The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This book tells of a forgotten yet exalted episode in the history of science and art..." (more)
Key Phrases: primi lincei, imperfect plants, urban bees, Tesoro Messicano, Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Francesco Barberini (more...)

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Product Description

Years ago, David Freedberg stumbled across a group of drawings by the little-known Academy of Linceans, a seventeenth-century Italian group that took as its task nothing less than the pictorial documentation of all of nature. Moving across Europe, he encountered thousands of such drawings—of fossils, the species of the New World, or the heavenly bodies studied by the group's most famous member, Galileo Galilei. Profusely illustrated and engagingly written, this book reveals this crucial moment in the development of natural history.

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Years ago, David Freedberg stumbled across a group of drawings by the little-known Academy of Linceans, a seventeenth-century Italian group that took as its task nothing less than the pictorial documentation of all of nature. Moving across Europe, he encountered thousands of such drawings—of fossils, the species of the New World, or the heavenly bodies studied by the group's most famous member, Galileo Galilei. Profusely illustrated and engagingly written, this book reveals this crucial moment in the development of natural history.

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Product Details Paperback: 528 pages Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (September 1, 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 0226261484 ISBN-13: 978-0226261485 Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.2 inches Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #34 in  Books > Arts & Photography > Design & Decorative Arts > Graphic Design > Commercial > Science Illustration

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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First Sentence:
This book tells of a forgotten yet exalted episode in the history of science and art. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
primi lincei, imperfect plants, urban bees, fossil drawings, natural historical researches, liber unicus, crisi del sapere, ink over black chalk, fossil woods, natural history drawings, goose barnacle, paper museum, middle natures, fossilized wood, collegio romano

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tesoro Messicano, Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Francesco Barberini, Giovanni Battista, Vincenzo Leonardi, Mexican Treasury, Fabio Colonna, New Spain, Cardinal Francesco, Tabulae Phytosophicae, Federico Cesi, Windsor Castle, Maffeo Barberini, Natural History of Fossils, Collegio Romano, Academy of Linceans, Cardinal Bellarmine, Holy Scripture, Francisco Hernández, Holy Office, Johannes Faber, Luca Valerio, Starry Messenger, Cardinal Barberini, Cesi's Tabulae

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 69 books:

• God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science by David C. Lindberg in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
• Anatomy of Plants by Nehemiah Grew on page 255, and Back Matter
• The Scientific Revolution in National Context by Roy Porter in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
• Philosophia Botanica by C. Linnaeus on page 63, and Back Matter
• Galileo Reappraised by C. Golino in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 69 books this book cites

 

4 books cite this book:

• Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything by Paula Findlen in Back Matter
• Figuring It Out: Science, Gender, and Visual Culture (Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture) by Ann Shteir in Front Matter
• Thomas Browne and the Writing of Early Modern Science by Claire Preston in Back Matter
• Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything by Paula Findlen in Back Matter

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

When Science and Christianity Meet by Ronald L. Numbers

Discusses:

• natural historical researches
• crisi del sapere
• collegio romano

Galileo, Courtier by Mario Biagioli

Discusses:

• crisi del sapere
• Francesco Barberini
• Federico Cesi

Possessing Nature by Paula Findlen

Discusses:

• urban bees
• Francesco Barberini
• Fabio Colonna

The Cambridge Companion to Galileo by Peter Machamer

Discusses:

• crisi del sapere
• Collegio Romano
• Holy Office

Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters by Mordechai Feingold

Discusses:

• crisi del sapere
• fonte poco utilizzata
• Collegio Romano

Between Copernicus and Galileo by James M. Lattis

Discusses:

• crisi del sapere
• collegio romano
• Collegio Romano

When Science and Christianity Meet by Ronald L. Numbers Discusses: natural historical researches crisi del sapere collegio romano Galileo, Courtier by Mario Biagioli Discusses: crisi del sapere Francesco Barberini Federico Cesi Possessing Nature by Paula Findlen Discusses: urban bees Francesco Barberini Fabio Colonna The Cambridge Companion to Galileo by Peter Machamer Discusses: crisi del sapere Collegio Romano Holy Office Loading...

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2 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 21 of 21 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book, December 19, 2002 By A Customer This review is from: The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Hardcover) This book, by David Freedberg, tells the fascinating story of Freedberg's discovery, on a tip from the notorious spy and brilliant art historian Anthony Blunt, of a group of amazing antique drawings stashed away in an obscure cupboard in Windsor Castle. The images, gracefully drawn and beautifully colored, depicted a bizarre range of flora and fauna: deformed lemons with claw-like legs, flamingoes, dramatic portraits of badger faces, strange plants... The discovery marked the beginning of a great adventure told in the book--of Freedberg's search for and discovery of the source of the drawings: a 17th-century gang of noblemen and eccentrics based largely in Rome who took as their mission nothing less than the discovery, analysis, and visual record of all natural knowledge. They called themselves the Accademia Lincea, or Academy of Lynxes. This was the age of Galileo, who was in fact a member, and whose work the Lincea edited and published. With the aid of microscopes, telescopes, and other instruments, the Lincea and their peers began to develop a picture of the natural world in all its details that profoundly challenged traditional views of Heaven and Earth, supported by the Roman Catholic Church. Freedberg's manner is at once learned and accessible. He tells a gripping story of a group of fascinating characters, some brilliant, some insane, and their grand projects, including a decidedly obsessive interest in bees. Lavishly illustrated in color and black-and-white, this is surely one of the most attractive, novel, and important works of history this year. 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST-HAVE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN SCIENCE AND ITS HISTORY, December 18, 2002 By  Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)       This review is from: The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Hardcover) Rich in breathtakingly beautiful illustrations (83 color plates, 89 halftones) "The Eye of the Lynx" is a must-have for those with a penchant for science and its history. We are told that author Freedberg, an art history professor and director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, once happened upon a neglected cupboard in Windsor Castle holding hundreds of intricately precise drawings of plants and animals dating from the Old and New Worlds. He was acting on the word of Anthony Blount, an art historian and British spy. These drawings had been hidden and forgotten since the days of King George III. Later, after coming across countless more throughout Europe, Freedberg discovered their provenance - a small 17th century scientific group. Based in Italy it was called the Academy of Linceans for Lynx-eyed. This optimistic organization set as their goal the representation of all nature in pictures. The mighty task of the Linceans is recounted for the first time in English in this wondrous book. They, unlike their predecessors, focused on internal structures rather than external appearances. For its time, one of the most outre ideas proposed by the Linceans was the microscope. They simply turned Galileo's telescope around and exposed a once invisible world. Freedberg has rendered an enormous service in bringing to light this integral portion of the development of visuals as related to natural history. - Gail Cooke		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226261484
• ISBN-13: 978-0226261485
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #34 in

  Books > Arts & Photography > Design & Decorative Arts > Graphic Design > Commercial > Science Illustration

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book, December 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Hardcover)

This book, by David Freedberg, tells the fascinating story of Freedberg's discovery, on a tip from the notorious spy and brilliant art historian Anthony Blunt, of a group of amazing antique drawings stashed away in an obscure cupboard in Windsor Castle. The images, gracefully drawn and beautifully colored, depicted a bizarre range of flora and fauna: deformed lemons with claw-like legs, flamingoes, dramatic portraits of badger faces, strange plants...

The discovery marked the beginning of a great adventure told in the book--of Freedberg's search for and discovery of the source of the drawings: a 17th-century gang of noblemen and eccentrics based largely in Rome who took as their mission nothing less than the discovery, analysis, and visual record of all natural knowledge. They called themselves the Accademia Lincea, or Academy of Lynxes. This was the age of Galileo, who was in fact a member, and whose work the Lincea edited and published. With the aid of microscopes, telescopes, and other instruments, the Lincea and their peers began to develop a picture of the natural world in all its details that profoundly challenged traditional views of Heaven and Earth, supported by the Roman Catholic Church.

Freedberg's manner is at once learned and accessible. He tells a gripping story of a group of fascinating characters, some brilliant, some insane, and their grand projects, including a decidedly obsessive interest in bees. Lavishly illustrated in color and black-and-white, this is surely one of the most attractive, novel, and important works of history this year.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST-HAVE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN SCIENCE AND ITS HISTORY, December 18, 2002

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (Hardcover)

Rich in breathtakingly beautiful illustrations (83 color plates, 89 halftones) "The Eye of the Lynx" is a must-have for those with a penchant for science and its history.

We are told that author Freedberg, an art history professor and director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, once happened upon a neglected cupboard in Windsor Castle holding hundreds of intricately precise drawings of plants and animals dating from the Old and New Worlds. He was acting on the word of Anthony Blount, an art historian and British spy. These drawings had been hidden and forgotten since the days of King George III.

Later, after coming across countless more throughout Europe, Freedberg discovered their provenance - a small 17th century scientific group. Based in Italy it was called the Academy of Linceans for Lynx-eyed.

This optimistic organization set as their goal the representation of all nature in pictures. The mighty task of the Linceans is recounted for the first time in English in this wondrous book. They, unlike their predecessors, focused on internal structures rather than external appearances.

For its time, one of the most outre ideas proposed by the Linceans was the microscope. They simply turned Galileo's telescope around and exposed a once invisible world.

Freedberg has rendered an enormous service in bringing to light this integral portion of the development of visuals as related to natural history.

- Gail Cooke