Re: VMs: Drawing circles

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 12:55 06/08/2003 -0700, Bruce Grant wrote:
> Barbara Barrett wrote:
> > I wonder how many listers realise that the artists tool, the "light
> > box", was actually invented in the 7th Century AD...

Well... Bishop Eadfrith, according to
http://www.education.guardian.co.uk/higher/artsandhumanities/story/0,12241,955339,00.html
        "...must have pioneered the medieval equivalent of the light box
        to secure the details in his illustrations."

I'm not sure that stands up as proof, though - do you have a better 
reference than this, Barbara?

> This is very interesting. What did they use for a light source? It seems
> like candles would be too dim and too variable - maybe reflected sunlight?
> Or was it something as simple (but awkward) as pressing the page against a
> vertical window?

Here's someone with much the same theory as you, Bruce:-
        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celtic_Art/message/1031?source=1

But didn't even moderately-sized flat sheets of glass require a separate 
(much later) technological revolution?

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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