The World in a Box: The Story of an Eighteenth-Century Picture Encyclopedia Contributor(s): Te Heesen, Anke (Author), Hentschel, Ann M. (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0226322874 ISBN-13: 9780226322872 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $36.63 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2002 Annotation: This is a book about a box that contained the world. The box was the "Picture Academy for the Young", a popular encyclopedia in pictures invented by preacher-turned-publisher Johann Siegmund Stoy in eighteenth-century Germany. Children were expected to cut out the pictures from the "Academy", paste them onto cards, and arrange those cards in ordered compartments-the whole world filed in a box of images. As Anke te Heesen demonstrates, Stoy and his world in a box epitomized the Enlightenment concern with creating and maintaining an appropriate moral, intellectual, and social order. The box, and its images from nature, myth, and biblical history, were intended to teach children how to collect, store, and order knowledge. te Heesen compares the "Academy" with other aspects of Enlightenment culture, such as commercial warehouses and natural history cabinets, to show how the kinds of collecting and ordering practices taught by the "Academy" shaped both Enlightenment thought and the developing middle class in Germany. "The World in a Box", illustrated with a multitude of images of and from Stoy's "Academy", offers a glimpse into a time when it was believed that knowledge could be contained and controlled. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Science - Foreign Language Study | German |
Dewey: 033.1 |
LCCN: 2001052763 |
Physical Information: 0.62" H x 5.34" W x 8.72" (0.78 lbs) 244 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This is a book about a box that contained the world. The box was the Picture Academy for the Young, a popular encyclopedia in pictures invented by preacher-turned-publisher Johann Siegmund Stoy in eighteenth-century Germany. Children were expected to cut out the pictures from the Academy, glue them onto cards, and arrange those cards in ordered compartments--the whole world filed in a box of images. As Anke te Heesen demonstrates, Stoy and his world in a box epitomized the Enlightenment concern with the creation and maintenance of an appropriate moral, intellectual, and social order. The box, and its images from nature, myth, and biblical history, were intended to teach children how to collect, store, and order knowledge. te Heesen compares the Academy with other aspects of Enlightenment material culture, such as commercial warehouses and natural history cabinets, to show how the kinds of collecting and ordering practices taught by the Academy shaped both the developing middle class in Germany and Enlightenment thought. The World in a Box, illustrated with a multitude of images of and from Stoy's Academy, offers a glimpse into a time when it was believed that knowledge could be contained and controlled. |