New Inventions of Modern Times [Nova Reperta], Title Plate

Jan Collaert I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Title plate from a print series entitled Nova Reperta (New Inventions of Modern Times) consisting of a title page and 19 plates, engraved by Jan Collaert I, after Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, and published by Philips Galle. The title is printed at the top of the plate just above an image of a printing press. There are 2 medallions also at the top: the medallion at left depicts the Americas, and the medallion at right represents a compass. On the left a woman represents the future and points to the map and on the right a man represents the past and walks out of the picture plane. At the bottom of the scene nine other inventions or discoveries of the post-classical age are depicted: the silk worm, the stirrup, the clock, the canon, distillation tools and guaiacum, each corresponding with a print in the series. Each object is assigned with a roman numeral that corresponds to a description inscribed at the very bottom of the plate.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.