Grieks alfabet en Demotisch schrift before 1830

Leendert Springer created this drawing of the Greek alphabet and Demotic script on paper, although we're not sure exactly when. What's fascinating here is that alphabets are presented as just one of the many systems through which knowledge is produced and organized. Language is a social practice. How a society uses written language, and what kind of importance they place upon it, provides insight into their cultural values and social structures. Looking at this chart of alphabets prompts us to think about Dutch society in the 19th century. Was there a fascination with dead languages? How was knowledge produced and circulated? What institutions made this possible? We can use books and archives from this time to gain more insights into the social function of written language. It is through this kind of historical investigation that we start to understand how an artwork, like this one, is always contingent on its social and institutional context.