Centuries

The rabbis of late antiquity produced a score of exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures of Ancient Israel ("the Old Testament"), in which they took various approaches to the study and interpretation of what they called "the written Torah". These exegesis, called collectively "Midrash", form an important part of "the oral Torah", that is, the tradition of Sinai formulated and transmitted for memorization and ultimately written down by the ancient sages in the first six centuries A.D. These three volumes present large selections of the Midrash-documents of ancient Judaism, in the translation of Jacob Neusner, who has now translated into English nearly all of the Rabbinic literature of late antiquity. The selections are organized by type, so that readers see the various ways in which, in form and in intellectual program, the documents of Midrash-compilation were formulated and set forth. In this way, the vast body of biblical exegesis put forth by Judaism in its formative age is made available to the contemporary reader.

Over the last years, we have witnessed a renewal in the studies on the Italian community which formed in Egypt in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Contrary to the historiographical paradigm that remained dominant for over a century, a novel approach - essentially based on a less ideological interpretation of archival sources - tends to provide a much more complex, less apologetic, and more horizontal reading of the dynamics within and among foreign/migrant communities. This work belongs to this "new" research wave. By rediscovering the originally Gramscian concept of "subaltern classes", it aims at re-centring the context in which the "subalterns" of Italian origin lived and acted as the focus of our interest. At once, it aims at both making such context relevant and disclosing its complexity. It privileges an approach that takes into account different and overlapping categories and social identities, with particular attention to the relationships with the many different local communities.

Ce Chasse-Ennui, rédigé alors que Louis Garon est cloué au lit suite à une attaque de goutte, comprend 500 contes, plus ou moins courts, divisés en 5 "centuries" de 100 contes chacune. Il s'agit d'une sorte d'almanach, comme il en était la mode à cette époque, où se rencontrent pêle-mêle des anecdotes historiques, d'autres moins, des facéties qui sont dans l'air du temps, des apologues avec une visée morale. Y sont brocardées toutes les couches de la société, depuis les Princes jusqu'au simple villageois, en passant par les bourgeois, les hommes de l'art, de lettres, ou encore de robe. Les femmes n'en sont pas exclues. Un très beau style, un esprit subtil, avec quelques formules pétillantes qu'on découvre au fil des pages. Un ouvrage, introuvable (ou quasi) en librairie, adapté en français moderne, en essayant de respecter au maximum le texte originel.

L'ordre du Temple est officiellement mort il y a sept cents ans, mais son fabuleux trésor est toujours objet de convoitise. Il n'a pas fini d'envahir les imaginaires contemporains. Sa présence supposée perturbe le cours des choses . Le désordre du temple ruine l'espoir de l'apparition du Royaume de Dieu. Sur les tuniques, les croix saignent... Un jeune novice décapit, un archiviste de la Bibliothèque Nationale pendu , un promeneur poignardé, un DJ assommé, un patron de bar gay torturé... Et toujours la présence de cette enveloppe énigmatique sur le lieu des agressions ; le meurtrier punirait-il les victimes en vertu des neuf pénalités qu'il est possible d'infliger aux Templiers pris en faute ? Antoine Blocier signe un polar social sur fond historique dûment documenté. A partir d'une polémique réelle sur l'authenticité des centuries de Nostradamus, qui serait attribuées à un moine Templier, il nous dresse le portrait de notre société d'aujourd'hui.

Peu après la conquête de l'Egypte, une centurie romaine découvre une embarcation à la dérive. A bord, le cadavre d'un homme noir portant des documents dans une langue inconnue, ainsi que des bijoux en métaux rares et pierres précieuses. L'ouvrage magnifique de ces derniers évoque l'existence d'une civilisation riche et puissante. Le centurion Caïus Bracca ne pouvant pas monter d'expédition officielle, il organise la désertion de dix hommes et les envoie, sous les ordres de Marcus Livius, à la recherche de cette civilisation inconnue de Rome. Seuls trois d'entre eux parviendront effectivement aux portes de ce royaume fabuleux, et Marcus Livius sera le seul à en revenir pour raconter leur incroyable aventure.

A masterpiece of French seventeenthcentury art and architecture, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the largest privately owned historic monument in France. The man who commissioned it, Nicolas Fouquet, who was Louis XIV ? s Superintendent of Finances, surrounded himself with the most brilliant artists of his time-the architect Louis Le Vau, garden designer André Le Nôtre, and artist Charles Le Brun-to create a perfect fusion of architecture and landscape that would soon be celebrated as a model of the artistic genius of the Grand Siècle. Protected and restored by a succession of owners over the centuries, Vaux is now owned by the de Vogüé family, who are passionate in their pursuit of ambitious strategies for the conservation of this outstanding legacy. Illustrated with breathtaking photography by Bruno Ehrs, this volume is a private invitation to experience the wonders of a unique French estate. Christian Lacroix, whose definition of elegance and haute-couture design have been inspired by eighteenth-century culture and court dress, shares his passion for Vaux-le-Vicomte in the foreword.

Nostradamus (1503-1566), "l'Astrophile" de Cau, comme ce dernier aimait à se définir, est ici vu à travers la loupe de son secrétaire qui a voulu dans un très rare petit ouvrage (écrit au début du XVIIe siècle, mais publié pour la première fois en 1789), à la fois rendre hommage à l'auteur des fameuses Centuries, mais aussi balayer toutes les calomnies qui fleurirent dès la disparition de son maître, dont le destin deviendra vite une légende. Sans aucun doute, et par bien des égards, l'aspect du grand personnage de Salon de Provence demeure une énigme. La réédition du livre de l'Historien bourguignon Chavigny (1533-1609), surnommé le Janus Français, apportera de l'eau au Moulin de ceux qui continuent à stigmatiser le "Nostradamus charlatan" au lieu d'à admirer le "Nostradamus, historien de son époque", celui des premières Guerres de Religion, et celui qui a compris que l'Histoire restait ancrée dans un mouvement cyclique plutôt que linéaire, et qu'en tant que science, elle restait par ailleurs fort inexacte, malgré la rigoureuse compilation de faits.

DYNAMIQUES DES STRUCTURES ECCLESIASTIQUES. L'encadrement paroissial dans la métropolie de Kiev : inerties, adaptations et transformations à l'âge des réformes religieuses (années 1590 - années 1680). Social discipline among the Russian Orthodox parish clergy (seventeenth-eighteenth centuries) : Normative ideals, and the practice of parish life. POLITIQUES ET POLEMIQUES. "Un trésor enfoui" Kyril-los Loukaris et le Nouveau Testament en grec publié à Genève en 1638 à travers les lettres d'Antoine Léger. "New Jerusalem" in seventeenth century Russia : The image of a new Orthodox Holy Land. La version roumaine du Synodikon de l'Orthodoxie (Buzau, 1700) et les combats pour la "juste foi" à la fin du XVIIe siècle. LIRE, DIRE ET ECRIRE LA FOI. "True Faith" and salvation in the works of Ipatii Potii, Meletii Smotryts'kyi, and in early-modern Ruthenian testaments. La renaissance du sermon en Moscovie au XVIIe siècle : les influences des prédicateurs des patriarcats grecs et de la métropolie de Kiev. Marginal notes in South Slavic written culture : Between practicing memory and accounting for the self. Breaking new ground in marginality : Tendencies in the Bulgarian Orthodox literary tradition of the seventeenth century. RESUMES/ABSTRACTS. LIVRES RECUS

Both the postmodern debate about the "death of the author" and cultural debates about constructing identities (national, socio-political, cultural, ethnic, sexual, etc.) have led to multiple attempts at redefining autobiography, traditionally predicated on concepts of identity and truth. By bringing together twenty-seven case studies of autobiographical texts from over four centuries and from a variety of cultural (mainly Anglophone) backgrounds, this book demonstrates how fruitful a critical focus on the interaction between autobiography and fiction proves for understanding the complex strategies by which subject positions are established and communicated. The texts examined include : De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, Anaïs Nin's diaries, General Sherman's Memoirs, Abdelkébir Khatibi's L'Amour bilingue, Nirad Chaudhuri's Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Helene Deutsch's Confrontations with Myself, Sky Lee's Disappearing Moon Cafe, Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, Graham Swift's The Light of Day, Ian McEwan's Atonement, A.S. Byatt's The Biographer's Tale, Richard Wright's Black Boy, and Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road.

Inspired by the work of their colleague David Gascoigne, a group of scholars from the UK and France examine in this book the narrative strategies of some of the most interesting and important French writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Stretching chronologically from 1905 to 2005, the volume examines a wide variety of prose genres, from pornography to Bildungsroman to magic realism, as well as poetry. Michel Tournier figures in several of the contributions, emerging as something of a touchstone for many of the thematic preoccupations that are common throughout the period : values and authority, self and other, identity, spirituality, migration and exile, sexuality, the body, violence and war, and language. The authors also examine the flourishing of intertextuality, as well as the use of traditional forms, such as mythical structures and the ‘robinsonade', to undermine authoritative ‘métarécits'. Probing these themes and forms, and their metamorphoses across 100 years, the essays demonstrate a striking degree of continuity, linking writers as different as Apollinaire and Houellebecq or Valéry and Fleutiaux, and highlight the difficulty of dividing the period neatly into chronologically ordered categories labelled ‘modern' or ‘postmodern'.

A celebration of a magnificent creature : the Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr). This subspecies has distinct features that are the result of thousands of years of evolution, making it perfectly suited to the deserts and mountains of Arabia. An essay by wildlife conservationist Andrew Spalton charts the animal's epic journey from Africa to Arabia over the course of half a million years, highlighting its history and its current, critically endangered status. Imagery of the Arabian leopard as a symbol of strength, freedom and fearlessness has been found in ancient rock art, mosaics and paintings over the centuries, cementing its position as a revered and respected animal in Saudi Arabia and the world. The Royal Commission for AlUla has been focusing on wildlife conservation to protect this subspecies through the creation of the Arabian Leopard Fund. Key to these efforts is raising awareness about these beautiful cats, to galvanize local and international support for their protection. To this end, two editions of the books are available-a Classic and an Ultimate-featuring original artworks and photographs that capture the enduring spirit of the Arabian leopard.

The geometry of the hyperbolic plane has been an active and fascinating field of mathematical inquiry for most of the past two centuries. This book provides a self-contained introduction to the subject, taking the approach that hyperbolic geometry consists of the study of those quantities invariant under the action of a natural group of transformations. Topics covered include the upper half-space model of the hyperbolic plane, Möbius transformations, the general Möbius group and the subgroup preserving path length in the upper half-space model, arc-length and distance, the Poincaré disc model, convex subsets of the hyperbolic plane, the Gauss-Bonnet formula for the area of a hyperbolic polygon and its applications. The style and level of the book, which assumes few mathematical prerequisites, make it an ideal introduction to this subject and provide the reader with a firm grasp of the concepts and techniques of this beautiful area of mathematics. The Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series (SUMS) is a new series for undergraduates in the mathematical sciences. From core foundational material to final year topics, SUMS books take a fresh and modern approach and are ideal for self-study or for a one- or two-semester course. Each book includes numerous examples, problems and fully-worked solutions.

Writing with Scripture, the ancient sages of Judaism made use of Scripture by making Scripture their own, and making themselves into the possession and instrument of Scripture as well, a reciprocal process in which both were changed, each transformed into the likeness and image of the other. This they did by effecting their own selections, shaping a distinctive idiom of discourse, all the while citing, responding to, reflecting upon, Scripture's own words in Scripture's own context and for Scripture's own purpose : the here and now of eternal truth. And the rabbis of the first six centuries A.D. through the compilation presented here not only wrote with Scripture, but set forth a statement that was meant to be coherent and proportioned, well-crafted and well-composed. Since the statement concerned the distinctively-theological question of God's and Israel's relationship with one another, we must classify the writing as theological and find out how, in the compilation before us, their theological structure accomplished the authorship's goals. This anthology aims at doing just that. It presents a complete account of how the classical Midrash-text treat a theme of urgent interest to the world today : how Judaism writes with Scripture about the issues of religion that confront all the faithful.

Writing with Scripture, the ancient sages of Judaism made use of Scripture by making Scripture their own, and making themselves into the possession and instrument of Scripture as well, a reciprocal process in which both were changed, each transformed into the likeness and image of the other. This they did by effecting their own selections, shaping a distinctive idiom of discourse, all the while citing, responding to, reflecting upon, Scripture's own words in Scripture's own context and for Scripture's own purpose : the here and now of eternal truth. And the rabbis of the first six centuries A.D. through the compilation presented here not only wrote with Scripture, but set forth a statement that was meant to be coherent and proportioned, well-crafted and well-composed. Since that statement concerned the distinctively-theological question of God's and Israel's relationship with one another, we must classify the writing as theological and find out how, in the compilation before us, theirtheological structure accomplished the autorship's goals. This anthology aims at doing just that. It presents a complete account of how the classical Midrash-text treats a theme of urgent interest to the world today : how Judaism writes with Scripture about the issues of religion that confront all the faithful.

Emblematic and mysterious, the giant clam has always inspired the curiosity of peoples ever since the first humans settled on the tropical shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans. A representation of the sacred or of power, but also, of course, a major food resource for many island communities, the giant clam is a token of influence in the culture of the peoples of the Pacific, a matrix for making tools, a currency ! Apart from its beauty and its role in art or beliefs, which have inspired human beings over the centuries, this group of species now interests the world of science in many of its aspects, whether in biology, ecology or its place in society : the giant clam still has a wealth of surprises in store. It is well worth being brought under the spotlights. The aim of the present work is precisely to describe the specificities of this outstanding group of species, and the broad range of issues that must be taken into account to ensure its conservation. We hope that once you have come to the end of these pages, which celebrate the giant clam in all its aspects, you will be convinced, as we are, that it is indeed... "a priceless emblem of the Pacific ! "

Résurrection merveilleuse en 1877 de Mel de Notredame, mort en 1566. Troisième faisceau de vraie lumière. Divulgation du grand secret d'interprétation. Traduction de la huitième centurie. Du 25 septembre 1882 au 10 juin 1883 Date de l'édition originale : 1884 Le présent ouvrage s'inscrit dans une politique de conservation patrimoniale des ouvrages de la littérature Française mise en place avec la BNF. HACHETTE LIVRE et la BNF proposent ainsi un catalogue de titres indisponibles, la BNF ayant numérisé ces oeuvres et HACHETTE LIVRE les imprimant à la demande. Certains de ces ouvrages reflètent des courants de pensée caractéristiques de leur époque, mais qui seraient aujourd'hui jugés condamnables. Ils n'en appartiennent pas moins à l'histoire des idées en France et sont susceptibles de présenter un intérêt scientifique ou historique. Le sens de notre démarche éditoriale consiste ainsi à permettre l'accès à ces oeuvres sans pour autant que nous en cautionnions en aucune façon le contenu.

The objects of cultural transfers are innumerable. Their study is particularly important to understanding the medieval Norman worlds and their multiple interconnections with the Scandinavian world, the British Isles, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean. While examining the processes of transmission, reception, adaptation, adoption, or rejection, this book highlights how these dynamics influenced cultures between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Various examples of both material (embroidery ; clothing accessories ; iron artefacts ; coins ; manuscripts ; funeral monuments ; sculptures, etc.) and immaterial objects (craftsmanship ; literary models ; language ; religious and burial practices ; ideology of power ; oath-taking, etc.) are studied, including some emblematic ‘monuments' of the Norman worlds (the Bayeux Tapestry ; the mosaics on the floor of Otranto Cathedral). Particular attention is given to presenting these objects in a context in which their reinterpretation in different socio-cultural environments could be better understood. The book also questions the role and the significance of the actors of cultural transfers (aristocratic elites ; churchmen ; merchants ; craftsmen ; authors ; copyists ; etc.), considering their status or their function, as well as their aptitude to carry transfers. It sheds light on relations and networks that have been thus far relatively unknown, and on the circulation of models that consists of a multitude of objects and productions. Finally, it contributes to the exploration of the contacts between different populations and the construction of their interactions.

Modern scholarship often discusses Roman women in terms of their difference from their male counterparts, frequently defining them as ‘other'. This book shows how Roman male writers at the turn of the first century actually described women as not so different from men : the same qualities and abilities pertaining to the domains of parenthood, intellect and morals are ascribed by writers to women as well as to men. There are two voices, however : a traditional, ideal voice and an individual, realistic voice. This creates a duality of representations of women, which recurs across literary genres and reflects a duality of mentality. How can we interpret the paradoxical information about Roman women given by the male-authored texts ? How does this duality of mentality inform us about gender roles and gender hierarchy ? This work analyses well-known, as well as overlooked, passages from the writings of Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Suetonius, Quintilian, Statius, Martial and Juvenal and sheds new light on Roman views of women and their abilities, on the notions of private and public and on conjugal relationships. In the process, the famous sixth satire of Juvenal is revisited and its topic reassessed, providing further insights into the complex issues of gender roles, marriage and emotions. By contrasting representations of women across a broad spectrum of literary genres, this book provides consistent findings that have wide significance for the study of Latin literature and the social history of the late first and early second centuries.

This annotated edition of ""Martin Luther's Small Catechism"" includes an extra appendix (in addition to the two already included in the original book) which provides an interesting overview of : Martin Luther's peasant roots, his education in pre-law, and how he was diverted from a law career to that of a monk-turned-professor and eventually, Protestant reformer, The role of the printing press in spreading the ""95 Theses"" quickly over Europe, catapulting Martin Luther to near-instant prominence in the religious dialogue of his day, The story of how Martin Luther colluded with a fishmonger to smuggle his future wife and her friends away from a convent, and Martin Luther's impact on the Protestant Reformation as well as modern religious thought. Martin Luther wrote the small catechism as an easy teaching tool for both individuals and families. Though penned close to five centuries ago, Luther's brief, clear summary of the essentials of Christian faith still ring true today. Topics covered include the Ten Commandments, the ""Creed"", the Lord's Prayer, and the sacraments of baptism and the altar. Ideas and instructions are also included for morning and evening devotions and giving thanks at mealtime. This little catechism, still widely used within the Lutheran Church, has gems of truth that many Christians will find to be both instructive and inspirational--regardless of denomination. Though few in words, it provides a wonderful explanation that has helped many to both learn the basics of Christian doctrine and apply them in a practical way to their lives.

In the late 1910s, in a Europe ravaged by World War I, Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen put the finishing touches on his illustrations of A Thousand and One Nights. The results are considered masterpieces of early 20th-century illustration : bursting with sumptuous colors of deep blues, reds, and gold leaf, and evoking all the magic of this legendary collection of Indo-Persian and Arabic folktales, compiled between the 8th and 13th centuries. However, publishers retreated from Nielsen's project in the financially strapped postwar climate, and the publication never happened. A rising star, Nielsen moved on to other work. This world heritage classic's spectacular pen, ink, and watercolor images remained under lock and key for 40 years. Published just once in the 1970s, the illustrations were rescued from oblivion after Nielsen's death in 1957 and are now held by the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, and in two private collections. This publication is a unique compilation of fine art prints and stunning illustrations reproduced directly from Nielsen's original watercolors-the only complete set of his extraordinary drawings to have survived. The book features descriptions of all of the images and three generously illustrated essays on the making of this series, the origin of Nielsen's unique imagery, and a history of the tales. In addition, it shows many unpublished or rarely seen artworks by Nielsen and intricate black-and-white drawings Nielsen created for the original publication.

In London in 1770 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) remarked, 'What a work could be written on Shakespeare, Hogarth and Garrick ! There is something similar in the genius of all three. ' Two-and-a-half centuries on, Robin Simon's highly original and illuminating book takes up the challenge. William Hogarth (1697-1764) and David Garrick (1717-1779) closely associated themselves with Shakespeare, embodying a relationship between plays, painting and performance that had been understood since Antiquity and which shaped the rules for history painting drawn up by the Académie royale in Paris in the seventeenth century. History painting was considered the highest form of art : a picture illustrating a moment drawn from just a few lines in a revered text. Hogarth's David Garrick as Richard III (1745) transformed those ideas because, although it looked like a history painting, it was also a portrait of an actor in performance. With it, Hogarth established the genre of theatrical portraiture, a new and distinctively British kind of history painting. This book offers a fresh examination of theatrical portraits through close analysis of the pictures and of the texts used in performance. It also examines the central role of the theatre in British culture, while highlighting the significance of Shakespeare, Hogarth and Garrick in the European Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism. In this context another trio of genius features prominently : Lichtenberg, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Denis Diderot. Familiar paintings and performances are seen in an entirely new light, while unfamiliar pictures are also introduced, including major paintings and drawings that have never been published. The final chapter shows that the inter-relationship between plays, painting and performance survived into the age of cinema, revealing the pictorial sources of Laurence Olivier's legendary film Richard III.

In his early twenties Goethe wrote Proserpina for the Weimar court singer Corona Schröter to perform. His interest in presenting Weimar's first professional singer-in-residence in a favourable light was not the only reason why this monologue with music (now lost) by Seckendorff is important. Goethe's memories of his sister Cornelia, who had recently died in childbirth, were in fact the real catalyst : through this work Goethe could level accusations against his parents about Cornelia's marriage, of which he had not approved. Goethe used the melodramatic form to transform private and cultural issues for women of the time into public discourses and so to manipulate public opinion. His work reveals an astute understanding of musical melodrama and the important impact it had on the cultural dynamics of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Whatever the source of inspiration, it is clear that Goethe was very preoccupied with Proserpina. When he returned to this melodrama forty years later he collaborated closely with Carl Eberwein, the court, theatre, and church music director, who composed a new setting which accords with Goethe's clear understanding of musical declamation in 19th century melodrama. In the intensive collaboration which took place while the production was being prepared in January 1815, Goethe was already anticipating the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk. He paid close attention to every aspect of the production, especially to its music and its staging. When discussing contemporary settings of the poet's works, scholars often lapse into regret that Goethe did not have someone of comparable rank at his side for musical collaborations. Yet Eberwein's willingness to go along with Goethe's wishes was an advantage here : the selfless striving of the young composer to satisfy the poet's intentions is everywhere apparent in the score and it is the nearest thing we have to a ‘composition by Goethe'. Despite critics' positive reception of the first performance on 4 February 1815, the work has never been published before. Musically and dramatically this unknown melodrama is a superb work for solo voice, choir, and orchestra, and deserves to be brought before the public today.

We might take numbers and counting for granted, but we shouldn't. Our number literacy rests upon centuries of human effort, punctuated here and there by strokes of genius. In his successor and companion volume to Gnomon: From Pharaohs to Fractals, Midhat Gazalé takes us on a Journey from the ancient worlds of the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, the Mayas, the Greeks, the Hindus, up to the Arab invasion of Europe and the Renaissance. Our guide introduces us to some of the most fascinating and ingenious characters in mathematical history, from Ahmes the Egyptian scribe (whose efforts helped preserve some of the mathematical secrets of the architects of the pyramids) through the modern era of Georg Cantor (the great nineteenth-century inventor of transfinite numbers). As he deftly blends together history, mathematics, and even some computer science in his characteristically compelling style, we discover the fundamental notions underlying the acquisition and recording of "number", and what "number" truly means. Gazalé tackles questions that will stimulate math enthusiasts in a highly accessible and inviting manner. What is a natural number? Are the decimal and binary systems the only legitimate ones? Did the Pythagorean theorem and the discovery of the unspeakable irrationals cost the unfortunate mathematician Hippasus his life? What was the Ladder of Theodorus of Cyrene and how did the ancient Greeks calculate square roots with such extraordinary proficiency? An original generalization of Euler's theorem is offered that explains the pattern of rational number representations. Later on, the field of Continued Fractions paves the way for another original contribution by Gazalé, that of cleavages, which sheds light on the mysterious nature of irrational numbers as it beautifully illustrates Dedekind's famous Schnitt. In the end the author introduces us to the Hilbert Hotel with its infinite number of rooms, guests, and an infinite number of people waiting to check in, where he sets the debate between Aristotle and Cantor about the true nature of infinity. This abundantly illustrated book, remarkable for its coherency and simplicity, will fascinate all those who have an interest in the world of numbers. Number will be indispensable for all those who enjoy mathematical recreations and puzzles, and for those who delight in numeracy.

This stunning catalogue presents an exceptional collection of rare Burmese silver. Accompanied by detailed photographs and explanatory texts, this ground-breaking book proposes a new way of looking at Burmese silver. Names, dates, places, and stories - identifying the who, when, where, and what of Burmese silver has been the focus of publications on the topic. Are these questions the best way to understand silver, however ? Alexandra Green argues that they are not. Too few pieces provide reliable information about silversmiths, production locations, and dates to allow for a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Instead, a close examination of silver patterns reveals strong links with Burmese art history reaching as far back as the Bagan period (11th to 13th centuries), connections with contemporary artistic trends, and participation within the wider world of silversmithing. The first European to write about Burmese silver was H L Tilly, a colonial official from the late 19th into the early 20th century. Tasked with collecting objects for various fairs and exhibitions, he took an interest in Burmese art, publishing articles and books from the 1880s onwards. While much of what he wrote was factually inaccurate and coloured by the prejudices and stereotypes common at the time, his two volumes on Burmese silver published in 1902 and 1904 contain pictures of pieces from the early to mid 19th century. These enable a reconstruction of how silver designs evolved as the country was absorbed into the Indian Raj, and British and other Westerners became consumers of local silver products. Tilly was also correct in his interest in silver designs. Green uses the visual information from his books to describe the continuities and innovations of designs found on silver from the mid 19th through the mid 20th century, and she places these trends within local, regional, and global flows of ideas. Many studies of Burmese silver have been plagued by a lack of understanding of the Burmese context. In contrast, Green examines silver from a local perspective, drawing on Burmese texts and information that allows for a nuanced view of the motifs, designs, and patterns that appear repetitively on silver pieces. Using Graham Honeybill's collection, formed over many years, as a basis, she explores how designs and patterns circulated around the country and were innovatively combined and recombined on pieces by silversmiths producing objects for Burmese, Western, and commercial clients.

Hugely ambitious, Titian : Sources and Documents includes all known documents about Titian and his work dating from his lifetime, and all known references to him in contemporary publications. The relevant section of each text is transcribed in full, preceded by a short summary in English, with extensive annotation and, where necessary, a commentary. The intention of this incredible work of scholarship is to provide a comprehensive survey of the surviving historical evidence about Titian and his career. Titian was one of the most famous, successful and long-lived of Renaissance painters. Much of his output was for rulers or institutions whose archives have been in large part preserved, and many of his family papers have also survived. In addition, he was mentioned in more than a hundred and sixty different publications in his lifetime. Although hundreds of the documents about him and his work have been published, usually in specialised publications based on material in a single archive, there have only been two attempts to provide an overview of the entire body of documents and early published references to him, the first by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in 1877, the second by Adolfo Venturi in 1928. These publications were necessarily selective and included transcriptions of only a small part of the material which was used. The collection, amounting to over two thousand nine hundred items, includes not only texts specifically about Titian himself, but also those concerning his siblings and children, his principal assistants and the other members of the Vecellio family already active as painters before his death, as well as inscriptions on paintings and prints. In addition to texts dating from Titian's lifetime, the collection includes all biographical material published before 1700 and all other texts that could realistically be thought to reflect first- or second-hand anecdotal information about him. The particular strengths and limitations of the principal early printed sources and the circumstances in which they were produced are discussed in a substantial introduction, which also includes an overview of the main archival collections consulted in the preparation of the book. Most of these are in Italy, but others are in Spain, Austria and Germany. New transcriptions are provided for the great majority of the documents that have previously been published, and many hitherto unknown documents have been included. Consideration is given also to documents now known only via secondary sources, and to fake documents, of which a significant number were produced in the past two centuries.

In the modern world, computer systems are playing a greater and greater part in everyday life. From office work, to entertainment, to providing information, the personal computer is quickly becoming a more integral part of the home. However, most PC users have no idea how most of the parts which make up their computer work internally. I am one of those who find that the framework provided by the school curriculum in the United Kingdom is of great assistance in planning lessons and learning plans but the curriculum does not plan out the work for us. We therefore need to invest a lot of time and effort into developing schemes of work that will suit the people we are going to teach. For me, it is a fantastic opportunity to employ our imagination and creativity to make lessons useful and interesting for children of different abilities. It is why I wrote this book. This book is a foundation course for Advanced Computer Studies and designed as a blueprint to teach users with a basic knowledge of computer science. Computer science is a subject that combines the use of technology which is ICT (Information Communication Technology) and the creation of technology. To use ICT (the subject about how to use technology to communicate information) more effectively, we need to know how technology works. Computing or computer science will create a generation of young people able to work at the forefront of technology change. It is the umbrella term for the subject that comprises 3 elements : computer science, information technology and digital literacy. It is helpful to think of these as the foundations, applications and implications of digital technology. The new focus on computer science will provides a well-defined and rigorous academic discipline and a unique lens through which pupils can understand the world. Children must therefore be taught computing if they are to be ready for tomorrow technology challenges. Our ingenuity to invent new means of communicating with each other, our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries however still a lot remain to be done with the arrival of quantum computing. A more rigorous approach to computer science teaching will help compete across the full spectrum of digital industries. This can only be achieved by equipping ourselves with the foundation skills, knowledge and understanding of computing do the necessity to introduce "computational thinking" at school via the new national curriculum (programmes of study and targets), the 2014 national curriculum that introduces computing which will replace ICT.

Les "Magasins nord" de Thoutmosis III sont un ensemble de huit salles accessibles par le couloir périmétral de l'enceinte en grès du temple d'Amon-Rê à Karnak. Ce volume livre pour la première fois l'ensemble de la matière épigraphique, en grande partie inédite, de ce secteur et une couverture photographique complète d'un important programme de restauration et de conservation. Les " Magasins nord " de Thoutmosis III sont un ensemble de huit salles accessibles par le couloir périmétral de l'enceinte en grès du temple d'Amon-Rê à Karnak. Bâties par Thoutmosis III pendant son règne autonome après la disparition de la reine Hatchepsout, ces salles forment un complexe à l'accès restreint qui a subi plusieurs transformations architecturales dont les plus remarquables sont la modification de son accès ouest au cours du règne même de Thoutmosis III et la décoration d'une des salles du complexe par Ptolémée XI Sôter II près de quatorze siècles après sa construction. Cet ensemble entretient des liens étroits avec les autres structures du règne de Thoutmosis III dont l'Akh-menou, nouveau coeur cultuel du temple d'Amon-Rê, mais aussi avec les zones d'accès et le centre du temple de Karnak. Ce volume livre pour la première fois l'ensemble de la matière épigraphique, en grande partie inédite, de ce secteur (fac-similés, textes hiéroglyphiques en ligne et traduction commentée) ainsi qu'une couverture photographique complète, réalisée après l'achèvement, en 2016, d'un important programme de restauration et de conservation. -- The "Northern Storerooms" of Thutmosis III are a set of eight chambers accessible through the corridor within the sandstone enclosure of the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. Built by Thutmosis III during his autonomous reign after the death of Queen Hatshepsut, these chambers form a complex with restricted access that underwent several architectural transformations. Among the most remarkable are the modification of its western entrance during Thutmosis III's own reign and the decoration of one of the chambers by Ptolemy XI Soter II, nearly fourteen centuries after its construction. This complex maintains close connections with other structures from the reign of Thutmosis III, including the Akh-menu, the new cultic center of the Temple of Amun-Re, as well as the access areas and the central part of the Karnak Temple. This volume presents, for the first time, all of the epigraphic material, largely unpublished, from this sector (including facsimiles, hieroglyphic texts, and translations), along with complete photographic coverage, undertaken after the completion of a major restoration and conservation programme in 2016.

David Hockney is the best known and most widely admired painter in the world. This vibrant catalogue accompanies a major exhibition at the The Fitzwilliam Museum and the Heong Gallery in Cambridge, as well as the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Throughout his long career, David Hockney has insistently explored diverse ways of depicting the visible world. He has scrutinised the methods of the old masters, and explored radical departures from their cherished assumptions The exhibition and accompanying book are the first to focus on this central theme in his art. "Western art" from the Renaissance until at least the late 19th century has been dominated by the depiction of nature. Was this to be accomplished by direct looking (called "eyeballing" by Hockney) or with the assistance of optical theory and devices, such as cameras ? Hockney has experimented with the full range of existing strategies, overtly using perspective in some of his classic pictures and rigorously investigating optical aids for the imitation of nature, including the camera obscura and camera lucida. Yet he has come to reject the photograph as the definitive image of what we see. Along the way, he has identified a "camera culture'' in European painting from 1400, arguing very controversially that the supreme naturalism of painters like Jan van Eyck are the product of optical devices. His book, Secret Knowledge (2001), with its majestic panorama of paintings over the course of five centuries, claims that art historians have missed the central aspect of painters' practice. The "Hockney thesis" has been received more favourably outside the professional world of art history than in it. His own artistic practice has been in vigorous dialogue with his radical thesis, and he has progressively demonstrated new and dynamic ways of characterising the visual world without perspective and other conventional techniques. This quest results a series of joyous challenges to our ways of seeing in the major exhibition in Cambridge at the Fitzwilliam Museum and in the Heong Gallery (Downing College). It will look at the whole span of Hockney's varied career and at the nature of the optical devices he has tested. His vision will be explored in the setting of traditional masterpieces of naturalistic observation, and in the context of modern sciences and technologies of seeing. The first section of the book looks at his thrilling experiments in seeing and representing in broad historical and contemporary contexts. This is followed by discussions of pre-photographic devices for capturing the appearances of things by optical means. The third section includes essays on Hockney's experiments from the perspectives of neuroscience and computer vision. In short, it reveals in a new way the working of Hockney's unique eye.

Un magnifique recueil de courts poèmes sur la voie du détachement/renoncement, texte classique de la littérature indienne du VIIe siècle, traduit et introduit par Alain Porte, indianiste renommé, et accompagné du texte en devanagari. La Voie du Détachement, recueil d'une centaine de poèmes, est un texte classique de la littérature sanskrite qui traite d'une notion clé de la pensée indienne - vairagya : absence de passion (raga), détachement, renoncement au monde ou abnégation - devant la palette des calamités dont le monde est le théâtre. Il est attribué à un écrivain du VIIe siècle de notre ère, du nom de Bhartrihari, qui aurait été prince. Trois centuries (texte de cent versets/poèmes) lui sont attribuées, la première concernant la Loi de la vie, la seconde celle de l'amour, et enfin celle du détachement. Sa voix si personnelle a provoqué un intérêt fervent chez les auditeurs de son temps, et cet engouement a perduré au fil des siècles en Inde comme en Occident. Dans La Voie du Détachement, un prince de sang royal nous transmet en poèmes son expérience du monde. Avec parfois une fougue sarcastique, il cloue au pilori l'ambition effrénée des oligarques, possédés par l'appât du gain et du pouvoir. " Les savants ? Ils n'ont que leur Moi à la bouche. Les Puissants ? La vanité les contamine. Et les autres ? La bêtise leur scie les jambes. La vieillesse ? Dans le corps, elle sait parler juste. " Puis il confie son désarroi de se voir succomber à la séduction ensorcelante de la gent féminine, dont il essaie de s'affranchir, mais en vain. Alors, en désespoir de cause, Bhartrihari, pour échapper à cette double emprise, celle des puissants et celle de la passion, envisage la vie érémitique, " loin du monde et du bruit ", celle qui lui apportera la Tranquillité de l'âme et la félicité de l'esprit. Il chante la solitude au coeur de la nature, avec la terre en guise de sofa, avec des écorces en guise de tunique, avec l'eau du Gange en guise de boisson, et les fruits sauvages pour toute nourriture. Et il se prend à rêver que des gazelles viennent boire ses larmes de bonheur ! " Que ce soit un serpent, que ce soit un collier, Que ce soit un ami, ou bien un ennemi, Que ce soit un joyau, que ce soit une roche, Que ce soit une jonchée de fleurs, ou un lit de cailloux, Que ce soit un brin d'herbe, que ce soit une femme, Que mon regard demeure égal Au cours du temps En répétant toujours dans une forêt sainte : Shiva, Shiva, Shiva... " Mais cette vision idyllique n'est pas, chez Bhartrihari, une image stéréotypée de la sagesse, elle est le ferment de sa poésie qui nous transmet la fragilité des certitudes et des espérances. Cette traduction est accompagnée d'une introduction d'Alain Porte, et du texte en devanagari (écriture du sanskrit).

Klimonas An Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Village in Cyprus Un village néolithique pré-céramique ancien à Chypre Klimonas is the oldest Mediterranean island village. Occupied ca. 8 800 cal BC, it postpones by several centuries the Neolithic presence in Cyprus, at that time located more than 80 km offshore. The village extended over more than 5, 500 mC, facing the sea, 2 km from the famous pre-pottery site of Shillourokambos and near rich flint outcrops. Excavations (2009-2016) revealed that it was composed of circular or oval earthen buildings 3-6 m in diameter, notched into the slope, modestly fitted out and organised around a semi-buried 10 m communal building. The construction techniques, the abundance of either knapped or polished stone material, together with ornaments, symbolic objects, and plants and animal remains, as well as the 52 radiometric dates, point to the end of the Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). The presence of a communal building, rebuilt numerous times over the course of several decades, also points to the same conclusion. The villagers gathered seeds and fruits and cultivated wild starch and einkorn, recently imported from the continent. They primarily hunted small endemic wild boar, the only large mammal species attested on the island at that time and, secondarily, birds. They did not eat fish or marine shellfish. Domestic dogs, mice and cats brought from the continent also lived in the village. The remains of this cultivator-hunter community testify to the early extension of the Near Eastern Neolithic and to unsuspected seafaring skills, substantially improving our knowledge of the Neolithic transition in the Mediterranean. Klimonas est le plus ancien village insulaire de Méditerranée. Occupé autour de 8 800 av. n. è. , il recule de plusieurs siècles le début de la présence néolithique à Chypre, à cette époque déjà située à plus de 80 km du continent. Le village s'étendait sur 5 500 mC au moins, face à la mer, à 2 km du célèbre site pré-céramique de Shillourokambos et au contact de riches sources de silex. Les fouilles (2009-2016) ont montré qu'il était composé d'édifices de terre crue (bauge) de 3 à 6 m de diamètre, circulaires ou ovalaires, encochés dans la pente, modestement aménagés, organisés autour d'un bâtiment communautaire semi-enterré de 10 m de diamètre. Les techniques de construction, l'abondant mobilier de pierre taillée, le macro-outillage, les parures et objets symboliques, les restes de plantes et les ossements animaux, tout comme les 52 datations radiométriques renvoient à la fin du Néolithique pré-céramique A levantin (PPNA). La présence d'un bâtiment communautaire, plusieurs fois reconstruit en quelques décennies, le confirme. Les villageois pratiquaient la cueillette et cultivaient l'amidonnier et l'engrain sauvages, récemment importés du continent. Ils chassaient un petit sanglier endémique, seule espèce de grand mammifère attestée sur l'île à cette époque, et, secondairement, des oiseaux. Poissons et coquillages marins n'étaient pas consommés. Des chiens domestiques, des souris et des chats de souche continentale vivaient dans le village. Les vestiges de cette communauté d'agriculteurs-chasseurs témoignent de l'extension précoce du premier Néolithique du Proche-Orient et d'une maîtrise insoupçonnée de la navigation. Il enrichit de manière substantielle nos connaissances sur la transition néolithique en Méditerranée.