Scientific Illustration: A Workshop Using the Collections of the Academy

The workshop will examine the ways in which scientific illustrations are produced as a basis for understanding their role in the making and communication of scientific knowledge. The emphasis will be on the period from the end of the fifteenth century to 1800 when printed pictures were either woodcuts or engravings. Illustrated lectures will explain these very different printmaking technologies and the artists and craftsmen involved, while library sessions will give the students the chance to examine some of the greatest illustrated books in the history of science and medicine. Learning to look at the book in the light of the technologies of its production means looking at the physical object rather than a reproduction or online image, and is fundamental to its interpretation. At the same time, students will be able observe the evolution of the stylistic conventions of scientific illustration and the ways that text and image work together – again, something that is very hard to appreciate in the virtual world. Getting to know the real thing and how it is made makes it possible to understand and enjoy the book in all its forms and formats.

Format of Workshops
The day will be divided into four one-and-a-half hour sessions, alternating between classroom instruction with PowerPoint slides and hands-on sessions with books in the Drs. Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Reading Room.

Workshop Instructors
Roger Gaskell; assisted in the Drs Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Reading Room sessions by Academy staff members Anne Garner, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Arlene Shaner, Historical Collections Librarian.

Roger Gaskell is a UK antiquarian bookseller specializing in scientific medical and technical books. After working for two of the leading London booksellers, Bernard Quaritch Ltd and then Pickering and Chatto Ltd, he set up his own business in 1989 and enjoys working closely with academic libraries. Roger teaches regularly at Rare Book School, University of Virginia and at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. He has served as a council member of the Bibliographical Society.

Two partial scholarships of $100 are available for currently enrolled students. Please complete and submit the scholarship application by March 14, 2016. Scholarship recipients will be notified by March 16, 2016. More information about the workshop, including a suggested pre-workshop reading list, will be sent to participants after they have registered.

Attendees are strongly encouraged to attend the annual Friends of the Rare Book Room lecture at the Academy on the evening of April 6, 2016. This year’s lecturer, Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Early Books and Printing at the Folger Library, will speak about illustrations in the works of the 16th century encyclopedist Ulisse Aldrovandi.

Workshop participants are invited to the post-lecture Friends reception, where some of the books discussed in the lecture will be displayed.