The Warburg Institute

10/09/2024

From today, our page is merging with Warburg Institute
We’re grateful for your continued support and are look forward to welcoming you to our consolidated channel!

09/09/2024

📚 The new acquisitions table in the Library Reading Room has been updated! Discover recent publications on Artemisia Gentileschi and Carlo Maratti, alongside the critical edition of the Alexander Romance and a study on spirit invocations in early America. Come have a look! 📚

04/09/2024

The Muses are an important symbol for the Warburg Institute. Let them inspire you this Warburg Wednesday with our latest “From the Library” blog. Explore books relating to the Muses’ standard areas of patronage, here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/blog/library-nine-books-nine-muses

02/09/2024

📚 The New Acquisitions table in the Library Reading Room has been updated! Discover recent publications on the Panni Tartarici, Martín del Río’s Magical Disquisitions, and the Vivarini family. Also featured is the new book Edgar Wind: Art and Embodiment, offering fresh insights into his intellectual connections with Aby Warburg. Check them out! 📚

28/08/2024

Ever wondered where our logo comes from? It is taken from a woodcut in the edition of the De natura rerum of Isidore of Seville (560-636) printed at Augsburg in 1472, wherein it accompanies a quotation from the Hexameron of St Ambrose of Milan (III.iv.18) describing the interrelation of the four elements of which the world is made, with their two pairs of opposing qualities. The elements are fire, air, water and earth, while the qualities are coldness, moisture, heat and dryness. Following a doctrine that can be traced back to Hippocratic physiology, the tetragram adds the four seasons of the year and the four humours of man to complete the image of cosmic harmonies that both inspired and re****ed the further search for natural laws.

Browse our holdings of Isidore’s works here: https://tinyurl.com/2nymffww and St Ambrose’s works here: https://tinyurl.com/armwpet8.

23/08/2024

The Palio of Siena is a centuries-old horse race that takes place twice a year (on 2 July and 16 August, both days dedicated to the Virgin Mary) in the main public square of the city, Piazza del Campo. Horse races have been taking place in this square since the medieval times. Competing in these races are the seventeen city wards (Contrade) of Siena, among which there is fierce competition. Many of these wards date back to the medieval period when they were military companies that were hired to defend Siena as it fought to preserve its independence from Florence and other nearby city-states. They often take their names from real or legendary animals: Dragon, she-wolf, owl, unicorn and caterpillar are some of them. The Contrade have since lost their administrative and military functions, but they still hold a preeminent place in the social lives of their residents, who are bound by a sense of civic pride and patriotism. Nowadays, every important event – baptisms, deaths, marriages, church holidays, victories at the Palio– is celebrated only within one’s Contrada. Furthermore, every city ward has its museum, church, fountain baptismal font, and motto.



Our Book of the Week, the nineteenth-century Storia e costumi delle diciassette contrade di Siena explores the history of the Palio, together with the history of each of the seventeen city wards of Siena, and contains 36 tables in chromolithography illustrating in detail the beautiful costumes worn by the people of each ward, displaying their colours, flag, crest and saint protector. The same costumes can be still seen today at the parades and pageant that are part of the Palio festivities.
Find it at classmark DCN 175 Large Size: http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2974355~S12

23/08/2024

📚✨ Big news for our followers! 📚✨

We're excited to announce that our page is merging with The Warburg Institute to bring you all our updates, insights, and literary treasures under one roof!

Why the move? We're streamlining our digital presence to ensure you have direct access to a richer, more cohesive stream of content that spans the full breadth of the Warburg Institute's offerings. From unique library finds to the latest news and events, everything will now be shared via The Warburg Institute

What to Expect:

➡️ More diverse content from across the Warburg Institute
➡️ Easier access to information and updates

We’re grateful for your continued support and are look forward to welcoming you to our consolidated channel!

The Warburg Institute is dedicated to the study of global cultural history and the role of images in society.

Study with leading scholars, explore our world-renowned collections, and experience our programme of exhibitions and events.

21/08/2024

It's Warburg Wednesday. What is a map? Does it simply tell you how to get from point A to point B? For millennia, humans have employed different processes to make sense of both the world around them and their own inner thoughts. This display, curated by Louisa McKenzie, celebrates maps of different kinds, from medieval depictions of Heaven on Earth to early forms of mind maps via house numbering schemes and astronomy. Readers can find it on the 3rd floor until 19th September.

20/08/2024

Readers, the ground floor has reopened!

19/08/2024

📚 The new acquisitions table in the Library Reading Room has been updated! Find studies on Guido Reni and Giordano Bruno alongside the new book ‘Flying up the Edgware Road’ by our member of library staff Mark Amies, and the volume ‘Mastering Nature in the Medieval Arabic and Latin Worlds’, a collection of studies in honour of Charles Burnett, Professor at the Warburg Institute. 📚

16/08/2024

The Art of the Renaissance Book presents new research by eminent and emerging scholars in honor of Lilian Armstrong (1936-2021), an internationally renowned scholar whose research focused primarily on Italian illuminated manuscripts, hand-illuminated incunabula, and woodcut illustrations in early printed books of Venetian origin. Her research brought to light a wealth of imagery from late medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and books from Venice and the Veneto region, drawing attention to the originality and inventiveness of these works. This volume, which is the Warburg’s , is a testimony to her research and features chapters on the graphic styles of early printed books in Venice; manuscript painting, centering on artists of the book who were studied by Lilian; as well as more broader studies of the history of collecting and scholarship concerning manuscripts. Find it at classmark NCI 450.

For more information: Senate House Libraries / ALL SCOPES (london.ac.uk)

14/08/2024

It’s Warburg Wednesday. Did you know we regularly update the Warburg Institute Digital Library with new books? Our specialist scanner operator scans selected books, which are then uploaded to the Digital Library. You can access the Digital Library directly: https://wdl.warburg.sas.ac.uk/home. Additionally, if a book has been digitised, you will find a link in its catalogue record (see below).

The latest addition comes from the Elizabeth David Bequest, and is The Compleat Housewife, London 1753. Classmark DCH 379. Browse it here: https://wdl.warburg.sas.ac.uk/object-wdl-edb-aaey