Italian Maiolica


Book Description

The Museum’s outstanding collection of maiolica is significant because most of the major pottery centers, maiolica forms, and styles are represented. This current catalogue presents the collection in a chronological progression according to stylistic trends. Lavish color plates accompany the detailed entries




Armenia


Book Description

At the foot of Mount Ararat on the crossroads of the eastern and western worlds, medieval Armenians dominated international trading routes that reached from Europe to China and India to Russia. As the first people to convert officially to Christianity, they commissioned and produced some of the most extraordinary religious objects of the Middle Ages. These objects—from sumptuous illuminated manuscripts to handsome carvings, liturgical furnishings, gilded reliquaries, exquisite textiles, and printed books—show the strong persistence of their own cultural identity, as well as the multicultural influences of Armenia’s interactions with Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Muslims, Mongols, Ottomans, and Europeans. This unprecedented volume, written by a team of international scholars and members of the Armenian religious community, contextualizes and celebrates the compelling works of art that define Armenian medieval culture. It features breathtaking photographs of archaeological sites and stunning churches and monasteries that help fill out this unique history. With groundbreaking essays and exquisite illustrations, Armenia illuminates the singular achievements of a great medieval civilization. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana}




Important Fine Art Auction


Book Description







Transfer Between Sea and Land


Book Description

Questions about the cultural exchange of both knowledge and material goods are just as topical today as in years gone by. These questions have gained increasing attention from scholars since the 1980s when the term 'transfers cultures' by historians arose. However, this book provides a completely new approach in this context by interdisciplinary investigation of cultural exchanges based on chosen objects from shipwrecks and land, significant written documents and verifiable transfer of knowledge. The publication combines studies from humanities and natural sciences. Thus, historians, archaeologists, and pharmacists have investigated the way of transfer by means of material and immaterial goods, such as ship lists, medicine, metal ware, exotic animals and Asian objects as well as ship constructions. They set out, the continuity and discontinuity of cultural exchange based on moving objects depending on different conditions such as region, time, demand and availability. The innovative contributions of the publication aim to improve the understanding of cultural exchange by sea, as well as its reflection on land in the Early Modern Time and are the results of a workshop, which took place in the German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven, a Research Institute of the Leibniz Association, in 2015. The results show good promise for forthcoming investigations at the interface between History and Maritime Archaeology. The book targets graduate and post-graduate interdisciplinary researchers of archaeological, human, and natural sciences as well as everybody interested in both post-medieval and maritime history.




Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors


Book Description

This fascinating collection of traditional metaphors and figures of speech, groups expressions according to theme. The second edition includes over 1,500 new entries, more information on first known usages, a new introduction and two expanded indexes. It will appeal to those interested in cultural history and the English language.




The History of Science and Technology


Book Description

In this age of genetic engineering and global warming, it is more important than ever to understand the history and current trends of science and technology. With so much information out there, though, it's hard to know where to start. That's where The History of Science and Technology -- the most comprehensive and up-to-date chronology of its kind -- comes in. From the first stone tools to the first robot surgery, this easy-to-read, handy reference book offers more than seven thousand concise entries organized within ten major historical periods and categorized by subject, such as archaeology, biology, computers, food and agriculture, medicine and health, materials, and transportation. You can follow the world's scientific and technological feats forward or backward, year by year, and subject by subject. Under 8400 BCE Construction, you will discover that the oldest known wall was built in Jericho. Jump to 1454 Communication and you will learn about Johann Gutenberg's invention of movable type. Take an even larger leap to 2002 Computers and find out about the invention of the Earth Simulator, a Japanese supercomputer. The History of Science and Technology answers all the what, when, why, and how questions about our world's greatest discoveries and inventions: How are bridges built? When were bifocal eyeglasses invented and by whom? What medical discovery led to the introduction of sterilization, vaccines, and antibiotics? What is the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) process, and why is it one of the pillars of the biotechnology revolution? Not only can you discover how our world came to be and how it works, but with cross-referenced entries you can also trace many intricate and exciting connections across time. Highly browsable yet richly detailed, expertly researched and indexed, The History of Science and Technology is the perfect desktop reference for both the science novice and the technologically advanced reader alike.




A History of the Brain


Book Description

A History of the Brain tells the full story of neuroscience, from antiquity to the present day. It describes how we have come to understand the biological nature of the brain, beginning in prehistoric times, and progressing to the twentieth century with the development of Modern Neuroscience. This is the first time a history of the brain has been written in a narrative way, emphasizing how our understanding of the brain and nervous system has developed over time, with the development of the disciplines of anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, psychology and neurosurgery. The book covers: beliefs about the brain in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome the Medieval period, Renaissance and Enlightenment the nineteenth century the most important advances in the twentieth century and future directions in neuroscience. The discoveries leading to the development of modern neuroscience gave rise to one of the most exciting and fascinating stories in the whole of science. Written for readers with no prior knowledge of the brain or history, the book will delight students, and will also be of great interest to researchers and lecturers with an interest in understanding how we have arrived at our present knowledge of the brain.




500 Years of New Words


Book Description

If you ever use words and find yourself wondering where they came from, who wrote them first, and why they became necessary, then you will savour 500 Years of New Words, a new volume that takes you on an exciting journey through the English language from the days before Shakespeare to the first decade of the twenty-first century. The entries are arranged not alphabetically but in chronological order based on the earliest known year that each word was printed or written down.




The Princess Diarist


Book Description

This last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher is the crown jewel of ideal Star Wars gifts. The Princess Diarist is an intimate, hilarious, and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time. When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford. With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.