Picturing the Book of Nature

“Science historian Sachiko Kusukawa probes the role of illustration in sixteenth-century medical treatises, before the advent of the microscope. Looking at Leonhart Fuch’s De historia stirpium, Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica and the unpublished Historia plantarum of Conrad Gessner, Kusukawa argues that such anatomical and botanic images were not simply records of natural phenomena, but varied visual experiments. [Her] book is studded with illustrative gems, not least John Dee’s ‘pop-up’ pyramids in Of Euclid’s Elements.”

“[M]agisterial. . . . As befits a volume dedicated to scientific illustration, Kusukawa’s own work is superbly presented, the clarity and nuance of the images complementing the lucidity and originality of her arguments.”

“Picturing the Book of Nature transitions gracefully from addressing general print concerns about illustrated texts to examining these themes in pictures of medicinal plants and ultimately to images of human anatomy. By moving toward greater specificity, Kusukawa connects specific debates and general trends, thus underscoring the symbiotic relationship between botany and medicine that characterized natural history during the period. . . . Kusukawa’s command of primary sources is impressive, and she addresses historiographic lacunae with gusto. . . . [A] captivating read.”

“[H]andsomely illustrated. . . . This work would be an excellent addition to any history of science collection. Highly recommended.”

“Kusukawa offers her readers an intellectual feast that is both satisfying and likely to stimulate more hunger for the questions at hand.”

“Readers today tend to expect images to accompany written text of scientific literature, but the distinguished scholar Sachiko Kusukawa tells how the study of medicine, which included medical botany and human anatomy, was enhanced by the introduction of illustrations with the printed content during the Renaissance. . . . Her insights into Renaissance scholarship are enlightening. Certainly, there are parallels to modern introductions of digital communication tools in all their various forms, and their use by scholars.”

“All of the authors discussed here gave much thought to how their particular use of illustrations in combination with the text would influence the reader’s reading practice. We can say the same of Sachiko Kusukawa and her publisher, since this is one of the most beautifully produced and richly illustrated volumes in this field to have appeared for a long time. This thoughtful and thought-provoking study deserves to become a point of reference for research on relations between text and image, the role of illustrations and that of visual evidence in the history of science. Hopefully it will lead to new debate on the plurality and inventiveness of sixteenth-century textual and visual science.”

“Beautifully illustrated, this remarkable study constitutes a major step forward in understanding the world of medicine and natural history in the sixteenth century.”

“This is a magnificent achievement and a hugely important revision to our understanding of the philosophical place of images—drawn as well as printed—in the history of science. For this it will undoubtedly quickly become a standard work. It also points the way forward for the development of more refined bibliographical tools for the study of printed pictures, and the integration of the results of such study into intellectual history.”

“Picturing the Book of Nature is both a lucidly written study of an intellectually significant topic and also a lavishly illustrated and beautiful material object. It discusses the uses of illustration in printed books of medico-scientific botany and anatomy in the sixteenth century, early years of both print culture and the scientific revolution, thus reconstructing a scholarly argument by ‘reading pictures.’ A sense of the nuanced complexity of the relationship between pictures and words in the early modern period illuminates Kusukawa’s history while casting a raking light on our own time. Students of print culture, whether historians of science or not, should take notice.”

“Like many of its sources, Picturing the Book of Nature is stunningly and extensively illustrated; it embodies and carefully propounds an assiduous attention to the potentialities and limitations of books as material objects that individuals use in specific ways. . . . Kusukawa’s study . . . is vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the exigencies of medical publishing in the Renaissance.”

“Elegantly designed and well-illustrated, . . . [Picturing the Book of Nature] is a clear and concise account of the process of book making and publishing that students of the history of art and science will appreciate.”

“Picturing the Book of Nature enriches the field of science and visual culture through its detailed focus on the composition, production, and reception of printed books containing both text and images. . . . Kusukawa has masterfully undermined our identification of these texts as canonical examples of period use of illustration by demonstrating that what is generally taken to be key and emblematic in them (namely a new attention to and the role of the visual) was in reality highly contested.”

“Throughout the book, Kusukawa consistently and carefully presents all sides of the argument for and against including images in the study of the book of nature. Instead of simply presenting the view of Fuchs, Gessner, and Vesalius, she provides excellent commentary on those who disagreed both with the content and the format of their works. Rich with historical detail, her accounts of the public and private disagreements present a vivid portrait of the spectrum of opinions about the use of illustrations in the sixteenth century, which lends fascinating insight into how the testimony of both the ancients and the moderns was used in favor of and against including illustrations in books for physicians. With its careful attention to visual argument, this book productively complicates our understanding of why and how authors included images in their texts.”

“Today we take for granted the usefulness of images in making a scientific argument, but in the sixteenth century many scholars had good reasons for criticizing the use of images in books. In this deeply intelligent and eloquently written (and illustrated) book, Sachiko Kusukawa tells us exactly how sixteenth-century authors struggled—with publishers, artists, classical authorities, and their fellow humanists—to make images a part of their books and a central component of their scientific arguments. Kusukawa overturns many assumptions about the relationship of images and books, making clear that images always worked in tandem with the texts because for these scholars, nature was understood through books. In doing so, she provides essential new insight into humanist scholarship and the interplay among texts, images, the things of nature, eyewitness observation, and the testimony of authorities in the sixteenth century. Picturing the Book of Nature presents an illuminating new view of how sixteenth-century scholars went about constructing a pictorial form of argument in their novel pursuit of making the structure of nature visible.”

“How do images make an argument? Picturing the Book of Nature rewrites the history of Renaissance science and medicine to demonstrate how illustrations became an instrument of knowledge in the mid-sixteenth century. Kusukawa’s careful attention to the making and use of images not only describes something fundamental about science in the age of Gutenberg and Vesalius but also illuminates a culture of lively and contentious debate about the relationship between word and image on the eve of the Scientific Revolution.”

“In this magnificent study of botanical and anatomical images in early printed books, Kusukawa asks not only how the first great illustrated scientific books were produced but why. She shows that, rather than simply recording observations, pictures were controversial tools for teaching, learning, researching, demonstrating, and persuading, and that they were shaped and informed by these complex goals. Erudite, lucidly argued, and original, Picturing the Book of Nature is itself a wonderful example of the power of images in and as arguments.”