"The Envious Tooth of Time": Early Printed Works from the PSU Library Special Collections

Envious ToothJanuary 13 – March 23, 2012

In early modern Europe, Time was seen as a destructive figure, relentlessly gnawing away at the works of man. The remnants of the ancient past that manage to survive were often described as having escaped his “envious tooth.” This exhibition highlighted original printed works from the Portland State University Library Special Collections, ranging from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, including the collection’s latest Gordon Hunter Fund acquisition, a rare 1613 edition of Cesare Ripa’s celebrated iconographic handbook, Iconologia.

This exhibit was curated by Jesse Locker, Assistant Professor of Renaissance & Baroque Art, Department of Art, Portland State University.