Chapter 5
Epistemic Objects: Trading Zones Made Sensible in Sixteenth-century England
PLATE 2.10: “Uroboros” by Cleopatra the Alchemist. MS Marciana, gr. Z. 299 (10th Century), Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, 188v. CSTOR.240.9949 VE0049_Gr_Z_0299_00584 ARM0000166, Public Domain.
PLATE 2.11: Mortar and pestle. Left to right, Fresco of two men working a mortar (fragment of a wall painting in the Tomb of the 18th Dynasty Egyptian Rekhmire drawn by author); Branches of tree bending inwards back into trunk as uroboros (by author); two women alternating strikes to the mortar, Source: John Ashton, The History of Bread: From Pre-Historic to Modern Times (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1904), 50.
PLATE 2.12: Pepper house wall. Fragrant lime plaster wall based on traditional Sichuan wall. Nine different lighting conditions a) through g) conditions of same wall, h) Sichuan peppers, i) and j) author and work at exhibition at Centre de Design de l'Université du Québec a Montréal (l'UQAM), Montreal, Canada from 20 September - 21 October, 2007. Published in 70 architect(e)s : sur l'éthique de la poétique, 20 ans d'histoire et théorie de l'architecture à l'université McGill = On ethics and poetics, 20 years of history and theory of architecture at McGill University.
PLATE 2.13: Experiencing the transformation of limestone, May 2008. The traditional lime kiln at Virginia Lime Works: a) side view showing the ramp atop the wooden retaining wall up to the top where lime is dropped into the kiln and b) front view including two doors at base for stoking the fire under the stones placed above in the cylinder, c) the kilnsperson stoking the fire overnight during firing, d) holding my first piece of quicklime – it is very light, like chalk, e) samples of quicklime and hydrated lime (quicklime with some water added), and f) Jimmy Price demonstrating slaking of lime (adding water) with steam rising from the heat of the reaction, and g) my bucket of quicklime, h) slaked quicklime applied to a brick wall as a limewash to protect the brick, i) applied in layers, the pure white eventually covers the original colours of the wall and leaves it matte white, and j) my slaked lime putty.
PLATE 2.14: Making blancmange. a) soaking almonds to make almond milk, b) fine white sugar pounded in the mortar and pestle, c) boiling the chicken breast, d) inner flesh from manchet (medieval loaf) of white bread used for thickener, e) mortar and pestle used to pound ingredients, f) rosewater, g) pouring sugar into strained almond/chicken/bread mixture, h) cooking it in a copper pot, g) turning it out onto a board, and later h) rolling and charring blancmange black as done in earlier Arabic dishes and i) serving to friends.
PLATE 2.15: Typical medieval sugarloaf production. Saccharum engraved by Jan van der Straet, Antwerp (c.1580-1605) British Museum number 1948,0410.4.203 © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Figure 5.1: The five analogical ingredients of mortar (above) and blancmange (below). Courtesy of the author.
PLATE 2.16 (and Figure 5.2): The Birth of Mary by Vittore Carpaccio, c.1502-04, Painting at Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy, oil on canvas, 127 x 129 cm. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons available at https://www.wikiart.org/en/vittore-carpaccio/the-birth-of-the-virgin-1508
PLATE 2.17: Five-piece stacking birth set called an impalliata, by Cipriano Picolpasso in Li tre libre dell’arte del vassio (The Three Books of the Potters Art), about 1557, Castel Durante (now Urbania), pen and ink, 28 x 21.5 cm. Museum no. MSL/1861/7446, folio 16 recto. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
PLATE 2.18: Tacuinum sanitatus (The Medieval Health Handbook), entry for “Warm Water,” showing a typical chimney hood over a fire at the wall in the house. Vienna MS, f.89. unknown master, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
PLATE 2.19: Dublin Court of the Exchequer from “The Red Book of the Exchequer,” c.1420. Image from John Gilbert, Facsimilies of the National Manuscripts of Ireland, vol.3 (London 1879), plate 37. Public Domain.
Figure 5.3: Compasses with the wings of imagination. Marco Frascari, 1991. Pen and ink on print. Collection of the author.