The Kitab al-Bulhan, or Book of Wonders, is an Arabic manuscript dating mainly from the late 14th century A.D. and probably bound together in Baghdad during the reign of Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad (1382-1410). The manuscript is made up of astrological, astronomical and geomantic texts compiled by Abd al-Hasan Al-Isfahani, as well as a dedicated section of full-page illustrations, with each plate titled with “A discourse on….”, followed by the subject of the discourse (a folktale, a sign of the zodiac, a prophet, etc.).
(Higher resolution images can be found at Wikimedia Commons)
(Higher resolution images can be found at Wikimedia Commons)
Operation Doorstep | The Spirit Photographs of William Hope | The Maps of Piri Reis | Dr Julius Neubronner's Miniature Pigeon Camera |
Art in Art | Huexotzinco Codex | Sessions for the Blind at Sunderland Museum | Eugène von Guérard's Australian Landscapes |
Landscape and Marine Views of Norway | The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy | Space Colony Art from the 1970s | Men in Wigs |
De humana physiognomonia libri IIII (1586) | Field Columbian Museum | Maps from Geographicus | Arnoldus Montanus' New and Unknown World (1671) |
World War II from the Air | Halloween Postcards | Engravings by Dominicus Custos | Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshots |
Kitab al-Bulhan or Book of Wonders (late 14thC.) |