The Public Domain Review
The Public Domain ReviewThe proposition of Giovanni della Casa's Il Galateo, an influential 16th-century Italian etiquette guide, is simple but difficult to get right: politeness is the art of pleasing others. Read an English translation from 1774 here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/galateo/
The Public Domain ReviewHow do cats always land on their feet? Scientists believed they use the dropper's hand as a fulcrum until these images, captured at 12 frames per second, debunked that in 1894. More on the Falling Cat Problem here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-a-falling-cat-1894?utm_content=buffer4f6a1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The Public Domain ReviewBeautiful illustrations of iron interacting with rocks, from the publication of a paper, "On the Disposition of Iron in Variegated Strata", delivered by the botanist and geologist George Maw to the Geological Society on April 22nd 1868: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/on-the-disposition-of-iron-in-variegated-strata-1868?utm_content=buffer0b175&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The Public Domain ReviewIllustration of Buraq, the winged horse upon which The Prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven, from Yusuf and Zulaykha, a 19th-century Judeo-Persian manuscript .
More on the iconology of Buraq in @yasmineseale's essay: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/out-of-their-love-they-made-it-a-visual-history-of-buraq/
The Public Domain ReviewOne of a great series of drawings depicting balloonfish and pufferfish made during the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/drawings-of-tetradons-and-diodons-ca-1838-42?utm_content=buffera80a0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer #fishfriday
The Public Domain ReviewParadiso, Canto XIV. Dante and Beatrice move into the fifth heaven — an illustration from 1880 by Gustave Doré, who died three years later on this day in 1883.
More Dante illustrations by Doré (and others) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dante-divine-comedy-in-art
The Public Domain ReviewJames Ensor's The Deadly Sins (ca. 1904) — a series of etchings depicting pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth — stage personal grievances and caricatures through grotesque, Christian symbolism: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/ensor-sins
The Public Domain ReviewDied #onthisday in 1834, Giovanni Aldini, the Italian "galvanist" whose experiments in animating the muscles of the dead with electricity inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Read more in our essay by Sharon Ruston: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein
The Public Domain ReviewA look at some of the most beautiful and unusual examples from the first 100 years of the "modern" book cover, since the rise of publishers' bindings circa 1820: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-art-of-book-covers-1820-1914
The Public Domain ReviewInventor Robert Pittis Scott's Cycling Art, Energy, and Locomotion (1889) offers a whimsical and illustrated tour through the previous century of “man-motor locomotion” including a second half dedicated to unusual patents: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cycling-art