Very Like a Whale exhibition material

This article offers a comprehensive list of each piece included in Very Like a Whale, one of the Exhibitions at the Folger.

Shadows and Mirrors (case 1)

One of the phrases we kept repeating as we were assembling this exhibition was “seeing things for what else they are.” In this case you can see shadows and mirrors, both of which change the way things look, and in some cases, radically distort those things so that they start to look like something else. All of these things in this case are here to help us understand that something may appear one way, but that either technology or our angle of viewing or even our imagination, can distort those things and make them seem like something else.

Items included

• Franz Reinzer. Meteorologia philosophico-politica. Augsburg: Jeremias Wolf, 1698. Call number: PN6349 .R37 1698 Cage and LUNA Digital Image.
• Johann Theodor de Bry. Proscenium vitae humanae sive Emblematum secularium …. Frankfurt: William Fitzer, 1627. Call number: PN6349.B789 P6 1627; displayed fol.27r and LUNA Digital Image.
• Edward Brown. A Brief Account of Some Travels in Divers Parts of Europe. London: Benjamin Tooke, 1685. Call number: B5111.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Miner’s lamp.
• FACSIMILE from Danish Royal Collections, Rosenborg Castle. Attributed to Pieter Stevens. Peasants collecting wood. Oil on wood, ca. 1681.
• Sir John Davies. Γνώθι σεατόν. Gnōthi Seauton. Nocse Teipsum: or, The Delphick oracle expounded, in two elegies, as a looking–glass for the soul. London, 1688. Call number: D400; displayed title page.
• FACSIMILE. Fortunio Liceti, ed. Gerardus Leonardus Blasius. De monstris. Amsterdam: Andreas Frisius, 1665. Call number: GR825 .L5 1665 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. 4 mercury glass jars. 20th century. Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Framed mirror. 18th century.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Piece of hematite.

Wall after case 1

• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Dreamers Often Lie.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. All Are Fled.
• LOAN courtesy of Jeffrey Shore. Narwhal Tusk.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Know my Stops.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Leviathan. Image.

All’s The Whale’s A Stage (case 2)

Imagining whales in Nomenclator aquatilium animatum, 1560. Folger Digital Image 62800.

The title of our exhibit Very Like a Whale and so many things can be very like a whale. This case is dedicated to the idea that the whale could be a stage and could be a stage for something of than people just hunting it, killing it, and eating it. It could be a stage for the curious citizens of a Belgian town to climb up on when it was beached and they didn’t understand what this monster was doing on the shore. They wanted to know what its ribbed back was like, was it like a field, and certain intrepid citizens climbed up on its back and walked across it as though it was a field and the monks more tentative at the end put a cautious foot or two on it. Then there are people actually in the mouth of the whale looking around. This was a monster of the deep that had suddenly presented itself into the world of men.

Items included

• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. John Jonston. Historie Naturalis de Piscibus et Cetis. Frankfurt: Mattaeus Merian, ca. 1650.
• LOAN courtesy of Olivia Parker. Honorius Philoponus [Caspar Plautius]. Nova typis transacta navigation. Linz, 1621. Displayed at Tab. XLI and Tab. XLII.
• FACSIMILE LOAN from Olivia Parker. Honorius Philoponus [Caspar Plautius]. Nova typis transacta navigation. Linz, 1621.
• Conrad Gessner. Nomenclator aquatilium animantium. Zürich: Christoph Froschauer, 1560. Call number: 222727; displayed p. 176–177.
• Strange newes for England. London: W. Thomas, 1659. Call number: S5884.6; displayed title page.
• FACSIMILE from Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp, Belgium. Aangespoelde vinvis te Egmond [Rorqual washed ashore at Egmond], Drawing, 1547. Object number: PK.OT.00826.
• Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Uppsala. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus. Rome: Giovanni Maria Viotti, 1555. Call number: DL45 .M1 1555 Cage; displayed p. 754 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Whale vertebrae. Found near South Carolina.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Fossilized inner ears of whale. Found near South Carolina.

Doorway between case 2 and 3

• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Knawing Vulture of Thy Mind.

Wind (case 3)

• The wonders of this windie winter. London: George Eld for John Wright, 1613. Call number: STC 25949; displayed title page.
• Lucas Jacobsen Debes, trans. John Sterpin. Faeroe & Faeroa Reserata. London: Francis Leach for William Iles, 1676. Call number: 149- 306q; displayed p. 52–53 (foldout).
• Matthaeus Merian. “Portavit eum ventus in ventre suo” in Michael Maier Atalanta fugiens. Oppenheim: Hieronymus Galler for Johann Theodor de Bry, 1617. Call number: QD25.M2 A8 1617 Cage; displayed p. 12–13.
• Ralph Bohun. A discourse concerning the origine and properties of wind. Oxford: W. Hall for Thomas Bowman, 1671. Call number: 142- 004q; displayed p. 18.
• Charles Leigh. The natural history of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak, in Derbyshire. Oxford: Printed for the author, 1700. Call number: L975; displayed p. 164.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Barren Winter.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Blasted Heath.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. This Blessed Plot.

Wall after case 3

Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Till That Her Garments. Image.

To One Thing Constant Never (case 4)

This case is about change and variability in the affairs of human beings and in nature. The goddess Fortuna is the embodiment of the Renaissance idea of change. This picture shows Fortuna balancing on a sphere. And the reason why she balances on a sphere is that she is able to react quickly to any changes in the world, and she’s even a source of changes in the world. This particular case shows all forms of changeability, including the way people’s desires change because they’re fickle and the way forms change.

For more on the idea of Fortune during the Renaissance, visit the exhibition page, Fortune: All is But Fortune.

Item included

• Johann Theodor de Bry “Semicircular world/universe chart.” Engraving in Robert Fludd. Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica … Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry and Hieronymus Galler, 1617. Call number: BD500 .F4 1617b Cage vol.1; displayed p. 4–5 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Charles de Rochefort, trans. John Davies. The History of Barbados, St Christophers, Mevis, St Vincerts, Antego, Martinico, Monserrat, and the rest of the Caribby-Islands. London: John Macock for John Starkey and Thomas Dring, 1666. Call number: R1739; displayed p. 106–107.
• Flavius Vegetius Renatus, trans. Nicolaus Wollick. De re militari. French. Paris: Chrestien Wechel, 1536. Call number: U101 .V3 F7 1536 Cage Fo.; displayed p. cxiv and LUNA Digital Image.
• FACSIMILE from Houghton Library, Harvard University. Andre Thevet. La cosmographie universelle. Paris: Pierre L’Huillier, 1575. Houghton call number: (Typ 515.75.831) and Digital image.
• Theodor de Bry. Emblemata nobilitati et vulgo scitu digna … Frankfurt am Main, 1592. Call number: PN6349 .B79 E5 1592 Cage; displayed plate 1 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Konrad Lykosthenes. Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon …. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1557. Call number: GR825 .L8 1557 Cage; display p. 24–25 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Andrea Alciati, ed. Pietro Rositini. Emblematum liber. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1546. Call number: 219- 060q; displayed p. 42.

Wall after case 4

• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Jacque’s Travels.

Eyed Awry (case 5 and vitrine after case 5)

The upper right of this case held an image of a text by Athanasius Kircher, who was a Jesuit polymath from the 17th century very interested in machines and marbles. This particular machine is of interest to Shakespearians because it shows a device that allows an animal’s head to be projected on to the body of a human being. If you look at the small dial, to the lower right, you’ll notice that one of the animal heads that can be projected into that mirror is one of a donkey. When we saw this machine that can put a donkey’s head when thought about Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We also thought about what this picture would look like if it were turned into a space and that’s what led us to approach Eric Stepp, the sculptor, who has built a 3-dimentional version of this 2-dimentional space.

Items included

Case 5

• FACSIMILE. Matthaeus Merian “Campus Anthropomorphos.” Engraving in Athanasius Kircher. Ars magna lucis et umbrae. Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1671. Call number: Q155 .K5 1671 Cage; displayed p. 709 (middle plate).
• Gaspar Schott. Magia universalis naturae et artis. Würzburg: Heirs of Johann Gottfried Schönwetter, 1657. Call number: Q155.S3 1657 Cage; displayed p.194.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Oil Lamp.
• FACSIMILES. Athanasius Kircher. Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis …. Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1680. Call number: 196025; displayed p. 125 and p. 127.
• FACSIMILE. Jean François Nicéron. La perspective curieuse du reverend P. Niceron … avec L’optique et la catoptrique du R. P. Mersenne. Paris: Widow of François Langlois, 1652. Call number: QC353.N6 1652 Cage; displayed plate LXVII.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. To One Thing Constant Never.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Points of the Compass.

Vitrine after case 5

• Eric Stepp, after Athanasius Kircher (1602–80). Model of metamorphosis room constructed for this exhibition.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Twenty Shadows.

Doorway After case 5

• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Replica Crocodile, 20th century.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Anthropomorph.
• Etching of Hippo, quote from Richard Stoneman.

The Horrors of War (case 6 and wall after case 6)

One of the things that we wanted to communicate in this case about war is the way in which it can transform human beings into animals, or transform animals into instruments of human desires and intentions. You can see a war machine in the upper right which has all of the armor that we would associate with an animal, you can also see animals that have been turned into weapons, like the cat that has a rocket or a bomb strapped to it, in the lower right.

Items included

Case 6

• Flavius Vegetius Renatus, trans. Nicolaus Wollick. De re militari. French. Paris: Chrestien Wechel, 1536. Call number: U101 .V3 F7 1536 Cage Fo.; displayed p. xvii and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Jacques Callot. La Pendaison [The hanging] Plate 11 from the series Les Misères et les Malheurs de la Guerre [The Miseries and Misfortunes of War]. Etching. Paris, 1633. Accession number: MH 1959.36.M.RII.
• Ein wahres Probiertes und Pracktisches geschriebenes Feuerbuch. Manuscript, 1607. Call number: V.b.311; displayed fol.129r and LUNA Digital Image.
• Hiob Ludolf. Historia Aethiopica. Frankfurt am Main: Johann David Zunner, 1691. Call number: 226296; displayed foldout opposite p. 243.
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Leonard Baskin. Hanged man.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Mandrake Root.
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Life cast of entangled lizards. Northern European, 16th century.

Wall after case 6

• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcel. Shield made from hippopotamus skin. Ethiopia, date unknown.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Armor on the Shore.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Macduff’s Castle.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Wars to Come.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Penalty.

Bad Behavior (case 7)

Shakespeare’s plays are full of bad behavior. One of the items in this particular case, the three puppets coming out of their boxes, remind us of a scene from one of Shakespeare’s late plays entitled Cymbeline. In this play there’s a plot to make a husband, Cymbeline, jealous thinking that his wife is cheating on him with another man. A character named Iachimo enters Imogen’s bedroom at night but he does so hidden in a chest. And when the evening comes he comes out of his chest and spies on Imogen seeing a birthmark that he then reports to Cymbeline in order to make him jealous. This makes Iachimo a kind of jack-in-the-box and this was an association we thought would be very powerful when paired with these somewhat frightening and leering puppets.

Items included

• Jacob Cats, illus. after Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne. Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus … Middelburg: Hans vander Hellen, 1618. Call number: PN6349 .C2 S5 1618 Cage; displayed p. 52–53.
• Walther Hermann Ryff. Der furnembsten, notwendigsten, der gantzen Architectur … Nuremberg: Johannes Petrejus, 1547. Call number: 184- 609f; displayed p. 1 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Ricky Jay. John Selman.
• LOAN courtesy of the Richard Balzer Collection. 3 Jack-in-the-boxes.
• Thomas Hill. The Gardeners Labyrinth. London: Henry Bynneman, 1577. Call number: STC 13485; displayed p. 41 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Thomas Fella. A book of diverse devises and sorts of pictures with the alphabets of letters. Manuscript, ca. 1585–1622. Call number: V.a.311; displayed fol. 72v–73r and facsimile of fol. 80v and LUNA Digital Copy
• LOAN courtesy of Ricky Jay Collection. Rembrandt. Etching (?) De kwakzalver, 1635.
• Fragment of a drinking glass. ca. 1650
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Jack Cade.

Awake Your Faith (vitrine after case 7)

You’re looking at an early modern robot. This mechanical monk was created in the 16th century and its actions, when wound up, simulate the actions of a real person. We’ve paired it with a portrait of Hermione, the statue that comes to life at the end of The Winter's Tale. Both of these go together because both of these show life coming from something that is not alive. In the case of Shakespeare’s play, a statue comes to life; in the case of the automaton, just like a real person.

Items included

• LOAN courtesy of National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Automaton figure of a friar. South Germany or Spain, c. 1560. Video of friar in motion.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Awake Your Faith. Image.

A Theatre Burns (before case 7)

You’re looking at illuminated images of fire in the theater. Theater is a live art form and that means that whenever actors take the stage in front of a live audience one never knows what’s going to happen. This was certainly the case in a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, at the Globe Theater in London early in the 17th century. During this performance an explosive set fire to the thatched roof of this theater and burned it to the ground. Famous fires like this remind us that theaters are a place of unexpected events, wonders, but also of dangers.

Items included

• LOANS courtesy of Richard Balzer. Backlit Protean Views:

[1] Simon Fokke. Afbeelding der eerst uitslaande Vlamme in de Amsterdamschen Schouwburg. Amsterdam: G. Warnars & P. den Hengst, 1772. Image.

[2] Noach van der Meer. Afbeelding van den Brand des Amsterdamschen Schouwburgs. Amsterdam: G. Warnars & P. den Hengst, 1772.

[3] Noach van der Meer. Afbeelding van den Brand des Amsterdamschen Schouwburgs. Amsterdam: G. Warnars & P. den Hengst, 1772.

An Art That Nature Makes (case 8)

From Monstrorum historia, 1642. Folger Digital Image 62805.

One of the major themes of this exhibit is the ways in which artists and nature both produce things that are very beautiful and that have shapes and forms. In this case you can see many items that were produced by nature—an agate that looks like a volcano, or some rivers stones that look sculptural—and that help remind us that, at least in the Renaissance, the art that nature employs was seen to be similar to the one that human beings used. This was a theme that was taken up in wonder cabinets and other collections in the period and its one that we can see both in objects and in pictures from books from this period.

Items included

• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Mastodon Tooth.
• Robert Hooke. The posthumous works of Robert Hooke. London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1705. Call number: 165791; displayed 2 openings— plate opp. p. 283: Tab: 1.a and plate opp. p. 286: Tab: V.a.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Fossilized ammonite.
• FACSIMILIE from Rosamond Purcell. Ole Worm,“The Petrified Snake” from Museum Wormianum. Leiden, 1655. (d. 1654).
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Wisconsin river concretions. Image.
• FACSIMILE. Ulisse Aldrovandi. Monstrorum historia. Bologna: Nicolò Tebaldini, 1642. Call number: 167114; displayed p. 145 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Staurolite crosses. Northern Siberia.
• LOAN courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University. Hematite in the shape of a bird wing.
• FACSIMILE. Athanasius Kircher. Ars magna lucis et umbrae … Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1671. Call number: Q155 .K5 1671 Cage Fo.; displayed p. 709 (top plate).
• LOAN courtesy of Julia Sheehan. Small agate “Volcano.”
• LOAN courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University. Italian marble landscape stone.
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Life cast of lizards after Wenzel Jamnitzer. Northern European, 16th century.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Sounds at Dover Cliffs.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. An Art That Nature Makes.

Snakes (case 9)

There are three beautiful bottles here in this case. They are apothecary jars from Italy and they once contained different drugs that would be used for curative purposes. It connects us with a scene in Romeo and Juliet when Romeo arrives in an apothecary store and there’s a beautiful description of things that he sees. We like these jars because they are very much like the things in the world that Romeo would have actually seen.

Items included

• LOAN courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. 4 Apothecary Jars. Italian Renaissance.
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Life cast of snake after Wenzel Jamnitzer. Northern European, 16th century.
• LOAN courtesy of the Ricky Jay Collection. “Quack Doctor with Snakes.” Etching in Guiseppe Maria Mitelli. Di Bologna Arti Per Via D’Annibale Caracci Disegnate, intagliate, et offerte Al grande, et alto Nettuno Gigante. Rome: Jacomo Rossi, 1660.
• FACSIMILE. Thomas Fella. A book of diverse devises. Manuscript, ca. 1585–1622. Call number: V.a.311; displayed fol. 61r and LUNA Digital Copy.
• Moyse Charas. Nouvelles experiences sur la vipère. English. London: T.R. for J. Martyn, 1673. Call number: C2038 vol. 1; displayed title page.
• Edward Topsell. The historie of serpents. London: William Jaggard, 1608. Call number: STC 24124 Copy 2; displayed title page and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Wood in the shape of a snake. Image.
• Herbarium. Manuscript, ca. 1680. Call number: V.a.598; displayed fol. between 4 & 5 and LUNA Digital Image.
• FACSIMILE/PHOTOGRAPH from Rosamond Purcell. Tazza di terra siglillata
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Remember Me.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Detestable Maw.

Wall before case 10

• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Othello Greets Desdemonain Cyprus.

Hearsay (case 10)

• Ulisse Aldrovandi. Monstrorum historia. Bologna: Nicolò Tebaldini, 1642. Call number: 167114; displayed p. 14–15 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Konrad Lykosthenes, trans. Stephen Batman. The doom warning to the Judgment. London: Ralph Newberry, 1581. Call number: STC 1582 Copy 2; displayed p. 206–207 and LUNA Digital Image.
• FACSIMILE. Theodor de Bry. Emblemata nobilitati et vulgo scitu digna … Frankfurt am Main, 1592. Call number: PN6349 .B79 E5 1592; displayed plate 19 LUNA Digital Image.
• Liceti, Fortunio. De monstris. Amsterdam: Andreas Frisius, 1665. Call number: GR825.L5 1665 Cage; displayed p. 149 and LUNA Digital Image.
• FACSIMILE from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Unknown artist. Akephalos and Knokephalos. Ghent, Belgium, c. 1475.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. “Twinned glass.”
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Life cast of lizard.
• FACSIMILE from Tate, London. British School. The Cholomondelet Ladies.
• FACSIMILES. Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Uppsala. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus. Rome: Giovanni Maria Viotti, 1555. Call number: DL45 .M1 1555 Cage; displayed p. 764 and p. 780 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of the Ricky Jay Collection. Etching, Tartar prisoner, n.d.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Descant of My Deformity.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Meadow Fairies.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Mandrakes.

Love of Having (case 11)

• LOAN courtesy of the Ricky Jay Collection. John Smith after Egbert van Heemskerck. Jemmy LaRoche the Raree showman. Mezzotint ca. 1690
• FACSIMILE. Johann Theodor de Bry Self portrait in Jean-Jacques Boissard. De divinatione & magicis praestigiis. Oppenheim: Hieronymus Galler for Johann Theodor de Bry, 1617. Call number: BF1750.B6 1616 Cage; displayed 4v.
• Lumb Stocks after Charles Robert Leslie. Winter's tale, Autolycus. Engraving. Mid-19th century. Call number: ART File S528w1 no.49 copy.1 (size M) and LUNA Digital Image.
• FACSIMILE. Johann Theodor de Bry. Proscenium vitae humanae sive Emblematum secularium … Frankfurt am Main: William Fitzer, 1627. Call number: PN6349.B789 P6 1627 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Denis Lebey de Batilly, illus. Theodor de Bry after Jean Jacques Boissard. Emblemata. Frankfurt am Main, 1596. Call number: PN6349.L353 1596 Cage; displayed F4r.
• Gold coins. England, ca. 1509–1602
• Embroidery and design by Erin Moody. Imagined design of Dedesmona’s handkerchief.
• Coronet owned by Julia Marlowe and Edward Hugh Sothern. Late 19th century.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Field of Cloth of Gold. Image.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Mirror.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Richard’s Crown.

Wall before case 12

• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Open Your Eyes.

Speaking in Tongues (case 12)

• Athanasius Kircher. Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni. Rome: Heirs of Francesco Corbelletti, 1650. Call number: 163411; displayed p. 30–31.
• Thomas Scot. Philomythie or Philomythologie. London: John Legatt for Francis Constable, 1616. Call number: STC 21869; displayed title page by Renold Elstracke.
• Burnet Reading after John Hamilton Mortimer. Caliban. London : T. & H. Rodd, 1820. Call number: ART File S528t2 no.72 (size XS) and LUNA Digital Image.
• Gaspar Schott. Magia universalis naturae et artis. Würzburg: Heirs of Johann Gottfried Schönwetter, 1657. Call number: Q155 .S3 1657 Cage ; displayed p. 373 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Joannes Jonstonus. A description of the nature of four-footed beasts. London: Moses Pitt, 1678. Call number: J1015A.2; displayed plate Tab LV.
• FACSIMILE from the British Library. "Bear-baiting". Marginal decoration in The Luttrell Psalter. English, before 1340. Reference number: Add. MS 42130; displayed f. 161r.
• LOAN courtesy of the Ricky Jay Collection. Francesco Bartolozzi, after John Alefounder. Peter the Wild Boy. London: John Alefounder, 1784.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Exit, Pursued by a Bear.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Rude Mechanicals.

Vitrine after case 12

• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Chained Book.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Book, The Land.

Caliban (case 13)

Wood from Shakespeare's birthplace, much like the bundle Caliban carries in The Tempest. Folger Digital Image 64390.

In the case on Caliban we’ve included many items from the nature world. One of the things that is distinctive of Caliban is his mastery of nature and the natural processes on the island. This made us think about Caliban as a kind of natural historian, someone who pays attention to nature and knows its secrets. This idea connects to another idea in the Renaissance which was that nature itself is a kind of book and it’s filled with secrets and wisdom. Only certain people, however, can read that book. So this makes a nice parallel with Prospero, who literally consults books and lives in them. Caliban consults the book of nature and is its greatest authority.

• FACSIMILES. Ulisse Aldrovandi. Monstrorum historia. Bologna: Nicolò Tebaldini, 1642. Call number: 167114; displayed p. 356 and p. 357 and LUNA Digital Image.
• FASCIMILE. A. Birrell, after Thomas Stothard. Caliban in Tempest. London: Edward Harding, 1798. Call number: ART File S528t2 no.75 copy 1 (size XS) and LUNA Digital Image.
• John Gerard. Herball or Generall historie of plantes. London: Adam Islip, Joice Norton, and Richard Whitakers, 1633. Call number: STC 11751 and LUNA Digital Copy.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Banksia seed pod.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Barnacled shells.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Turtle shell of Stigmochelys Pardalis. Eastern and Southern Africa.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Amphora covered with vermicularia or tube-worm shells. Image.
• John Frith. Vox piscis: or, the bookfish. London: Humphrey Lownes, John Beale, and Augustine Mathewes, 1627. Call number: STC 11395 Copy 3; displayed frontis and title page.
• Wood from Shakespeare’s birthplace. Call number: ART Inv. 1180 and LUNA Digital Image.
• LOAN courtesy of Rosamond Purcell. Starfish.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Caliban’s Freedom.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Boring the Moon. Image.

Wall after case 13

• “Island” created from burned pages of The Tempest. William Shakespeare. Plays. London: Thomas Cotes, 1632. Call number: STC 22274 Fo. 2 no. 55; displayed leaves 1, 2, 3, 7 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. Ariel.
• Rosamond Purcell, photograph. The Conjurer, Prospero. Image.

Prospero’s Books (case 14)

• Marcus Tullius Cicero. De Oratore. Venice: Haeredes Federici Torresani, 1569. Call number: PA6296 .D6 1569 Cage; displayed p. 5 and LUNA Digital Image.
• Astrological notes and tables in Zacuto’s Almanach perpetuum and Stoeffler’s Almanach nova. Manuscript, ca. 1504. Call number: V.a.323; displayed p. 271 and Binding image on LUNA.
• Book of magic, with instructions for invoking spirits, etc. Manuscript, ca. 1577–83. Call number: V.b.26 (1); displayed p. 88–89 and LUNA Digital Copy
• Euclid. Preclarissimus liber elementorum Euclidis perspicacissimi. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1482. Call number: INC E86 and LUNA Digital Image and Binding image on LUNA.
• LOAN courtesy of Lisa Unger Baskin. Life cast of lizard biting another lizard. Northern European, 16th century.