlymodern#alchemy and #magic, and #books). But have a look at the paper cone in the right foreground of the painting. Likely seeds or #peppercorns are spilling out. This is relevant for #PaperHistory and #BookHistory, dear #histodons.
Paper was used for more than just writing, drawing, and printing, as #histodons of #EarlyModernEurope know. Paper was mainly used for wrapping purposes too, as I said here in my introduction to the volume "The Paper Trade in Early Modern Europe. Practices, Materials, Networks"
A #quodlibet meant, among other things, a form of trompe l'oeil that offers a realistical display of domestic items, often scenes of a writing desk stuffed with paper-knives, playing-cards, ribbons, books, small prints, paper sheets etc.
You see a detail of such a quodlibet from "Carl's ABC- und Lesebuch mit Sitten- und Denksprüchen, Erzählungen und Liedern" from around 1800.
My name is Daniel Bellingradt: I am a media and communication historian with a special focus on #earlymodern Europe. I am the co-editor of "Jahrbuch für #Kommunikationsgeschichte", and I have, among other stuff, published 4 books about pamphlets, paper history, magical manuscripts, and an app trail through Hamburg in 1686.
#smoking, #history#PaperHistory
1671 painting by Hubert van Ravesteijn - an exclusively designed paper packet leaning against a clay pipe, ready for consumption in a tavern, to sell small units of tobacco, paper was needed
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There is a paper story to this painting from 1672 waiting to be told. Meet Jan Berckheyde's "A Notary in His Office" highlighted in 5 steps - a thread for friends of #paperhistory and #mediahistory of #EarlyModernEurope, and for #histodons in general. Expect a view into the inky paper states of Europe, a paper age dealing also with waste papers, fresh paper sheets waiting to be used, a high paper demand, and some document bags literally full of used papers. Let's roll @histodons
@histodons A closer look at every administrative activity of the period offers stored and waiting fresh paper sheets. Yet unused artifacts in different trading units of the paper trade: As detail no. 4 shows, you could buy paper as single sheets or in units up to 500, in the preferred format, quality and size, by the way.
On the painting with the title "The Alchemist" from the Flemish Mattheus van Helmont, circa mid seventeenth century, are many uses and abuses of #earlymodern paper products reflected in the details. I will address 7 of these paper issues in the thread. Bonus for #Alchemy friends: a large écorché figure, a distillation apparatus over a fire, and metal working assistants.
Enjoy.
@histodons Folded paper sheets ruled in early modern Europe. For letter writing activities, for administration, or for including your ideas into chapters of big books, or next to them - as in the highlighted part of the painting. The paper sheet was a mass artifact of the period, maybe THE most often produced artifact of the publishing, writing, and printing good old Europe. However, loose sheets were precious goods, easily damaged, burned, hard to collect over time. #PaperHistory
A look inside an early modern book shop: a thread for #histodons and #bookhistory experts.
Expect surprises, nowadays book buyers. I am using printed images of the chapter dedicated to bookseller's shops of the "Orbis Sensualium Pictus" (Visible World in Pictures) from John Amos #Comenius. The book was firstly published in 1658 and became a widely reprinted and variated children's textbook for centuries.
While the trilingual edition from 1672 used this new image, most other editions were happy with the old image published in the first edition of 1658.
This is the more or less exact original image published in the London 1672 edition of the "Orbis Sensualium Pictus". Remember the small bookseller of 1658? Here he is again. And lots of paper, #paperhistory.
So much paper in this 1665 painting from Cornelis N. Gijsbrechts. You see an open cupboard door, as art history labelled the image, but what you also see: prints, letters, a broadside, an almanac, stored unused paper sheets. Early Modern Europe was a paper age. Gijsbrechts' painting has it all: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornelis_Norbertus_Gijsbrechts_-_An_Open_Cupboard_Door_-_1665.jpg
Let's focus on this in more detail, dear #paperhistory, and #bookhistory experts, and #histodons interested in the material worlds of the past. Here we go, next paper thread.
The #fediverse needs more #paperhistory, so let's have a closer look at this allegorical painting of 1629 from Cornelis Saftleven. In this thread, I'll try to show again that #earlymodern Europe was a paper age. Enjoy. And yes, there are animals too.
A widely used #Christmas time special of the past in Europe was to buy a paper crown, dear #histodons and #paperhistory and experts.
A paper crown? Yes, a printed paper crown. And the tiny street seller highlighted in this painting from Joos de Momper the Younger, a Flemish painter active in Antwerp between the late 16th century and the early 17th century, is selling them.
Paper crowns were seasonal extras of the printing industries, dear #bookhistory. Follow this thread along for more.
A while ago, I asked around at the bird site, looking for paper crown templates from early modern printers or publishers hiding somewhere in our archives and libraries. And Vanessa Selbach came to the rescue presenting this gem of #paperhistory: a surviving early modern printed paper crown from the BNF (Rc-36 (f)-Fol).
The man copying a few lines from an open book onto a fresh sheet of paper was a well-known Franciscan friar: John Duns Scotus who lived between 1265-1308. The paper user on this painting is one of the important philosopher-theologians of Europe, dear #histodons.
But what paper was available around 1300 in Europe? Is the paper usage imagined on this painting that was done about 300 years after his death. Follow me for more...
Meet the "Bologna stone" of 1389, #paperhistory and #bookhistory folks. The stone appears today in the Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, Italy, and carries the oldest known European paper sizes:
»Imperialle« (500 x 740 Millimeter),
»Realle« (445 x 615 Millimeter),
»Meçane« (345 x 515 Millimeter) and
»Reçute« (315 x 450 Millimeter).
Hey #Fediverse, dear #Histodons, let there be more paper among us. This is the start of a series devoted to #PaperHistory - especially but not exclusively to the first European paper era from c14-c18.
Let's start with schools in early modern Europe. Schools were social spaces of learning and teaching, and above all, paper was present. What you see is an imagined schooling scene from the seventeenth century by Jan Steen. Highlighted are papers. Have a look.