Tag Archives: history of science

The Elephant’s Trunk is Up – That’s Good Luck

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I’m very happy because this came in the mail today.  Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears to be the only volume available that specifically tackles science books from a book history perspective.  (I’m not counting Eisenstein, who was mostly using science books to demonstrate her theories about printing.)  It was quite exciting to read the introduction, in which Frasca-Spada and Jardine explain all the things I’ve been thinking for so long (alone! in the dark!) about the intersections of science and books. But now I need to go to bed, because I’ve been up way too late reading it.

Oh, and, the picture on the cover is ‘The Elephant and the Bookseller’, from John Gay, Fables, 6th edition (London, 1746).

If you happen to be in Madison, WI

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The UW-Madison Department of Special Collections has created what looks like a fascinating exhibit on the use of color in scientific books between the 15th and 20th centuries.  It’s in conjunction with the 2008 Culture of Print in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine conference taking place in September, but the exhibit will be open all summer.  It focuses on changing color technologies and how the use of color was approached from a scientific perspective, drawing from the library’s extensive science and natural history collection.   For more information visit the Special Collections website.