The Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded Insight Grant Project Rethinking the Feather Book: History, Art and Science is an international, interdisciplinary project that brings cutting-edge heritage analysis to a unique seventeenth-century Milanese album of feather mosaics.

Now held at the McGill University Libraries, the Libro di Piume, or Feather Book, contains 156 illustrations made from feathers and other organic materials, including approximately 100 bird depictions incorporating, beaks, feathers and feet. Created in 1618 by an Italian gardener employed by the Spanish Governor of Milan, the book is not only of historical significance but also a rare scientific resource, representing one of the oldest collections of bird specimens in the world.

The international and interdisciplinary team, led by Professor Victoria Dickenson (McGill University Libraries), includes librarians, scientists, historians, and curators from Canada, Denmark, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The Bodies, Environments and Material Culture Collective member Professor Stefan Hanß is a named Collaborator. Stefan will research the relationship of the feather mosaics with early modern Italian feather-working crafts knowledge and conduct material analyses of the feathers, using, among others, The Bodies, Environments and Material Culture Collective’s collection of digital microscopes. He will also support the interpretation of the proteomics results.

The McGill University press release is available in English and French.

More on the Collective’s heritage digital microscopy activities can be found here.

Image credits: Images by McGill University Libraries, 101 (Minaggio 47, Golden Oriole), https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/featherbook/index.html and https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/history-art-and-science-join-forces-unlock-mysteries-400-year-old-book-374616.

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