Spirit Stones
Spirit Stones

Author:

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2014-01-28

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0789211521

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Brilliant photographs of scholars' rocks, or Chinese ornamental stones, from a leading collection Shaped by nature and selected by man, scholars' rocks, or gongshi, have been prized by Chinese intellectuals since the Tang dynasty, and are now sought after by Western collectors as well. They are a natural subject for the photographer Jonathan Singer, most recently acclaimed for his images of those other remarkable hybrids of art and nature, Japanese bonsai. Here Singer turns his lens on some 150 fine gongshi, ancient and modern, from the world-class collection of Kemin Hu, a recognized authority on this art form. In his photographs, Singer captures the spiritual qualities of these stones as never thought possible in two dimensions; he shows us that scholars' rocks truly are, in Hu's words, "condensations of the vital essence and energy of heaven and earth." Hu contributes an introductory essay on the history and aesthetics of scholars' rocks, explaining the traditional terms of stone appreciation, such as shou (thin), zhou (wrinkled), lou (channels), and tou (holes). She also provides a narrative caption for each stone, describing its history and characteristics.

The Apocrypha #7
The Apocrypha #7

Author: Apostle Arne

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2015-07-27

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1326375857

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The word "apocrypha" means "things put away" or "things hidden" and comes from the Greek through the Latin. The general term is usually applied to the books that were considered by the church as useful, but not divinely inspired. As such, to refer to Gnostic writings as "apocryphal" is misleading since they would not be classified in the same category by orthodox believers. Often used by the Greek Fathers was the term antilegomena, or "spoken against", although some canonical books were also spoken against, such as the Apocalypse of John in the East. Often used by scholars is the term pseudepigrapha, or "falsely inscribed" or "falsely attributed", in the sense that the writings were written by an anonymous author who appended the name of an apostle to his work, such as in the Gospel of Peter or The Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch: almost all books, in both Old and New Testaments, called "apocrypha" in the Protestant tradition are pseudepigrapha.

Stories in Stone
Stories in Stone

Author: David B. Williams

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2019-08-19

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0295746475

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In Stories in Stone, he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825, the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America’s first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. This love letter to building stone brings to life the geology you can see in the structures of every city.

Derelict Stone Buildings of the Black Mountains Massif
Derelict Stone Buildings of the Black Mountains Massif

Author: Christopher George Leslie Hodges

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2015-07-31

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 178491150X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This study provides evidence of a widespread settlement pattern that existed in an upland area of the Eastern Massif of the Black Mountains in South-East Wales, now sparsely populated, and that they can be dated from the late medieval and early post-medieval periods respectively.