“Marseus in the Land of Snakes”: New York Review of Books about book and exhibit in Rijksmuseum Twente

For much of his life, the painter Otto Marseus van Schrieck (circa 1620-1678) lived beyond Amsterdam’s city walls in a marshy area known as “the land of snakes,” where he had a small country house. There, Marseus kept a menagerie of reptiles, insects, and vermin for the purposes of the peculiar genre of painting he had invented—his wife later claimed that he spent so much time handling the snakes that they eventually began posing for him—which was so much in demand that when Cosimo de Medici visited Amsterdam in 1667, Marseus, not Rembrandt, was the first person he received.

Read more in the New York Review of Books

Call for Symposia: European Society for the History of Science Biennial Conference 2018: ‘Unity and Disunity’ (London, 14-17 September 2018; Deadline: 6 December 2017)

The organising committee of ESHS 2018 invite proposals for symposia to be held during the conference. Symposia may take a variety of forms, including a standard panel, a commented panel, or a roundtable (see below). We welcome other and novel forms of symposia , but organisers are advised to discuss their ideas with the programme coordinator, Frank James (fjames @ ri.ac.uk) in advance of submitting a formal proposal.

The organising committee of ESHS 2018 invite proposals for symposia to be held during the conference. Symposia may take a variety of forms, including a standard panel, a commented panel, or a roundtable (see below). We welcome other and novel forms of symposia , but organisers are advised to discuss their ideas with the programme coordinator, Frank James (fjames @ ri.ac.uk) in advance of submitting a formal proposal. Lees meer…