Category Archives: history of science
Mandrake in Dodoens’ New Herbal (1578)
In honor of this weekend’s symposium “On Human Nature: Machiavelli’s Mandrake at 500,” we offer a look at the account and depiction of the mandrake in A nievve herball, or, Historie of plantes: […]
“Stupendous and Marvelous Secrets”: Secret No More (Part II)
We continue our exploration of so-called books of secrets (secreti italiani) in the Duveen Collection, recently digitized as part of the subcollection “Secrets Reveal’d: Early Modern Printed Books of Alchemy […]
“Stupendous and Marvelous Secrets”: Secret No More (Part I)
Some of the smallest treasures of the Duveen Collection of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, cataloged under the collective title of “Miscellaneous pamphlets in Italian on occult sciences,” have now been […]
Alchemy and Other Curiosities
This year’s Madison Early Music Festival, with its theme “A Cabinet of Curiosities: Journey to Lübeck,” offers us the opportunity to showcase our many books of curiosities from the 16th-18th […]
“A Boiling, Surging, Roaring Ocean of Fire!”
In light of recent news re ports and striking video of an eruption from Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, we revisit here some of our holdings about Kilauea, Hawaii, and […]
Stains in Special Collections
The presentation about the Library of Stains project on December 13 prompts us to look at different sorts of stains in Special Collections — notably, stains within our chemistry holdings. These […]
On Working and Labor Day 2017
Although the campus is buzzing with the excitement of football — first home game tonight — and the beginning of classes next week, we want to take this occasion to […]
Darkness at Noon (More or Less)
Like other special collections libraries prompted by tomorrow’s solar eclipse to post images from their holdings, we weigh in with examples from, among others, our exhibits “On the Sunny Side” […]
Electrifying Displays
Our current exhibit, “Natural History :: Natural Philosophy,” includes much about that quintessential topic of 18th-century natural philosophy, electricity. On display are numerous titles depicting electrical experiments, some for a […]
Earth Day
In celebration of Earth Day, we look back to a memorable acquisition — the 1,000,000th volume in the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries, gift of Research Products Laboratory: Hutton’s work in […]