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Human in the Loop/Jonathan Harrell’s Commonplace Book

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Copyright ©2026 Jonathan Harrell. Typeset in ET Book, with Fe₂O₃ glyphs
If an image or text lacks a citation, it is my own.

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June 27, 2026

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/museum
/art
/design

From the Morgan Library, New York:

An open medieval manuscript displayed on a clear acrylic book stand against a deep red background. The thick, aged volume lies open to a two-page spread densely covered in small handwritten Latin script in brown ink, with red ink used for headings, annotations, and marginal notes throughout. The pages are yellowed and worn with age, and the dark leather binding is visibly weathered.

An open medieval manuscript displaying a full-page illuminated illustration depicting Satan in Hell, consistent with imagery from Dante's Inferno. The central figure is a enormous winged demon with multiple heads and bat-like wings, surrounded by small naked human figures representing the damned. The illustration is rendered in muted earth tones — browns, pinks, and greens — with visible age, foxing, and wear across the vellum. Red and black handwritten text in Italian appears above the illustration and in columns on the facing left page. — Devil, Divine Comedy, Unidentified artist

An open early printed book displayed under dark lighting, showing a two-page spread with woodcut diagrams of two outstretched hands viewed palm-up. The left hand is colored with blue-highlighted fingers and the right with red, each divided into labeled zones with German text identifying lines and regions used in palmistry. The illustrations are precise and diagrammatic, resembling a chiromancy or fortune-telling manual from the 15th or 16th century. — The Art of Chiromancy, Unidentified artist

An open medieval manuscript showing a dense column of German Gothic script on the left page and a richly illuminated astronomical diagram on the right. The diagram depicts a geocentric model of the cosmos as a circular chart, with concentric rings labeled with planet names and zodiac signs. The outer border is decorated with alternating red and green hatched segments, each containing a painted zodiac animal. A gold sun and gray moon are positioned within the inner rings. A red caption in German runs below the illustration. — Zodiac diagram, On the Sphere of the World, Unidentified artist

An open 18th or early 19th century German scientific book on a display stand against a gray-green background. The right page features a hand-colored engraved plate labeled Sechzehnte Tafel (Sixteenth Plate), showing optical experiments related to color and light — including color wheels, geometric diagrams, colored circles on black backgrounds, a prism refracting light, a flame, and a landscape scene. The left page contains typeset German text with a centered heading. The book has a decorative marbled cover. — On the theory of colors, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A surrealist painting on dark ground. The scene depicts a shadowy nocturnal landscape with a crescent moon and storm clouds overhead. Two dog-like creatures — one black, one pale — howl upward, with glowing turquoise teardrops falling between them. In the foreground, a fantastical tree with a human face and feathered branches grows from root-like hands. A purple crustacean-creature lurks nearby, and a blue fish-like being with large eyes peers from a reflective pool. Ghostly bare trees frame the scene on either side, with a castle silhouette visible in the background. — Two Dogs Howling at the Moon, by Leonora Carrington

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