Sometimes the greatest artworks are hide out in bare sight . Case in point : the University of Iowa recentlydiscovereda four - volume set of scientific books from 1837 turn back hidden paintings on the edges of the pages , which only show up when you fan them part - way open . These “ Fore - Edge Paintings ” are everywhere , and they ’re beautiful .
As Flavorwireexplains , Fore - Edge Paintings go back to the 16th hundred , “ when Italian artist Cesare Vecellio ( full cousin of Renaissance painter Titian ) started using his Holy Writ as a canvas in rescript to beautify them . ” A bunch of them were posted by theUniversity of Iowaand theBoston Public Library , and see to it out some of our favorites below .
Robert Mudie: Autumn, Spring, Winter and Summer, 1837
( viaThis Is Colossal / University of Iowa )
Jerusalem Delivered: a Heroic Poem, translated from the Italian of Torquato Tasso, by John Hoole, London, 1797 with three paintings: Trojans Arch, Ancona (left), Tasso in Prison (center) and the Bridge Of Sighs, Venice (right)
The Modern History of Hindustan, by Thomas Maurice, 1802, with a series of Hindu temples on the bank of a river and minarets of a Mohamedan mosque in the distance.
The Holy Bible, printed by R. Bowyer and J. Fittler in 1795, with Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden and The Last Supper, after Leonardo da Vinci, on a Holy Bible, printed by Sir D. H. Blair and J. Bruce in 1803
The Speeches of the Right Honorable WIlliam Pitt, in the House Of Commons (vol. 1), 1808, with a battle scene and the portraits of Napoleon and William Pitt
Latin and Italian poems of Milton translated into English verse, 1808 with a painting of the inn at Edmonton
Paradise Lost by John Milton, printed in 1809, with the view of London Bridge
The book titled Analysis of the game of chess with a painting of chess players and a chessboard
Lady Jane Grey, a tale in two books with poems in English and Latin, by Francis Hodgson, printed in 1809, with the paintings of Lady Jane Grey and Edward VI with floral decorations.
A General History of Quadrupeds by Thomas Bewick, printed in 1811 with a hunting man and his dog
Song of the Chace, printed in 1811, with a picture of the finish of a horse race
History Of The University and Colleges of Cambridge (vol. 1), by George Dyer, 1814 with a fore-edge painting of New York in 1750.
Helga, by William Herbert, from 1815, showing fishermen beaching a boat
Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, by John Hobhouse, printed in 1818, with a scene of Venice
The World Before The Flood by James Montgomery, 1819. The painting depicts a scene with some cave dwellers. The males preparing to defend themselves against a mammoth and some other wild animals while the women and children hide in their cave home.
Poems by the late William Cowper, printed in 1820, with three paintings on each volume after “The Cries of London”
Matches , Mackerel , Scissors
Primroses , Milk and Oranges
Peas , Strawberries , Cherries
professorship , Love Songs , Gingerbread
A History of New York by John Murray, 1821 with a view of the White House in Washington, DC
The Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Sir Walter Scott, with a painting of Kelso Bridge (Scotland), 1823
Qunti Horatii Flacii by Horace, printed in 1824, with the painting of the Castle of Angelo, Rome
The Rambler (vol. 1) by Samuel Johnson, printed in 1825 with a stagecoach scene of Wych Street, London
The Contributions of Q. Q, by Jane Taylor, 1840 with a painting of the Tower of London
( viaLombard Maps )
The Royal Kalendar, and Court and City Register, for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies, for the year 1849, with a painting of Stonehenge
The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, 1850, with the painting of the Lady of the Lake
Lyrics of the Heart: With Other Poems, by Alaric Watts, 1851
( viaAbeBooks )
The Works of the British Poets from 1856, with a painting of the Elephant Man
The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope with memoir, dissertation and explanatory notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan, 1863, with the painting of Pope’s Villa at Twickenham
View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages, by H. Hallam, 1869, with a painting of dancing medieval peasants
Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1876 with a three-part painting. Left to right: Milton’s House on York Street, Portrait of Milton and his burial place at St. Giles, Cripplegate
The Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 1883, with the painting of The Time Machine
That car is weird - calculate enough , butyou can see some of the strange ones here .
https://gizmodo.com/weird-and-glorious-time-machine-designs-1176644156
The Holy Bible with the painting of a scene of a barber’s shop with monkeys in human form, printed in 1883
A history of the late siege of Gibraltar with some vessels and soldiers
Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens, with a double-side fore-edge painting showing the portrait of the author as a young and an old man with vignettes from The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist
Works of Hans Sachsen (Hans Sachsens Ausgewahlte Werke) with a painting of men working in a shop, animals and a tree, and a man playing on violin
Paintings of Martin Frost, who has produced over 3300 fore-edge and miniature paintings since 1970
( viaForedgefrost )
Some other examples of fore-edge paintings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNjFlGKIYVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5BU06uUQUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srMwTaxQdjQ
Illustrator Stephen Bowers creates a painting on a copy of A Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia by Philip Parker King (originally produced in 1826)
The pictures came fromBoston Public LibraryandGrand Valley State University , except when note otherwise .
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