Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death (1523–5)
Holbein’s series of action-packed scenes in which Death intrudes on the everyday lives of people from various levels of society — from pope to physician to plough…more
16th Century
The Egg Dance: From Peasant Village to Political Caricature
The egg dance was a traditional Easter game involving the laying down of eggs on the ground or floor and dancing among them whilst trying to break as few as possibl…more
First English Edition of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays (1603)
John Florio’s translation of Michel de Montaigne’s genre-forming Essays, including thoughts on grief, friendship, drunkenness, impotence, smells, death, and thumbs….more
The Model Book of Calligraphy (1561–1596)
Pages from a remarkable book, the result of a collaboration across many decades between a master scribe, the Croatian-born Georg Bocskay, and Flemish artist Joris H…more
The Maps of Matrakçı Nasuh, Ottoman Polymath
Exquisite miniatures of 16th-century Persia by Bosnian-born Ottoman polymath and all-round genius Matrakcı Nasuh….more
The Human Alphabet
Collection of alphabets comprised of the human body….more
Details from Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (ca. 1500)
Collection of detailed crops from Hieronymous Bosch’s most ambitious work, The Garden of Earthly Delights….more
The Surreal Art of Alchemical Diagrams
The varied tradition of alchemy has given birth to a whole host of strange and wondrous imagery over the centuries. Here we pick out some favourites….more
The Singerie: Monkeys acting as Humans in Art
Examples of Singerie, from the French for Monkey Trick, a genre of art in which monkeys are depicted aping human behaviour….more
The Difficulty of Ruling over a Diverse Nation (1578)
16th-century Dutch engraving depicting a fantastical animal with the heads of various other animals sprouting from its body: an allegory for the difficulty of rulin…more
Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg, April 14th, 1561
A woodcut and description of strange UFOs seen in the skies of 16th-century Bavaria….more
NYPL Release 187k Public Domain Images in Hi-Res
Our selection of highlights from an afternoon’s browsing of the NYPL’s massive new public domain release — a selection which we hope shows the breadth and depth o…more