Beasts of every land and clime : an introduction to medieval aquamanilia / Peter Barnet -- A technical history of medieval aquamanilia / Pete Dandridge -- Nuremberg as a center of aquamanilia production / Ursula Mende -- Catalogue : aquamanilia from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other collections / Peter Barnet and Pete Dandridge -- Checklist : exhibited works associated with aquamanilia / Leslie Bussis Tait -- Introduction to DVD insert, video recreation of the casting of a lion aquamanile.
Lions and Komodo dragons are both fierce carnivores, but pitted against each other, which would come out on top? The answer to that is up to the reader of this high-interest volume to decide. They'll be presented with loads of facts to help them choose which animal they think would win in a fight. This imaginative and informative book reinforces important elementary science concepts. Information such as size, speed, and adaptations paired with colorful photographs bring this beastly battle to life.
Here is a modern collection of lore that reflects many different cultures as it focuses on a panoply of fantastic animals. It also features a unique family tree of legendary bestial correspondences that traces dragon relationships from one culture's folklore to another. 130 illustrations.
Contrived, colourful and cultured, the Tudor garden was a paradise on earth, given over to pleasurable pastimes and aesthetic effect. Artificiality was the fashion of the age, with clipped and twining plants vying for space with brightly painted woodwork and patterned beds.Renaissance discoveries reared their heads in royal gardens, where gilded and painted heraldic figures mingled with fantastical sundials and glittering fountains. Walls kept out the wild world beyond, while mounts afforded glimpses to new parklands and provided raised platforms for the banqueting houses of the wealthy. Ever-changing with newly introduced exotic plants, yet featuring year-round knot gardens, the Tudor garden was a vibrant pageant, and is given a suitably colourful celebration in this fully illustrated book.
The legend of Prester John has received much scholarly attention over the last hundred years, but never before have the sources been collected and coherently presented to readers. This book now brings together a fully-representative set of texts setting out the many and various sources from which we get our knowledge of the legend. These texts, spanning a time period from the Crusades to the Enlightenment, are presented in their original languages and in English translation (for many it is the first time they have been available in English). The story of the mysterious oriental leader Prester John, ruler of a land teeming with marvels who may come to the aid of Christians in the Levant, held an intense grip on the medieval mind from the first references in twelfth-century Crusader literature and into the early-modern period. But Prester John was a man of shifting identity, being at different times and for different reasons associated with Chingis Khan and the Mongols, with the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, with China, Tibet, South Africa and West Africa. In order to orient the reader, each of these iterations is explained in the comprehensive introduction, and in the introductions to texts and sections. The introduction also raises a thorny question not often considered: whether or not medieval audiences believed in the reality of Prester John and the Prester John Letter. The book is completed with three valuable appendices: a list of all known references to Prester John in medieval and early modern sources, a thorough description of the manuscript traditions of the all-important Prester John Letter, and a brief description of Prester John in the history of cartography.
