Search Results (20)

This study evaluates whether a multimodal retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline originally developed for early modern woodcuts can be effectively transferred to the domain of medieval manuscript illumination. Using a dataset of Wenzelsbibel miniatures annotated with Iconclass, the pipeline combined page-level image input, LLM description generation, vector retrieval, and hierarchical reasoning. Although overall scores were lower than in the earlier woodcut study, the best-performing configuration still substantially surpassed both image-similarity and keyword-based search, confirming the advantages of structured multimodal retrieval for medieval material. Truncation analysis further revealed that many errors occurred only at the deepest Iconclass levels: removing levels raised precision to 0.64 and 0.73, with average remaining depths of 5.49 and 4.49 levels, respectively. These results indicate that the model’s broader hierarchical placement is often correct even when fine-grained specificity breaks down. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that a woodcut-oriented RAG pipeline can be meaningfully adapted to manuscript illumination and that its strengths lie in contextual reasoning and structured classification. Future improvements should incorporate available textual metadata, explore graph-based retrieval, and refine Iconclass-driven pathways. Full article

Since the 19th century, Protestant missionaries in Guangdong have extensively engaged in the translation and publication of religious texts, employing localized strategies in the illustration of Christian novels. Within the local cultural context of late Qing Guangdong, missionaries collaborated with local scholars, used Cantonese for writing, and designed novel illustrations to overcome barriers in doctrinal dissemination, thereby facilitating the spread of Christianity. The illustrations in missionary-published novels, such as The Pilgrim’s Progress in Vernacular and The Spiritual Warfare in Vernacular, adopted the stylistic features of Ming and Qing novel woodcuts in terms of lines, composition, character attire, and settings. Furthermore, they skillfully incorporated the Confucian moral framework of loyalty, filial piety, chastity, and righteousness, as represented in the Sacred Edict, into their narrative ethics, while integrating elements such as Buddhist causality and Daoist imagery into a “didactic” system. This localization strategy, combined with a “trinity” reading guidance model comprising images, text, and biblical annotations, visually elucidated the tenets of the Bible and encouraged the public to embrace Christianity. The localized practice of missionary novel illustrations served as a conscious and effective visual strategy aimed at bridging cultural divides and promoting the dissemination of the Gospel. It profoundly reflects the visual agency in modern Sino–Western cultural exchanges and significantly advanced the propagation of Christianity. Full article

The Latin (De Homine, 1662, 1664) and French (L’Homme, 1664) editions of René Descartes’ Treatise on Man present different iconographic traditions, but the iconography of the Latin editions is little known. Dutch physician and botanist Florentius Schuyl edited De Homine and illustrated it himself with a mix of woodcut and copperplate illustrations. This paper examines Schuyl’s innovative depictions of purported dynamic aspects of the pineal gland as claimed by Descartes: (1) repeatedly illustrating the pineal gland as the corporeal–spiritual linkage of the brain and soul; and (2) using a movable flap anatomy to illustrate the pineal gland as a motile structure that both responds to and directs animal spirits. None of the canonical illustrations in the later French edition attempted to depict the corporeal–spiritual linkage of the brain and soul, and the modest attempts in the French edition to depict the motility of the pineal gland relied simply on superimposition of two purported positions of the gland, a technique also employed by Schuyl. This paper also reviews how Schuyl’s illustration of a corporeal–spiritual linkage of the brain and soul in a goat sharply contrasts with his written defense of Descartes’ bête-machine doctrine in the extended preface to De Homine. Full article

Ammopiptanthus nanus, a Tertiary-era endangered plant, is of great scientific value. In this research, we focus on A. nanus population dynamics in an effort to bridge the divide between micro genetic variation and a macroscopic ecological pattern of distribution. The population structure of 129 wild specimens of A. nanus from eight populations was analyzed using EST-SSR molecular markers in this research. The Mantel test and RDA analysis have been used in this research to investigate the factors that influence the genetic diversity of A. nanus. Using 15 pairs of SSR primers, a total of 227 alleles were detected in 129 samples from 8 populations. The mean number of alleles was 17, and the average expected heterozygosity was 0.405. It is shown that wild A. nanus is divided into six individual populations. A. nanus are significantly affected by wind speed in terms of the variation of genetics. It is suggested that a nature conservation area for A. nanus be established as soon as possible, based on our results and the current natural distribution of the species. It is necessary to focus on the issue of pests and diseases while simultaneously preventing the continuation of anthropogenic woodcutting and disaster. Manual seedling collection should be employed in regions where the environment permits. Through making use of manual breeding techniques, this will contribute to the growth of the natural population of A. nanus. Full article

At the beginning of the 21st century, there were sensational discoveries in two palaces located in Ciechanowice and Struga in Silesia (Poland). During their renovations, Renaissance fresco cycles of portraits of emperors from the Roman, medieval, and early modern times appeared under the layer of plaster in the representative dining rooms (27 in the palace in Struga and about 50 in the palace in Ciechanowice). They were painted in the 1580s (in Ciechanowice, the date is 1588) by the same unknown artist. This article is the first to attempt to establish the most important facts related to the creation of both fresco cycles. The frescoes were founded by representatives of influential Silesian Protestant nobility: Heinrich von Reichenbach (Ciechanowice) and Abraham von Czettritz und Neuhaus (Struga). Both nobles attended the funeral of Emperor Maximilian II, which took place in Prague in 1577. This is where they purchased a work by the Dutch printmaker, painter, and numismatist, Hubert Goltzius, Lebendige Bilder Gar Nach Aller Keysern […] (published in Antwerp in 1557), whose specially prepared copy had been solemnly presented to Emperor Maximilian II in 1562. The book contains 133 monochrome woodcut illustrations with portraits of emperors in circular frames by the Dutch artist Joss van Gietleughen, which—together with accompanying inscriptions—were used as models for fresco paintings in both Silesian palaces. The foundation of the cycles of portraits of the emperors of the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the representative halls of the palaces in Ciechanowice and Struda, which ended with a joint representation of Emperor Maximilian II and the King of Spain, Philip II Habsburg, was a way to show the gratitude of both prominent and wealthy Protestant nobles towards Emperor Maximilian II. During his reign, imperial power was the source and guarantee of religious freedoms for Protestants in Silesia. It is significant that both cycles left out the person of emperor regnant, Rudolf II, who soon after assuming the imperial throne abandoned his father’s tolerant policy towards Protestants. Although the author of both series of frescoes was probably a local painter, they are a unique artistic realization not only in Silesia but also in the whole of Central Europe, and they can only be compared to the popular Renaissance portrait galleries of “famous men” (uomini famosi). Full article

The osteotome was a hand-cranked medical chainsaw designed in 1830 by the German surgeon Bernhard Heine. Before Heine, surgeons used crude, manual tools, such as hammers, chisels, and handsaws. The osteotome was among the first mechanical tools used in orthopedic surgery, and it preceded the later use of the motorized chainsaw for woodcutting. Due to the small number of units manufactured, questions remain about the osteotome’s usage. To facilitate conservation and assist with investigation, Heine’s osteotome was digitally reconstructed. As with other digital reconstruction attempts in cultural heritage, assumptions were made to facilitate reproduction. To highlight the functional similarities and contrasts between early and contemporary tools, its parts were compared with contemporary chainsaws and surgical tools. Contemporary orthopedic surgeons have largely shifted away from medical chainsaws, such as the osteotome, in favor of reciprocating saws. Due to its small size and medical purpose, the osteotome was designed for greater precision than a modern industrial chainsaw. Based on the reproduction and comparative analysis, the device was likely used in a manner more similar to modern medical reciprocating saws than to its direct descendant, the industrial chainsaw. The Heine osteotome mechanized surgery and its descendants are still used in medicine and the industry. The osteotome model enabled an analysis of its function and use. Full article

In the spring and summer of 1906, while visiting the rural village of Gósol in the Spanish Pyrenees, Picasso executed his first woodcut, made two sculptures out of boxwood, and began to focus on the topoi of wood and the forest as avatars of primal matter and of that which lies beyond civilization. In a subsequent series of paintings, he used wooden supports for images that depict male and female heads that look as if they had been chiseled out of wood. Others represent nude figures in forest settings, with explicitly sexual gestures and poses connoting a range of attitudes. These little studied works provide an optic into Picasso’s early exploration of the emergence of sexual identity as an inner psychic state, but one whose signs can be read through the body. Later, responding to the proliferation of cheap, industrially produced materials, including trompe l’oeil woodgrain wallpaper, Picasso began to treat woodgrain as a mere surrogate, one that marks its distance from actual wood through a variety of painterly and mechanical effects. No longer associated with “primitive” authenticity and the primordial forces of the forest, woodgrain now appears as a false sign open to conceptual play and metamorphosis. Full article

Cutting tools undergo constant development to meet the demands of higher cutting speeds, difficult-to-cut materials and ecological considerations. One way to improve cutting tools involves transitioning from soldering to adhesive bonding in the manufacturing process. However, there is limited research comparing adhesively bonded tools with soldered tools in woodcutting applications. This paper presents a comparison between adhesively bonded and soldered tools in the cutting of medium-density fiberboards over a cutting distance of 1000 m. The results indicate that adhesively bonded tools are well-suited for machining medium-density fiberboards. Additionally, the cutting-edge radii exhibit a slower increase and the tool temperatures are higher compared to soldered tools. Future research could optimize the damping effect through the precise design of the bonding area. Additionally, investigating a cooling concept for the machining process could help minimize ageing effects. Full article

The first illustrated haggadah of the print era was published around 1505 by David and Samuel ibn Nahmias in Istanbul (henceforth “Istanbul Haggadah”). It was embellished with woodcuts that had been commissioned in 1492 in Naples. This paper approaches the Istanbul Haggadah as a cultural product of the early Sefardi Diaspora. A comparative iconographic method reveals idiosyncrasies in relation to the tradition of medieval manuscript haggadot, which are then contextualized within the cultural ambience of the early Sefardi Diaspora in Naples, where Don Isaac Abarbanel played a central role as a spiritual and communal leader. My analysis is based on three types of information and sources: Abarbanel’s post-expulsion writings, among others a commentary on the haggadah; book-historical data on the early phases of printing; and historical information on the lives of the refugees. Most Sefardi printing projects from the post-expulsion years were aimed at meeting the spiritual needs of the community of exiles. The Istanbul Haggadah, and particularly its illustration program, was a fitting compliment to these endeavors. Full article

Evidence from molecular studies indicates that myxomycetes (also called myxogastrids or plasmodial slime molds) have a long evolutionary history, and the oldest known fossil is from the mid-Cretaceous. However, they were not “discovered” until 1654, when a brief description and a woodcut depicting what is almost certainly the common species Lycogala epidendrum was published. First thought to be fungi, myxomycetes were not universally recognized as completely distinct until well into the twentieth century. Biodiversity surveys for the group being carried out over several years are relatively recent, with what is apparently the first example being carried out in the 1930s. Beginning in the 1980s, a series of such surveys yielded large bodies of data on the occurrence and distribution of myxomycetes in terrestrial ecosystems. The most notable of these were the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) project carried out in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory Project (PBI) carried out in localities throughout the world, and the Myxotropic project being carried out throughout the Neotropics. The datasets available from both past and ongoing surveys now allow global and biogeographical patterns of myxomycetes to be assessed for the first time. Full article

In this work, the diamond-like carbon and titanium nitride (DLC/TiN) multilayer coatings were prepared on a cemented tungsten carbide substrate (WC—3 wt.% Co) using the cathodic vacuum arc physical vapor deposition (Arc-PVD) method and pulsed Arc-PVD method with a graphite cathode for the deposition of TiN and carbon layers, respectively. The structural and mechanical properties of the prepared coatings were studied, and different techniques, such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and microindentation techniques investigated their microstructure, composition, and phases. The prepared coatings had a multilayer structure with distinct phases of DLC, TiN, and carbide substrate. The potentiodynamic polarization method (PDP) was performed for the DLC/TiN multilayer coatings in 3% NaCl solution to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the prepared coatings. It has been shown that the DLC layer provided the coating with a polarization resistance of 564.46 kΩ. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the DLC/TiN coatings had a high hardness of 38.7–40.4 GPa, which can help to extend the wood-cutting tools’ life. Full article

Land use is known to influence the diversity of vascular plants in the Miombo woodlands. However, little is known about the interaction between soil and land use in herbaceous and woody species. We compared the diversity of vascular plants at the plot level (20 m × 50 m) and site level for three sites in the Miombo woodlands of western Zambia subject to different levels of intensity classes of diffuse land use (e.g., livestock herbivory and selective timber harvesting). For each of the sites, twenty plots were randomly selected for assessment of species composition of vascular plant species, indicators of land-use intensity, and soil chemistry per plot. We hypothesized that the site with the lowest human impact would have the highest richness and diversity of woody and herbaceous species. At the site level, we found that richness and diversity of woody species were unaffected by land-use intensity, whereas herbaceous species richness was higher for the protected site (28 species on average per 1000 m²) than the two other sites (23 and 21 species on average per 1000 m²). At the plot level, herbaceous species richness was positively associated with woodcutting and soil pH. We interpret the positive effect of woodcutting on herbaceous species richness as the effect of lower competition by the woody component for resources such as water, nutrients, and light. With regard to the absence of any effect of land-use intensity on the richness of woody species, we conclude that in our study areas selective timber harvesting may be at a sustainable level and might even have a positive effect on the diversity of the herbaceous layer. Full article

The article introduces features of iron-working in the north-western Italian Alpine region (specifically, the Valtellina side of the Bergamesque or Orobic Alps) during the Middle Ages by comparing historical data and archaeological sources. This will help shed light on the organisation of the production process, starting from iron ore mining, proceeding to examine the transformation phases and culminating in the conversion of the ore into ingots or bars to produce tools for agricultural or wood-cutting activities. The article follows two distinct paths, initially presenting the main stages of iron-working in Valtellina until the second half of the eighteenth century, followed by an analysis of the mining complex of Val Venina where an extremely important metal-working site is situated. Two separate mining zones were identified, the first deep underground and the second an opencast working site. Furthermore, a series of rooms made of dry-stone walling that provided accommodation for the miners have been brought to light, as well as mineral deposits and stables for the animals required to carry out the activities described by Melchiorre Gioia in his volume “Statistica del Dipartimento dell’Adda” and indicated in the land registers of the Lombardy-Veneto regions carried out in 1815 and 1863. Full article

The increased variety of satellite remote sensing platforms creates opportunities for estimating tropical forest diversity needed for environmental decision-making. As little as 10% of the original seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) remains for Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Remnant forests show high rates of species endemism, but experience degradation from climate change, wood-cutting, and livestock-grazing. Forest census data provide a vital resource for examining remote sensing methods to estimate diversity levels. We used spatially referenced trees ≥5 cm in diameter and simulated 0.10 ha plots measured from a 9 ha SDTF in southwestern Ecuador to compare machine learning (ML) models for six α-diversity indices. We developed 1 m tree canopy height and elevation models from stem mapped trees, at a scale conventionally derived from light detection and ranging (LiDAR). We then used an ensemble ML approach comparing single- and combined-sensor models from RapidEye, Sentinel-2 and interpolated canopy height and topography surfaces. Validation data showed that combined models often outperformed single-sensor approaches. Combined sensor and model ensembles for tree species richness, Shannon’s H, inverse Simpson’s, unbiased Simpson’s, and Fisher’s alpha indices typically showed lower root mean squared error (RMSE) and increased goodness of fit (R²). Piélou’s J, a measure of evenness, was poorly predicted. Mapped tree species richness (R² = 0.54, F = 27.3, p = <0.001) and Shannon’s H′ (R² = 0.54, F = 26.9, p = <0.001) showed the most favorable agreement with field validation observations (n = 25). Small-scale model experiments revealed essential relationships between dry forest tree diversity and data from multiple satellite sensors with repeated global coverage that can help guide larger-scale biodiversity mapping efforts. Full article

Biochar is a versatile carbon-rich organic material originating from pyrolyzed biomass residues that possess the potential to stabilize organic carbon in the soil, improve soil fertility and water retention, and enhance plant growth. For the utilization of biochar as a soil conditioner, the mutual interconnection of the physicochemical properties of biochar with the production conditions used during the pyrolysis (temperature, heating rate, residence time) and the role of the origin of used biomass seem to be crucial. The aim of the research was focused on a comparison of the properties of biochar samples (originated from oat brans, mixed woodcut, corn residues and commercial compost) produced at different temperatures (400–700 °C) and different residence times (10 and 60 min). The results indicated similar structural features of produced biochar samples; nevertheless, the original biomass showed differences in physicochemical properties. The morphological and structural analysis showed well-developed aromatic porous structures for biochar samples originated from oat brans, mixed woodcut and corn residues. The higher pyrolysis temperature resulted in lower yields; however, it provided products with higher content of organic carbon and a more developed surface area. The lignocellulose biomass with higher contents of lignin is an attractive feedstock material for the production of biochar with potential agricultural applications. Full article