Interior Design Books

Publisher's info:

This study concerns the late Renaissance metaphysics of light in its adoption to a Paracelsian alchemical context by John Dee, Heinrich Khunrath, Michael Maier and Robert Fludd. Their alchemical theosophy is contextualised within Protestant reformism of the 1590s to 1620s, specifically that of Valentin Weigel and Johannes Arndt. This results in a re-assessment of the Rosicrucian movement which challenges the existing historiography and problematises the character of the movement. The volume includes fifty illustrations from alchemical treatises of the period, the emphasis being placed on Khunrath's Amphiteatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1595-1609). In an innovative manner, the study investigates these images using analytical tools drawn from semiotics, structuralism and post-structuralism. This method yields an unusual interpretation of the geometry, optical diagrams and spatial structures employed in such alchemical engravings.

Would interest those concerned with intellectual history, Renaissance theology and religious movements, the history of hermeticism, occultism and alchemy, as well as Renaissance art and science.

It's been on my coffee table for about 6 months now. I got quite a few remarks on it, though I must admit many people are confused as to why I have a book of kitchen utensils on my table...

They're just amatures who don't understand art though :p

This is a great book. Page after page of Girard's designs. Color and black and white photos. Few people know that, aside from textiles, Alexander Girard was responsible for some of Herman Miller's earliest modern furniture. His furniture design are also outlined in this book.

If all your walls are a basic white, look through Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Color for ideas. Learn what tints compensate for rooms on the north side of the house. Find out about color sequence and what colors create a calm, peaceful feeling.

O'Callaghan's study was a Godsend to scholarly aficionados of the Cantigas. With his well-documented and readable style, he validates this enchanting set of manuscripts as a historical source. Amplifying his reading with more conventional primary sources, he presents an entertaining and focused biography of one of Spain's most interesting monarchs. The plates, although in black-and-white, are extremely useful -- one could only wish there were more of them, for the price!

I first bought this book after seeing it reviewed in an architure/interior decorating periodical. It contains valuable, accurate information, and I recommend it as a gift for a decorator, collector, or antique lover. I just ordered another copy, as I gave the first one to a friend who is an interior designer, and who also thinks the book is excellent. It's easy to use, and its information is extremely helpful if you are shopping in New York--it saves roaming aimlessly. I wish it came in paperback so it was easier to carry with you while shopping because it is so reliable.

If you're at all serious about Icelandic/Old Norse, or even Germanistik in general (or even Indogermanistik), then you should by all means buy this book! A hundred bucks is steep, I know, but it's par for the course in this kind of thing, and well worth it to get de Vries.

De Vries's Altnordisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch is the standard etymol. dictionary of Old Norse and you simply can't find better. (There's one other, in English, but it runs about $400 and it's not as good.)

One nice thing about this book is that it gives a definition for each word treated, and so acts as a regular semantic dictionary as well (they're hard to find for Old Norse!). Plus, it will give cognates in Old English (and occasionally modern English) and other Germanic languages, plus Greek, Sanskrit, etc., and reflexes in modern Icelandic.

If you're interested in Old English, then get F. Holthausen's Altenglisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Carl Winter, 1974. ISBN: 3 533 00508 9), which is not as easy to use (because Anglo-Saxon orthography is so much more "flexible" than Norse), but is helpful and standard for that field.

P.S. If you're reading this at all, then you're a very rare breed. Kudos for going Germanistik, instead of that boring old French stuff. Good luck!

This is a wonderful book that more or less describes a series of themed restaurants in the US. It goes beyond the franchised mega restaraunt chains and focuses on the more unique one of a kind places. A unique and wonderful pictoral book.

This coffee table sized book is a beauty. Each section focuses on a different color while covering different aspects of country decorating and lifestle. Example: "Red Barns, Red Apples" covers building a tableware collection and dressing the bed in eight ways. A full-color glorious photo show old kitchen tools hanging shaker style on the wall. The following pages feature red quilts draped over a ladder, vintage toys with red blocks and a red truck, a room with a deep red wall, a Christmas tree in a renovated barn with fat red candles decking the wooden beams...
You get a sprinkling of recipes (pumpkin cakes, smoked salmon mousse, cold pesto pasta), tips for using color, space, collections, and odd bits of furniture, and lots of ideas. It's a wonderful book for anyone who loves vintage fabrics, baskets, wood furniture, and wants to fit them into a warm, sophisticated decorating scheme.

This book is a must have for any serious student of classical
architecture in America! Beautifully detailed illustrations
throughout.