Magic Transistor

Edward Livingston Youmans. The Chemistry of Familiar Objects. 1855.

Michael Maier. Emblem from Atalanta Fugiens. 1617.

Splendor Solis. A Two-Headed Winged Figure, A Winged Queen, A Man With a Sword, Sol Niger, A Man Bathing, The Sun. 1582.

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Abu Yahya Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud-al-Qazwini, Wonders of the Seven Seas (Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing); facsimile of a page from an illuminated manuscript transcribed some time in the 17th or 18th century (Persia).

Pierre Sala, Petit Livre d'Amour (Little Book of Love), 16th century, France.

(Unknown Illuminator). Janus, Zodiacal Sign of Capricorn. 1170s. 

Francisco de Holanda. Biblioteca Nacional de España.1573.

Portugese painter and philosopher Francisco de Holanda (student and lifelong friend of Michelangelo) depicts a geometry of turning forms set in motion by God’s luminescent command. A giant sun pinions tiny Earth in a shadow-casting ray. While this work also vibrates with precursor elements to 20th-century avant-garde art (for example, Kazimir Malevich’s algebraic Suprematist paintings), it contains an even more remarkable insight: Although the sun nominally rotates around Earth — the ancient geocentric universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy — in fact it dominates the picture, suggesting that the artist has subliminally grasped that it is the right center of our planetary system. -Michael Benson

Page from the Windsor Padshahnama. Darbar of Shah Jahan. The Royal Library. 1657.

Absit Omen

Thomas Edison's 'Electric Lamp', patented January 27, 1880. Thomas Edison’s first successful incandescent lamp gave 16 candlepower of illumination. The invention of a reliable carbon filament lamp created new challenges for Edison, including the design and construction of the power plants and the wiring systems required for the reliable and affordable operation of electrical lighting systems. [Photograph; Corbis-Bettmann]

Petrus Apanius. Astronomicum Caesareum (The Emperor's Astronomy). 1540.

The "Emperor's Astronomy"(dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) elegantly depicts the cosmos and heavens according to the 1400-year-old Ptolemaic system, which maintained that the sun revolved around the earth. By means of hand-colored maps and moveable paper parts (volvelles), Petrus Apianus (1495-1552) laid out the mechanics of a universe that was earth- and human-centered. Within three years of Apianus's book, this view was challenged by Copernicus's assertion that the earth revolved around the sun, making this elaborate publication outdated. -Loc Dot Gov

William Blake. Dante's Hell Canto V. The Lovers' Whirlwind, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. 1832.

Súblimatio

Gustave Doré. Beatrice and Virgil