[A scientist from The Grand Academy on Balnibarbi works with spider’s webs] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [A scientist from The Grand Academy on Balnibarbi works with spider’s webs]
Subject: satire; scholars in literature; Scientists in literature; fictional works; imaginary places; Fictitious characters; imaginary creatures
Period: 1800-1850;
Description: Here we see a scientist from the Grand Academy on Balnibarbi who was working to use spider’s webs to make clothing. Gulliver walks into his studio that is covered in cobwebs, and the scientist tells Gulliver not to disturb them. The scientist was attempting to domesticate spiders and use their webs in a similar manner to silkworms. He even went as far as to attempt to alter the spider’s webs through feeding them certain foods so that the webs they spun were colourful. In this image we see the scientist’s laboratory, whose walls are covered in cobwebs. On the table we see an apparatus used to wrap the webs into thread. The scientist wears a robe with images of insects on it. The same image appears in the 1843 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Book Illustrations
Identifier: mta:21004
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: 1839 Stuttgart Grandville vol. 2; 1839 Stuttgart Grandville vol. 2
Image: mta_21004_OBJ.png
Collection: Gulliver's Travels
Subject: satire; scholars in literature; Scientists in literature; fictional works; imaginary places; Fictitious characters; imaginary creatures