Art Institute of Chicago

Copy Print From "Celebrated Inscriptions Ancient Eugubine Tablets"

William Henry Fox Talbot

Date

c. 1844

Medium

Salted paper print

Culture

England

Department

Photography and Media

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

When William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography, presented his initial findings in January 1839, he proposed a variety of applications for his new discovery, which he called “photogenic drawing.” He presciently detailed how it could be used for portraits, landscape, architecture, and depictions of objects seen in the microscope—but also as a tool for copying drawings and engravings. Here Talbot—an expert in ancient languages as well as chemistry—photographically reproduced a page showing a copy of inscriptions in a native Umbrian alphabet from one of seven ancient bronze tablets discovered in Italy in the 15th century.

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