Vanities Of The Eye: Vision In Early Modern European Cultur

Description: Vanities of the Eye investigates the cultural history of the senses in early modern Europe, a time in which the nature and reliability of human vision was the focus of much debate. In medicine, art theory, science, religion, and philosophy, sight came to be characterised as uncertain or paradoxical - mental images no longer resembled the external world. Was seeing really believing? Stuart Clark explores the controversial debates of the time - from the fantasies and hallucinations of melancholia, to the illusions of magic, art, demonic deceptions, and witchcraft. The truth and function of religious images and the authenticity of miracles and visions were also questioned with new vigour, affecting such contemporary works as Macbeth - a play deeply concerned with the dangers of visual illusion. Clark also contends that there was a close connection between these debates and the ways in which philosophers such as Descartes and Hobbes developed new theories on the relationship between the real and virtual. Original, highly accessible, and a major contribution to our understanding of European culture, Vanities of the Eye will be of great interest to a wide range of historians and anyone interested in the true nature of seeing. Review: A major intellectual triumph, an indispensible and enlightening read for all those interested in the early modern body and its senses. History Workshop Journal [This book is] based on prodigiously wide reading and solid scholarship. The English Historical Review This book offers much new information on attitudes during the early modern period, attitudes that have been historically neglected ... [An] important piece of research. Early Popular Visual Culture ...compelling...Vanities of the Eye offers readers a taste of the unexpected and fruitful complexities to be gained by turning a serious eye to the historical questions of sight. Yvonne Gasper Institute for Historical Review A densely argued but wonderfully subtle exploration of how, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, people developed a complex understanding of the relationship between what was seen and what was known. PD Smith, The Guardian Vanities of the Eye is dense with examples of the interpenetration of the weird, the wondrous and the mundane, drawn from a deep well of scholarship... A thoroughly satisfying read... 9 out of 10 Fortean Times Table of Contents: PREFACE; 1. Species: Vision and values; 2. Fantasies: Seeing without what was within; 3. Prestiges: Illusions in magic and art; 4. Glamours: Demons and virtual worlds; 5. Images: The reformation of the eyes; 6. Apparitions: The discernment of spirits; 7. Sights: King Saul and King Macbeth; 8. Seemings: Philosophical scepticism; 9. Dreams: The epistemology of sleep; 10. Signs: Vision and the new philosophy; BIBLIOGRAPHY