Article ID: CBB772795253

Beautiful Surfaces: Style and Substance in Florentius Schuyl’s Illustrations for Descartes’ Treatise on Man (2016)

unapi

The assumption that the Cartesian bête-machine is the invention of René Descartes (1596–1650) is rarely contested. Close examination of Descartes’ texts proves that this is a concept founded not on the basis of his own writings, but a subsequent critical interpretation, which developed and began to dominate his work after his death. Descartes’ Treatise on Man, published posthumously in two rival editions, Florentius Schuyl’s Latin translation De Homine (1662), and Claude Clerselier’s Traité de l’ homme, has proved particularly problematic. The surviving manuscript copies of the Treatise on Man left no illustrations, leaving both editors the daunting task of producing a set of images to accompany and clarify the fragmented text. In this intriguing case, the images can be seen to have spoken louder than the text which they illustrated. This paper assesses Schuyl’s choice to represent Descartes’ Man in a highly stylized manner, without superimposing Clerselier’s intentions onto De Homine.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB772795253/

Similar Citations

Chapter Zittel, Claus; (2011)
Conflicting Pictures: Illustrating Descartes' Traité de l'homme (/isis/citation/CBB001221247/)

Book Jorink, Eric; Ramakers, Bart; (2011)
Art and Science in the Early Modern Netherlands (/isis/citation/CBB001201611/)

Article Kevin Jang; (2021)
Nicolaus Steno and the Cartesian Brain (/isis/citation/CBB575163588/)

Thesis Lo, Melissa Ming-Hwei; (2014)
Between Figure and Line: Visual Transformations of Cartesian Physics, 1620--1690 (/isis/citation/CBB001567556/)

Article Bassiri, Nima; (2012)
Material Translations in the Cartesian Brain (/isis/citation/CBB001221608/)

Chapter Wagner, Darren; (2011)
Visualizations of the Womb through Tropes, Dissection, and Illustration, circa 1660--1774 (/isis/citation/CBB001022835/)

Article Melissa Lo; (2017)
The Picture Multiple: Figuring, Thinking, and Knowing in Descartes's Essais (1637) (/isis/citation/CBB074990525/)

Book Richardson, Ruth; (2008)
The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy: Bodies, Books, Fortune and Fame (/isis/citation/CBB000953448/)

Book Barbara Tramelli; (2016)
Giovanni Paolo Lomazzos Trattato dell'Arte della Pittura: Color, Perspective and Anatomy (/isis/citation/CBB872091841/)

Article Monteiro, Marko; (2011)
Teatro anatômico digital: práticas de representação do corpo na ciência (/isis/citation/CBB001420531/)

Article Douglas J. Lanska; (2022)
Representations of the olfactory bulb and tracts in images of the medieval cell doctrine (/isis/citation/CBB329330516/)

Article de Ceglia, Francesco Paolo; Pogliano, Claudio; (2011)
Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB001024822/)

Article Gingerich, Owen; (2009)
The Curious Case of the M-L Sidereus Nuncius (/isis/citation/CBB000931304/)

Chapter Roger Ariew; (2013)
Censorship, Condemnations, and the Spread of Cartesianism (/isis/citation/CBB116959533/)

Authors & Contributors
Zittel, Claus
Lanska, Douglas J.
Jang, Kevin
Tramelli, Barbara
Taylor, Amanda
Lo, Melissa
Concepts
Scientific illustration
Visual representation; visual communication
Human anatomy
Medicine
Human body
Natural philosophy
Time Periods
17th century
Early modern
16th century
Renaissance
18th century
Medieval
Places
Netherlands
Leiden (Netherlands)
London (England)
Florence (Italy)
France
Europe
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment