Studio Inspiration Log

from The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke:

Mid-nineteenth century water cures. Walking barefoot in wet grass or snow became a fashionable social pastime and was also recommended for toothache.

The following images and corresponding information has been taken from the book The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke.

A twelfth-century German illustration of the concept of the central, though passive, involvement of man in the cosmic structure.  The medieval universe is shown encompassed and contained by the heavenly embrace.

A ninth-century Anglo-Saxon silver brooch. Note the simple, distorted animal and human figures, and the primitive, geometric views of nature. The centre is dominated by the ever-present heavenly figure.

A quick reference calendar from the ninth century.  The illustration shows the Sun in his chariot surrounded by the twelve months, and the agricultural activity with which they are associated.

Medieval doctors made their diagnosis according to the patient’s ‘humour’, or temperament, illustrated here in association with the elements of all matter. Left to right: phlegmatic, water; melancholic, earth; sanguine, air; and choleric, fire.

The importance of agriculture is shown in this twelfth-century church calendar, where, after the signs of the zodiac, the months are depicted by their appropriate seasonal work.

Ramon Lull devised a series of tree diagrams to aid recall of nature, heaven, hell and so on. This one relates man, on the trunk, to the elements of nature and logic written on the leaves and branches.

Ptolemy’s universe, illustrated in 1559…Strictly speaking there was held to be nothing beyond the outermost sphere but God’s invisible presence.

The Copernican planetary system of 1543, with the sun at the centre.  To account for the apparent alterations in speed and movement of the plants, Copernicus was obliged to use as many as ninety Ptolemaic epicycles (right).

A gunner fires his cannon according to the laws of Aristotelian physics: the ball can only move up and down in straight lines.

Brahe’s compromise with Copernicanism. In this model all the planets revolve round the sun, the group of sun and planets in turn revolving round the earth-mood system.  For those who could not accept a full-blooded heliocentric universe, this approach was very popular.

Kepler’s illustration of how the ‘attractive virtue’ of the sun might account for the elliptical nature of planetary objects. Left, the torturous geometry needed for calculation before the invention of calculus.  The compass needles (top right) indicate his concept of the ‘virtue’ as a kind of magnetism.

The universe as seen by Descartes, filled with whirlpools of matter. At the centre of each vortex is a sun: S,F,D,Y and so on. The curved strip is the path of a comet moving from vortex to vortex.

The medieval view of man and the universe. For a society built on the belief that the sky ruled all aspects of life, the view of the human condition was as valid then as is ours for the twentieth century.