Selected entries, annotated: latest first

• Thank You, and Goodnight! - The Giornale’s final entry, including some illustrations from Serafini’s Pulcinellopedia.
• Ghisi - Allegorical engravings by the 16th-century Mantua-born printmaker.
• House of Rats - More works by stained-glass virtuosa Judith Schaechter.
• Érik Desmazières - Evocative contemporary etchings of imaginary places.
• Alberto Savinio - Composer, musician, painter, writer & De Chirico’s brother.
• Didier Massard - Imaginary landscapes made by photographing miniature tableaux.
• More Odds and Ends - The Artempo exhibition in Venice; Brian Dettmer’s carved books; Tiger Tateishi.
• Van de Venne’s Album - A portfolio of watercolours depicting life in 1620s Holland.
• Butt Johnson - Remarkably intricate drawings by a contemporary Brooklyn-based artist.
• Eva Bonnier - A 19th-century Swedish portrait-painter.
• Veridicus Christianus - Images from the first Jesuit emblem-book by Phillips and Theodoor Galle.
• Marc Dennis - Vivid realist paintings by the New York-resident contemporary artist.
• Tales of the Arabesque - Cursory outline of the decorative style inspired by elements from Islamic art.
• Laurie Lipton - Dauntingly-detailed pencil-drawings by the American-born artist.
• Palmer’s Sketchbook of 1824 - An album of drawings by the nineteen-year-old artist.
• Eisbergfreistadt - A project by Kahn & Selesnick documenting a fictional principality established on an iceberg off the Baltic port of Lübeck.
• Arent van Bolten - Grotesque prints and sculptures by a little-known Dutch artist.
• Crispin de Passe - A brief overview of the life & work of the 16th/17th-century Dutch-born engraver.
• Xul Solar - Watercolours by the Argentine painter, sculptor, writer, and inventor.
• Hard Stones and Rain Flower Pebbles - More works in pietre-dure and some ornamental Chinese pebbles.
• Della Bella - Works by the 17th-century Florentine printmaker.
• Soehnée - Singularly-weird drawings made in 1818-9 by an obscure Alsatian artist.
• Callot - A handful of works by the prolific printmaker.
• Matton - Interior spaces painstakingly reconstructed in miniature.
• Houtin - Etchings depicting imaginary gardens.
• Mélancolies - Graphic works depicting sadness, desidia, sloth, acedia...
• Ciafferi, Poli & Poli - Three little-known 17th/18th-century Italian artists.
• Greetings from... - A collection of misprinted postcards.
• Schulz - Slightly perverse cliché-verre prints by the author of The Street of Crocodiles.
• Habert-Dys’s Alphabet - A late 19th-century illustrated alphabet.
• Engraved and Etched English Title-Pages (ii) - More ornamented pages, including work by John Droeshout, Abraham Bosse, Francis Barlow, Wenceslas Hollar and William Faithorne.
• Engraved and Etched English Title-Pages (i) - Pictorial pages by William Hole, Simon and William de Passe, Christophe Le Blon, Thomas Cockson, Thomas Cecill and William Marshall.
• Peake - Illustrations of Dickens by the novelist, draughtsman, poet & playwright.
• The Naming of Names - Botanical illustrations as reproduced in Anna Pavord’s book.
• ‘Master L. D.’ and ‘Juste de Juste’ - More prints from the Fontainebleau school.
• Anatomy, Geometry - Two images from Cheselden’s Osteographia; and two images from the manuscript original of Stoer’ Geometria et Perspectiva.
• The Genius of Castiglione - A selection of etchings by Il Grechetto.
• Griemiller’s Rosary - A richly-illustrated alchemical manuscript from Bohemia.
• Basoli’s Alphabet - Elaborate lithographs published in 1839: ‘a collection of pictorial thoughts composed of objects beginning with the individual letters of the alphabet.’
• The Genius of Salvator Rosa - Graphic works by the 17th-century painter, satirist & songwriter.
• The Life of the Dead - A 1933 collaboration between American poet Laura Riding Jackson and British painter John Aldridge.
• Faust in Prague - A sinister-looking manuscript (in fact an 18th-century fake) purporting to be a handbook such as that used by Faust to conjure spirits.
• Denton Welch - Sparkling prose and ‘prettified surrealism.’
• Into the Wood - A strange tale by Robert Aickman, and a vacation in the Swedish woods.
• Miscellaneity, etc. - Reflections on the motley and the various, inspired by Neil Kenny’s book The Palace of Secrets, and its account of the works of Béroalde de Verville.
• The Golden House Revisited - 18th-century depictions of the decorative frescoes in the Domus Aurea.
• Morghen and the Moon - An 18th-century Florentine printmaker’s depiction of a voyage from the Earth to the Moon.
• Jean Mignon - Prints associated with the Fontainebleau school: specifically those based on designs by Luca Penni.
• Civitas Veri - Del Bene’s allegorical poem, and its intriguing engraved illustrations.
• Faces of the Grotesque - A brief overview of the decorative style born with the rediscovery of Nero’s Domus Aurea, illustrated with a variety of stylised faces.
• Clovio, and the Farnese Hours - An illuminated manuscript nine years in the making.
• Theatrum Mortis - Valvasor’s ‘Theatre of Death:’ a book comprising a Totentanz, a catalogue of notable deaths, and depictions of infernal torments.
• Gnoli’s ‘Modern Bestiary’ - A set of drawings made in 1968 by the Italian artist subtitled Cos’è un mostro, (What is a monster)?
• De Gheyn - The Antwerp-born painter and graphic artist, and his works naer het leven (from the life), and nyt den gheest (from the mind or spirit).
• Pictorial Stones - Stones naturally patterned with ‘landscapes,’ etc.; decorated stones; and pietre-dure work.
• Paulini’s ABC, etc. - Some letters from an elaborate mannerist alphabet, engraved by an obscure Italian.
• Merian - A small selection of works by the Swiss-born engraver.
• Bellange - The idiosyncratic mannerist etchings of an artist employed at the court of the Dukes of Lorraine, in Nancy.
• Gallows Literature - Some snippets from Charles Hindley’s compilation Curiosities of Street Literature.
• Эмблемы и символы - Emvlemy i Simvoly: the only Russian emblem-book.
• Carlo Maggi’s Voyage - The Codex Maggi: a A Venetian diplomat’s painted biography.
• The Grapes of Ralph - A selection of Ralph Steadman’s illustrations for a ’90s Oddbins catalogue.
• A Paper Museum, and the Academy of Lynxes - Cassiano del Pozzo’s Museo Cartaceo and the Accadmia dei Lincei founded by Cesi, et al.
• Varo - More paintings by the Spanish-born surrealist.
• Reading Browne on the Bus - The works of Sir Thomas Browne, and the peculiar afterlife of his skull.
• ‘Repræsentatio,’ etc. - Christmas & New Year ’05/’06; illustrated with engravings by Georg Donauer, after designs by Balthasar Küchler.
• Images of the Gods of the Ancients - Vincenzo Cartari’s illustrated 16th-century book on the Græco-Roman pantheon.
• Typotius - A compendium of imprese, and the man who got top billing on its title-page.
• This Page Has Intentionally Been Left Blank - Autumnal reflections, and some drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo.
• A Fine, Useful Booklet - A treatise on ‘perspective for dummies’ dating from 1531.
• Personages - A small selection of paintings by Remedios Varo.
• Steingruber’s Alphabet - An 18th-century architectural alphabet: ground-plans and elevations modelled on individual letter-shapes.
• De’ Grassi’s Animals - More images from a 14th-century manuscript ‘notebook.’
• De Bry’s Alphabets - Johann Theodor’s 1595 Neiw Kunstliches Alphabet and the 1596 Alphabeta et Characteres.
• Neuw Grottessken Buch - Exuberantly grotesque designs by the goldsmith Christoph Jamnitzer.
• Kircher’s Obelisks - The polymath on hieroglyphs on obelisks in Rome.
• The Republic of Dreams - About imaginary realms in general, and Jerry Crimmins’ surreal République in particular.
• Redon, Again - More Noirs by the 19th-century painter.
• Hepburn’s Alphabets - Alphabets real and fanciful as printed on a broadside engraving designed by a Scottish Jesuit in 1620.
• A True Account of What Happen’d in the Kingdom of Sweden - In an appendix to Joseph Glanvill’s posthumous book about the dangers of witchcraft.
• The Discovery of a World in the Moone - 1638 treatise by John Wilkins.
• Bracelli - The slender graphic œuvre of the creator of the Bizzarie di Varie Figure.
• Raimondi - Images by the master-engraver, active in early 16th-century Rome.
• The Empire of Vegetables - Humourous illustrations by Amédée Varin.
• Lucas van Leyden - A master-engraver working in the early 16th century.
• The Dream of Raphael - A complex and puzzling engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi: nothing to do with Raphael.
• Cort’s and Floris’s Virtues - A suite of mannerist engravings published in Antwerp in 1560.
• Lequeu - More visionary architecture (and other weirdness) from 18th-century France.
• Maschere della Commedia - Commedia dell’Arte-inspired images by Daniele Scarpa Kos, Luigi Serafini, Giandomenico Tiepolo and Maurice Sand.
• Patientia - An emblem-book in manuscript: the work of a young Joris Hoefnagel.
• Bruegel: Seven Vices and a Virtue - More engavings after designs by the Flemish master.
• Atalanta Fugiens - Michael Maier’s ‘multimedia’ alchemical treatise.
• Boullée - Visionary architecture from 18th-century France.
• Michelangelo’s Dream - The complex symbolism in a single drawing.
• A.G. Rizzoli - The visionary architectural designs of an eccentric draughtsman.
• Bruegel’s Proverbs - Engravings illustrating Netherlandish proverbs after designs by the famous painter.
• De’ Grassi’s Alphabet - Images of the figurative alphabet from a 14th-century manuscript.
• Théâtre d’Amour - A hand-coloured compilation of love-emblems dating from 1620.
• Psalmanazar - An 18th-century impostor, including some images from his Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa.
• Mitelli’s Games - Card, dice and board games designed by the Bolognese printmaker.
• Bishop Wilkins’s Ark - A digression about the practicality of Noah’s Ark, in the Essay Towards a Real Character.
• The Ship of Fools - Sebastian Brant’s satirical poem and its woodcut illustrations.
• Malpertuis - An appreciation of Jean Ray’s unusual novel.
• More Mitelli - Further examples of the Bolognese engraver’s work.
• István Orosz - Anamorphic images and other works by the Hungarian graphic artist.
• Max Klinger - Some graphic works from the 1880s.
• Of Winters & Lost Works - Arcimboldo’s personifications of winter; mention of some lost works by the same artist.
• Giuseppe Maria Mitelli - The Bolognese printmaker, active in the late 17th & early 18th centuries.
• Figurative Alphabets - Alphabets whose letters are composed of pictures of animals or people.
• Judith Schaechter - A contemporary artist notable for working in the medium of stained glass.
• Aldrovandi’s Watercolours - Paintings of zoological subjects commissioned by the natural philosopher.
• Nobson Central - Paul Noble’s magnificently obsessive drawings.
• Curiosities of Literature - Announcing a project to digitise Isaac D’Israeli’s 19th-century compendium of book-lore.
• The Late Max Ernst - Paintings from the artist’s old age.
• Circulus - A sequence of mannerist engravings by Phillips Galle after designs by Maarten de Vos.
• More Belgian Art - Paintings from late 19th-century Belgium.
• Brief Reflections on Spam - Thoughts on the then-vexatious problem of comment-spam.
• Ensor vs Khnopff - The contrasting careers of two Belgian painters.
• A Map of Schlaraffenland - A satirical map of an imaginary country.
• Hoefnagel & Hoefnagel’s Archetypa - Emblematic engravings by Jacob H., based on designs by his father, Joris.
• Psychobox - Concerning a compilation of psychological tricks and tests, illustrated with optical illusions.
• The Discovery of America - A book of drawings by Saul Steinberg.
• Burnet’s Sacred Theory - The geological treatise Telluris Theoria Sacra and its accidental influence on aesthetics.
• Max Ernst’s Blues - Some paintings made in the years 1957-9.
• Vertumnus, Autumns - Personifications of Autumn, by Arcimboldo, and his painting Vertumnus.
• Elsheimer - About the 15th/16th-century German-born painter: the first to portray an astronomically correct night sky.
• Under the Hill - Aubrey Beardsley’s unfinished novel.
• ‘Behmenists and Philadelphians’, etc. - About the English followers of the mystic Jakob Böehme, illustrated with images from Böehme’s works.
• Il Ballarino - Images from Fabritio Caroso’s 1581 dance-manual, etc.
• Haavikko - Some English translations of works by the Finnish poet.
• Lambsprinck - Emblematic images from the 1625 alchemical tract De Lapide Philisophico.
• The Flight into Egypt - The book-art of Timothy C. Ely.
• Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes - The 1615 treatise by Salomon de Caus.
• Drolleries - Marginal decorations from the illuminated manuscript known as the Croy Hours.
• The Mantegna Tarot - Neither a tarot, nor the work of Mantegna.
• Mantegna, Engraver - 15th-century engravings attributed to the Venetian painter and draughtsman.
• Petrantoni - Black-and-white collages by the contemporary Italian artist/designer.
• Bretschneider - Images from the 1617 emblem-book Pratrum Emblematicum.
• de’Barbari - 15th/16th-century engravings by the man Dürer called ‘Meister Jakob.’
• Summer - Personifications of Summer by Arcimboldo.
• Campagnola - Early 16th-century engravings.
• ‘The Hundred-Headless Woman,’ Continued - More of Max Ernst’ collages.
• ‘Misfortunes of the Immortals’ and ‘The Hundred-Headless Woman’ - Early collage-sequences by Max Ernst.
• Istanbul - The elusive quality of childhood memories.
• Father Cats - A 1627 emblem-book with verses by the Dutch jurist, diplomat and poet Jacob Cats.
• The Kings of Redonda - M.P. Shiel, John Gawsworth, Javier Marías and the ‘Kingdom’ of Redonda.
• Paula Rego - More graphic works by the Portuguese-born artist.
• The Apollo Prophecies - A thirty-six foot long black and white panoramic photograph, and other works, by Kahn and Selesnick.
• Balli di Sfessania - Images of Commedia dell’Arte characters as etched by Jacques Callot.
• Lilacs - Mikhail Vrubel’s painting, and the flower itself.
• Gillray, Continued - Conclusion of a brief account of the caricaturist’s life and work.
• Gillray - First part of a brief account of the caricaturist’s life and work.
• Bletted Medlars - Regarding the medlar, and the mention of it in Robert Aickman’s novel The Late Breakfasters.
• The Suit of Books - Jost Amman’s 1588 designs for playing-cards with decidedly non-standard suits: Ink-pads, Books, Drinking-cups and Pots.
• A Fourth Spring - Arcimboldo’s personifications of Spring.
• More ‘Natural Curiosities’ - More images from Albertus Seba’s Thesaurus.
• Mayday in Munich - A visit to the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich.
• Velly - More paintings by the Breton-born artist.
• Kahn & Selesnick - Photographs from the duo’s Scotlandfuturebog series.
• Four Babels - Four 16th-century depictions of the Tower of Babel.
• Moralia Bornitiana - Jakob Bornitz’s 1678 emblem-book.
• Figurines - William T. Vollmann; Soviet-era ceramics by Natalya Dan’ko; Anna Akhmatova.
• Proscenium Vitæ Humanæ - Images from the 1627 emblem-book produced by Johann Theodor de Bry.
• Arcimboldo’s Elements - Arcimboldo’s personifications of water, air, fire and earth.
• Anatomia Universa - Anatomical plates from the posthmously-published work of Paolo Mascagni.
• The Da Costa Hours - Images from the illuminated manuscript known as the Da Costa Hours.
• Bresdin - Graphic works by the 19th-century French artist.
• Floating Fruit - Images from Johann Christoph Volckamer’s opus Nürnbergische Hesperides.
• Decalcomania - Max Ernst’s use of this technique.
• Zichy - Erotic drawings from the 1870s.
• Starowieyski - Striking Polish film & theatre posters.
• Cellarius - Images from the Harmonia Macrocosmica.
• Perspectiva Literaria - Illustrations of geometry and perspective by the Nuremburg goldsmith Hans Lencker.
• Mikrokosmos - An emblem-book published in Antwerp in 1579, by Laurentius Haechtanus, with engravings by Gérard de Jode.
• Optotypes - Herman Snellen’s eye-test charts.
• Tom Thumb - A book for Swedish children learning English, with illustrations by Mervyn Peake.
• Before and After the Future - The pre- and post-futurist works of Giacomo Balla.
• Prodigiorum - Images from Conrad Lycosthenes’ ‘Chronicle of Omens and Portents.’
• Odd Nerdrum - Some earlier works by the Norwegian painter.
• Bernini’s Elephant - About the sculptural setting of the obelisk in Rome’s Piazza della Minerva.
• Jakob von Gunten - Robert Walser’s peculiar tale, illustrated with stills from the movie by the Brothers Quay.
• Anima Animus Animation - More of Jan Švankmajer’s artworks.
• James Henry Pullen - Artworks by an inmate of the Royal Earlswood Idiot Asylum.
• Della Porta - Images from the Neapolitan philosopher’s 1586 treatise De Humana Physiognomia.
• The Birth and Education of Dionysus - Engravings reproducing decorative images from Nero’s Domus Aurea.
• Redon’s Noirs - Sombre works in charcoal by the symbolist painter.
• Ruysch - Images of morbid dioramas, and an excerpt from one of Leopardi’s dialogues.
• Some Serpentine Specimens - Images from Albertus Seba’s Thesaurus.
• Švankmajer - The Czech animator’s un-animated artworks.
• The Salt, or the Ketchup? - A review of Christopher Alexander’s The Phenomenon of Life.
• Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta - Calligraphy by Georg Bocksay; miniatures by Joris Hoefnagel.
• Athaneo - Romaguera’s Catalan emblem-book.
• Isola - A contemporary Italian painter’s puzzle-like pictures.
• The Temptations of St Anthony - Comparing interpretations of a stock subject.
• Fomenko - Mathematical art by the Russian mathematician and revisionist chronologer.
• Geometry & Perspective - Lorenz Stoer’s ‘perspectival examples specifically for craftsmen in wood.’
• Ivories - 16th/17th-century carvings of the utmost intricacy.
• Thomas Jones - A Welsh painter's informal views of 18th-century Naples.
• The Cat’s-Paw - Paintings by Richard Dadd.
• A Week of Kindness - Max Ernst’s famous collage-novel Une Semaine de Bonté.
• Vallotton’s Woodcuts - Striking 19th-century woodcuts by the Swiss-born artist.
• Martini - Alberto Martini’s illustrations of Poe.
• Shrigley - The superficially inept works of this Scottish-born artist.
• Pulcinellopedia - Regarding Luigi Serafini’s Pulcinellopedia Piccola.
• How I Found the Codex - How I came to know about Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus.
• In a Hot-Air Balloon - The Montgolfier brothers’ first passengers: a sheep, a duck and a cock.
• Collages - Eva Lake’s works in collage.
• Theatrum Cometicum - Stanislaus Lubinetski’s 1667 treatise about comets.
• Character Heads - Expressive busts by the eccentric 18th-century Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
• Primo-Avrilesque - The pioneering monochrome paintings of Alphonse Allais.
• Physiognomies - Images from Le Brun’s System on Physiognomy.
• Of Things Near and Far - About the 19th/20th-century Anglo-Welsh author Arthur Machen.
• Perspectiva - Curious representations of solid geometry by the Nuremburg goldsmith Wentzel Jamnitzer.
• Bizzarie - A bizarre series of 17th-century engravings by Giovanni Battista Bracelli.
• Calendar - Images from the illuminated manuscript known as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.
• The Strife of Love in a Dreame - Or, Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
• Los Disparates - Some of Goya’s etchings.
• Lupercalia - Concerning Lupercalia, the city of Rome & St. Valentine’s Day; illustrated with engravings by Piranesi.
• Nursery Rhymes - Etchings by Paula Rego.
• The City - Woodcuts by Frans Masereel.
• Holiday Reading - Includes images from the illuminated manuscript known as the Mira Calligraphiæ Monumenta.
• On the Finding of a Glove - A suite of engravings by Max Klinger.
• Natura Morta - The Breton artist Jean-Pierre Velly.
• Mister Sís - The author/illustrator Peter Sís, and his book The Three Golden Keys.
• Late Roses, Early Snow - The first entry on this weblog.