Recherche

THE ROMAN CAVALRY. From the First to the Third Century AD

Extraits

ActuaLitté

Histoire ancienne

THE ROMAN CAVALRY. From the First to the Third Century AD

The cavalry was a vital part of the army of Rome and played a significant role in the expansion and success of the Roman Empire. Karen R. Dixon and Par Southern describe the origins of the mounted units of the Roman army and trace their development from temporary allied troops to the regular alae and cohorts. They have drawn together evidence from a wide variety of sources: archaeological, epigraphic and literary, as well as comparing ancient testimony with more recent experience of the use of cavalry. Now available in paperback, the book covers the subject from the perspective of both the men and the horses. How were the horses selected and disposed of; how they trained, stabled and fed? How were the men recruited, organized and equipped; and what were the conditions of service for a Roman cavalryman? The authors provide a comprehensive and unique examination of the Roman cavalry, which includes lavish and original illustrations, drawn by Karen R. Dixon.

01/1992

ActuaLitté

Littérature française

Les inventeurs. Essai

What do Christopher Columbus, Reneke, Zénobe Gramme and Louis Pasteur have in common ? They were all inventors. Well fine, but who invented the crab's claw, the suction cups and the flight of squids or the proboscis of blood sucking insects ? Is invention intellectual fantasy, an industrial tool or a fundamental biological reaction ? How is this riddle to be solved ? Should we go through the list of inventions or inventors ? Is it a question of circumstances or motivations ? Who is in charge ? The Material or the Spirit ? In order to try to find a way of answering these questions, first a few very different inventors and their inventions will be presented. A few paradoxes emerge from this first part. Then we will devote an entire chapter to an exceptional inventor whose extraordinary work revolutionized how we now approach this topic. Finally, what can be said about all the inventions like the wings of birds or butterflies, the eyes of fish or insects, the leaves of trees or the social organization of beehives ? In these cases, man is not the inventor. There are countless marvels like these in the world around us. Can we explain them ? This will be the subject of the third part of this essay.

02/2017

ActuaLitté

Histoire et Philosophiesophie

WHY SEX MATTERS. A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior

Why are men, like other primate usually the aggressors and risk takers? Why do women typically have fewer sexual partners? Why is killing infants routine in some cultures, but forbidden in others? Why is incest everywhere taboo? Bobbi Low ranges from ancient Rome to modern America, from the Amazon to the Arctic, and from single-celled organisms to international politics to show that these and many other questions about human behavior largely come down to evolution and sex. More precisely, as she shows in this uniquely comprehensive and accessible survey of behavioral and evolutionary ecology, they come down to the basic principle that all organisms evolved to maximize their reproductive success and seek resources to do so. Low begins by reviewing the fundamental arguments and assumptions of behavioral ecology: selfish genes, conflicts of interest, and the tendency for sexes to reproduce through different behaviors. She explains why in primate species-from chimpanzees and apes to humans-males seek to spread their genes by devoting extraordinary efforts to finding mates, while females find it profitable to expend more effort on parenting. Low illustrates these sexual differences among humans by showing that in places as diverse as the parishes of nineteenth-century Sweden, the villages of seventeenth-century China, and the forests of twentieth-century Brasil, men have tended to seek power and resources, from cattle to money, to attract mates, while women have sought a secure environment for raising children. She makes it clear, however, they have not done so simply through individual efforts or in a vacuum, but that men and women act in complex ways that involve cooperation and coalition building and that are shaped by culture, technology, tradition, and the availability of resources. Low also considers how file evolutionary drive to acquire resources leads to environmental degradation and warfare and asks whether our behavior could be channeled in more constructive ways. Why Sex Matters is a compelling work of biology, sociology, and anthropology and a penetrating study of the deep motivations that underlie individual and social behavior.

01/2000

ActuaLitté

Histoire et Philosophiesophie

The Undergrowth of Science. Delusion, self-deception and human frailty

Walter Gratzer's themes in the stories he relates in The Undergrowth of Science are collective delusion and human folly. Science is generally seen as a process bound by rigorous rules, which its practitioners must not transgress. Deliberate fraud occasionally intrudes, but it is soon detected, the perpetrators cast out and the course of discovery barely disturbed. Far more interesting are the outbreaks of self-delusion that from time to time afflict upright and competent researchers, and then spread like an epidemic or mass-hysteria through a sober and respectable scientific community. When this happens the rules by which scientists normally govern their working lives are suddenly suspended. Sometimes these episodes are provoked by personal vanity, an unwillingness to acknowledge error or even contemplate the possibility that a hard-won success is a will o' the wisp; at other times they stem from loyalty to a respected and trusted guru, or even from patriotic pride; and, worst of ail, they may be a consequence of a political ideology which imposes its own interpretation on scientists' observations of the natural world. Unreason and credulity supervene, illusory phenomena are described and measured, and theories are developed to explain them - until suddenly, often for no single reason, the bubble bursts, leaving behind it a residue of acrimony, recrimination, embarrassment and ruined reputations. Here, then, are radiations, measured with high precision yet existing only in the minds of those who observed them; the Russian water, which some thought might congeal the oceans: phantom diseases which called for heroic surgery; monkey testis implants that restored the sexual powers of ageing roués and of tired sheep; truths about genetics and about the nature of matter, perceptible only to Aryan scientists in the Third Reich or Marxist ideologues in the Soviet Union; and much more. The Undergrowth of Science explores, in terms accessible to the lay reader, the history of such episodes, up to our own time, in ail their absurdity, tragedy and pathos.

01/2000

ActuaLitté

BD tout public

I am GooGol - The Great Invasion

Their arrival was heralded as a new beginning for the human race. Humans were no longer alone in the cosmos. Instead, they were suddenly thrust into an arena much larger than they were ready to deal with. In an age of technological advancement, Toughware and the wiki implants were the culmination of the first successful blending of human and alien technology. Suddenly, anyone with a wiki implant could ride the data streams. Hackers became celebrities as the neural landscape became the world's playground. And for a special few, a startling side effect was discovered. Fearing the worst, the Lambda Initiative was created to police wiki infractions and to protect the fabled Lambda Time Travel Restrictions. Anyone, human or alien, attempting to bypass the Lambda Protocols was subject to prosecution under this new law. To enforce this law, the G-Men were created. Culled from specialists with military and law enforcement experience, the G-Men sought out Lambda Protocol violators with swift and violent response. With wiki crimes on the rise and a growing anti-alien movement gaining strength, something had to be done. The government needed a solution, but they weren't sure what to do. And then they discovered a teenage girl living in Brazil with a special affinity for traversing and moulding the data stream. They had discovered the first Googol. And the world was about to change.

12/2010

ActuaLitté

Poésie

Epilepsy: the invisible pain

They say life is a long stretch of a calm river, but not for everyone ! She was for me until the day when everything rocked, the day my destiny was changed dramatically. People do not realize how life can be so sweet and so beautiful. They complain all day long for trivialities. They are not even aware that they have before their eyes the most beautiful wealth : the luck and happiness of living in good health. I was rich before. Now I am poor because my child has an incurable disease, that has currently no hope of being healed. As a parent, how can we accept that ? , How to continue living carrying the bundle of pain in my head ? , How to overcome this feeling of helplessness ? When I started speaking to my heart, I didn't know myself that this was the beginning of a new life : a rebirth as a poet. When I learnt that my 7-year-old daughter was suffering from the Dravet Syndrome, a rare genetic epileptic encephalopathy, this was like an earthquake in my life. Then, I needed to write in order to express my sorrow and my pain. Words and rhymes came naturally to my mind. This was obvious that poetry would be my survival weapon.

01/2019

ActuaLitté

Musique classique

Songs of Love. 12 Romances. 12 Lieder. Soprano (tenor) and piano.

Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940), hitherto consigned to a footnote in musical history as Stravinsky's piano teacher, is undergoing rediscovery. A double graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, she emerged as a virtuoso pianist and composer in the romantic tradition. She was associated with some of the great musicians of her day, including Balakirev and Auer. She performed in both Germany and the UK in the 1900s, but her career petered out after 1920. Songs of Love was first published in 1904. No evidence survives of any public performance in Kashperova's lifetime although it is very likely that they were performed at her regular 'musical evenings at home on Tuesdays' mentioned in her Memoirs. The transparency of the piano writing strongly suggests that she would accompany herself singing. Kashperova, by all accounts, possessed a fine voice, and in the summer of 1906 she decided 'to learn from the artistry', as she put it, of the tenor Raimond von Zur-Mühlen who was widely celebrated for having developed (with Clara Schumann) the Lieder-Abend tradition. His summer-schools on the Baltic coast were frequented by aspiring singers from all over Europe, even Japan and India. Kashperova herself was responsible for the poetic lyrics of Songs of Love (in both Russian and German), which may well have emerged from her own bittersweet experience of life and love ; she was not to marry until 1916 at the age of forty-four. That Kashperova is the author of both the music and the lyrics of Songs of Love would suggest that they express very personal sentiments. Instrumentation : soprano (tenor) and piano

12/2023

ActuaLitté

Non classé

The Church of Constantinople in the Nineteenth Century

Ivan Sokolov's work, first published in 1904, begins with a balanced overview of the situation of the Orthodox Church under Ottoman rule from the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The author then gives a detailed description of the external situation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from 1789 to 1900. This is followed by a discussion of the career and activity of each patriarch during this period, their relations with the bishops, their initiatives in the field of education, their regulations concerning marriage, and their work with parishes and monasteries. The book concludes with a thorough analysis of the administration of the Patriarchate during these years. Although written over a hundred years ago, this classic work has not been superseded. It is based on original sources, particularly on the patriarchal archives, to which few scholars have had access. No other existing study deals with the nineteenth-century Ecumenical Patriarchate in such a systematic and specific way. It constitutes an invaluable tool of reference. Translated from the Russian.

02/2013

ActuaLitté

Ethnologie et anthropologie

The Wolves Rise Again. New elites born out of chaos

The successive shocks that strike our time have acted as an indicator of men : the bland elites of yesteryear, suddenly rejected by the masses, went back silently into the void where they had first come from. This opportunist plutarchy, that maintained itself so far, thanks to the industry of lying, the targeted elimination of creative people, will soon be engulfed. Around these illusionists with no audience, the hidden alphas will begin to rise. Within a few months, alphas, forged in a new metal, invaded public space. How can it be explained ? In troubled times, the hierarchies of peacetime had left, suddenly, a place to the atomisation of individuals. Chaos then allows the individual alphas to rise to power. Like a pack of wolves, these alphas quickly take the lead of small human groups organising themselves into rival packs. The French Revolution is a striking example of this evolution : the masters of yesterday were relegated because of their unsuitability.

06/2022

ActuaLitté

Anglais apprentissage

Tales from Longpuddle

Tony Kytes is a favourite with the girls but he's not terribly clever. If you meet an old girlfriend and she asks fora ride home in your wagon, do you say yes? And then if you meet the girl you are planning to marry, what do you do? Very soon, Tony is in a great muddle, and does not know how to escape from it. These stories are set in an English country village of the nineteenth century, but Hardy's tales of mistakes and muddles and marriages belong in any place, at any time.

07/2010

ActuaLitté

Monographies

Burmese Silver from the Colonial Period

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.

09/2022

ActuaLitté

Anglais apprentissage

Acacia thorn in my heart

I started writing "Acacia thorn in my heart" after reading the book of a white South African woman about her childhood in the same region as mine but relating a completely different experience. She had maids, her father drove her to school and she played with real toys. I lived in the heart of the country, away from everything and had to walk five miles to go to school. I was born in Natal. My father rented a plot of land from a white owner to do market gardening. Although Indian families tended not to educate daughters, our parents decided that education was a priority for us. Despite financial difficulties, they were able to send us to school. We had to get up at five o'clock in order to catch the school train. In winter, as we were scantily clad, we shivered all the way to the station.

09/2001

ActuaLitté

Religion

Like Man, Like Woman

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.

07/2013

ActuaLitté

Lecture 6-9 ans

L'énigme du sabre. Edition bilingue français-anglais

C'est dimanche et comme souvent Louise et Arthur viennent rendre visite à leur grand-mère. Ils aiment bien y aller, elle joue avec eux et leur raconte plein d'histoires. Mais aujourd'hui, elle n'a pas le temps et les deux cousins s'ennuient. Alors, ils décident de grimper dans le grenier où sont entreposés de vieux souvenirs et objets abandonnés. Ils y ont déjà été, mais maintenant ils sont plus grands et peut-être trouveront-ils un trésor qu'ils n'avaient pas aperçu, lors de la dernière visite. Après un long moment de recherche, dans un coin, Louise découvre une malle poussiéreuse. Les deux cousins, l'ouvrent et entrevoient un sabre avec une inscription. Une trouvaille qui va les mener jusqu'à l'école militaire de Saint Cyr de Coëtquidan, sur les traces de leur grand père. It's a Sunday and often as not, Louise and Arthur go and visit their grandmother. They like to go there, she plays with them and tells them lots of stories. But this Sunday she does not have the time, so the two cousins are bored. They decide to climb up into the attic, where old memorabilia and abandoned objects are stored. They have been there before, but now that they are taller, maybe they will find a treasure they did not see during their last visit. After a long moment of searching, in a corner, Louise discovers a dusty trunk. The two cousins open it and see a sword with an inscription. A discovery that will lead them to the military school at Saint Cyr de Coëtquidan, in the footsteps of their grandfather.

06/2018

ActuaLitté

Monographies

Fuseli and the Modern Woman. Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism

This catalogue accompanies the first exhibition devoted to a fascinating group of drawings by the Anglo-Swiss Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), one of eighteenth-century Europe's most idiosyncratic, original and controversial artists. Best known for his notoriously provocative painting The Nightmare, Fuseli energetically cultivated a reputation for eccentricity, with vividly stylised images of supernatural creatures, muscle-bound heroes, and damsels in distress. While these convinced some viewers of the greatness of his genius, others dismissed him as a charlatan, or as completely mad. Fuseli's contemporaries might have thought him even crazier had they been aware that in private he harboured an obsessive preoccupation with the figure of the modern woman, which he pursued almost exclusively in his drawings. Where one might have expected idealised bodies with the grace and proportions of classical statues, here instead we encounter figures whose anatomies have been shaped by stiff bodices, waistbands, puffed sleeves, and pointed shoes, and whose heads are crowned by coiffures of the most bizarre and complicated sort. Often based on the artist's wife Sophia Rawlins, the women who populate Fuseli's graphic work tend to adopt brazenly aggressive attitudes, either fixing their gaze directly on the viewer or ignoring our presence altogether. Usually they appear on their own, in isolation on the page ; sometimes they are grouped together to form disturbing narratives, erotic fantasies that may be mysterious, vaguely menacing, or overtly transgressive, but where women always play a dominant role. Among the many intriguing questions raised by these works is the extent to which his wife Sophia was actively involved in fashioning her appearance for her own pleasure, as well as for the benefit of her husband. By bringing together more than fifty of these studies (roughly a third of the known total), The Courtauld Gallery will give audiences an unprecedented opportunity to see one of the finest Romantic-period draughtsmen at his most innovative and exciting. Visitors to the show and readers of the lavishly illustrated catalogue will further be invited to consider how Fuseli's drawings of women, as products of the turbulent aftermath of the American and French Revolutions, speak to concerns about gender and sexuality that have never been more relevant than they are today. The exhibition showcases drawings brought together from international collections, including the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, and from other European and North American institutions.

12/2022

ActuaLitté

Mexique

Secret Mexico City

An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew the city well or who would like to discover its many other facets. The forgotten café where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara used to meet, a tribute to the city's ghosts, a mammoth in the metro, a cave transformed into a shrine, an underground parking lot with mosaics dating from 1930, a Baroque altarpiece made from papier mâché, a village based on the principles of Thomas More's Utopia, secret masterpieces of colonial art in rooms only open around two hours a week, the largest roof garden in Latin America, the photo on which the Oscar statuette is modelled, the first building in the world faced with a material that can trap urban smog, a road surface designed for praying as you walk ...

02/2024

ActuaLitté

Non classé

Shakespeare's Reception in 18th Century Italy

The history of Shakespeare's reception in 18th century Italy is scanty and fragmentary. The present study attempts to join the scattered fragments of the mosaic together and to interpret the resulting picture in the light of current theories of comparative literature. Hamlet has been chosen as an exemplary case in Shakespearian production because it is associated with the very first milestones in Shakespeare's introduction into the Italian literary system. Hamlet also exemplifies on the one hand Italy's cultural indebtedness to France in the field of Shakespearian translation (the first Italian staging of a Shakespearian play was a Hamlet translated from Ducis' adaptation), and, on the other, the need for Northern European literary works to undergo profound changes before they could be assimilated in Italy. The process of Shakespeares's reception in 18th century Italy was made even more tortuous by a missed opportunity, again concerning Hamlet. The first complete Italian translation of the play by Alessandro Verri has never to this day been staged or published ; its impact on the development of Italian literature was only indirect through its influence on Verri's own creative works, which finally contributed to the birth of the Italian Romantic movement.

06/1993

ActuaLitté

Histoire de l'art

Paris Moderne, 1914-1945. Art - Design - Architecture - Photography - Literature - Cinema - Fashion

Whether at peace or at war, Paris during the first half of the twentieth century pulsated with frenzied energy. Creatives from across Europe flocked to the French capital where they had free rein to experiment with innovative forms of expression. Inspired by the challenge made possible through technological advances and market expectations, members from every artistic discipline-art, design, architecture, photography, fashion, and cinema-forged the new face of this resolutely modern city. A kaleidoscopic portrait of this exhilarating artistic surge is documented here in dictionary form, through biographical profiles of nearly one hundred leading creators, including Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Le Corbusier, Tamara de Lempicka, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Man Ray, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Helena Rubinstein, and Gertrude Stein. The richly illustrated volume is completed with a photographic journal of Paris today by Antonio Martinelli, retracing the incredible architectural and urban landscape that still bears the hallmarks of this wildly prodigious period. J-L. C. , G. M. J.

09/2023

ActuaLitté

Non classé

The Concept of Man in Igbo Myths

In the vast silence of their isolation, the traditional Igbos have learnt the ways of living in harmony with nature. From their origin in distant time, they have kept a sacred perspective on the natural world. In our age, there is the need for traditional wisdoms to retain their validity and be intrinsic to our philosophic and scientific perceptions of the cosmos. We cannot do without their knowledge, their spiritual perspective, and their deep faith in the harmony of all nature. Ignoring these qualities has profound environmental implications. Global warming, environmental pollution, and the exhaustion of nature's resources are but a few of the symptoms of the nature's experiences as we continue to mistreat it in order to satisfy our own ends. This work helps us to realise that wherever we are, we are a part of nature. All the things around us are as presences, representing forces and powers of life that are not ours and yet are all part of us. Then we find them reflecting in ourselves, because we are nature, though not identical with it.

11/1999

ActuaLitté

Histoire et Philosophiesophie

Charles Darwin's Zoology Notes & Specimen Lists from H.M.S. Beagle

Two long sets of scientific notes were made by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. Those transcribed here are concerned with natural history, and although in 1839 he drew on them quite extensively in writing his famous " Journal of Researches ", neither they nor his geology notes have previously been published. He was a superb observer, and recorded vividly and accurately his first impressions of the appearance and behaviour of the wide range of animals, from ants to ostriches, encountered during his travels. Often he performed little experiments on the creatures that he captured, and he was never happy until he had exhaustively explored the why and wherefore of every one of his observations. During the long periods on board ship, he carried out a thorough analysis of hitherto unrecognised features of the internal anatomy of a variety of marine invertebrates, and made elegant pencil drawings of them under his dissecting microscope. The volume also includes his lists of 1 500 specimens preserved in Spirits of Wine, and some 3 500 not in Spirits, with impeccably accurate cross references to the main notes. Although his notes were made strictly for his own use, and were often highly technical, they were well written throughout, and contain many highly readable passages. Only towards the very end of the voyage were his first doubts about the immutability of species consciously pressed, but here are to be found the first seeds of his theory of evolution, and of the important new fields of behavioural and ecological study of which he was one of the principal founders.

01/2000

ActuaLitté

Beaux arts

The Third Mind

Avec "The Third Mind" , Ugo Rondinone nous offre un voyage unique. IRM de ses influences, de ses inclinations et de ses obsessions, cette exposition se construit comme une déambulation dans un cerveau en perpétuelle activité et plonge à la source des références et des découvertes de l'artiste. Le talent de celui-ci à construire des systèmes de correspondances est mis pour la première fois au service non plus de ses propres travaux, mais des oeuvres d'autres artistes. Les systèmes de correspondances activés ainsi que les artistes et les oeuvres choisis font de "The Third Mind" une exposition qu'aucun curateur / historien de l'art ne pourra jamais imaginer. Dix ans après l'exposition-événement, Ugo Rondinone réactive un projet éditorial singulier. En hommage à The Third Mind - livre culte conçu par William S. Burroughs et Brion Gysin selon la méthode du cut-up -, il procède à un découpage et à un remixage du paysage artistique contemporain pour en laisser jaillir un sens inédit. Composé à partir des oeuvres de trente et un artistes, paginé et annoté à la main, ce gigantesque cut-up en images constitue un livre d'artiste unique, créé par un troisième esprit, fruit de la réunion d'Ugo Rondinone et de ses choix.

09/2018

ActuaLitté

Décoration

Full-Color Floral Designs in the Art Nouveau Style

E. A. Seguy was one of the foremost French designers of the first third of the twentieth century. He produced many splendid albums of designs over a long and distinguished career. This book reproduces in full color 40 plates from the two color portfolios called Les fleurs et leurs applications décoratives [c. 1902] - one of the high points in Art Nouveau design. The 40 plates included here contain 166 decorative Art Nouveau patterns. Lacy and delicate interpretations of flowers ranging from arum and arrowhead to water lily and wisteria, these patterns offer such color combinations as a blue-petaled flower with green leaves on a mustard background, salmon-colored flower with robin's-egg-blue leaves on a beige field, and royal-blue flowers with golden leaves on golden stems silhouetted in light blue-green on a deep blue-green field. The colors in this volume are strong and bold, prefiguring such later influences as Persian art and the Ballets Russes. Twenty of the plates in the original portfolios contained ordinary realistic renderings of 30 plants, and they have been omitted from this volume. The wide variety of flat designs are perfect for textiles, wallpapers, and packaging, and offer many ideas for mosaics, stained glass, rugs and bookbindings. Containing borders, circular designs, repeats, allovers, and "spots," this collection has something to interest everyone in the graphics field.

01/1977

ActuaLitté

Littérature française

Mehersthan Memoir (Meher Baba)

Mehersthan Memoir (Meher Baba) This book is dedicated to the unique One who has assumed a form and name to lead the play of universal existence. He throbs in our loving heart ; He breathes in our living soul. He sings in our fervent spirit and he thinks in our purified mind. That infinite Ancient One from his supernal height, bends towards us to embrace us in his love, and to feed our soul with the nectar of his bliss. Blessed are they that have the mind to know him, the heart to feel him and the love to live in his consciousness ! He may have been born to human parents in Poona, studied in a college, played cricket, left home, have seen great souls, sat alone silent, spoken in gestures, written books - but that is not his history. Many live such a life ; many scholars write books ; many saints sit in contemplation ; many monks leave home for mountain resorts ; but they cannot be one like him. Millions of bulbs challenge in vain the darkness of night. One sun rises and the night dissolves into his golden light. One sun rises and the night dissolves into his golden light. We have seen monks, yogins and saints. Some live alone for peace. Some open Ashrams and collect donations to run them. Some comercialise their name and form. Some display miracles to surprise human minds ; some offer boons ; some predict the future ; some curse you when you do not offer them what they want. Some seek pleasure and treasure. But who seeks God and finds God in the self to awaken God-awareness in other men and women ? Who says "I am God and you are God too"? Who rises above the prattle of words, the rattle of weapons and battle of ideologies to the lofty peace of supersonic silence and pours his blessings from the dizzy height of the soul in tune with God ? Who is he that embraces all in the heart and awakens the soul which has none of the human creations of caste, religion, race, pedigree nor colour ? Editions ASSA, Christian Piaget

07/2017

ActuaLitté

Archéologie

Etudes sur l'histoire et l'archéologie de Lydie de la période proto-lydienne à la fin de l'Antiquité. Textes en français et anglais

Lydia, lying between the Aegean coast and the Anatolian plateau, has been associated since Antiquity with the Pactolus river, which carried gold from the Tmolus mountain, and with the wealth of Croesus. Populated by Lydians and Maeonians, and marked by the presence of Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines, it has attracted the attention of researchers since the end of the 18th century. This book aims to cover the chronology of Lydian studies from the protohistoric period to the beginning of the Byzantine period and to bring together the contributions of international researchers and scholars from a wide range of disciplines that includes history, archeology, epigraphy, and numismatics, and from different perspectives. The various studies discuss society, social structures, military aspects, economy, religion, arts, architecture, and material culture. This diachronic approach makes it possible in particular to question continuity and discontinuity between the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, as well as with those that preceded them.

02/2023

ActuaLitté

Mathématiques

Statistical and Data Handling Skills in Biology

All biologists need to be able to handle numbers, yet students of biology often approach this topic fearfully. This guide helps to, develop key skills for the study of biology in the minimum time through guided practise. Statistical and Data Handling Skills in Biology is an easy-to-use handbook which concentrates on essentials. It explains why certain mathematical concepts can help in biology and describes them in simple language and pictures with few equations. Numerous worked examples and problems from real biological situations are provided. The book first shows how to handle numbers and S.I. units. It then explains why variation is such a problem in biology and shows how to use statistical tests to separate real effects from the background variation. Finally it explains how to choose appropriate statistical tests to, analyse data and how to improve the design of experiments. Students will develop confidence in dealing with numbers by working through the problems provided. Key features include: - takes a biological viewpoint; - clear, concise coverage of essential concepts; - helpful explanations and pictures with a minimum of equations; - step-by-step guides to statistical tests; - guidance on using computer-based statistical packages; - decision charts for choosing statistical tests; - worked examples and problems, with solutions provided. This book makes an ideal companion for biologists at all levels, as a text for elementary courses for sixth form and first year undergraduate students, a self-study guide, or as a laboratory handbook for the working biologist.

01/2000

ActuaLitté

Histoire internationale

One Artist on Five Continents

Elisabet Delbrück (1876-1967) was one of a number of Germans who came to New Zealand in the late 1930s. Unlike most, she had not intended to emigrate but was touring the country when World War II broke out. She was at first forbidden to leave and then chose to remain in Wellington. Her thirty years in Mahina Bay on Wellington harbour had a profound effect on all who knew her. This study aims to discover why she was so remarkable. It explores her early life, her marriage into a prominent German family and her qualification as an artist. She turned this into a profession, teaching and exhibiting on five continents in the 1920s and 1930s. She always travelled alone, observing the customs and beliefs of the people she met. In Australia and New Zealand in 1938 and 1939 she was wrongly suspected of spreading Nazi propaganda. Her story is also the story of a heroic group of Wellingtonians who helped her in the 1940s and valued her friendship till her death.

12/2011

ActuaLitté

Monographies

Gustave Moreau. The Fables

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) is one of the most brilliant and enigmatic artists associated with the French Symbolist movement. This book accompanies an exhibition of some of the most extraordinary works he ever made, unseen in public for over a century. Moreau's watercolours of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) were created between 1879 and 1885 for the art collector Antony Roux and their stylistic range encompasses historicism and the picturesque, orientalist fantasies and near-abstract chromatic experiments. They were exhibited to great acclaim in Paris in the 1880s and in London in 1886, where critics compared the artist to Edward Burne-Jones. One critic commented on Moreau's ' keen apprehension of the weird. ' There were originally 64 works in the series, which was subsequently acquired by Miriam Alexandrine de Rothschild (1884-1965), but nearly half were lost during the Nazi era. The surviving works have not been exhibited since 1906 and they have only ever been published in black and white. This book is the first to reproduce them in colour - many shown actual size. Created at the height of the French 19th-century revival of watercolour, the variety of subject matter and technique, their colouristic effects and the sophistication of Moreau's storytelling, will be a revelation to readers. Preparatory drawings for the Fables, including animal studies made from life in the Jardin des Plantes demonstrate the wide-ranging research that informed Moreau's visions. Prints after Moreau's Fables by Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) translate the jewel-like colours into monochrome in some of the most innovative etchings of the age, while the most delicate effects of the watercolours were also transformed into vitreous enamels. In-depth accounts of each watercolour, explaining the story and exploring Moreau's response to it. The introduction will place the series in the long history of illustrations of La Fontaine's canonical work, whose sources include Aesop's fables and traditional European and Asian tales, as well as considering Moreau in the context of his own, turbulent, times.

08/2021

ActuaLitté

Beaux arts

New worlds

"New Worlds" presents a selection of five outstanding nautical atlases known as portolan charts, or "portalans".These historic documents are the work of eminent scholars from Majorca, Lisbon, Le Havre, and Amsterdam. Cartographers by trade, and sometimes also skilled illuminators, they mapped what was the most probable imago mundi for their time, each exemplar crafting a fascinating visual chronicle. Jean-Yves Sarazin, head of Charts and Maps at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, scrutinizes thèse charts or atlases, and situates them in the great history of European discoveries and voyages from the early 14th to the late 17th century, from the Portuguese reconnaissance of the coasts of Africa, through the adventures of Columbus,Vespucci, and Magellan, to the Dutch voyages in the Pacific and Australia.The book's many colour reproductions are alive with picturesque details: camel caravans in the heart ofAsia, Portuguese andArab ships sailing in the Indian Ocean, wild beasts or chimaera, countless exotic plants, naval battles, and not least the frequent strangeness of the indigenous people.

10/2012

ActuaLitté

BD tout public

Doctor Gachet's portrait

A picture named "Doctor Gachet's portrait" has been stolen a night from a museum. Immediately, the news offer the event and our heroes start the research after some clue that leads them to the thief. After travelling across some countries following his trace, they realize that a smuggling network is behind the robbery, led by minister Goring. Among their loot is an enormous amount of pictures stolen from private collectors, with the aim of transporting and hiding them beyond their frontiers.

01/2014

ActuaLitté

Policiers

Goebius' Strange Model

A company elaborates in great secrecy a project, vital to its very survival. As the project develops, it leads the protagonists far beyond the originally envisioned simple business strategy, and brings them close to the forefront of the physical laws governing the behavior of the universe. Two intrigues intertwine... will they meet ? Or do they form the single-sided face of a Möbius strip ? "This novel is as unexpected as a UFO, and refreshing..." Cédric Villani, Fields Medal 2010. "This book is fascinating, I read it all at once..." Etienne Ghys, Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences.

01/2020