Wednesday, August 02, 2006

The Print Clock

I was directed towards this web site by Edward Tufte’s Ask E.T.

S.Blair Hedges is the Professor of Biology at The Pennsylvania State University and he has created the Print Clock - a web page describing how to date prints and old books from previous centuries.

One of my reasons for following this link is that one of the examples that Professor Hedges uses is the Renaissance book, Bordone’s Isolario. This arouses my interest in islands of course and in particular the reminder that Books of islands (isolarii) were a popular literary form in Renaissance Italy. This author has already made reference to Cristoforo Buondelmonte, Incipt liber Insularum Arcipelagi here.

furthermore...

So back to the Print Clock. Analysis of the print of images and type from woodblock and metal engraving can be achieved by digitising images and then using an open source tool - ImageJ which can be retrieved from the National Institute of Mental Health (what extrodinary linkages we find!). I have had a look at this and, although not as slick as Photoshop, seems to include all the filters you might ever need.

The Print Clock is a very interesting piece of work and well organised with useful information and FAQs.