The Public Domain Review
@publicdomainrev.bsky.social
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Online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas. Featuring 300+ essays — ✍️ submissions welcome. We also have a mighty fine prints shop. https://publicdomainreview.org
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publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Image from an 18th-century pattern book consisting of 36 ink drawings showing precise iconometric guidelines for depicting the #Buddha and Bodhisattva figures. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-tibetan-book-of-proportions
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Illuminations by Evrard d'Espinque for a circa 1480 French translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' 13th-century De Proprietatibus Rerum. More marvellous maps from the manuscript here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/despinque-anglicus-illuminations
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
After complaints about Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (1797) being entirely devoid of punctuation, in future editions the eccentric businessman supplied a supplemental page so that people “may peper and solt as they please”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dexter-pickle
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀

From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path — publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1450880306207240194/photo/1...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Sowing Man, a 1927 engraving by Dutch artist Bernard Essers.

One of 900+ prints available to buy from our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/sowing-man/

publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs (1869) — three essays by John Davenport (1789–1877) on phallicism, anaphrodisia, and various forms of love potion: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/aphrodisiacs-and-anti-aphrodisiacs
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
The Sorceress by Jan van de Velde II (1626).

A young sorceress mid-conjure with a motley crew of demonic “familiars”, one of which is sporting two pipes from his bum, both streaming with powders in elegant arcs: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-sorceress-jan-van-de-velde
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Title page to children's book by Sarah Josepha Hale, the US poet of "Mary had a Little Lamb" fame. Read it here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/t...
Reposted by The Public Domain Review
pdimagearchive.bsky.social
From Sammlung geometrischer und perspectivischer, in Farben ausgeführter Zeichnungen, 36 Blätter umfassend (Cod. Guelf. 74.1 Aug. 2°; Heinemann-Nr. 2708) (16th century).

Source: Herzog August Bibliothek

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/4a2115d3-01f4-47e3-95c9-cbb08fa9ab97

#perspective #shapes
watercolor geometrical illustration
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Front cover to Flatland (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott, who died #onthisday in 1926. Read Ian Stewart's introduction to the strange tale of A. Square's geometric adventures, the first ever book that could be described as “mathematical fiction” publicdomainreview.org/essay/a... #otd
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Before we're even passed the title page of this 1825 manual on astrology and the occult, we encounter an instance of the dark arts at work — this second edition has been cunningly labelled the “seventh” to make it look like a runaway success: publicdomainreview.org/collection/t...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
.@miriamkp on what led a 1920s Brooklyn surgeon to remove the veins from a day-old infant, mount them on a board, and film them being pumped with air: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/jacob-sarnoff-and-the-strange-world-of-anatomical-filmmaking
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Listen to a series of recordings made by the ethnographer James Mooney in 1894 of different Native American Ghost Dance songs. According to the Library Of Congress notes that accompany the recordings, the performances are probably by Mooney himself — publicdomainreview.org/collection/j...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Some of the great illustrations from The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884), including tales of the mythical Glooskap, whose name literally means Liar, because it is said that when he left earth he promised to return but has never done so: publicdomainreview.org/collection/t...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Replace these “wireless telegraphs” with smartphones, update the dress a little, and this vision of "isolating technology" from a 1906 issue of Punch magazine could easily be from today: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-vision-of-isolating-technology-from-1906
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
A man stares out over the fertile olive groves of Gaza, ca. 1911.

One of 125 photographs of life in Palestine before the British Mandate, ca. 1896–1919, we gathered from the collections of @librarycongress.bsky.social and others: publicdomainreview.org/collection/p...
A stereoscopic photograph showing a man in traditional dress standing among prickly pear cacti on a hillside, overlooking the cultivated fields and scattered trees of Gaza, Palestine. The landscape stretches into the distance with the town visible on the horizon. Published by Underwood & Underwood around the early 20th century.
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
A small pamphlet (in the Roycroft series “Little journeys to the homes of great musicians”) on the life of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, who was born #onthisday in 1813. Read it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-pamphlet-on-verdi-1901 #otd
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Were public toilet walls the @Twitter of the 18th century? Maximillian Novak on how a little-known book of “latrinalia” offers a unique and fascinating window into Georgian life: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/tales-from-the-boghouse
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Croatian Tales of Long Ago — a seminal collection of short stories by the acclaimed children's author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The illustrations in this 1922 edition are by Croatian artist Vladimir Kirin: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/croatian-tales-of-long-ago-1922
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Created with "those who would speak with ease and elegance" in mind, this book from 1846 offers detailed insight about the various postures of the mouth: publicdomainreview.org/collection/t...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Cat beating a drum: one of a motley crew of anthropomorphic animals to be found adorning the lower margins of a finely illuminated "book of hours" produced in late 13th-century England. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/m...
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
NEW ESSAY — Dobrota Pucherová on René, or: A Young Man’s Adventures and Experiences (1783), the first Slovak novel, partially banned upon publication and translated into English for the first time this year — publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-ad...
A hand-colored 19th-century-style print of two people in traditional Alpine folk dress: a seated woman in a red-trimmed bodice, orange jacket, and blue skirt holds a ceramic jug, while a man in a broad hat, short tunic, embroidered sash, and cape stands beside a stream. Pine trees and mountains rise behind them, with two smaller figures dancing in the distance.
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
A few of the seven etchings that comprise Käthe Kollwitz's Peasants’ War series (ca. 1901–1908) about the innate dignity, courage, and strength of the poor. More in our latest post here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kollwitz-peasants-war/
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
It's #WorldOctopusDay! Pictured here a “Polypus levis Hoyle” from a 1910 publication on the German Deep-Sea Expedition of 1898, led by Leipzig University Professor of Zoology, Carl Chun. Buy it as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/octopus/
publicdomainrev.bsky.social
Collection of twenty short "prose-songs" (as the Foreword declares them), from the French writer Marcel Schwob. These surreal, hallucinatory little sketches are Schwob's unique take on 3rd century BCE Greek poet Herodas' then-newly discovered mimes: publicdomainreview.org/collection/m...