[an experiment from The Grand Academy on Balnibarbi on a new method of learning] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [an experiment from The Grand Academy on Balnibarbi on a new method of learning]
Subject: scholars in literature; Scientists in literature; fictional works; imaginary places; Fictitious characters; imaginary creatures
Period: 1800-1850;
Description: A professor from the mathematical school at the Grand Academy of Balnibarbi conducted experiments in teaching and learning. His idea was to write concepts on a thin wafer in a cephalic tincture then have the students consume the wafers and eat nothing else except bread and water for the subsequent three days. The idea was that the tincture would travel to the student’s head and bring the concept with it. This idea is playing off of the Catholic communion wafers, and as Swift is writing from an Anglican perspective, a swipe at the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. In this image we see a tray with the wafers with concepts written on them. There is also a quill and a bottle of liquid that is the cephalic tincture. A young student holds the wafer in his hand, while the professor looks on. The same image appears in the 1843 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Book Illustrations
Identifier: mta:21009
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: 1839 Stuttgart Grandville vol. 2
Image: mta_21009_OBJ.png