Valentines’ Day Presents: Revisiting The Beginning, Progress and End of Man (1650) as an Interactive Sheet

Posted on March 7, 2025 by John Russell

By Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

I am intrigued by books in unusual formats. Interactive or movable books are a good example because they usually only appear to be typical books. I paraphrase Iona and Peter Opie’s comments in their 1975 article “Books that Come to Life” (Times Literary Supplement, Sept 19, 1975: 1055): “mechanical books should look like ordinary books. Their success is to be measured by the ingenuity with which their bookish format conceals unbookish characteristics.” They state how the effect of surprise is central to their effect. In their brief history they discuss the turn-up “The Beginning, Progress and End of Man” printed in London by B. Alsop, for T. Dunster 1650, then housed in the British Museum. They state that “the flaps, the subject matter, and the opening verses of our manuscript metamorphosis are all but identical to those of the seventeenth-century example.”

The small turn-up has enchanted me for a long time. Eleven years ago, I wrote a blog post about looking at the digital facsimile of the “The Beginning, Progress and End of Man” (1650). It concerns our excitement and pride of seeing the first known facsimile beyond images in EEBO of the object. We were most fortunate to obtain permission from The British Library to include images of it on our website in the visual gallery section. In the earlier post, I describe my privilege of seeing the small piece of paper printed on one side only (I have noted the measurements as 17.78 cm by 29.21 cm). Classified as a restricted broadside, it is pasted along the top into a large volume forming part of the Thomason Tracts of English Civil War ephemera. It is housed at the main British Library site, in the St. Pancreas Reading Room. Since the volumes are gigantic (folios) I was set up properly with a map support in order to view them. I also had a magnifying glass and a ruler. Since they are very fragile, a library worker watched me the entire time. It was a bit nerve wracking.

Very recently I had the great pleasure of revisiting the turn-up book in the British Library and starting to rethink it in terms of format. I was thrilled to be able to sit with the turn-up again. Last year I was able to visit see the Robert Sayer etched edition housed in the Wellcome Library. He published the item in around 1767 as his first turn-up book and is included in his catalogue with Bennett in 1775. Sayer called it a turn-up book (please see the blog https://sites.psu.edu/learningasplaying/2024/06/01/first-impressions-seeing-the-sayer-etched-edition/). In 2024 I had hoped to be able to compare both the Alsop publication and the Sayer publication published over 100 years apart. Unfortunately, due to the cyber-attack in fall 2023 no one has been allowed to view the items in this room until very recently. This time I had success!

The context for my re-visiting is a short, intensive engagement with all different kinds of interactive materials in London, and Cambridge (note 1). This has pushed my thinking in different directions but what is in common is that none are in the traditional codex format. Thinking about these items makes me ponder several things: what is a non-codex, is the codex only common in western culture, and what is a book anyway? A useful distinction is provided at this page on the University of Florida Libraries website called History of Text Technologies in a section called “Non-Codex and Accordion Bindings.”

Several types are given: Non-Codex and Accordion Bindings, Scrolls, Quipus, Accordion Folding, Artists’ Books, and Palm Leaf Books. A separate subsection on ephemera (https://guides.lib.fsu.edu/hott/ephemera) includes modern single sheet posters and broadsides. From this wide-ranging group I am using the category of broadside and combining it with accordion folding and adding flaps since these terms describe the turn-up.

Below are a few some of my viewing notes and thoughts based on the two hours I sat with the turn-up part of the famous Thomason collection of printed and ephemeral documents about the Civil War (note 2). It is included in a volume of Thomason Tracts single sheets dated Nov. 27, 1649 – Feb. 29, 1650, call number 669.f.15.(34). In these notes, I am focusing on the materiality.

Looking at the large volume of tracts, I see most are broadsides of a variety of sizes. Most are printed but the occasional item is handwritten. Many are oriented portrait style on the page. Smaller ones measure approximately 10 3/4 by 6 7/8 inches. Others are 14 inches high and 10 inches wide while others are 10 3/4 almost 11 inches wide. Some longer ones like “A Watch for a Wiseman’s Observation” is 16 x 10 1/2. One large tract is of Cromwell on a horse and measures 20 ½ X 15 ½ inches. It is folded into the gutter and when a viewer opens the volume the rearing horse with its rider appear to almost pop up.

Encountering “The Beginning, Progress and End of man” comes immediately after this item in the volume. It is a surprise due to its small size, orientation in the volume, and the religious content. Looking at it, the first impression is that it is a facsimile since it is in perfect condition. The turn-up is oriented landscape format sideways on the page. The page that is the support is 9 inches high and 14 inches wide. The turn-up is under 4 inches high and 11 1/2 inches wide folded. The paper is not browned or stained except in an occasional spot, and the colour is an off white/grey. It is uncut and both flaps seem like they would be of equal size if cut. It is in perfect shape. The printing is clear with no bleeding and under Adam’s feet the date “June 3, 1650” is clearly legible in brownish ink.

The spaces between each figure appear equidistant. Roughly measuring each figure, Adam is 2 3/4 inches; the lion 2 3/8 inches but in motion; the young miser is the smallest and the old miser the largest at 2 and 2 1/2 inches, respectively. In terms of the size of the figures, the miser / skeleton has long, webbed fish-like feet and is the largest.

Adam is printed as a unit over the break; the mermaid is whole under the break. Eve has a different upper body (the mermaid’s) than Adam but her lower part is a male lower torso with large fig leaf. One printing detail struck me anew: I have been wondering about whether Adam and Eve/mermaid have belly buttons. Here, I see that the dot on Eve and the mermaid is higher up on the figure than on Adam. His is below the fold, due to the fold presumably. In a previous blog post about the Sayer printing of Adam and Eve/mermaid as separate sheets, I showed that in each case there are belly buttons. I could not remember if the woodcut versions had them, but this question has now been answered regarding the Alsop print!

Carefully touching the paper, it feels crisp and not flimsy. It is definitely in better condition than the other contemporary woodblock prints, later engraved ones published in the 18th century and the Metamorphosis published through the 19th century. I am intrigued by the quality of the paper – quite sturdy – and wonder if this because it was printed as a broadside? Is the condition due to being pressed between pages of a heavy volume for hundreds of years? And of course, restricted is essential. Due to the pristine condition, at first glance, it could be a facsimile!

It is a privilege to engage with an authentic piece of history created by a person who lived through the war and was impacted by it, and who carefully collected print materials to document the war while it was occurring. It is a tiny segment of a huge eclectic resource.

I am struck by how perfect it is. Since the sheet has not been cut. We do not know if it was ever published. We do not know if it was ever played with. The presentation in the volume is only partly movable in that you can only lift the top block and bottom blocks to the text. We can only imagine the full transformations. Yet the pristine state of the artifact – pale, clean with the date of acquisition written down by Thomason himself – is full of latent action as it waits be played with.

I am fascinated by the “Beginning, Progress and End of man” for several reasons: its potential movability and playability are important to the history of interactive paper media. I am intrigued by the world turned upside down function which educates present day people about 17th century British “cheap” print culture. Its role as the first known English turn-up sheet has given it a status as an ur-text in the field of movable books.

Note 1: As I discuss in subsequent posts, this interest was re-ignited by a recent trip to London and Cambridge where I learned about and engaged with a broad variety of moveable books from different periods (17th century to 21st century), in different materials and modes (paper, and remediated into digital), directed towards different audiences (children, adult) and created in different cultures (British, Japanese). These items were in different formats: only some were typical movable (mechanical) books; most were not.

Note 2: Please see the important work by Professor Jason Peacey and Professor Michael Mendle published in a special issue of the Electronic British Library Journal on the Thomason Tracts, especially Peacey’s “Collecting Revolution: George Thomason and the ‘Thomason Tracts.’”

T is for Turn-Up Book

Posted on August 22, 2024 by John Russell

By Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

I recently collaborated with Jacquelyn Sundberg, outreach librarian in special collections at McGill University, on a blog post about turn-up books:

T is for Turn-up Book

This post pans back from the focus on “The Beginning, Progress and End of Man” as 17^th and 18^th century religious turn-ups by putting them in the context of printing history. I wrote the text and Jacquelyn enlivened it with a video (for which she did the voiceover); there is also a making activity at the end where one can make one’s own turn-up book!

Sayer Religious Harlequinade Part 2: Assembling the Adam and Eve turn-up

Posted on August 18, 2024 by John Russell

By Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

Thanks to Alexandra Franklin and Jacquelyn Sunderland!

In the last post about the Sayer religious harlequinade, I became entangled with questions about the significance of etched illustrations versus woodblock illustrations. Since the two prints were never cut, focusing on how the turn-up might have been assembled is the aim of this follow-up blog.

When learning about how the woodblock illustrations were made, I was privileged to watch the panel being printed on the Bodleian handpress. I was most struck by how there was no Eve block, rather Eve was formed by the Adam and Mermaid blocks. When a reader-viewer-player, following directions, lifts the top flap Adam transforms into Eve (apt indeed given the biblical origin from Adam’s rib). When the bottom flap is turned down Eve transforms into the mermaid. Again, with the etched version made by engraved plates there is no Eve, just Adam and the mermaid. My questions are: How is Eve printed with the etched illustrations? Were there four or eight separate images or a single plate? Since there is no known published version of this text to refer to, how was the Sayer turn-up assembled? Can scrutinizing images of the two sheets provide a clue?

I approached several curators about this. Because I had learned how the woodcut version was made at the Bodleian Library, I emailed Alexandra Franklin with my questions and sent her the high resolution Wellcome Library open access images. She kindly sent me a thorough, educational response. She stated that the reproduced images are large enough to allow us to see the crucial image of the plate mark. The plate mark, she explained, is a “rectangular impression or ridge going around the whole of the image page area.” She said that this impression indicates where the copper plate was pressed into the paper (or rather the paper pressed over the plate). The pressure on the soft paper, she continued, left an indentation of the copper plate’s edge that indicates all of the images and text on the “Adam” print were printed from a single plate and all of the images and text on the “mermaid/Eve” “mermaid” print were printed from a different single plate (personal email from Alexandra Franklin, June 14, 2024). Using this description as a guide, I realized that what I mistook in the photos of the two separate sheets as layers of paper is the indentation of the plate (note 1).

This was fascinating, but how was the turn-up printed to achieve the transformation? Dr. Franklin observed that the “‘mermaid’ plate could have been printed on a large sheet and the ‘Adam’ plate could have been printed on the folded edges, after they were folded over…” (Franklin email). This would provide the same kind of transformation as in the letterpress sheet, the layout of which can be viewed at http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/view/sheet/23300.

This last point about how the Adam plate could have been printed on the folded edges after they were folded over intrigued but stumped me. I took Dr. Franklin’s clear description to Ms. Jacquelyn Sunderland at special collections McGill University. Using the clue of the mid-body lines on both sheets indicating where they were to be cut, we worked with a facsimile based on the Wellcome Library images and were able to manipulate the flaps up and down for all four panels. This activity forms the basis of a subsequent multimedia blog post.

To me, the visual effect was indeed an animation of a religious and moral harlequinade called Adam & Eve & etc. I would love to know if there were such a stage play. While we were working with the turn-up we noticed a difference in the representation of Adam and Eve / mermaid and merman in comparison to the woodcut illustrations. In the top half of the panel the figures now have bellybuttons-something I had not seen in other turn-ups. This humanizes the animated figures even more. Were they costumes in the stage harlequinade (note 2)?

Notes

For a brief discussion of intaglio printing see John Carter and Nicolas Barker, ABC for Book Collectors, 8th ed., Oak Knoll Press/The British Library, 2004.
There is an ongoing debate about mermaids and bellybuttons. Here is an image of a medieval mermaid with one https://www.instagram.com/p/C9jTDBTo-wG/?igsh=aXBybnl3MWd6aG50. In relation to contemporary girls’ culture, the representation of Ariel is discussed since she too has a bellybutton in the first film https://disneyheroines.fandom.com/wiki/Ariel#:~:text=Appearance%20and%20personality-,Physical%20appearance,wears%20a%20purple%20seashell%20bra.

First impressions: Seeing the Sayer etched edition of The Beginning, Progress and End of Man circa 1767

Posted on June 1, 2024 by John Russell

By Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

In this blog post I recount a modest adventure in research that involved travelling back to one of my favorite cities, discovering a “new” library (Wellcome Collection) and visiting an old library (the British Library). To my joy they are both on the same street in London! The purpose of my trip was to look at and engage with an early harlequinade published by Robert Sayer on Sept 15, 1767 and based on the 4-part “Beginning, Progress and End of man” first published in 1650 by Bernard Alsop and held in the British Library. This trip came about due to an email from the noted collector of movable books, Ian Alcock. He informed me that my comment in Interactive Books (2018) stated that while the turn-up was listed in Sayer and Bennett’s catalogue of 1775 as number one there was no known copy (based on classic research by Percy Muir 1969 and more recent work by Eric Johnson 2009). Mr. Alcock informed me otherwise.

The Beginning, Progress and End of Man is important in relation to the history of the turn-up book format. The work is listed in the catalog (ca. 1767) of London publisher, print, and mapmaker Robert Sayer with the title Adam and Eve, though no known surviving copy exists (Muir 1969, 210; Johnson 2009, xviii). As a result, as soon as I had some time while still on the ‘right side of the pond’ I popped over to London to check it out at The Wellcome. My project was to examine the Sayer edition, the Alsop edition if possible, and look again at Sayer and Bennett’s Catalogue of 1775 to see again the entry for the turn-up.

My questions are:

What is the relation between the 1650 edition in the BL and this?
What is the effect of the kind of illustrations used in both?
Was the Sayer edition ever published?
Are there other etched versions of the turn-up published before the Sayer edition?

Since access to the Alsop edition was not possible due to the lasting consequences of the cyber-attack the British Library suffered last fall, I am using images on the images page of my website that I obtained previously from them (see https://sites.psu.edu/play/image-gallery/1650-british/)

I was able however to look at the Sayer and Bennett catalogue and two Sayer harlequinades bound together.

Sayer and Bennett’s Catalogue of 1775 (title page and interior)

Other Sayer harlequinades

My focus here is on the first two questions since to my knowledge the Sayer edition is the first etched edition. As I have discussed elsewhere, I have previously focused on early editions with woodcuts and comparing them with one another. The 1650 text printed by B. Alsop was enlarged into a five-part turn-up and both the words and images reworked by E. Alsop in 1654. There is a 1688/89 edition at The Bodleian Library and an undated 17^th century edition held at the Penn State University Libraries (2018, 2023). Regarding the four-part turn-up, there are numerous editions published in America using the title Metamorphosis, or a transformation of pictures: with poetical explanations for the amusement of children. I do not know if the Sayer version is the earliest engraved text but know there are ones published shortly after (e.g. Martin 1802).

Since I am not an expert in early printing techniques my focus is impressionistic: how my perception of a familiar text changes with the mode of illustration. The four-part Sayer version is working from the same basic text as Alsop but with engraved illustrations and new verse; the premise and order of episodes are the same. There is a similarity between the Alsop and Sayer turn-ups materially. Both are uncoloured and there are strict limitations in terms of interactivity. The Alsop 1650 text is attached to a page in a volume of the Thomason tracts. It has uncut flaps so the two sections can only be moved as blocks of paper.

The limitations of the Sayer 1767 edition are different. It is presented as two uncut sheets so has not been assembled. The lines for cutting the images into two are present occurring in the mid sections of the characters. I was able to view the two sheets side by side or one above the other but not able to engage with the turn-up movement at all. In neither case do we know who the author of the verse is or the illustrator. First encountering the artifacts, I experienced a “shock” of the unfamiliar, when a familiar text turns into a new one due to the engraved illustrations. These remediate the bimodal text. Below I briefly describe the text based on my notes and share my general impressions and questions. In a later blog post I will focus on comparing the Adam and Eve/Mermaid images since this is what I have worked on before with the Alsop editions.

Images of the Alsop edition:

Images of the Sayer edition

Part one: Brief description with ponderings

The turn-up is not cut and held in two separate folders. The artifacts have no titles; one is catalogued under a short description “Adam holding a flower; a lion; a youth holding a sword; a rich man with money in his hands. Engraving, 1767,” and the other under “Eve combined with a mermaid; a griffon combined with an eagle holding an infant between its claws; a purse combined with a heart; a skeleton holding an hourglass and an arrow. Engraving, ca. 1757.”

The Wellcome Library has all the images available freely and I have downloaded them. Here are the links. They are listed separately:

For Adam https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dsa4r8n7
For Eve https://wellcomecollection.org/works/t9c35jc2/images?id=g4hgbvwv

The digital images are very helpful, but as always seeing and engaging with the artifact as opposed to the image is a completely different experience. As I described and transcribed the text I had many questions. Was the turn-up never cut? Was it an imperfect copy -since there are some blurring and mistakes and lines visible? Was the turn-up ever printed? If so, why are there apparently no other copies?

These are a few of my observations.

While the artifact has no title, the date of publication is specific: “Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Sept 15th, 1767.” This accords with the undated entry in the 1775 Sayer and Bennett catalogue (see image above).

In terms of the tactile experience, the paper is aged to light tan. It is smooth to touch and feels thickish, substantial. It is difficult to judge the size of the images — I estimate 6 ½” x 3″ per section? The first thing that strikes me visually is the apparently large size of the figures; is it because they are uncut? In the verse the directions “turn up” or “turn down” are inserted into the quatrain either in the last line for the first or in the second line for the second. Underneath is the “moral.”

Looking across both sheets I observe that each of the human figures are elegantly posed and ready to move: on the first sheet the fit Adam has one hand on his hip, holds a flower out in the other, with foot slightly raised as if he is to take a dance step; the young man holding a sword is in a position ready to fence, and the mature man holds a money bag in one hand while gazing down at a money bag for a larger amount cradled like an infant in his other arm.

On the second sheet the well-endowed Eve has well-developed upper body muscles and a powerful, coiling tail, and the skeleton is posed in a cross-feet dance position. Compared to the woodcut versions, all the humanoid figures are elegant and presented in theatrical poses. The images are not caricatures. I am struck by the sophisticated presentation of the adult male figures for they both stand gracefully in relaxed but telling poses. The pose of the skeleton elegantly mirrors that of Adam.

The animal figures are in motion: the lion-man is walking gazing at the viewer, and the eagle is in midflight holding a baby by its claws and is in profile. The emblematic objects, the top of the heart and the heart are oversized and could be balloons while the head of the lion-man looks like a costume in a pantomime. The mermaid would be an effective transformation trick.

These aspects and the implied motion in the stances of all the figures makes me think of a pantomime performance — a harlequinade. Was there a stage harlequinade called Adam & Eve & etc.?

One key similarity with the woodcut editions is there is no figure of Eve. This is fascinating to me. Since I have done some work with conservators with reproduction woodblocks of the Deacon edition at the Bodleian, I realized when I did the printing exercise that there was no Eve block. There are only two: Adam and the mermaid (see https://sites.psu.edu/learningasplaying/2018/02/16/mermaid-at-the-centre/). Realizing this was revolutionary to my understanding of the text. Here I am in a quandary. Again, there is no Eve, just Adam and the mermaid. How was she formed by the etched illustrations? How was the Sayer turn-up assembled? The only clue is looking at the mid-body lines on both sheets indicating where they were to be cut. Focusing on how the turn-up might have been assembled and tackling the mystery of the absent Eve will be the aim of a follow-up blog.

[To be continued]

Viewing What is this? What is that (1905) and The Beginning, Progress and End of Man (circa 1650) under the microscope: What do I see?

Posted on November 29, 2022 by John Russell

Jacqueline Reid-Walsh

A short time ago I had the privilege of working with Dr. Sarah K. Rich, Director of the Center for Virtual/Material Studies, and Dr. Clara Drummond to examine the materials of two books from two different periods, one composed totally of fabric and the other of early modern paper. I have been struggling to answer questions about the materiality and the interactive affordances of the two books by using a light box and magnifying glass, which was only partly satisfactory. Dr. Rich used a powerful microscope that allowed us to see the threads distinctly. Her analysis of the threads explained questions about the interactivity of the materials in the books published some 150 years apart.

The much more recent book is intended for babies and toddlers. Called What is this? What is that (1905), it is the second book in the series of Dean’s rag books published until the second world war. The books are described as being composed completely of rag for durability, safety and cleanliness for baby and caretaker (Cope and Cope, 13) and the logo on the book claims that the books were “quite indestructible.” The artifact is smooth to the touch, soft and very pliable, reminiscent of a cambric shirt and I was curious about what type of cotton was used.

While the weave of the material is suggested to the naked eye, under the microscope we could see how the material is composed of loose weave cotton thread. We could even see the pattern of the threads which are in a plain weave, crossing over and under, with the longitudinal warp and the traverse weft clearly visible. What was also apparent was that the threads are of different widths and that the space between the threads is about the same as the width of the threads themselves.

Another question I had was how were the colors were applied to the fabric? Was there any pigment or were they printed directly on the material? How was this achieved? According to Dr. Rich the method of color printing was coal tar dye. There are eight colors used, most are distinct, but as seen in the microscope enabled photograph, the orange is created from layering yellow with red. This demonstrates how the material was run through the rollers multiple times (Cope and Cope, 14). The green color is vivid but unlike the paint of the period there is no arsenic. Indeed, the colors are safe as the company claimed. Dr. Rich said that the smooth surface, so attractive even after all these years, is created by starch or by ironing.

The Beginning, Progress and End of Man (circa 1650)

By comparison, the much older object a religious turn-up book called The Beginning, Progress and End of Man circa 1650 and it is composed of paper. However, paper of the 17^th century is not made of machine wood pulp as is modern paper but of linen rag. The difference between early modern paper and modern paper is obvious even to the touch of an interactor such as myself when working first with a facsimile and then the original. The facsimile feels smooth while the original feels soft but with an almost invisible texture that provides some substance. According to Bill Minter, the senior conservator at the university, this softness is due to the material itself which has not been treated.

Looking at the object through the microscope it is apparent to the educated eye that the linen was made of flax. Under the high magnification the fibres look like miniature bamboo with horizontal notches. The color is yellowish.

Comparing the cotton rag book to the paper book made of flax, I wonder what is distinctive about these materials. The cotton rag book is very supple so the pages can be folded or rolled without harm. The flax paper book has more substance but is not stiff like modern paper so the flaps can be easily lifted up and down and stay in position when placed. Looking up flax in both a general and an academic source I learn that in Western countries textiles made from flax are called linen and that while linen fibres are stronger than cotton they are also less elastic.

There is quite an extensive article on Wikipedia on flax with some cited sources at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flax#History. According to this article, flax fibers taken from the stem of the plant are two to three times as strong as cotton fibers. Additionally, flax fibers are naturally smooth and straight. Europe and North America both depended on flax for plant-based cloth until the 19th century, when cotton overtook flax as the most common plant for making rag-based paper. The article goes to explain that flax fiber is extracted from the bast beneath the surface of the stem of the flax plant. Flax fiber is soft, lustrous, and flexible; bundles of fiber have the appearance of blonde hair, hence the description “flaxen” hair. It is stronger than cotton fiber, but less elastic.

This information is supported by an academic article by Helmut Becker called “Growing and Hand Processing Fibre Flax and Hemp for Hand Papermaking” (2008). Becker draws on the work of Tim Barrett who has extensively researched both oriental bast fibres and western bast fibres like flax and hemp. They are fascinated by the quality and permanence of early handmade papers and try to make contemporary paper that has the same qualities. In terms of interactive properties of the material, Becker refers to the work of Douglas Howell who created successful, creative three-dimensional paper artwork stemming from his experiments in pulping raw fiber flax (Becker, 3).

Comparing the photos of the cotton and flax fibres under the microscope helps explain my questions about the materiality and the affordances of the interactivity of the materials in the books published some 150 years apart. I am struck in both cases how the books were not intended for an elite market but for middle and lower class audiences — babies in the case of the Dean rag book — and in the case of the turn-up book part of the “cheap’ or popular print culture of 17^th century England consumed by a wide audience of people old and young. That these books have survived in very good condition through the intervening years is largely due to their material as well as their careful preservation in special collections. They provide a glimpse into how the playful literacies of earlier centuries were able to be achieved, and provides a topic that needs further examination.

References

Becker, Helmut, “Growing and Hand Processing Fibre Flax and Hemp for Hand Papermaking.” Presentation at the International Conference on Flax and Other Bast Plants, Saskatoon, Canada, July 21-23, 2008. https://www.academia.edu/19693013/Growing_and_Processing_Fibre_Flax_and_Hemp_for_Hand_Papermaking

Cope, Peter and Dawn Cope. Dean’s Rag Books and Rag Dolls. London: New Cavendish Books, 2009.

“Flax,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flax

Unfolding Metamorphoses

The Learning as Play Blog

Category Archives: Turn-up Books

Valentines’ Day Presents: Revisiting The Beginning, Progress and End of Man (1650) as an Interactive Sheet

T is for Turn-Up Book

Sayer Religious Harlequinade Part 2: Assembling the Adam and Eve turn-up

First impressions: Seeing the Sayer etched edition of The Beginning, Progress and End of Man circa 1767

Viewing What is this? What is that (1905) and The Beginning, Progress and End of Man (circa 1650) under the microscope: What do I see?