Images of Science: A History of Scientific Illustration

This spectacularly illustrated book chronicles the exciting progress of scientific investigation through the ages as it has been mirrored in the art used to document its ideas and breakthroughs. From the cave paintings of prehistory through the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece to Renaissance drawings and modern microscopy, these images reveal the hidden influences and cultural pressures of their times in addition to chronicling and communicating a wealth of contemporary observation and knowledge. The author has organized each section of this survey by taking some of the earliest surviving examples of illustration, and moving through time to the present. Thus separate chapters focus on the animal world, herbs and the birth of botany, physics and the science of non-living matter, mankind in the world; the world in space; and other seminal topics. This organization, and its freedom from a fixed chronology, has enabled the author to show science actually shaping its own story, with surprisingly sophisticated images emerging centuries in advance of today's high-tech instrumentation. The illustrations--most of which are from the British Library collections--have been chosen from among the best preserved in the world, some never before reproduced. All help to show how scientific illustration first arose; how it mirrored in many ways the value systems of the science of its time; how images were borrowed, transformed, and occasionally came to predict future discoveries; and how science evolved from one breathtaking era to the next. This is a work that will stimulate and inspire all readers interested in art and science, and the ingenuity of the scientific mind.