The Topkapi Scroll
The Topkapi Scroll

Author: Gülru Necipoğlu

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1996-03-01

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0892363355

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Since precious few architectural drawings and no theoretical treatises on architecture remain from the premodern Islamic world, the Timurid pattern scroll in the collection of the Topkapi Palace Museum Library is an exceedingly rich and valuable source of information. In the course of her in-depth analysis of this scroll dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Gülru Necipoğlu throws new light on the conceptualization, recording, and transmission of architectural design in the Islamic world between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Her text has particularly far-reaching implications for recent discussions on vision, subjectivity, and the semiotics of abstract representation. She also compares the Islamic understanding of geometry with that found in medieval Western art, making this book particularly valuable for all historians and critics of architecture. The scroll, with its 114 individual geometric patterns for wall surfaces and vaulting, is reproduced entirely in color in this elegant, large-format volume. An extensive catalogue includes illustrations showing the underlying geometries (in the form of incised “dead” drawings) from which the individual patterns are generated. An essay by Mohammad al-Asad discusses the geometry of the muqarnas and demonstrates by means of CAD drawings how one of the scroll’s patterns could be used co design a three-dimensional vault.

Man, Play, and Games
Man, Play, and Games

Author: Roger Caillois

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780252070334

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According to Roger Caillois, play is an occasion of pure waste. In spite of this - or because of it - play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development. In this study, the author defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life.

Mind Myths
Mind Myths

Author: Sergio Della Sala

Publisher:

Published: 1999-06-02

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13:

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Mind Myths shows that science can be entertaining and creative. Addressing various topics, this book counterbalances information derived from the media with a 'scientific view'. It contains contributions from experts around the world.

The Funeral of Mr. Wang
The Funeral of Mr. Wang

Author: Andrew B. Kipnis

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2021-07-27

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0520381971

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The funeral of Mr. Wang -- Of transitions and transformations -- Of space and place : Separation and distinction in the homes of the dead -- Of strangers and kin : moral family and ghastly strangers in urban sociality -- Of gifts and commodities : Spending on the dead while providing for the living -- Of rules and regulations : governing mourning -- Of souls and spirits : secularization and its limits -- Of dreams and memories : a ghost story from a land where haunting is banned -- Epilogue.

Japanese Counterculture
Japanese Counterculture

Author: Steven C. Ridgely

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0816667527

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Explores the significant impact of this countercultural figure of postwar Japan.

Liber Uricrisiarum
Liber Uricrisiarum

Author: Henry Daniel

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2020-04-02

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 1487533128

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Henry Daniel’s Liber Uricrisiarum is the earliest known work of academic medicine written in Middle English, presented here for the first time in a complete edition. Working in the late 1370s, Daniel combined authoritative medicine from written sources with his own personal experience, creating a text that stands out for its linguistic originality, intellectual scope, and wide circulation. Extant in over three dozen manuscript witnesses and two early modern print copies, Liber Uricrisiarum describes medieval humoral theory, anatomy, physiology, disease, medical astronomy, reproductive processes, and more, all within the broader context of uroscopic diagnosis. The introduction situates the text and its author in their medical, intellectual, linguistic, and bibliographic contexts, outlining the uroscopic tradition to which Daniel contributes, and describing the relationships among the many manuscripts containing the Liber Uricrisiarum. This edition presents the Middle English text, with a general glossary, glossary of proper names, and explanatory notes that explain obscure words and phrases and identify Daniel’s sources. It also includes the complete set of diagrams contained in the Royal manuscript; appendices providing the Latin and English versions of the prologue and epilogue; an extensive translation from one of Daniel’s important sources, Isaac Israeli’s De urinis; tables relevant to Daniel’s astronomical measurements; and an analysis of the Royal manuscript’s dialect. Cumulatively, the edition and apparatus introduce readers to an important yet understudied text, the details of which will have significant impact on studies of medieval medicine and science, intellectual history, and Middle English language and literature.

He's Just Not in the Stars
He's Just Not in the Stars

Author: Jenni Kosarin

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 628

ISBN-13: 0061870390

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He's Just Not in the Stars is a sinful combination of He's Just Not That into You, Sex and the City, and The Secret Language of Birthdays. If all is fair in love and war, this is the right ammunition. . . . Hindsight is 20/20. Love is blind. With all that good and bad vision out there, who's gonna give you some serious insight? Sex columnist and love astrology expert Jenni Kosarin is taking names and kicking astrological butt. . . . Flirt. Crush. Boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Husband. Whatever. What's his potential? What's he looking for? How do you fix things once you've messed up? Which sign will give you another chance and which won't? Find out his idiosyncrasies before you date him. Find out who's ready for a relationship and who'll still be hanging out in twentysomething bars in fifteen years. (Uh. Creepy.) Here, get the scoop on how your man stacks up. Decipher. Crack the code. Get stellar advice. The concept is revolutionary: Combine his Sun Sign with his Venus. That's all. No "rising signs," no tricking his mother into telling you what time he was born. No cookie-cutter generalizations. This book is frighteningly specific. Filled with sixty easy-to-follow combos, it's illustrated with ironic, gossip-filled, shocking real-life examples of famous celebs such as: Colin Firth (Virgo, Venus in Libra): Virgo + Libra = sexy and subtle combo Orlando Bloom (Capricorn, Venus in Pisces): Capricorn is all for security, Pisces is a full-on romantic = good guy Chris Rock (Aquarius, Venus in Capricorn): Aquarius can be about partnership when Capricorn grounds it Ethan Hawke (Scorpio, Venus in Scorpio): Ladykiller double sign combo Antonio Banderas (Leo, Venus in Virgo): Hint: the Virgo makes him stay . . . plus many, many others. By defining him in a way that's never been done before, He's Just Not in the Stars gives it to you straight. No tiptoeing around. No hugging and sharing. No coddling. Deal with it. (Cue drum roll.) This is for the woman who wants to take charge of her own destiny. Is he in the stars? Time won't tell. Jenni Kosarin will. He's Just Not in the Stars is the last hip, irreverent relationship book you'll ever want. Throw away the rest . . . They're taking up space where your happily married pictures should go.

Intelligence
Intelligence

Author: Hans Eysenck

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-16

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 135131002X

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The concept and measurement of intelligence present a curious paradox. On the one hand, scientists, fluent in the complex statistics of intelligence-testing theories, devote their lives to exploration of cognitive abilities. On the other hand, the media, and inexpert, cross-disciplinary scientists decry the effort as socially divisive and useless in practice. In the past decade, our understanding of testing has radically changed. Better selected samples have extended evidence on the role of heredity and environment in intelligence. There is new evidence on biology and behavior. Advances in molecular genetics have enabled us to discover DMA markers which can identify and isolate a gene for simple genetic traits, paving the way for the study of multiple gene traits, such as intelligence. Hans Eysenck believes these recent developments approximate a general paradigm which could form the basis for future research. He explores the many special abilities verbal, numerical, visuo-spatial memory that contribute to our cognitive behavior. He examines pathbreaking work on "multiple" intelligence, and the notion of "social" or "practical" intelligence and considers whether these new ideas have any scientific meaning. Eysenck also includes a study of creativity and intuition as well as the production of works of art and science identifying special factors that interact with general intelligence to produce predictable effects in the actual world. The work that Hans Eysenck has put together over the last fifty years in research into individual differences constitutes most of what anyone means by the structure and biological basis of personality and intelligence. A giant in the field of psychology, Eysenck almost single-handedly restructured and reordered his profession. Intelligence is Eysenck's final book and the third in a series of his works from Transaction.