This study explores the significance of printer’s marks in the Early Modern period, which evolved from mere commercial identifiers into symbols of cultural and intellectual identity. It focuses on Erhard Ratdolt, a German printer active in Venice, renowned for his technical innovations and artistic vision. Ratdolt’s device, based on his coat of arms, features the planetary god Mercury, reflecting astrological beliefs and the humanist ethos of German intellectual circles aspiring to emulate classical Rome. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that Ratdolt’s printer mark asserts the artisanal skill and creative agencyof the printer, aligning his craft with the ideals of Renaissance humanism. The analysis examines the chronology, iconography, and contextual meaning of Ratdolt’s emblem within political, cultural, and social frameworks.
This article offers a re-reading of the Ninfa fiorentina project (1900–1901) by Aby Warburg and André Jolles as a methodological proposal. Based on an analysis of the early drafts, it argues that the project takes shape as an initial formulation of Warburg’s method, in which some of its key principles are established. The study focuses on the so-called “drafts of 1900”, particularly folio 3, where an opposition emerges between empathetic aestheticism and the distance necessary for thought. From this tension, the article shows how Ninfa enables Warburg to articulate the study of detail as a means of accessing what lies “behind” images.
A nature museum and research institute, founded in 1935 in the first kibbutz (Degania, established in 1909), adopts as its symbol a hand scattering seeds on barren soil–an image rooted in early modern emblematic tradition. Drawing inspiration from emblems by Camerarius and Borja, the museum’s founder employed agricultural metaphors to convey moral action while integrating Enlightenment ideals of science and progress. The «Laboring Hand» emblem embodies the dynamic interplay between European humanistic traditions and Zionism’s aspirations for renewal, illustrating how early modern emblems were deliberately reinterpreted to shape a distinct modern national ethos.
Se analizan las opciones de visualización y funcionalidades habilitadas en las ediciones digitales académicas de libros de emblemas propuestas en los proyectos Biblioteca Digital del Siglo de Oro, Emblem Project Utrecht, Glasgow University Emblem Website y Furnace and Fugue. Para indagar en la calidad de estas ediciones y en su usabilidad, se propone un con-junto de indicadores evaluativos que han partido de la revisión de directrices internacionales sobre publicación y presentación de ediciones digitales académicas. Se avanzan posibles mejoras en los patrones de edición digital de libros de emblemas y se reflexiona sobre las tendencias de evolución observadas.
Recensión de libro: Computational Formalism: Art History and Machine Learning, Amanda Wasielewski, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2023, 200 pp.
