No introduction should be neccessary for regular readers of this blog to the work of Arthur Rackham - one Englands greatest illustrators. The images I have for you today are not as familiar to us as his more celebrated and well known coloured illustrations. They are taken from a 1907 publication Land of Enchantment  - [...]

These fantastic hand coloured wood-cuts are taken from the 16th Century astronomy text Astronomicum Caesareum by Petrus Apian. Taking several years to produce at  his private print shop in Ingolstadt the book is unusual in that it contains twenty one illustrations with moving parts (so called “volvelles“). These are primarily planetary equatoria (paper wheels designed [...]