On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoekāa cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopherāgazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby attic, the painter Johannes Vermeer was using another optical device, a camera obscura, to experiment with light and create the most luminous pictures ever beheld.
āSee for yourself!ā was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effects of light, shadow, and color. By extending the reach of sight the new optical instruments prompted the realization that there is more than meets the eye. But they also raised questions about how we see and what it means to see. In answering these questions, scientists and artists in Delft changed how we perceive the world.
In Eye of the Beholder, Laura J. Snyder transports us to the streets, inns, and guildhalls of seventeenth-century Holland, where artists and scientists gathered, and to their studios and laboratories, where they mixed paints and prepared canvases, ground and polished lenses, examined and dissected insects and other animals, and invented the modern notion of seeing. With charm and narrative flair Snyder brings Vermeer and Van Leeuwenhoekāand the men and women around themāvividly to life. The story of these two geniuses and the transformation they engendered shows us why we see the worldāand our place within itāas we do today.
This book title, Eye of the Beholder (Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing), ISBN: 9780393077469, by Laura J. Snyder, published by W. W. Norton & Company (March 16, 2015) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer Eye of the Beholder (Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing) books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order Eye of the Beholder (Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing) books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!