Thomas Trevelyon...Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608... From envy proceedeth war

Adrian Collaert... Memento Mori...1607

 "I as thou art, thou shalt be as I am." 

Teaching Dhamma by Pictures...Siamese Traditional Buddhist Manuscript ...Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

from the book “Teaching Dhamma by Pictures”
Explanation of a Siamese Traditional Buddhist Manuscript
by Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Published by 
Sathirakoses-Nagaparadi Foundation & Ministry of Education, Thailand
On the occassion of the Centenary Celebration of the Bith of the Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikku

The illustrated manuscript reproduced here was, in the original, a traditional Thai 
manuscript called Samut Khoi which is a long roll of paper folded concertina-wise into 
leaves and then written on both sides. In this form, the illustration was presented first, 
followed by a few lines of explanation on a particular aspect of Dhamma such as 
Meditation and so forth. Cambodian script was used in those days for all religious work 
thought the language is Siamese. 
The pigments used were produced locally, most of them derived from native trees. 

Teaching Dhamma by Pictures

Manuscript Folio...Islamic... 18th-19th century

That all may be one.., Indian gouache..part 2

part 1

The Codex Vigilanus... Adam and Eve c 976

click on image to enlarge

Adam and Eve c 976

Ethiopian Manuscripts...Archangel Michael

a few favourite images from the Homilitary and Miracles of the Archangel Michael manuscript...

Homilitary and Miracles of the Archangel Michael Ethiopia (Gondari) late 17th century

Tempera and ink on parchment

The archangel Michael, whose cult first emerged under the patronage of the Emperor Zar'a Ya'eqob, remains the most venerated archangel in Ethiopia, largely due to his role as an intercessor on behalf of the faithful.

interesting exhibition and text here > Art That Heals: The Image as Medicine in Ethiopia

Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius 1595...poem...Carmina Figurata

Sometime around the end of the first quarter of the fourth century C.E., a former resident of the imperial city of Rome then living in exile in Achaea began a written campaign for his recall to the capitol. The campaign coincided with the Vicennalia, or twentieth anniverary, of the reign of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, an event celebrated in July 325 in Nicomedia and again in the summer of 326 at Rome itself. The writing campaign took advantage of this event and consisted of a series of panegyric poems addressed to Constantine in commemoration of both the Vicennalia and Constantine’s earlier defeat of Licinius in 324. The series, included in what is now known collectively as the Carmina or Carmina Figurata, is of an unusual and innovative sort: the poems contain supplementary text “hidden” within the main body of the individual poems and intended to be “discovered” by the reader. These versus intexti poems were apparently intended to dazzle Constantine with their technical virtuosity and thereby inspire the hoped-for recall of their creator, Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius. The campaign was ultimately successful, and the intriguing larger body of work created by Optatianus remains captivating even today, both for its simple visual appeal and for its display of remarkable technical skill.... continued

related previous POST

The Angel of Death ... in micrography...

This illustration is found in a book entitled Nisyonot be-Ketav Ivri (Experiments in Hebrew Script)

a magnificent example of micrography, tiny Hebrew script marking out the shape of a figure, in this case a classic portrayal of the Angel of Death. In this particular example the script is in Hebrew yet the language is German. The many signed names would indicate that this was done in Central Europe, probably in a school of the German Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement, around the middle of the 19th century.

Kitab al-Bulhan ...Book of Wonders...Part 2

Kitab al-Bulhan at the 

Oxford Digital Library

Iblis... 14th century Devil..Kitab al-Bulhan ....part 1

From one of my favourite books
aptly named  'Kitab al-Bulhan' (Book of Wonders) 
 A composite manuscript in Arabic of divinatory works, dating principally
from the late 14th century A.D., containing astrological, astronomical
and geomantic texts compiled by Abd al-Hasan Al-Isfahani, with
illustrations.