Gastropod images were not intentionally printed in the form of inverted
images
during the 17th and 18th Century, but were caused by the application of a
particular
printing technique: engravings. Most antique books were printed with the
help of
that technique: Lister, Rumphius, Gualterius, Knorr, Adanson, etc.
Everything goes
fine (fishes, mammals, crabs even bivalves) until you are dealing with
gastropods.
If you are printing an engraving then the final result will be a mirror
image of the
engraved copper plate i.e. the artists had to engrave gastropods in a mirror
image. Even Rembrandt was tricked by it therefore his famous Conus marmoreus
turned out as a sinistral one.
The copper plate engravings in Lister are of a particular high standard
because
even the accompanying engraved text on the plates turned out to be printed
correctly.
Rumphius plates were produced by several different engravers. Some took
notice
of the problem, some not, therefore some plates show the gastropods in
reverse images, while others were printed the correct way.
It is correctly to say that during a rather long period (even well into the
20th Century
in the Journal de Conchyliologie) gastropods were printed with the aperture
facing
upwards i.e. the snails are standing on their top, however, those images are
not
inverted.
Henk K. Mienis
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Alfonso Pina <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 12:30 AM
Subject: Re:
> Hello, I have read in a book by Stephen Jay Gould an interesting article
on
> this issue, citing some famous errors. He also affirms that intentional
> inverted printing of gasteropods drawings was a common practice until
XVIII
> century, nobody knows why.
>
> In the same book there is also an article about the Edgar Allan Poe
> conchological book, the only one wich he got a second edition during his
> life.
> The Gould's book is "Dinosaur in a haystack", and no, he doesn't ask me to
> sell his books, I just think that some of you may will find it
> interesting...
>
> Best regards,
>
> Alfonso Pina
> Málaga, Spain
> www.eumed.net/malakos
>
|
