The Empire of Death
The Empire of Death

Author: Paul Koudounaris

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2011-09-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500251789

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From bone fetishism in the ancient world to painted skulls in Austria and Bavaria: an unusual and compelling work of cultural history. It is sometimes said that death is the last taboo, but it was not always so. For centuries, religious establishments constructed decorated ossuaries and charnel houses that stand as masterpieces of art created from human bone. These unique structures have been pushed into the footnotes of history; they were part of a dialogue with death that is now silent. The sites in this specially photographed and brilliantly original study range from the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Palermo, where the living would visit mummified or skeletal remains and lovingly dress them; to the Paris catacombs; to fantastic bone-encrusted creations in Austria, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and elsewhere. Paul Koudounaris photographed more than seventy sites for this book. He analyzes the role of these remarkable memorials within the cultures that created them, as well as the mythology and folklore that developed around them, and skillfully traces a remarkable human endeavor.

Picturing Death 1200–1600
Picturing Death 1200–1600

Author: Stephen Perkinson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-11-16

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9004441115

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Picturing Death: 1200–1600 brings together essays considering four key centuries of imagery related to human mortality, from tomb sculpture to painted altarpieces, from manuscripts to printed books, and from minute carved objects to large-scale architecture.

Ossuaries and Charnel Houses
Ossuaries and Charnel Houses

Author: Greg Roza

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 1482414872

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Death and burial practices vary from one culture to the next, and there’s some pretty unusual traditions out there. Have you ever heard of people saving the bones of their ancestors? That’s what happens in ossuaries and charnel houses. You might be wondering why people would do this, and there are several fascinating reasons you need to read to believe. Inside this creepy volume, readers will find amazing photographs of charnel houses and ossuaries, including the dark passages of the Paris catacombs and the ornately decorated Sedlec Ossuary. Photographs are paired with engaging passages, sidebars, and fact facts that explain ancient, and not so ancient, death traditions.

Heavenly Bodies
Heavenly Bodies

Author: Paul Koudounaris

Publisher: Thames and Hudson

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780500251959

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An intriguing visual history of the veneration in European churches and monasteries of bejeweled and decorated skeletons Death has never looked so beautiful. The fully articulated skeleton of a female saint, dressed in an intricate costume of silk brocade and gold lace, withered fingers glittering with colorful rubies, emeralds, and pearls—this is only one of the specially photographed relics featured in Heavenly Bodies. In 1578 news came of the discovery in Rome of a labyrinth of underground tombs, which were thought to hold the remains of thousands of early Christian martyrs. Skeletons of these supposed saints were subsequently sent to Catholic churches and religious houses in German-speaking Europe to replace holy relics that had been destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The skeletons, known as “the catacomb saints,” were carefully reassembled, richly dressed in fantastic costumes, wigs, crowns, jewels, and armor, and posed in elaborate displays inside churches and shrines as reminders to the faithful of the heavenly treasures that awaited them after death. Paul Koudounaris gained unprecedented access to religious institutions to reveal these fascinating historical artifacts. Hidden for over a century as Western attitudes toward both the worship of holy relics and death itself changed, some of these ornamented skeletons appear in publication here for the first time.

Ossuaries and Charnel Houses
Ossuaries and Charnel Houses

Author: Greg Roza

Publisher:

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781482412338

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Death and burial practices vary from one culture to the next, and there's some pretty unusual traditions out there. Have you ever heard of people saving the bones of their ancestors? That's what happens in ossuaries and charnel houses. You might be wondering why people would do this, and there are several fascinating reasons you need to read to believe. Inside this creepy volume, readers will find amazing photographs of charnel houses and ossuaries, including the dark passages of the Paris catacombs and the ornately decorated Sedlec Ossuary. Photographs are paired with engaging passages, sidebars, and fact facts that explain ancient, and not so ancient, death traditions.

A Cat's Tale
A Cat's Tale

Author: Baba the Cat

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1250217717

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A “fun, fanciful, and even informative” history of felines as revealed by a very learned tabby with a knack for hunting down facts (People). Since the dawn of civilization, felines have prowled alongside mankind as they expanded their territory and spread the myth of human greatness. And today, cats are peddled on social media as silly creatures here to amuse humans with their antics. But this is an absurd, self-centered fantasy. The true history of felines is one of heroism, love, tragedy, sacrifice, and gravitas. Not entirely convinced? Well, get ready, because Baba the Cat is here to set the record straight. Spanning almost every continent and thousands—yes, thousands—of years, Baba’s complex story of feline survival presents readers with a diverse cast of cats long forgotten: from her prehistoric feline ancestors and the ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet to the daring mariners at the height of oceanic discovery, key intellectuals in the Enlightenment period, revered heroes from World Wars I and II, and the infamous American tabbies. Baba, a talented model in addition to a scholar, goes beyond surface-level scratches, pairing her freshly unearthed research with a series of stunning costume portraits to bring history to life. A paws-on journey through the feline hall of fame, with in-depth research and four-legged testaments that will make you rethink who defines history, A Cat’s Tale is a one-of-a-kind chronicle that introduces readers to the illustrious ancestors of their closest companions and shows, once and for all, that cats know exactly what they’re doing. “Almost certainly the most unique cat history book ever published.” —Smithsonian Magazine

Making Space for the Dead
Making Space for the Dead

Author: Erin-Marie Legacey

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1501715615

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The dead of Paris, before the French Revolution, were most often consigned to mass graveyards that contemporaries described as terrible and terrifying, emitting "putrid miasmas" that were a threat to both health and dignity. In a book that is at once wonderfully macabre and exceptionally informative, Erin-Marie Legacey explores how a new burial culture emerged in Paris as a result of both revolutionary fervor and public health concerns, resulting in the construction of park-like cemeteries on the outskirts of the city and a vast underground ossuary. Making Space for the Dead describes how revolutionaries placed the dead at the center of their republican project of radical reinvention of French society and envisioned a future where graveyards would do more than safely contain human remains; they would serve to educate and inspire the living. Legacey unearths the unexpectedly lively process by which burial sites were reimagined, built, and used, focusing on three of the most important of these new spaces: the Paris Catacombs, Père Lachaise cemetery, and the short-lived Museum of French Monuments. By situating discussions of death and memory in the nation's broader cultural and political context, as well as highlighting how ordinary Parisians understood and experienced these sites, she shows how the treatment of the dead became central to the reconstruction of Parisian society after the Revolution.

To the Actor
To the Actor

Author: Michael Chekhov

Publisher: Ravenio Books

Published:

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13:

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In this practical guide, renowned actor and director Michael Chekhov shares his innovative approach to the craft of acting. Drawing on his extensive experience in the theater and his unique understanding of the actor's creative process, Chekhov presents a comprehensive system of techniques designed to help actors develop their physical, mental, and emotional abilities. Through a series of exercises and principles, actors can learn to create compelling, truthful performances that captivate audiences and bring characters to life on stage and screen.

A Tour of Bones
A Tour of Bones

Author: Denise Inge

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-11-06

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1472913086

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A life-enhancing exploration of how to live well in the face of mortality. Author, academic and adventurer Denise Inge grew up in a large and rambunctious family on the east coast of America. She crossed the Sahara, charmed snakes in Marrakech and cycled the Adirondack mountains but her latest adventure is an interior one. It starts with the discovery that her house is built on a crypt full of human skeletons. Facing her fear of these strangers' bones takes her to other charnel houses in Europe and on a journey into the meaning of bones themselves. This exploration, though it began before her diagnosis with an inoperable sarcoma, takes on a new significance when the question of living well in the face of mortality abruptly ceases to be hypothetical. A Tour of Bones is a passionate testament to the conviction that living is more than not dying, and that contemplating mortality is not about being prepared to die but about being prepared to live.