Barbara,
Thanks very much for a look at your fascinating display. It's a wonderful
look into the ancient practice of calculating by means of the hand. I've
looked long and hard for a term to desscribe such activities and the closest
I've come is Nathan Bailey's use of the term "dactylonomy" in his 1721 "An
Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language." The 1669 "Sturmy
Mariner's Magazine" described similar methods to calculate the elevation of
the pole. You may also be interested to know that the entry for Guido of
Arezzo, widely credited with developing modern musical notation, in the "New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Muisicians" makes a brief reference to the
practice of reckoning the date of Easter by use of the hand. Please share
our gratitude with everyone who made this exhibit possible.
Walt Racker, KU
-----Original Message-----
From: Paulson, Barbara [mailto:BPaulson@neh.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 2:15 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Exhibition: Writing on Hands
WRITING ON HANDS: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
Dickinson College, Trout Gallery
Carlisle PA
8 September-25 November 2000
Tues.-Sat., 10-4
The Folger Shakespeare Library
Washington DC
13 December 2000-4 March 2001
WRITING ON HANDS explores the use and importance of images of the hand in
codifying and extending knowledge from the mathematical and musical to the
spiritual and astrological realms in 15th through 17th century Europe. More
than eighty manuscripts, prints, and books from the collections of the
College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the National
Library of Medicine, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pierpont Morgan
Library, and the Walters Art Gallery illlustrate how, in conjunction with
developing print technlogy, major currents of thought, such as humanism, the
Reformation, and the scientific revolution, affected representations of the
inscribed hand. While referring to relevant medieval traditions, the time
frame of the exhibition is from 1466 through 1700.
Curator, Claire Richter Sherman. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully
illustrated catalog written by Dr. Sherman, with esays by Brian Copenhaver,
Martin Kemp, Sachiko Kusukawa, and Susan Forscher Weiss.
Website: http://www.writingonhands.org