Boekenrad van Nicolas Grollier de Servière 1719

Editor: So, here we have Daudet’s engraving of the “Boekenrad van Nicolas Grollier de Servière,” dating back to 1719. It depicts a peculiar reading contraption! I’m struck by the stillness of the scene. The man sits so composedly, surrounded by…what *is* that thing? What do you make of it? Curator: Ah, yes, Daudet captures more than just the *what,* doesn't he? More the *spirit* of the age. See how this fellow is nestled within his invention – a wheel of knowledge! One might even suggest he’s…married to it, caught in a dance between the new and the old. It seems a lonely affair somehow. Editor: Lonely, that’s a great word for it! So, this "wheel of knowledge"—what was its purpose? Curator: Well, imagine our dear reader overwhelmed by choice, by the sheer volume of books in his collection. I fancy this "Boekenrad" as a Renaissance Google, you see! A way to have it all at once – philosophy, poetry, astrology! All at the whim of a spin. One big step in getting distracted, some might say. The beauty of efficiency and intellectual excess intertwined. What do *you* feel looking at this peculiar artifact? Editor: I get a sense of both wonder and, I don’t know, futility? All that knowledge so close, yet he’s confined to this chair, the wheel… it almost traps him. Curator: A brilliant observation. Maybe it hints at how overwhelming even the promise of knowledge can be. We build these tools, yet they also shape us. Editor: It makes me think about how we use—or *don't* use—the resources we have available to us today. Curator: Precisely! History has a funny way of holding up a mirror, doesn't it? Something about this Baroque information-machine… and our smartphones. Hmmm…