This article deals with the importance of the relationship between word and image in Aby Warburg’s academic work. From his student days onward, Warburg continuously collected books and compiled a collection that would, by the end of his... more
This article deals with the importance of the relationship between word and image in Aby Warburg’s academic work. From his student days onward, Warburg continuously collected books and compiled a collection that would, by the end of his life, culminate in a conceptually designed research library. The new library building in Heilwigstraße 116, opened in 1926, became an institutional facility and Warburg’s instrument for working on a cultural art history, in which he investigated the mechanisms of the afterlife of antiquity by discovering relationships between word and image. The illustrated book in particular plays a significant role in the processes of exchange, which provide the foundations of culture. Warburg utilized the occasion of the Librarian’s Day (Bibliothekarstag) on the 10th of April 1927 for an important presentation of his library to the directors of North German libraries. Organized by the principle of ‘good neighbor’, that is thematically oriented rather than in alphabetical or chronological order, the library collection proved a crucial support for Warburg’s academic work. He also emphasized the importance of the investigation of processes of exchange between the literary and pictorial media for his methodology, taking into account Rembrandt’s painting The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (1661‑1662) in conjunction with Antonio Tempesta’s illustrations for Otto van Veen’s translation of «Historiae», in which Tacitus writes of the uprising of the Batavians against the Romans. For that occasion Warburg had prepared a lecture entitled «The Importance of the Rare Book for the Universal and Humanistic Oriented Art History» and, as he had already done on other occasions, accompanied it with a visual argumentation in three picture panels displayed as an exhibition in the library reading room.
The paper focusses on Scipione Ammirato’s usage of passages and examples taken from ancient history as well as from classical historiography (especially Tacitus) in order to promote marriages and integration as a means of consolidating... more
The paper focusses on Scipione Ammirato’s usage of passages and examples taken from ancient history as well as from classical historiography (especially Tacitus) in order to promote marriages and integration as a means of consolidating modern states. Key-words: Tacitus; Roman Historiography; Roman Empire; Roman Hegemony; Tacitism; Reason of State; History of Political Thought, Reception of Ancient Historiography in Modern Culture; Modern Age
