Suite of the most notable things seen by John Wilkins erudite English Bishop during his famous voyage from the Earth to the Moon … dedicated to Sir William Hamilton ambassador to the Court of Naples (

Suite of the most notable things seen by John Wilkins erudite English Bishop during his famous voyage from the Earth to the Moon … dedicated to Sir William Hamilton ambassador to the Court of Naples (about 1769) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Filippo Morghen (Italian, 1730–after 1807); Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Hoüel (French, 1735–1813).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Filippo Morghen’s set of 10 etchings is outstanding among visual narratives of imaginary voyages to the moon, both visual and literary, that intrigued 18th-century European audiences. A title page and nine plates depict the imagined lives and economy of moon dwellers. These include modes of transport such as large birds and sailboats propelled by giant bellows, enormous scissors for capturing wild beasts (including an oversized rat), and the use of giant pumpkins as fishing boats and as dwellings. Representations of the moon dwellers are based on inaccurate and imaginary European interpretations of Asian, Ottoman, and Native American cultures—called chinoiserie and turquerie—that permeated the decorative and visual arts of the period.

Object facts

• Title: Suite of the most notable things seen by John Wilkins erudite English Bishop during his famous voyage from the Earth to the Moon … dedicated to Sir William Hamilton ambassador to the Court of Naples
• Date: about 1769
• Creator attribution: Filippo Morghen (Italian, 1730–after 1807); Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Hoüel (French, 1735–1813)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Portfolio
• Technique: Suite of 10 etchings
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2023.19

A detail from the museum

Morghen based this print series on three books dedicated to moon exploration, including Bishop Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone (1640).

Collection credit

Purchased with funds from the Estate of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• McColley, Grant, “The Three Editions of Filippo Morghen’s Raccolta,” The Art Bulletin (Mar., 1937).
• Jenkins, Ian and Kim Sloan. Vases and Volcanoes. Sir William Hamilton and His Collection. London: British Museum Press, 1996.
• Guthke, S. Karl, “Nightmare and Utopia: Extraterrestrial Worlds from Galileo to Goethe,” Early Science and Medicine 2003.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.