[...]th genres try to convey a great deal of information in a condensed form (verbal or pictorial) [--> this is also why i am into Olearius and Sa'di #baroque]
(frontispiece + Golestan's) architectural framework --serving--> organizing structure; formal entrance to the scene

[]
relation to the soverign in Sa'di

in Golestan, the tales speak of the love or affection between a man and a young male. however, in the introduction to his translation, Olearius notes that he has subsituted the term “girl, lover, person, or human being” for “youth,” so that it will not offend young people who read the book --> (resisting the) jocular moralistic-didactic use of the momoerotic motif a much deeper understanding of Sufi terminology and motivation than one can expect from a 17th century translator
Olearius normalizes the discourse (of sufi) for fear of offending the sensibilities of his reading public

angelic piety
Englische Frömmigkeit

...................................

the lionskin story

lion symbolizing the element of fire as well as purification
astrological relationship between lion and sun, in the image of Mithras, entwined by snake, symbolizing the path of the sun

mithraic influences survived into the islamic era as well, and became even more prevalent with the safavid dynasty --> lion imagery became strongly associated with Ali, the fist imam in twelver shi'ism

cosmic imagery and forms of address

the persian sun/lion symbol becomes intelligible for a european audience, when it is represented as a symbol of royalty

the lionskin, in Olearius's title, Persianischer Rosenthal
the animal's interior surface contains the writing, which provides the information about Persian society

Finn and Jake (given to wanderlust and creative risk) in Adventure Time --> “more powerful through spoils”
(this tradition goes back to Hercules, trophy, skin of the beast,)

“slain and flayed, exposed to the European audience, the lion/skin serves as a background on which the German author inscribes the story[/history]” (Brancaforte)



[Brancaforte studying] the early modern European frontispieces that were associated with the Orient


...superfluity of details mannered and cluttered with unread decorative motifs set in an unreadable space
[16th century frontispiece; my work is sometimes like that]
=/= (Rubin's title pages:) portrayed in an intelligible space, imbued with dramatic light effects, with a sense of movement, monumental architecture with three-dimensional figures moving in a readable illusionistic space

‘stretched-out animal skin with the head in the top center’ --> Rubin's artistic vocabulary [--> followed in today way of layout]
lion = saint's attribute --transformed--> medium for writing
--> (underscoring the) significance of **trophy**: subjugating a wild dangerous animal and then displaying it proudly for all to admire
Olearius's choice of lionskin:
1- dramatic visual introduction (to Golestan)
2- piques the reader's interest in the work
3- stands for dangerous exotic land (Persia) that has been symbolically tamed and displayed for the Western viewer
4- material of writing + material being written about


deictic

the rigor mortis of the body


the dramatic pose of the Persian husband
the curtain-like skin
the “emblematic corpse” on a “stage”
to serve as ‘exemplum’ tamsil تمثيل
+ martyr-like European hero who suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous Tatars
}--> theater of cruelty


bellicosity (amade be jang آماده به جنگ)

reader/viewer is horrified & fascinated --provide--> a tale of *oriental atrocities* --set-for--> stage adventure stories that follow...

...................................

less obviously, from standard geographical texts of the Islamic world. yet with its emphasis on direct observation and critical objectivity, the map also points the way toward the more exacting “scientific” standards of the Enlightenment.

maps are cultural artifacts
Persia: exotic + faraway

map ==> analysis
a map--like a frontispiece--is comprised of both visual and textual elements, combining word and image; it represents a type of text, or discourse, that needs to be analyzed in detail in order to be “read” correctly


maps are never completely translatable (nor readable)

language translates into historical practice

carto-literacy

rhetorical device, ekphrasis: description

graph-o suggests both picture and writing *

the cartographic enterprises under Duke Frederick III of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf

mathematical principles + projection methods

14th century, seeks to include “ancient and modern discoveries in one verbal and visual description”


early modern age military and strategic situation of europe

establish fortifications

(Harley:) behind most cartographers there is a patron
mapping so became the business of the state and cartography is early nationalized
-global empire building
-preservation of the nation-state
-local assertion of individual property rights
}--> in each of these contexts the dimensions of polity and territory were fused in images which were part of the intellectual apparatus of power **


individual niches [on] architectural plinth

in Newe Landesbeschreibung: “in the beginning of the world, God created everything at once, with his clever/intelligent finger, using measure, weight and number ... because God is not a God of disorder, but wants everything to proceed in a proper manner and with the proper differentiation.” (translated in Vision of Persia, p.123)


illustrious predecessors
through their patronage and linked to the noble art of geography

the map is framed by scale bars (the cartouche [of title] rests on a kind of architectural base in which a scale bar is contained)***
(graticules, more details,)
typography plays a role in emphasizing (novelty?)
geographical purview (meydan-e did, چشم رس، ميدان ديد) of the rulers

map and approval

different layers of information in the map: by looking at it all at once, it is difficult to comprehend the entire story that the author/artist are trying to tell. by examining individual visual elements in the map, and then linking them to the text, one can trace the different narratives extant--manifest and latent--in the work (Brancaforte on Olearius cartographic work)
(this visual rhetoric is also what i am using in my storytellings) (i also need to be careful with my collages: (not?) to map out creations that are totalities much greater than its author's own appreciation or conscious knowledge of them; to emerge an often confused and paradoxical but signatory “self” in the liminal/marginal areas of the page)
•“the mass of textual material that accompanies single-sheet or atlas maps tends to reveal its ideological perspective in the gaps between a silent, spatial, schematic rendering of an area (in visual form) and a voluble (por-harf پرحرف، روان، سليس، چرب و نرم، خوش زبان), copious (mofasal مفصل), emphatic (mo'akad تاکيد شده), printed discourse that strives to tell of the invisible history that the image cannot put into words.” (Conley)


grid, superimposed on the map

a common topos in Persian painting: a male protagonist expecting the female to pour wine or some other liquid into the shallow bowl he is holding
this ‘anticipation of drink’ is construed (in the title of Olearius map of persia) as a gesture of welcome and hospitality; providing the viewer with an iconic image of two “typical” inhabitants and their form of dress --> “promise and peril” [riches to be found + dangers encountered; treasures + giant snakes]
this continues today: the image of an iranian woman in native dress

on the Persians’ inner nature and customs

the dedicatory cartouche's [special effects]: ruler's name, capitalized, special style of italics
establishing the Duke's geographical purview --> linked to foreign territories


through ‘knowledge’ and ‘discovery’ --> learn about Safavid Persia

(Conley)
(cartography during early modern age afforded to)[...]