# Copy Print From "Celebrated Inscriptions Ancient Eugubine Tablets"

- By: William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800–1877)
- Date: c. 1844
- Medium: Salted paper print
- Classification: Photograph
- Dimensions: Image: 19.9 × 14.2 cm (7 7/8 × 5 5/8 in.); Paper: 22.9 × 19 cm (9 1/16 × 7 1/2 in.)
- Culture: England
- Credit line: Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/38979)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/77cbe416-2c4a-d74e-f5ab-2a984870f991/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

When William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography, presented his initial findings in January 1839, he proposed a variety of applications for his new discovery, which he called “photogenic drawing.” He presciently detailed how it could be used for portraits, landscape, architecture, and depictions of objects seen in the microscope—but also as a tool for copying drawings and engravings. Here Talbot—an expert in ancient languages as well as chemistry—photographically reproduced a page showing a copy of inscriptions in a native Umbrian alphabet from one of seven ancient bronze tablets discovered in Italy in the 15th century.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0