Search results for ""Encyclopedias""

In absorbing essays on books about film, the distinguished critic Richard Schickel offers more insights into moviemaking on every page than a reader will find in an entire shelf of film encyclopedias. His trenchant observations about films, actors, directors, producers, and the machinations of an always fascinating industry are consistently authoritative and entertaining. Here are charming but clear-eyed appraisals of Hollywood's major players, its low comedy and high self-regard, its bedrock of bourgeois values, its strange and convoluted affair with sex, and its relentless drive to give the customers what they want, regardless of critical failings. Film on Paper promises to be one of the most enjoyable movie books of the year.

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This elegant history considers a fascinating array of texts, cultural practices, and intellectual processes--including maps and mapmaking, poetry, travel writing, popular fiction, and encyclopedias--to chart the emergence of a new geographical consciousness in early modern Japan. Marcia Yonemoto's wide-ranging history of ideas traces changing conceptions and representations of space by looking at the roles played by writers, artists, commercial publishers, and the Shogunal government in helping to fashion a new awareness of space and place in this period. Her impressively researched study shows how spatial and geographical knowledge confined to elites in early Japan became more generalized, flexible, and widespread in the Tokugawa period. In the broadest sense, her book grasps the elusive processes through which people came to name, to know, and to interpret their worlds in narrative and visual forms.

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Bookworms derive great pleasure from the simple act of reading. But what happens when a book is old or damaged and no longer in a fit state to be read? Through 20 do-it-yourself projects, Upcycling Books: Decorative Objects gives your tattered friends a new lease on life. With simple techniques and common household materials, you can upcycle an old atlas, dog-eared comics, or an obsolete set of encyclopedias. Projects include party decorations, a woven basket, a smartphone charger, a mail organizer, a secret storage box, and an origami lampshade. Links to videos show a process or technique in detail, while templates can be printed for use. More than 30 variations and suggestions will further inspire you. Don't let old books gather dust; give them a new purpose with Upcycling Books.

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Going to the bank. Leaving voicemails. Using encyclopedias. Wallpapering bathrooms. There are dozens of ridiculously antiquated items, activities, and phrases that Baby Boomers love—and don’t realize were outdated more than a decade ago. And for some reason, no matter how hard Millennials and Gen Zers try to bring Boomers into the 21st century, they still don’t seem to get it. They just can’t let go of eating meatloaf, going on cruises, or buying fuzzy toilet seat covers. So rather than try to explain something to the Baby Boomers in your life, it might be time to just say, “OK, Boomer.” Containing more than fifty of the most common, cliched, and cringe-worthy Boomer-isms, OK, Boomer is perfect for any exasperated Millennial or any Boomer willing to poke fun at themselves.

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Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yokai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines, and movies, exploring their meanings in the Japanese cultural imagination and offering an abundance of valuable and, until now, understudied material. Michael Dylan Foster tracks yokai over three centuries, from their appearance in seventeenth-century natural histories to their starring role in twentieth-century popular media. Focusing on the intertwining of belief and commodification, fear and pleasure, horror and humor, he illuminates different conceptions of the "natural" and the "ordinary" and sheds light on broader social and historical paradigms - and ultimately on the construction of Japan as a nation.

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The Tennis Sourcebook, with its unprecedented amount of information sources on tennis, is designed to be used by sports historians, researchers, journalists, teachers, players, and aficionados interested in the sport and its personalities, as well as its rich and colorful history. Coverage includes monographs, magazine and journal articles, master's and doctoral theses, conference proceedings, and annual reports written in English as well as French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Separate sections list and describe standard bibliographies, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, guides, and serials. The biography section includes players, coaches, officials, promoters, journalists, and innovators. Other sections cover tennis videotapes (VHS), and a comprehensive list of international tennis associations and organizations is provided. There are indices to assist the reader in finding information about individuals and associations.

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Award-winning author-illustrator Tereza Vostradovská’s Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia isa beautiful narrative non-fiction picture book that invites readers to follow Little Mouse in her charmingly painted journey through the exploration of nature Little Mouse loves mint tea and lemon cookies and enjoys reading encyclopedias. One day, the roots of a plant pierce the ceiling of her burrow. Amazed, she realizes that she doesn’t know much about the nature around her—but it gives her an idea. She decides to write her own encyclopedia! The reader follows Little Mouse as she explores, questions, and experiments her way into the worlds of insects, trees, birds, and amphibians, both on land and in water, to discover many ecological processes and phenomena. It’s the perfect book for born explorers who want to learn about the wonders of nature.

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Othello is one of the most powerful of Shakespeare's tragedies. It is a thrilling drama about love and hate, trust and betrayal, jealousy and revenge. With its complex themes, and compelling language, it speaks directly to today's audiences and sparks vigorous debate. This new edition includes the complete text with explanatory notes and a full introduction that describes the setting, summarises the plot and profiles the main characters. It discusses Shakespeare's language and the play's themes, and it gives typical essay and test questions to help students prepare for exams. Angela Sheehan, who introduces the play, is a Shakespeare enthusiast. She has had a distinguished career editing encyclopedias, educational texts and reference books for children, and published The Best-Loved Plays of Shakespeare and the Shakespeare for Everyone series.

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The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects presents a comprehensive collection of the most up-to-date research on the uses and impacts of media throughout the world. Provides the definitive resource on the most recent findings of media effects research Covers all aspects of the uses and impact of media, utilizing empirical, psychological, and critical research approaches to the field Features over 200 entries contributed by leading international scholars in their associated fields Offers invaluable insights to for students, scholars and professionals studying and working in related fields, and will stimulate new scholarship in emerging fields such as the Internet, Social Media and Mobile Communication Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at Wiley Online Library.

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Step into the scintillating world of science with this eye-opening hardback encyclopedia, brimming with full-colour illustrations that bring subjects to life! From brain cells and birds to energy and elements, this ultimate guide brings together cutting-edge knowledge, awe-inspiring ideas, and intriguing imagery. Inside readers will uncover key ideas about physics, chemistry and biology - including answers to questions that young readers most want answered. Topics include: • Matter, Atoms and Elements • Life, Evolution and Habitats • The Human Body • Forces and Energy • Earth and Space Featuring a quiz section and a useful glossary, this memorable book is your complete guide to understanding the key concepts in science for children aged 8+.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Illustrated Encyclopedia series brings together beautifully illustrated, fact-packed encyclopedias for children. Ente

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Packed with striking photography, this encyclopedia collection includes four incredible reference books that teaches curious children about big topics.Become an eyewitness to a range of fascinating topics and dive into this collection of encyclopedias for children! Eyewitness Collection Boxset is perfect for those who want to know more about dinosaurs, geology, the Titanic, and natural disasters. Children aged 9+ will love learning about four captivating topics in this fact-filled encyclopedia series: Eyewitness Dinosaur, Eyewitness Rocks & Minerals, Eyewitness Titanic, and Eyewitness Hurricane & Tornado. Vidid photography and an impressive visual layout supports the age-appropriate text and fun facts for the next generation of information-seekers and stay-at-home explorers. Eyewitness DinosaurIncludes chapters on the prehistoric world; Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, looking closely at different types of dinosaurs and their body parts, diets, senses, evolution, and more.Eyewitness Rocks & Minerals Includes chapters on how rocks and minerals are used, the secrets of ancient fossils and how new rocks are made, how crystals grow, and what you need to start your own collectionEyewitness TitanicIncludes chapters on the Titanic’s incredible construction, catastrophic sinking, what life was like for people on board the shop and survival stories from the epic rescue mission.Eyewitness Hurricane & TornadoIncludes chapters on the effects of nature’s most extreme weather, from polar regions to the tropics, weather forecasting techniques and the ways in which human activity can cause weather patterns to change.This exciting children’s encyclopedia set features: - 4 comprehensive and colorful encyclopedias for curious children aged 9+, full of information about dinosaurs, geology, extreme weather conditions and the world’s most famous ship!- Supports key curriculum subjects for the age group such as history, sciences, geography, and biology.- Colorful illustrations, vivid photography and updated diagrams.In the Eyewitness Collection Boxset, children will discover the Titanic’s treasures that lay uncovered for years, see the inside of a cyclone, dig into the past and examine fossils, and learn the secret to growing crystals.

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Now in its third edition, Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary provides a singular English-language resource for biographical information on hundreds of composers from Central and South America and the Hispanic Caribbean. Painstakingly gathered from a wide variety of sources, the information updates and expands previous editions and fills in the gaps left by the other major English-language music dictionaries and encyclopedias. Entries provide biographical data comprising full names, birth and death dates and locations, background, education, and training, as well as selective works lists more than 2,300 composers. An index of composers by country and women composers of Latin America complement the volume. An essential part of any music library, Latin American Classical Composers is an invaluable reference for librarians, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, researchers, and music students.

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With over 5,200 entries, this volume remains one of the most extensive annotated bibliographies on the USA’s fight against Japan in the Second World War. Including books, articles, and de-classified documents up to the end of 1987, the book is organized into six categories: Part 1 presents reference works, including encyclopedias, pictorial accounts, military histories, East Asian histories, hisotoriographies. Part 2: Diplomatic-political aspects of the war against Japan Part 3 contains sources on the economic and legal aspects of the war against Japan. Part 4 presents sources on the military apsects of the war – embracing land, air and sea forces. Religious aspects of the war are covered in Part 5 and Part 6 deals with the social and cultural aspects, including substantial sections on the treatment of Japanese minorities in the USA, Hawaii, Canada and Peru.

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The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy is the definitive single-source reference work on the subject, with state-of-the-art and in-depth scholarly reflection on key issues from leading international experts. It is available both online and in print. A state-of-the-art and in-depth scholarly reflection on the key issues raised by communication, covering the history, systematics, and practical potential of communication theory Articles by leading experts offer an unprecedented level of accuracy and balance Provides comprehensive, clear entries which are both cross-national and cross-disciplinary in nature The Encyclopedia presents a truly international perspective with authors and positions representing not just Europe and North America, but also Latin America and Asia Published both online and in print Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association.Online version available at www.wileyicaencyclopedia.com

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The reception of ancient Christian literature in the 17th century was not limited to theology or dogmatics; the multitude of genres is indicative of the way patristic texts were dealt with. Using selected paradigms (comparative literature, encyclopedias, biblical hermeneutics, interdenominational conflict, philology, philosophical argumentation), the articles in this volume provide a quantitative evaluation of patristic quotations in the 17th century while also focusing on the way in which the altered understanding of the patristic texts is linked to the changed conditions under which they were read. In spite of the progress made in scholarship in the 17th century, there was a crisis in education and breaks with tradition. One of the results of this was that Augustine in particular lost his previously unchallenged position in the 16th century. With contributions by:Silke-Petra Bergjan, Hanns Christof Brennecke, Irene Dingel, Ralph Häfner, Karla Pollmann, Scott Mandelbrote, Diana Stanciu, Johann Anselm Steiger

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Thomson’s epic stop-animation project opens a startling and profound conversation about history, technology and perception This volume documents eight short stop-motion animations by Los Angeles–based artist Mungo Thomson (born 1969) that use reference encyclopedias, photobooks, how-to guides and production manuals as their raw material. The project imagines these books being scanned by a high-speed robotic book scanner of the type used by universities and tech companies to digitize libraries, and proposes such a device as a new kind of filmmaking apparatus. Thomson exploits the dualities of the digital and the analog, the video and the book, the automated and the handmade, binding them each together. The videos feature soundtracks by Andrea Centazzo and Pierre Favre, Laurie Spiegel, Sven-Åke Johansson, Lee Ranaldo, Ernst Karel, Pauline Oliveros, Adrian Garcia and John McEntire. The New York Times called Time Life a "thrilling accomplishment, adding a new chapter to the long conversation about photographs, mechanical reproduction and ways of seeing."

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The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication is the definitive single-source reference work on the subject, with state-of-the-art and in-depth scholarly reflection on the key issues within political communication from leading international experts. It is available both online and in print. Explores pertinent/salient topics within political science, sociology, psychology, communication and many other disciplines Theory, empirical research and academic as well as professional debate are widely covered in this truly international and comparative work Provides clear definitions and explanations which are both cross-national and cross-disciplinary by nature Offers an unprecedented level of authority, accuracy and balance, with contributions from leading international experts in their associated fields Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association.Online version available at Wiley Online Library www.wileyicaencyclopedia.com Named Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 by Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association.

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The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society offers critical assessments of theoretical and applied research on digitally-mediated communication, a central area of study in the 21st century. Unique for its emphasis on digital media and communication and for its use of business and management perspectives, in addition to cultural, developmental, political and sociological perspectives Entries are written by scholars and some practitioners from around the world, with exceptional depth and international scope of coverage in five themes: Social Media, Commercial Applications, Online Gaming, Law and Policy, and Information and Communicative Technology for Development Features leading research in the fields of Media and Communication Studies, Internet Studies, Journalism Studies, Law and Policy Studies, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, and many more Organized in an accessible A-Z format with over 150 entries on key topics ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 words Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available atwww.wileyicaencyclopedia.com

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The Swiss theologian Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) is best known for his revival of physiognomy, or the ancient art of judging character from physical appearance. His writings on physiognomy, rapidly translated into the major European languages, made him a celebrity in his lifetime. Although they were always controversial, Lavater's theories had a pervasive and long-lasting influence on art, literature, medicine, and the emerging social sciences. Physiognomy in Profile affirms and assesses Lavater's contribution to European culture in the two hundred years since his death. It examines how his vision of physiognomy as a viable method of interpreting the modern world has repeatedly been affirmed and challenged. Even today, at the turn of the twenty-first century, this study reveals that Lavater's ideas have a surprising resilience. The book adopts a cross-disciplinary approach, focusing on the novel, press and periodical literature, painting, drawing, photography, caricature, encyclopedias, and medical texts. It brings together the work of scholars from North America, Europe, and Australia.

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In this wildly irreverent collage narrative, Los Angeles artist Richard Kraft reassembles a pre-perestroika era comic about a Polish spy infiltrating the Nazis, orchestrating a multiplicity of voices into joyous cacophony. Like an Indian miniature painting, each comic book page is densely layered, collapsing foreground and background, breaking the frame and merging time. An enormous cast of characters emerges as Kraft appropriates images and texts from an extraordinary variety of sources (the Amar Chitra Katha comics of Hindu mythology, Jimmy Swaggart's Old and New Testament stories, the 1960s English football annual Scorcher, underground porn comics like Cherry, images from art history, outdated encyclopedias and more). Kraft constructs a world constantly in flux, rich with dark humor and revelatory nonsense. Writer Danielle Dutton's set of 16 interpolations punctuate the book using similar strategies of appropriation and juxtaposition to create texts that sing in the same arresting register as Kraft's collages. Here Comes Kitty also includes a conversation between poet Ann Lauterbach and artist Richard Kraft.

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A curated collection of Enlightenment operas, paintings, and literary works that were all marked by the "Telemacomania" scandal, a furious cultural frenzy with dangerous political stakes. Imaginatively structured as a guided tour, Opera and the Politics of Tragedy captures the tumultuous impact of the so-called Telemacomania crisis through its key artifacts: literary pamphlets, spoken dramas, paintings, engravings, and opera librettos (drammi per musica). Prominently featured in the gallery are two operas with direct ties to this aesthetic and political war: Mozart and Cigna-Santi's Mitridate (1770) and Mozart and Varesco's Idomeneo (1781). Reading and listening across the Enlightenment's cultural spaces (its new public museums, its first encyclopedias, and its ever-controversial operatic theater), this book showcases the Enlightenment's disorderly historical revisionism alongside its progressive politics to expose the fertile creativity that can emerge out of the ambiguous space between what is "ancient" and what is "modern."

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Mock Ritual in the Modern Era explores the complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, the latter of which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. McGinnis and Smyth consider how the mocking and parodying of ritual often associated with modern rationalism may itself become ritualized, and other ways in which supposedly sham ritual may survive its "outing." This volume traces the evolution of "mock ritual" in various forms throughout the modern era, as found in literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. Mock Ritual in the Modern Era places famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors in dialogue with contemporary popular culture, from Diderot, Sterne, and Flaubert to the TV shows Survivor and Judge Judy, and from Voltaire to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy of 2015. Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice.

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Earth? Space? Animals? History? STEM? Britannica All New Children's Encyclopedia has them all. This beautifully illustrated, 424-page compendium of knowledge is a must-have addition to every family bookshelf and library collection! With more than 100 expert consultants from around the world, and over 1000 images, including specially commissioned illustrations and stunning photography, this single-volume Children's Encyclopedia takes Britannica's reputation for authentic, trustworthy information and brings it to a whole new audience. Unlike old encyclopedias that are structured from A to Z, this encyclopedia takes you on a journey from the beginning of time to the present day and even into the future! It explores a wide range of topics and is divided into eight chapters by subject: Universe, Earth, Matter, Life, Humans, Ancient & Medieval Times, Modern Times and Today & Tomorrow. This book of amazing facts you can trust will provide hundreds of hours of fun learning for curious children and their families.

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The human body as you've never seen it before! This brand-new visual encyclopedia takes young readers on a fantastic voyage around every aspect of the human body. Featuring amazing CG illustrations, stunning photography and cutting-edge information, it explains every aspect of how your body works.This encyclopedia contains the most up-to-date information on everything from the inner workings of a cell, to how the heart pumps blood around the body, to the neuron fireworks in your brain. Find out how your 206 bones work with over 600 muscles to get you moving, why we laugh, cry, and hiccup, and even how to fuel and exercise your body to stay healthy.Unlike older encyclopedias, The Ultimate Human Body Encyclopedia has been built from the ground up to be inclusive of every human body, regardless of disability, gender, age and ethnicity. It's the only human body book young readers need.

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The story of North Korea's information underground and how it inspires people to seek better lives beyond their country’s borders One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government’s sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea’s information underground—the network of citizens who take extraordinary risks by circulating illicit content such as foreign films, television shows, soap operas, books, and encyclopedias. By fostering an awareness of life outside North Korea and enhancing cultural knowledge, the materials these citizens disseminate are affecting the social and political consciousness of a people, as well as their everyday lives.

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This striking, oversized book, designed to evoke encyclopedias, is a highly creative amalgam of collage with a political bent and poetry. From 2011 to 2012, American artist Mel Chin (b. 1951) extracted all of the images from a twenty-five-volume set of Funk & Wagnall’s Universal Standard Encyclopedia (ca. 1953–56) and began visually re-editing. Thousands of images rendered by photomechanical reproduction that served a populist, mid-century encyclopedia are reconfigured with 21st-century hindsight and idiosyncratic connections that convey social and artistic commentaries. Surrealism, humor, sarcasm, politics, history, and beauty permeate these sometimes raucous, often confounding, but consistently stunning images. Over 500 black-and-white collages are accompanied by twenty-five poems, one per encyclopedia volume, commissioned by Chin and author Nick Flynn specifically for this publication. Writers range from the well-known to the surprising. The Funk & Wag from A to Z offers mischievous fun with pointed commentary and hilarity.Distributed for The Menil Collection

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In 1930, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History commissioned sculptor Malvina Hoffman to produce three-dimensional models of racial types for an anthropology display called The Races of Mankind. Marianne Kinkel’s cultural biography of the long-running exhibition measures how Hoffman’s ninety-one bronze and stone sculptures impacted perceptions of race in twentieth-century visual culture. Kinkel looks at how Hoffman's collaborations with curators and anthropologists transformed the commission from a traditional physical anthropology display into a fine art exhibit. She also tracks appearances of statuettes of the works in New York and Paris exhibitions and looks at how publishers used images of the sculptures to illustrate atlases, maps, and encyclopedias. The volume concludes with the dismantling of the exhibit in 1969 and the Field Museum’s redeployment of some of the sculptures in new educational settings. A fascinating cultural history, Races of Mankind examines how we continually re-negotiate the veracity of race through collaborative processes involved in the production, display, and circulation of visual representations.

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This is a major bibliographic research guide designed to assist scholars of South Asian history (India, Pakistan, and Nepal) in finding materials relevant to their research. It offers an annotated and indexed list of over 5,000 articles from 351 periodicals and 26 books of collected essays and encyclopedias. It lists 341 English and bilingual English-vernacular newspapers, and 251 vernacular papers published in South Asia, all with pertinent information. It also provides an extensive unified list of dissertations for degrees in modern South Asian history from South Asian, European, and American universities. About 3,100 of the entries are annotated. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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For many years it has been known that scholars of Chinese history and culture must keep abreast of scholarship in Japan, but the great majority have found that to be difficult. Japanese for Sinologists is the first textbook dedicated to helping Sinologists learn to read scholarly Japanese writing on China. It includes essays by eminent scholars, vocabulary lists with romanizations, English translations, grammar notes, and a wealth of general information not easily available anywhere. The reader will be introduced to a wide panoply of famed Sinologists and their writing styles. The first chapters introduce some basic information on dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other resources for research on China in Japanese materials, including a list of names and terms from Chinese political, historical, and cultural events. The chapters cover a range of topics and time periods and highlight authors, all well-known Japanese scholars, with an appendix of English translations of all the articles. After completing this book, the user will be able to begin his or her own reading in Japanese Sinology without the extensive apparatus this volume supplies.

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With nearly three thousand new entries, the revised edition of Operas in German: A Dictionary is the most current encyclopedic treatment of operas written specifically to a German text from the seventeenth century through 2016. Musicologist Margaret Ross Griffel details the operas’ composers, scores, librettos, first performances, and bibliographic sources. Four appendixes then list composers, librettists, authors whose works inspired or were adapted for the opera librettos, and a chronological listing of the entries in the A–Z section. The bibliography details other dictionaries and encyclopedias, performance studies, collections of plot summaries, general studies on operas, sources on locales where opera premieres took place, works on the history of operas in German, and selective volumes on individual opera composers, librettists, producers, directors, and designers. Finally, two indexes list the main characters in each opera and the names of singers, conductors, producers, composers, directors, choreographers, and arrangers. The revised edition of Operas in German provides opera historians, musicologists, performers, and opera lovers with an invaluable resource for continued study and enjoyment.

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A collection of tales from the Middle Ages that reveal voyages to Heaven and Hell, the realm of the Faery, mystical lands, and encounters with mythic beasts • Shares travelers’ accounts of voyages into the afterlife, alarming creatures of unparalleled strangeness, encounters with doppelgangers and angels, chivalric romantic misadventures, and legends of heroes • Explains how travelers’ tales from the Middle Ages drew on geographies, encyclopedias, travel accounts, bestiaries, and herbals for material to capture the imagination of their audiences • Includes rare illustrations from incunabula and medieval manuscripts Heading off to discover unknown lands was always a risky undertaking during the Middle Ages due to the countless dangers lying in wait for the traveler--if we can believe what the written accounts tell us. In the medieval age of intercontinental exploration, tales of sea monsters, strange hybrid beasts, trickster faeries, accidental trips to the afterlife, and peoples as fantastic and dangerous as the lands they inhabited abounded. In this curated collection of medieval travelers’ tales, editors Claude and Corinne Lecouteux explain how the Middle Ages were a melting pot of narrative traditions from the four corners of the then-known world. Tales from this period often drew on geographies, encyclopedias, travel accounts, bestiaries, and herbals for material to capture the imagination of their audiences, who were fascinated by the wonders being discovered by explorers of the time. Accompanied by rare illustrations from incunabula and medieval manuscripts, the stories in this collection include voyages into the afterlife, with guided tours of Hell and glimpses of Heaven, as well as journeys into other fantastic realms, such as the pagan land of the Faery. It also includes accounts from travelers such as Alexander the Great of alarming creatures of unparalleled strangeness, encounters with doppelgangers and angels, legends of heroes, and tales of chivalric romantic misadventures, with protagonists swept to exotic new places by fate or by quest. In each story, the marvelous is omnipresent, and each portrays the reactions of the protagonist when faced with the unknown. Offering an introduction to the medieval imaginings of a wondrous universe, these tales reflect the dreams and beliefs of the Middle Ages’ era of discovery and allow readers to survey mythic geography, meet people from the far ends of the earth, and experience the supernatural.

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China’s vast and ancient body of documented knowledge about plants includes horticultural manuals and monographs, comprehensive encyclopedias, geographies, and specialized anthologies of verse and prose written by keen observers of nature. Until the late nineteenth century, however, standard practice did not include deploying a set of diagnostic tools using a common terminology and methodology to identify and describe new and unknown species or properties. Ordering the Myriad Things relates how traditional knowledge of plants in China gave way to scientific botany between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when plants came to be understood in a hierarchy of taxonomic relationships to other plants and within a broader ecological context. This shift not only expanded the universe of plants beyond the familiar to encompass unknown species and geographies but fueled a new knowledge of China itself. Nicholas K. Menzies highlights the importance of botanical illustration as a tool for recording nature—contrasting how images of plants were used in the past to the conventions of scientific drawing and investigating the transition of “traditional” systems of organization, classification, observation, and description to “modern” ones.

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Exclusive illustrations to colour in carefully selected from the British Library's archive. Before the invention of the printing press, books were written out by hand, and were priceless objects. The most precious books were illuminated with pictures highlighted with gold or with bright colours. Real and imaginary animals populated the pages of medieval books, particularly encyclopedias. This new colouring book is packed with familiar and exotic creatures carefully selected from the extensive collection of the British Library. The animal illustrations have been sourced from a range of documents, including charters and seals and historical and literary manuscripts, from Homer to the Codex Sinaiticus, from Beowulf to Chaucer, and from Magna Carta to the papers of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Each of the original drawings is reproduced in colour, so that you can decide whether you prefer to choose your own colours, or to use the colours that the artist intended. With key facts about each of the animals and their source, this is the perfect book for animal lovers, history buffs and colouring-in fanatics alike.

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China’s vast and ancient body of documented knowledge about plants includes horticultural manuals and monographs, comprehensive encyclopedias, geographies, and specialized anthologies of verse and prose written by keen observers of nature. Until the late nineteenth century, however, standard practice did not include deploying a set of diagnostic tools using a common terminology and methodology to identify and describe new and unknown species or properties. Ordering the Myriad Things relates how traditional knowledge of plants in China gave way to scientific botany between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when plants came to be understood in a hierarchy of taxonomic relationships to other plants and within a broader ecological context. This shift not only expanded the universe of plants beyond the familiar to encompass unknown species and geographies but fueled a new knowledge of China itself. Nicholas K. Menzies highlights the importance of botanical illustration as a tool for recording nature—contrasting how images of plants were used in the past to the conventions of scientific drawing and investigating the transition of “traditional” systems of organization, classification, observation, and description to “modern” ones.

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It’s easy for new fans to get overwhelmed by the sprawling mythology and complexity of the six films that make up Peter Jackson’s epic trilogies. Unlike encyclopedias and guides that offer diehard J.R.R. Tolkien fans trivia, details, and deep dives into every on-screen moment, this first-of-its kind explainer is an easy, fun, and accessible introduction to the characters, plots, and interconnected stories that make up one of the greatest pop culture franchises of all time. Smart Pop has all of your burning questions covered: Who is Frodo? Why are there so many rings? When did Gandalf the Grey have time to change outfits and become Gandalf the White? Why does everyone love Gollum even though he’s a bad guy? And more! As the perfect and unauthorized resource to keep on hand when rewatching the films for the first - or tenth time, or as a primer for the upcoming live action series, Smart Pop Explains Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Movies to you like no one could!

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The fourth book in Chris Scullion's critically acclaimed series of video game encyclopedias, _The N64 Encyclopedia_ is dedicated to the Nintendo 64, one of the most well-loved games consoles ever released. Although the Nintendo 64 didn't sell as well as some of Nintendo's other systems, and although it struggled in the shadow of the bold newcomer that was the Sony PlayStation, everyone who owned an N64 was in love with it and the four-player multiplayer it provided as standard. Despite its relatively small library, the Nintendo 64 had a healthy number of groundbreaking titles that would revolutionise the way we played video games. The likes of Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remain iconic in the eyes of video game fans 25 years down the line. This book naturally contains those games, but it also contains every other game released for the system, no matter how obscure. It also covers every game released in Japan, including those for

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Informatica—the updated edition of Alex Wright's previously published Glut—continues the journey through the history of the information age to show how information systems emerge. Today's "information explosion" may seem like a modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation—or even the first species—to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Christian monasteries. Wright weaves a narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the World Wide Web. He suggests that the future of the information age may lie deep in our cultural past. We stand at a precipice struggling to cope with a tsunami of data. Wright provides some much-needed historical perspective. We can understand the predicament of information overload not just as the result of technological change but as the latest chapter in an ancient story that we are only beginning to understand.

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From the Moon, Sun, and planets of our Solar System to space exploration, black holes, and dark matter, this completely revised and updated children's encyclopedia covers all you need to know about the cosmos. The most up-to-date images from space agencies such as NASA and ESA combine with info panels, timelines, interviews, diagrams, and activities you can do at home to help you understand the majesty and wonder of space. Learn about the Space Race, the Apollo Moon Landings, the Voyager craft that first probed the outer planets, the Hubble telescope, and the International Space Station (ISS) - the state-of-the-art laboratory orbiting Earth. Find out about future missions, space tourism, and the latest discoveries in the furthest reaches of our galaxy. Discover how to find constellations and where to look for stars and planets, including Venus and Mars, in the night sky. Learn how galaxies such as our Milky Way were formed. Part of a series of best-selling encyclopedias for children, Space: A Children's Encyclopedia is a rocket ride from the beginning of time to the near future, and from planet Earth out to the furthest reaches of the Universe.

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Unleash the Beasts! For millennia historians, artists and scientists have chronicled their ideas and discoveries of mythological and magical monsters in encyclopedias known as bestiaries. From Asia to America, Japan to the jungles of South Africa, the vast menagerie of exotic and legendary creatures has populated the imaginations of all cultures for centuries. Beautifully illustrated and fantastically detailed, Dracopedia: The Bestiary is a modern, but no less unsettling reimagining of the ancient version. It is an A-to-Z artist's guide to animals of the legendary world. Some, like the griffin and yeti, may be familiar to you. Others--like the enigmatic questing beast and ferocious manticore--may seem new and strange. Some may even haunt your dreams. Inside the bestiary, you will find: Secrets of each animal's evolution--origins, habitat, anatomy, diet and more. Fantastic illustrations created using pencil sketches and digital coloring. Four-stage demonstrations taking you from concept and design to under-painting and finishing details. By drawing on the forms and features of more pedestrian animals, you'll learn how to give shape to the bizarre creatures that roam the depths of your imagination, adding to the bestiary of the ages.

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The character of the Creole woman—the descendant of settlers or slaves brought up on the colonial frontier—is a familiar one in nineteenth-century French, British, and American literature. In Creole Crossings, Carolyn Vellenga Berman examines the use of this recurring figure in such canonical novels as Jane Eyre, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Indiana, as well as in the antislavery discourse of the period. "Creole" in its etymological sense means "brought up domestically," and Berman shows how the campaign to reform slavery in the colonies converged with literary depictions of family life. Illuminating a literary genealogy that crosses political, familial, and linguistic lines, Creole Crossings reveals how racial, sexual, and moral boundaries continually shifted as the century's writers reflected on the realities of slavery, empire, and the home front. Berman offers compelling readings of the "domestic fiction" of Honoré de Balzac, Charlotte Brontë, Maria Edgeworth, Harriet Jacobs, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others, alongside travel narratives, parliamentary reports, medical texts, journalism, and encyclopedias. Focusing on a neglected social classification in both fiction and nonfiction, Creole Crossings establishes the crucial importance of the Creole character as a marker of sexual norms and national belonging.

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From the Moon, Sun, and planets of our Solar System to space exploration, black holes, and dark matter, this completely revised and updated children’s encyclopedia covers all you need to know about the cosmos. The most up-to-date images from space agencies such as NASA and ESA combine with info panels, timelines, interviews, diagrams, and activities you can do at home to help you understand the majesty and wonder of space. Learn about the Space Race, the Apollo Moon Landings, the Voyager craft that first probed the outer planets, the Hubble telescope, and the International Space Station (ISS) – the state-of-the-art laboratory orbiting Earth. Find out about future missions, space tourism, and the latest discoveries in the furthest reaches of our galaxy. Discover how to find constellations and where to look for stars and planets, including Venus and Mars, in the night sky. Learn how galaxies such as our Milky Way were formed. Part of a series of best-selling encyclopedias for children, Space: A Children’s Encyclopedia is a rocket ride from the beginning of time to the near future, and from planet Earth out to the furthest reaches of the Universe.

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- Planeta tierra forma parte de la serie de enciclopedias más vendida de DK, con más de 2.5 millones de ejemplares vendidos en todo el mundo. - Las ilustraciones en 3D, increíblemente detalladas, explican todos los aspectos de nuestroplaneta de una forma fácil de entender.¿Qué hay dentro de la tierra y por qué hace tanto calor debajo de la superficie? ¿Cómo surgió nuestro planeta y cómo era al principio? ¿Cómo se forman las montañas y por qué son importantes los bosques? Esta extraordinaria enciclopedia explica de manera visual la gran diversidad de plantas, animales y personas que viven en la tierra, por qué es única y cómo esta cambiando.--------------------------- Planeta tierra, is part of a series that make up one of DK’s best-selling encyclopedias, having sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. - Highly illustrated 3D illustrations with clear text, show and explain all aspects about planet Earth.This book will help kids engage with why it is crucial to get to know the planet, while showing Earth in all its glory. Latest in the category-killing Knowledge Encyclopedia series. Unique in its approach to cover geography and geology in a fresh and exciting way.

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From the Moon, Sun, and planets of our Solar System to space exploration, black holes, and dark matter, this completely revised and updated children’s encyclopedia covers all you need to know about the cosmos. The most up-to-date images from space agencies such as NASA and ESA combine with info panels, timelines, interviews, diagrams, and activities you can do at home to help you understand the majesty and wonder of space. Learn about the Space Race, the Apollo Moon Landings, the Voyager craft that first probed the outer planets, the Hubble telescope, and the International Space Station (ISS) – the state-of-the-art laboratory orbiting Earth. Find out about future missions, space tourism, and the latest discoveries in the furthest reaches of our galaxy. Discover how to find constellations and where to look for stars and planets, including Venus and Mars, in the night sky. Learn how galaxies such as our Milky Way were formed. Part of a series of best-selling encyclopedias for children, Space: A Children’s Encyclopedia is a rocket ride from the beginning of time to the near future, and from planet Earth out to the furthest reaches of the Universe.

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The first book in the Large Encyclopedias series presents animals that once walked the Earth but have vanished due to the actions of humankind.In Atlas of Extinct Animals, award-winning poet Radek Malý tells the stories of forty-one extinct species and studies the causes of their sad demise.The large-format in Atlas of Extinct Animals is supplemented with beautifully expressive full-page illustrations by gifted artist Jiri Grbavcic and detailed pictures by renowned scientific illustrator Pavel Dvorsky.The gorgeous, detailed depictions and descriptions of species and their eventual extinction serves as a reminder and a warning of how much life has already disappeared from the Earth.The atlas also shows that species continue to disappear. As we get closer and closer to present day, we are introduced to creatures that still existed in recent years, like the Zanzibar leopard (until 1996) and the Chinese river dolphin (until 2007). And in the end, we are left with a bitter question: Which creature will next be added to this atlas?This book was selected by White Ravens 2020 for the annual catalog of book recommendations in the field of international children’s and youth literature.

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The only novel from bestselling author Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize in LiteratureCatching frogs, grazing knees, singing songs to save England from Hitler - that was childhood for Del Jordan, and now she's impatient for more. More than she can find in the encyclopedias sold by her mother, or in the half-understood innuendos dispensed by best friend Naomi, or in the whispers of boys during Friday night dances. Just like the girls in the movies, she wants to get started on real life. In her only novel, Alice Munro turns her eye to the frustrations, embarrassments, glee and bewilderment of adolescence, and to the brushes with sex, death, violence and birth that shape the lives of girls and women.'I am the perfect audience for her brand of quiet, seething feminism'Lena Dunham'Superb'Independent'In Munro's work, nothing can be predicted. Emotions erupt. Preconceptions crumble. Surprises proliferate'Margaret Atwood'Exact and unflinching'Guardian 'She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion'Jonathan Franzen

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From the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries in Spain, health-related information in the vernacular began to circulate widely in treatises, compendiums, manuals, plague tracts, summaries, encyclopedias, and recipe collections. These were often the work of concerned physicians who attempted to refashion medical information to appeal to nonprofessionals. In Fictions of Well-Being Michael Solomon explores the shaping of this audience of sickly readers, highly motivated individuals who, when confronted with the painful, disruptive, and often alienating conditions of physical disorder, looked for relief in books. Vernacular medical writing from late medieval and early modern Spain emerged from the interrelated imperatives to address the immediate or future hygienic and pathological needs of the patient while promoting the reputation and learned credentials of the physician. For sickly readers, a medical treatise was more than just a collection of technical information; such a work implied that they could do with a medical text what the physician normally did at the bedside. In their imagination, the treatise became a type of palpable instrument that encouraged the reader to take advantage of its possible use and benefits. In these fictions of well-being, we may see the antecedents of the self-help and popular medical books so prominent on today's best-seller lists.

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From the eleventh through the seventeenth centuries, the publishers of Jianyang in Fujian province played a conspicuous role in the Chinese book trade. Unlike the products of government and educational presses, their publications were destined for the retail book market. These publishers survived by responding to consumer demands for dictionaries, histories, geographies, medical texts, encyclopedias, primers, how-to books, novels, and anthologies. Their publications reflect the varied needs of the full range of readers in late imperial China and allow us to study the reading habits, tastes, and literacy of different social groups. The publishers of Jianyang were also businessmen, and their efforts to produce books efficiently, meet the demands of the market, and distribute their publications provide a window on commerce and industry and the growth of regional and national markets.The broad cultural, historical, and geographical scope of the Jianyang book trade makes it an ideal subject for the study of publishing in China. Based on an extensive study of Jianyang imprints, genealogies of the leading families of printers, local histories, documents, and annotated catalogs and bibliographies, Lucille Chia has written not only a history of commercial printing but also a wide-ranging study of the culture of the book in traditional China.

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This boxed set of two encyclopedias charts the rise and fall of the ancient American empires - including the Chavin, Paracas, Moche, Olmec and Zapotec. It is an absorbing guide to the lost world of the peoples of the sun, their awe-inspiring history, myths and culture. You can explore dozens of vitally important World Heritage sites, including Teotihuacan, Cuzco and the Nazca lines. It describes burial practices, mummies, ritual sacrifice and the importance of gold as well as exploring the impact on native religion of the coming of Christianity. 1000 stunning photographs, statues, sculptures, paintings, maps and illustrations reveal an amazing visual history. This two-volume comprehensive and authoritative history describes the political, military and social world of ancient America. It explores the region's vivid mythology, including tales of creation, earth and sky; legends of the gods, goddesses and heroes; and stories of fertility, harvest and the afterlife. The first book focuses on the Maya and Aztec civilizations of Mexico and Central America, and the second on the Inca Empire that stretched the length of South America. Taking in many other cultures, this is a perfect introduction to the subject and also a stunning visual record of a fascinating period that has helped to shape our world.

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