Aby Warburg’s journey in late nineteenth century in Arizona and New Mexico Pueblo villages, and the influence of this experience on his theory of symbolic thought and his research methodology, are inextricably connected both with the clinical story of the scholar and the rhapsodic editorial success of his writings. The lecture Aby Warburg gave in Kreuzlingen in 1923 on Hopi Indians rituals remains the best known of Warburg writings and places his studies among the earliest contributions to modern inter-disciplinary Cultural Studies. Bibliographic notes collected in this paper trace the main editions of the Kreuzlinen lecture and some of the most important critical works on Warburg american trip, as a guideline for a correct contextualization of the work.
With the name Mnemosyne we can identify a great project by Aby Warburg, which includes the collection and systematization of his library, devoted to the mother of the Muses, his last unfinished book, the Atlas, and also documents that testify a praxis of Warburg research methodology, the exhibition. This paper collects critical considerations on these issues and proposes an inedited chronology of documentary photographs exhibitions – Bilderreihen and Bilderdemonstrationen – by the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg and of the preparatory stages of the Mnemosyne book.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.