Fool your brain with mind-boggling illusions, then get hands-on and make your own to wow your friends! Learn all about the science behind these wacky phenomena, from moving liquid on a page, to shapes that disappear in front of your eyes with this clever guide. The brain is an amazing thing, but it doesn't always get things right when it comes to sight. This book is here to explain why, with astounding images, baffling puzzles, and simple reveals which show the reader how each trick works. Covering a range of optical topics, from shapes and movement, to light and reflection, this cool manual contains templates at the back which reveal answers and help you to create your own astounding illusions.
This publication is the first truly collective attempt to study the work of Melchiorre Cafa'. In a variety of studies, it discusses specific and synoptic issues related to his oeuvre. The book also presents a check-list of works by (or attributed to) the artist; this check-list aims at establishing a critical repertory of his oeuvre.
Campana, a businessman from Rome, formed one of the most important private collections of antiquities of the 19th century yet it has been little studied. This thesis examines Campana's private life, his role as patron of the arts, archaeologist and collector and his trial for fraud, ending in exile.
In this classic work of history, Guglielmo Ferrero provides an in-depth look at the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Ferrero, along with co-authors Henry John Chaytor and Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, explores the political, economic, and cultural factors that contributed to Rome's greatness--as well as the forces that ultimately brought it down. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The revered Brazilian songwriter and novelist “has breathed the story of a whole country into a single, unforgettable man with a soul as big as Brazil” (Nicole Krauss, author of Forest Dark). As Eulálio d’Assumpção lies dying in a Brazilian public hospital, his daughter and the attending nurses are treated—whether they like it or not—to his last, rambling monologue. Ribald, hectoring, and occasionally delusional, Eulálio reflects on his past, present, and future—on his privileged, plantation-owning family; his father’s philandering with beautiful French whores; his own half-hearted career as a weapons dealer; the eventual decline of the family fortune; and his passionate courtship of the wife who would later abandon him. Through Eulálio’s journey across the twists and turns of his own fragmented memories, Buarque conjures an evocative portrait of a man’s life and love, while bringing to life the broad sweep of Brazilian history. At once jubilant and painfully nostalgic, playful and devastatingly urgent, readers of the award-winning Spilt Milk will find themselves “in the hands of a master storyteller” (The Plain Dealer). “In Spilt Milk [Buarque] confronts the themes that make Brazil squirm, from the stain of slavery to the inferiority complex the country has historically felt when it compares itself to Europe.” —The New York Times “Lovely details and a fine sense of place . . . Echoing Sebald’s Rings of Saturn . . . There’s plenty to like.” —Publishers Weekly “One of the saddest love stories, and one of the truest.” —Nicole Krauss
