People have asked me about the ancient diagram of the optic workings of the eye I now commonly use as a 'logo' for some of my work. I realise now that it still informs and guides the core of much of my research and soon to be writing.
The image is one of the diagrams depicting the Greek physician Galen’s theories of vision and anatomy which survives in Arab-Islamic manuscripts, in this case of Hunain ibn Ishaq (c.809–c.873). He believed the optic nerve was hollow to transmit psychic pneuma, and the lens was the organ of vision. It is taken from Kitaˆb al-‘ashr maqalat fi l-‘ayn (Book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye) housed in the Wellcome Library, London.
My son Louis woke me up the other day with an astounding declaration, which got me thinking about this some more. "I woke up this morning staring at an image in my mind," he announced, quite startled. It turned out to be an AUDI car logo of all things. We were both surprised. Of all the things picked from the unconscious phantasmagoria of his pre-adolescent mind....
To explore the source of this diagram, see the extraordinary work of UCL's C. Reeves and D. Taylor A History of the Optic Nerve (Reeves, C., Taylor, D. A history of the optic nerve and its diseases. Eye 18, 1096–1109 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.eye.6701578)