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Current APS Transactions
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THE MAKING OF A ROMANTIC ICON: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck’s Italia und Germania Lionel Gossman Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 97, Pt. 5 - $29 ISBN-13: 978-0-87169-975-6 |
Winner of the John Frederick Lewis Award for 2007
Friedrich Overbeck’s “Italia and Germania” (1811-1828) is a well-known image in its native Germany, where it is usually seen as an allegory of the perennial longing of German artists and poets for the beauty and harmony of the land “where the lemon tree blooms.” It is not so well known, outside specialist circles, that the earliest sketches for this iconic painting bore the title “Sulamith (the Shulamite of the Song of Solomon) and Maria” and formed part of a series of drawings and texts produced and shared by Overbeck and his close friend Franz Pforr, the young founders of the school of painters generally referred to as “Nazarenes.” Closely linked to the philosopher Friedrich Schlegel and his wife Dorothea, the daughter of the celebrated Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and a convert, along with her husband, to Roman Catholicism, the Nazarenes advocated the renewal of earlier and purer forms of art and religion and looked forward to a condition in which things that had been separated from their original unity—not only art and religion, but word and idea, poetry and philosophy, feminine and masculine, and, not least, Jews and Christians—would be brought together again, as Overbeck said, “in harmony and mutual respect.” The contextualization of Overbeck’s “Italia and Germania” in this essay reveals a painting that is a rich repository of meanings, an emblem not only of the sisterhood of North and South, the early German and early Italian traditions in art, but of the general Romantic longing for reconciliation, reunion, and the overcoming of historical alienation.
Lionel Gossman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature at Princeton University. He is a member of the American Philosophical society, elected in 1996.
Lionel Gossman addresses a topic of general importance, which is the relationship between art, life, and religious belief. He has an impressive knowledge of the historical situation and philosophical background of the time. He gives excellent translations from original German sources that are not only accurate but may enable the Anglophone reader to truly grasp the spirit of the sources. This book serves as a thoughtful and elegantly written introduction to the way of thinking of one of the most important of the Nazerene painters.
Hubert Locher
Lehrstuhl für Neuere und neueste Kunstgeschichte
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste
Stuttgart, GERMANY
Lionel Gossman's study offers an important interpretation of Overbeck's painting. It treats the evolution of the Nazarene artists' preoccupation with religious issues in an engaging manner and offers a social-historical and theological context to Overbeck's painting by looking interestingly at a wide range of issues and contacts in his early Nazarene period. The book engages readers as it situates the painting in an innovative manner and touches on many interesting issues of the period.
Richard I. Cohen
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
author of Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe
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Beyond Combat: Essays in Military History in Honor of Russell F. Weigley Edward G. Longacre and Theodore J. Zeman, editors Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 97, Pt. 4 - $29 ISBN-13: 978-0-87169-974-9 |
“The ‘new military history’ is new in its concern for military history as a part of the whole of history, not isolated from the rest, for the military as a projection of society at large, for the relationships of the soldier and the state, for military institutions and military thought.” So wrote Russell F. Weigley, one of the most accomplished and respected military historians of the latter half of the twentieth century. Beyond Combat includes a brief biography of Dr. Weigley by the editors, an introduction by Dennis F. Showalter, essays by nine of Dr. Weigley’s PhDs, and a select bibliography of his work.
Edward G. Longacre is Staff Historian, HQ Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, VA. Theodore J. Zeman is a history professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA.
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Dashkova: A Life of Influence and Exile Alexander Woronzoff-Dashkoff Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 97, Pt. 3 - $29 ISBN: 978-0-87169-973-2 |
A woman of letters and the first woman member of the American Philosophical Society, Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova (née Vorontsova) was also the first modern stateswoman in Russia. Early in her life she dressed in an officer’s uniform and boldly stepped forward to play an active role in the political arena, where she participated in the palace revolution of 1762. Subsequently, Dashkova was appointed director of the Academy of Sciences by Catherine II and she founded and became president of the Russian Academy. For close to twelve years, she headed both these prestigious academic institutions. She was a leading figure in eighteenth-century Russian culture as she strove to institute reforms, to adapt and apply the ideas of the Enlightenment, and to establish new approaches to the education of Russia’s youth. Sadly, her relationship with her own children was deeply tragic, and later in life she was exiled to the north of Russia. This biography focuses on Dashkova’s efforts in her life and works to isolate, clarify, and define patterns of action, identity, and gender for herself as well as for other women.
Alexander Woronzoff-Dashkoff is Professor of Russian language and literature at Smith College in Massachusetts. Born in Renon, Italy, he received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. For many years he worked in the Russian School at Middlebury College, the last nine years as Director of the School. His scholarship has been devoted to the life and works of Ekaternia Dashkova, of whom he is a descendent. He has compiled and annotated the French edition of Dashkova’s autobiography, Mon Histoire: Mémoires d’une Femmes de Lettres Russe àl’Epoque des Lumières, including the letters of Catherine II (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999).
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THE TINTYPE IN AMERICA, 1856–1880 Janice G. Schimmelman Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 97, Pt. 2 - $29 ISBN-13: 978-0-87169-972-5 |
The Tintype in America, 1856–1880 is the history of the tintype from its invention in Paris to the end of the wet-plate era. It included the early plate manufacturers Peter Neff (melainotype) and Victor M. Griswold (ferrotype); its process, patents, and presentations; and the society and industry that supported it.
Always suspicious of art, Americans embraced the tintype. They were comfortable with its artlessness and liked the come-as-you-are independence of the thing. It was so quick, so easy, so spontaneous. At the end of the day the stories were real, untouched by the manipulations of artist or photographer, and unencumbered by Romantic notions of moral and civic virtue.
Janice Shimmelman is Professor of Art History at Oakland University in Rochester, MI.
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Classical Romantic: Identity in the Latin Poetry of Vincent Bourne Estelle Haan Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 97, Pt. 1 - $27 ISBN: 978-0-87169-971-8 |
Vincent Bourne (1694-1747) was one of the most, if not the most, popular Latin poets of his day. In its depiction of homely urban scenes and in its sensitive portrayal of animal and civic behavior (and the reciprocity between such behavior) his Latin verse appealed to early eighteenth-century and Romantic sensibilities. The present study examines a broad range of that Latin verse in its classical, neo-Latin, and vernacular contexts with particular attention to the theme of identity (and differing forms of identity). It surveys the quest for identity, reciprocal identities, metropolitan identities, the recreation of identity, and assesses ways in which Bourne's fusion of the classical and the Romantic gave him a unique neo-Latin voice which enabled him to stand out from his predecessors and contemporaries. Appended to the study are the texts (with Haan's translations) of the Latin poetry discussed therein.
Estelle Haan (Sheehan) is Professor of Renaissance and Anglo-Latin Literature at Queen's University Belfast. Previous publications with the American Philosophical Society include From Academia to Amicitia: Milton's Latin Writings and the Italian Academies (Transactions volume 88, part 6) and Vergilius Redivivus: Studies in Joseph Addison's Latin Poetry (Transactions volume 95, part 2).
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Essays and Reviews in History and History of Science Charles Coulston Gillispie Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 96, Pt. 5 - $24 ISBN-10: 0-87169-965-6 |
Charles Coulson Gillispie, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton University, has assembled a collection of essay representing an eclectic selection of his writings, spanning more than half a century. Included with these writings are new prefatory editorial comments to many of the essays. With the book's conclusion, Dr. Gillispie sets forth "what the relations of science to other aspects of culture have been across the sweep of modern history." An appendix of listing other titles published by the author is given as well.
The intellectual scope, the format, and the goals of these essays are impressively broad. The scholarship is of the highest quality. The very interest in these essays resides in part in their diversity.
Paul Talalay
John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor
School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University
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A Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel 1743 - 1830 David W. Maxey Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 96, Pt. 4 - $24 ISBN-10: 0-87169-964-8 |
Drawing on original manuscript sources, David Maxey has produced a persuasive study of a late eighteenth-century portrait and its subject. He has focused attention on an enigmatic painting that has long puzzled art historians, and the person portrayed in it-a woman of talent and verve, whose life has remained undeservedly obscure.
Elizabeth Willing Powel occupied an influential position in Philadelphia society during and after the Revolution. She presided over a salon; spoke her mind freely; and maintained, for a period of forty years, an extensive, illuminating correspondence. She was the trusted confidante of the country's first president, whom she did not hesitate to instruct on where duty summoned him.
Personal loss touched her deeply, and at a critical moment, the Philadelphia limner and sign painter, Matthew Pratt, was commissioned to capture on canvas the grief she experienced. What happened thereafter to the portrait Pratt painted becomes an essential part of the mystery that David Maxey has successfully undertaken to solve.
David Maxey has constructed a valuable essay on Elizabeth Willing Powel and the artists who did likenesses of her. Maxey's research is meticulous, his writing is clear and elegant, and his analyses are informed by the latest scholarship in art history, consumer culture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the history of Philadelphia. This monograph is a significant contribution to scholarship and it will fascinate art historians as well as many early American historians.
Gary Nash
Director, National Center for History in the Schools
Professor Emeritus, University of California
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Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of Books 4 and 5 of Alhacen's De Aspectibus, the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitāb al-Manāzir Volume One: Introduction and Latin Text Volume Two: English Translation A. Mark Smith Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 96, Pt. 2 & 3 - $40 ISBN-10: 0-87169-962-1 |
The manuscript is a continuation of Mark Smith's study of Alhacen's De Aspectibus. His work on Books 1-3 was published by the APS in 2001 (Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen's "De Aspecitubus," the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's "Kitab al-Manazir," Transactions 91-4 and 91-5).
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The Princess and the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin, and the Age of Enlightenment Sue Ann Prince, Editor Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 96, Pt. 1 - $24 ISBN-10: 0-87169-961-3 |
In 1783, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova was appointed director of Russia's Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences by Catherine the Great. It was just two years after she had met with another fascinating personality of the Enlightenment - Benjamin Franklin, founding president of America's first scientific academy, the American Philosophical Society. This volume, published as a companion to an exhibition of the same title and on the occasion of the Franklin Tercentenary of 2006, highlights Dashkova as an accomplished Enlightenment woman. It explores how she, like Franklin, took up the challenge of living according to the newest ideals of her age. Nominated by Franklin in 1789 to become the first female member of the American Philosophical Society, she in turn made him the first American member of the Russian Academy.