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"A fascinating and valuable insight into the fast-changing worlds of the bibliophile." -John Lewis
In this book, Dr. Robert Edwards brings a fresh, mathematical perspective to the Voynich manuscript and sets out a strategy whereby the interested reader could extract meaning from the seemingly impenetrable symbols . . . if meaning is there to be found. The Voynich manuscript has been described as the most mysterious document in the world. In 1637, a Bohemian scholar sent a mysterious manuscript to the celebrated professor Athanasius Kircher in Rome. Kircher promised to decipher it when the mood took him. He never did. Later, antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid Voynich claimed that he had discovered it in 1912 in a castle in Europe. • Contains hundreds of bizarre illustrations that seem to rep...
The Voynich Manuscript resides in a library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. No one can read the manuscript, break its cipher, or identify its provenance. Nothing like it exists. No one mentions it until 1912. Why? Golden Fleece tells the story of London antiques dealer Wilfred Voynich, his relations with British intelligence, and the provenance of his 1912 cipher. In this book, author Robert C. Williams posits that Voynich’s manuscript was not an early modern find but a modern creation by Voynich himself and others using materials acquired from an antiques warehouse in Florence, Italy. The tale of Voynich and his manuscript suggests a modern hoax comparable to Piltdown Man th...
This bibliography, the first volume in the new Conrad Studies series published in cooperation with The Joseph Conrad Society (UK), collects and annotates impressions and memories of Joseph Conrad by his family, friends, and acquaintances. It covers full length memoirs as well as newspaper and magazine articles, and in its wide sweep offers abundant details about the novelist's personality and life. Of particular value is Martin Ray's emphasis on difficult-to-trace items and the in-depth coverage of Conrad's trip to the United States in the spring of 1923. An essential tool for the scholar, this book can also be read with pleasure for the light it throws on Conrad the man.
Grimoires are books of spells that were first recorded in the Ancient Middle East and which have developed and spread over the ensuing millennia.
Early modern printmakers trained observers to scan the heavens above as well as faces in their midst. Peter Apian printed the Cosmographicus Liber (1524) to teach lay astronomers their place in the cosmos, while also printing practical manuals that translated principles of spherical astronomy into useful data for weather watchers, farmers, and astrologers. Physiognomy, a genre related to cosmography, taught observers how to scrutinize profiles in order to sum up peoples' characters. Neither Albrecht Dürer nor Leonardo escaped the tenacious grasp of such widely circulating manuals called practica. Few have heard of these genres today, but the kinship of their pictorial programs suggests that printers shaped these texts for readers who privileged knowledge retrieval. Cultivated by images to become visual learners, these readers were then taught to hone their skills as observers. This book unpacks these and other visual strategies that aimed to develop both the literate eye of the reader and the sovereignty of images in the early modern world.
This directory is a handy on-volume discovery tool that will allow readers to locate rare book and special collections in the British Isles. Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997. this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in libraries, archives, museums and private hands. The Directory: Provides a national overview of rare book and special collections for those interested in seeing quickly and easily what a library holds Directs researchers to the libraries most relevant for their research Assists libraries considering acquiring new special collections to assess the value of such collections beyond the institution,showing how they fit into a ‘unique and distinctive’ model. Each entry in the Directory provides background information on the library and its purpose, full contact details, the quantity of early printed books, information about particular subject and language strengths, information about unique works and important acquisitions, descriptions of named special collections and deposited collections. Readership: Researchers, academic liaison librarians and library managers.
with a memoir by William S. Heckscher Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) was one of the preeminent art historians of the twentieth century. A new translation of his seminal work, Perspective as Symbolic Form, was recently published by Zone Books; now three remarkable essays, one previously unpublished, place Panofsky's genius in a different perspective: What Is Baroque?, Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures,andThe Ideological Antecedents of the Rolls-Royce Radiator. The essays are framed by an introduction by Irving Lavin, Panofsky's successor as Professor of Art History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, discussing the context of the essays' composition and their significance with...
This ebook is the complete reproduction of the preserved Voynich Manuscript, formatted for high resolution color ebook reader displays. The Voynich manuscript, also known as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912. Much of the manuscript resembles herbal manuscripts of the time period, seeming to present illustrations and information about plants and their possible uses for medical purposes. However, most of the plants do not match known species, and the manuscript's script and language remain unknown and unreadable. Possibly some form o...