Research Catalog

The shape of the heart

Title
The shape of the heart / by Pierre Vinken.
Author
Vinken, P. J.
Publication
New York : Elsevier, 2000.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library QM181 .V55 2000Off-site

Details

Description
208 pages : illustrations; 22 cm
Summary
  • "Since the days of the ancient Greeks, anatomists have correctly reported that the heart is shaped like a pine cone or has the outline of an upturned pyramid. Why is the shape of such a popular icon so at variance with the heart's true form?" "It seems that the indentation or fold in the base of the heart first appeared in Northern Italy in the early years of the fourteenth century. It was the result of an error originally made in an anatomical text by Aristotle. In the sixteenth century, anatomists finally corrected the error, but, by that time, the scalloped heart icon had become so established in the visual arts that it could no longer be changed."
  • "This work also contains a section devoted to a cave, shaped like the interior of the heart, in an allegorical print by Jan Saenredam (1604). The representation was a creation of Hendrik Spiegel (1549-1612), one of the fathers of Dutch grammar and a friend of Cornelis Cornelisz, Hendrik Goltzius and Karel van Mander."--Jacket.
Subject
  • Heart > Anatomy
  • Heart > Symbolic aspects
  • Heart
  • Heart
  • Symbolism
  • Medical Illustration > history
  • Medicine in the Arts
  • Heart > Anatomy
  • Heart > Symbolic aspects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-206).
Contents
Why is the heart not heart-shaped? -- The scalloped heart -- Rough chronology -- The heart as a cave.
ISBN
  • 0444829873
  • 9780444829870
LCCN
99021440
OCLC
  • ocm40990154
  • 40990154
  • SCSB-1206220
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library