Emerging from Clouds: Artificial Legs and the Foot of God

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 830

 

This busy and still beautifully designed woodcut from Amrbose Pare’s Opera Chirurgica… was printed in 1594 and holds special fascinations for me.  First of all it is a pioneering work on artificial limbs, and secondly, and tritely, I like the floating ribbons and ties (some of which seem to come from clouds).  First on Pare (1510-1590):  this was a revolutionary work of an extraordinary figure (even though there are some who suspected that not all of this book was his own work) and was the greatest surgeon of his era and the doctor to four kings. He was responsible for the invention of numerous surgical instruments; he also re-introduced the ligature  into surgical procedures for amputations, wrote on carbon monoxide poisoning, introduced the introduction of induced labor, created the reimplantation of teeth, was a pioneer of treating battlefield wounds and was one of the first to write on medical ethics and jurisprudence, and much else.

 But I’m sorry to say that I am fixated on the artificial leg-cloud.   And the floating bits. 

This brigs me back to a post here from just two days ago on Antiquarian Dadaism and the emblems of Scarlattini…and which is probably the only chance I’ll ever have to make  for connections of feet-from-clouds.  Or near-feet from clouds and the foot of God.  In any event, I would like to make it out to be the foot of the creator coming from the clouds to vanquish its squint-eyed and beaten foe.  "Triumphator" classically refers to the triumphal parades in ancient Rome, and I guess that this foot could belong to any victor, but since it is after all coming from the sky, I'd like to give that foot to God. 

Notes:

Pare’s Opera is available in toto at the National Library of Medicine’s superb pages here.

Comments

[Jeff]

Perhaps the clouds are merely pictorial ellipses?

[John Ptak]

Picto-who ellips-wha?

[Jeff]

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