Epochs and Styles
Epochs and Styles

Author: Albert Wifstrand

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9783161486272

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11 essays were previously published in Swedish, 3 in English.

The Epochs of Nature
The Epochs of Nature

Author: Georges-Louis Leclerc

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-04-05

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 022639557X

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Georges-Louis Leclerc, le comte de Buffon's The Epochs of Nature, originally published as Les Époques de la Nature in 1778, is one of the first great popular science books, a work of style and insight that was devoured by Catherine the Great of Russia and influenced Humboldt, Darwin, Lyell, Vernadsky, and many other renowned scientists. It is the first geological history of the world, stretching from the Earth’s origins to its foreseen end, and though Buffon was limited by the scientific knowledge of his era—the substance of the Earth was not, as he asserts, dragged out of the sun by a giant comet, nor is the sun’s heat generated by tidal forces—many of his deductions appear today as startling insights. And yet, The Epochs of Nature has never before been available in its entirety in English—until now. In seven epochs, Buffon reveals the main features of an evolving Earth, from its hard rock substrate to the sedimentary layers on top, from the minerals and fossils found within these layers to volcanoes, earthquakes, and rises and falls in sea level—and he even touches on age-old mysteries like why the sun shines. In one of many moments of striking scientific prescience, Buffon details evidence for species extinction a generation before Cuvier’s more famous assertion of the phenomenon. His seventh and final epoch does nothing less than offer the first geological glimpse of the idea that humans are altering the very foundations of the Earth—an idea of remarkable resonance as we debate the designation of another epoch: the Anthropocene. Also featuring Buffon’s extensive “Notes Justificatives,” in which he offers further evidence to support his assertions (and discusses vanished monstrous North American beasts—what we know as mastodons—as well as the potential existence of human giants), plus an enlightening introduction by editor and translator Jan Zalasiewicz and historians of science Sverker Sörlin, Libby Robin, and Jacques Grinevald, this extraordinary new translation revives Buffon’s quite literally groundbreaking work for a new age.

Pikillacta
Pikillacta

Author: Gordon F. McEwan

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2009-05

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1587295962

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The origin of the first Andean imperial state has been the subject of lively debate for decades. Archaeological sites dating to the Peruvian Middle Horizon time period, A.D. 540 to 900, appear to give evidence for the emergence of an expansive empire that set the stage for the development of the later Inca state. This archaeological investigation of Pikillacta, the largest provincial site of Peru’s pre-Inca Wari empire, provides essential background for interpreting the empire’s political and cultural organization. With engineering skills rivaling those of the builders of Cuzco itself, the Wari at Pikillacta erected more than seven hundred buildings covering nearly two square kilometers, with a fresh water supply and an elaborate underground sewage system but, enigmatically, only seven short streets and a near total lack of windows. In this long-awaited volume, Gordon McEwan and his colleagues report on the labor costs of construction (nearly 6 million man-days), the typology of Pikillacta's enigmatic architecture, and the site’s spectacular hydraulic system as well as its ceramics and chronology, human remains, and metal artifacts. In the final section, building on his years of research and excavation, McEwan develops a hypothetical model of Wari provincial administration in the Cuzco region, arguing that the Wari were innovators of techniques of statecraft that explain the function of and the labor investment in the Pikillacta complex. His book not only substantively contributes to our understanding of when and exactly how and why Pikillacta was built and what it was used for, it also illuminates the political and cultural antecedents of the Inca state.

Style and Epoch
Style and Epoch

Author: Moiseĭ I︠A︡kovlevich Ginzburg

Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Published for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Chicago, Ill. and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies New York, N.Y. by MIT Press

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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Preface by Kenneth Frampton Moisei Iakovlevich Ginzburg, one of the founders and chief spokesmen of the Constructivist movement in Soviet architecture, combined the talents of scholar, theoretician, writer, and practicing architect. Originally published in Moscow in 1924, his book Style and Epochis considered by many to be the single most important piece of writing on architecture to come out of Russia in this century. It elucidates the aims and ideals of a Constructivist architecture, providing what is essentially an official manifesto of the Constructivist program and becoming the cornerstone of virtually all of the Constructivist writings that followed. Its translation makes available to English readers one of the seminal works of modern architectural theory. Style and Epoch has often been compared to Le Corbusier's Vers Une Architecture(published the year before Ginzburg's book) as a classic of early twentieth-century architectural thought. In it, Ginzburg expresses admiration for the products of engineering and machine technology and voices dismay at the failure to apply the means of that technology to improving architecture. By virtue of his unusually broad education; Ginzburg was able to draw upon elements of Western architecture and literature in such a way as to connect the Russian avant-garde with the simultaneously evolving network of progressive European movements. The result is a cogent analysis of architectural composition from antiquity to modern times in which Ginzburg attempts to plot those universal laws that determine any work of architecture, and proposes a systematic design method that is both rational and humane. An Oppositions Book.

Style and Solitude
Style and Solitude

Author: Mari Hvattum

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-06-06

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0262545004

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How modern notions of architectural style were born—and the debates they sparked in nineteenth-century Germany. The term style has fallen spectacularly out of fashion in architectural circles. Once a conceptual key to understanding architecture’s inner workings, today style seems to be associated with superficiality, formalism, and obsolete periodization. But how did style—once defined by German sociologist Georg Simmel as a place where one is “no longer alone”—in architecture actually work? How was it used and what did it mean? In Style and Solitude, Mari Hvattum seeks to understand the apparent death of style, returning to its birthplace in the late eighteenth century, and charting how it grew to influence modern architectural discourse and practice. As Hvattum explains, German thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century offered competing ideas of what style was and how it should be applied in architecture. From Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s thoughtful eclecticism to King Maximilian II’s attempt to capture the zeitgeist in an architectural competition, style was at the center of fascinating experiments and furious disputes. Starting with Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s invention of the period style and ending a century later with Gottfried Semper’s generative theory of style, Hvattum explores critical debates that are still ongoing today.

Architectural Styles
Architectural Styles

Author: Owen Hopkins

Publisher: Laurence King Publishing

Published: 2014-09-08

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1780676387

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Have you ever wondered what the difference is between Gothic and Gothic Revival, or how to distinguish between Baroque and Neoclassical? This guide makes extensive use of photographs to identify and explain the characteristic features of nearly 300 buildings. The result is a clear and easy-to-navigate guide to identifying the key styles of western architecture from the classical age to the present day.

Advances in the Study of Greek
Advances in the Study of Greek

Author: Constantine R. Campbell

Publisher: Zondervan Academic

Published: 2015-07-28

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0310524539

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Advances in the Study of Greek offers an introduction to issues of interest in the current world of Greek scholarship. Those within Greek scholarship will welcome this book as a tool that puts students, pastors, professors, and commentators firmly in touch with what is going on in Greek studies. Those outside Greek scholarship will warmly receive Advances in the Study of Greek as a resource to get themselves up to speed in Greek studies. Free of technical linguistic jargon, the scholarship contained within is highly accessible to outsiders. Advances in the Study of Greek provides an accessible introduction for students, pastors, professors, and commentators to understand the current issues of interest in this period of paradigm shift.