JF Ptak Science Books Overall Post 5150
The subject of this woodcut is well out of my range, even on a better-than-beyond-my-means day, but the imagery
is very sharp, and contrasting, and very unusual. I'd say that of the 5000+ posts on this blog that fewer than a
dozen might be in the established but underused category, The Department of Upside Down Things.
This image would be one of its stars, as the upside down part isn't immediately obvious to my eye given the
somewhat complex construction of the woodcut.But then, there it is: the upside down cathedral. The illustration is from a work by Joseph Grunpeck (1476-ca.1530+), a man with range in religion/theology and
medicine, and author of one of the earliest works on "the French disease", syphilis. In this work he is writing,
I think, from a humanist standpoint on a coming change in Christianity, and in the image depicts the changing
world, showing clerics in the field while in the upside down cathedral we see the farmer and the peasant...the classes
have changed sides, or perspectives, or are equal, or some such. As I said, this is a very weak area for me, but
thought that I would at least share this interesting illustration, even if my interpretation is wrong--it is or it isn't.
[The legend reads: "Veränderung aller Stände der Christenheit , die mag bewährt werden aus den sichtbaren
Zeichen des Himmels".]
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