ABSTRACT
In order to gain insight into the roles of book illustrations in the transmission of medical-astrological knowledge, it is first important to have a clear understanding of the types of books in which these images appear and of the sixteenth-century medical culture and print culture in which they functioned. This chapter introduces a number of key characteristics on which subsequent chapters will draw. It first shows why medical and astrological theory and practice in the sixteenth century necessitated the organisation of knowledge and an emphasis on reliability. It then discusses common practices of copying, reuse, and translation – both of images and texts – that shaped the ways in which images visualised knowledge. I introduce a distinction between narrative and analytical features in images, which will serve as a heuristic analytical tool in subsequent chapters for unravelling how and why different kinds of images were combined. The final part of the chapter discusses the intended audiences of these books on the basis of various textual and material indications.
