Medieval and Renaissance Books

It is difficult to praise "The Discarded Image" too highly. It can be read with profit many times. Other reviewers have told you why.

That said, I would like to say something to those who have read and enjoyed the Space Trilogy, especially "Out of the Silent Planet" and "Perelandra." In writing those excellent stories, Lewis decided that the medieval outlook on cosmology, however incorrect from the scientific standpoint, would provide a marvelous-and to most of us-unfamiliar backdrop for tales of imaginative fiction. I promise you that once you have finished "The Discarded Image," you will reread the fictional works pleasantly fascinated by how the medieval image informs the novels.

This book explained and gave amazing and insightful information about the development of the medieval worldview and mindset.

To begin with, it must be acknowledged that the subtitle of this work is apt to be misinterpreted. Lewis's last book of his own initiative, which but for some late corrections would have been published in the final months of his life, might be better understood as a 'preface' to mediaeval and Renaissance literature than as what is now most often meant by an 'introduction'. For his stated purpose is not one of identifying, summarizing, and expounding major works, but of explaining the world-view or Model of the universe which informed any educated writer or reader of the time.

Lewis is concerned that a student may succeed in achieving a semblance of comprehension yet be wholly mistaken in his or her grasp of mediaeval literature through projecting onto it either very modern ideas or, perhaps worse, modern misconceptions of what our ancestors believed. While he does touch on authors and writings familiar from the average undergraduate survey course, he dwells far more on, and digs more deeply into, somewhat obscure examples which he feels better represent the mindset of the era. Boethius and his THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY get particular attention and are alluded to repeatedly throughout. Lewis then proceeds to outline the mediaeval picture of the universe's structure; of the inhabitants it held; and of the psychological, philosophical, and metaphysical aspects which integrated the whole system.

All of this gradually reveals a cosmology far more sophisticated and a civilisation rather better informed than they are often credited with being. Understanding of the nature of the universe was not so erroneous as is now generally supposed; and where it was indeed wrong, it was nonetheless remarkably insightful as well as internally consistent. The mediaeval era emerges as the vital and extraordinary world it was, and as a fertile ground in which the so-called 'Renaissance' took root and flourished.

Lewis concludes with a cautionary reminder that our own notions of the universe and of 'Reality' itself remain comparatively incomplete and are certain to be superseded one day, not merely by new discoveries but by the ever-shifting philosophies and tastes which determine what questions are asked and thus what answers are found.

This is a book I genuinely hope to read again. Parts of it, I confess, were a bit beyond me, if chiefly because I had too little acquaintance with what was under discussion. Even so, Lewis's characteristic wit, conversational style, and contagious enthusiasm succeeded in making me wish to improve my familiarity with his subject. And to inspire such interest is surely a teacher's purpose even more than the mere passing on of information.

C.S. Lewis is just such a pleasure to read. And this book is simply a joy. I am a PhD student in medieval history and have read an awful lot of books on the medieval mind and this is by far the best. There is a slight tendency in Lewis' writing to see philosophy as the sole motor of history--but this is to be expected from his generation and it doesn't detract from the picture he paints. The best part about this book is that when I was finished reading it, I loaned it to my mother, who has absolutely no formal medieval training, and she loved it too! It's such a relief to escape the arrogant jargon of academics, that just masks their ignorance and inane analysis, and explore the world of ideas with such a master of clear and honest language.

Highly recommended for students of history as well as literature. A product of C. S. Lewis's day job at Cambridge, this volume helps the reader get inside the mind of both the common man and the writers of this period. They had a different view of reality and the world than modern man. To understand, let alone appreciate their history and literatue, you need to know how they saw things.

Broader and more scholarly that Lewis' "Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature" (Canto, 1966), I recommend "The Discarded Image" over it.

By the way, though not intended as such, it's also a great source of trivia on the origins of names and expressions.

A useful compendium of Machiavelli's works that reveals a breadth of views not typically ascribed to Machiavelli; yes, we have The Prince, but we also have his Discourses, and even The Mandrake Root.

Reading the dedication to the Prince and following it up immediately with the dedication to the Discourses will show you either how Machiavellian Machiavelli was, or, more optimistically, how much one can change as one progresses through his years.

In a few words:

This is a thick, but fascinating example of Machiavelli.

In quite a few words:

"The Portable" series is generally used to combine the most important works of an author and present them to the public at comfortable, convenient prices for comfortable, convenient books. With Machiavelli, however, the most famous work is rather thin - a small slice out of this thick, well-packed book.

Yes, the most incredible "The Prince" is here, tucked away neatly between other Machiavelli writings. It is remarkably readable (either thanks to the translation, or simply because Machiavelli wrote it so) and amazingly interesting. It is rather like a small history coupled with tactics and tips on "How to Rule Your Kingdom - Ideas for a Young Prince".

If someone is looking only for "The Prince", they could get it here, but as it is not the first piece in the book, this may be inconvenient, and may wish to turn elsewhere to get that book. For people looking for Machiavelli on the whole, this is your book.

"The Portable Machiavelli" doesn't just give us the main published works. Machiavelli's letters are thrust in, as are quite a few plays. On the whole, this book is full of intriguing surprises which may lure readers who enjoyed "The Prince" to purchase this. And that would be a good purchase.

Quite recommended.

Machiavelli was only political philosopher who introduced political doctrines to a ruler.

He had a famouse statement: a prince must have qualities of two beasts, a fox to identify deception and a lion in order to engage confrantion with a enemy.

Here it is, Machiavelli's work in its sinister glory for all to behold. The truth of man's corruption and dishonesty is exposed for all the world to see.

The wise Florentine is not to be blamed and scandalised for lifting the veil on the
cesspool of politics, religion and royalty. No, he is to be congratulated for summarising the dastardly deeds committed by Popes, Princes, Kings and Emperors. Without Machiavelli to set us right, some of us may believe politics is a noble profession.

Use "The Portable Machiavelli" to see through the hazy rhetoric used by spin doctors, or as a tool to aid effective management strategies, or simply for entertainment purposes.

If you are unfamiliar with Machiavelli's work then prepare yourself for a shock. It's not a guidebook for tyrants, as many commentators may suggest, it's more of a literary equivalent of smelling salts. Once we have read Machiavelli's work we awaken with a clearer idea of the reality around us.

Lessons from Machiavelli

1)He who hesitates as a ruler is lost
2) Mercenary armies are never to be trusted. To rule securely one must have a defense force made of one's own people.
3) Christian virtue is the opposite of political wisdom.
4) A government of one type, whether it be monarchy, oligarchy, or democracy will become corrupt. 'Mixed government is good government.'
5) A ruler must be ruthless with his enemies.
6) Inflexibility for a ruler will inevitably lead to failure.
7) There are times it is wise to negotiate. Machiavelli felt his beloved Florence was conquered by the Spaniards only because the Florentines refused at a time propitious to them , negotiations.
8) The ancient Greeks and Romans ruled at times more wisely than the city- state Italians of his own times.
9) 'Courage does help make ' Fortune' but Fortune is nonetheless fickle and unreliable even to the brave.
10) It is better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved.
11) Political murder is justified when it leads to the preservation of the polity.
12)Even the greatest of men are subject to Fortune.
13) The study of ancient socieites and history gives relevant lessons for present political behavior.
14)If one does not have an Army one cannot preserve one's power.
15)The political task of Religion is inspiration of public loyalty.
16) The commonwealth, the political entity is more important than the individual.
17)

Just buy it. You won't be sorry. Great images and lots of informative discussion of imagery.

I am using this book as a text in school and I am quite impressed. I bought this book (hardcover) for half the price of the paper back version sold at my school. The text in interesting, not dry. The images are good reproductions. The only thing that I don't admire about the book is that some of the images are printed in black and white.

I think that I am like many people in that my knowledge of the Renaissance Art of Northern Europe comes from a few lectures in a college art history survey course. A few iconic images from the likes of Bosch, Holbein,Durer and Breugel are all that come to mind. I knew the era was important but the details were sketchy.

"Northern Renaissace Art" is everything you could want to deepen your knowledge of this important period of history. The book is 750 pages long and has over 680 illustration of which 250 are in beautifully reproduced color. James Snyder does an excellent job of explaining why those iconic paintings that everyone knows are great and deserve to be remembered 500 years after they were painted. More importantly, Snyder takes those second tier masters out of obscurity and elevates them to their proper place in history. Before reading this book, I had never heard of such masters as Jan Gossaert, Jean Fouquet and Petrus Christus. It was a exciting to get know their work. By no means is "Northern Rensaissace Art" a reasonably priced book. But it is the type of book that will give you great pleasure for many years.

I am using this book as a text in school and I am quite impressed. I bought this book (hardcover) for half the price of the paper back version sold at my school. The text in interesting, not dry. The images are good reproductions. The only thing that I don't admire about the book is that some of the images are printed in black and white.

Books on the Renaissance can be quite confusing to non-specialists. For example, Shakespeare classes in English schools discuss him as a Renaissance writer. Yet art teachers describe his near contemporary, Rubens, as the quintessential Baroque artist!
So exactly what does Northern Renaissance Art cover? Is it an age that can be separated, marked out and surveyed by political or religious activities? And by northern what is meant? Is Switzerland the home of northern art? Can it be made in Italy? And what makes it significant and different from the universally recognized world of Italian Renaissance Art, where the term 'art' is always capitalized?
Well, the truth lies pretty much with all of the above. As Snyder shows, several distinct cultures fall into this very large historical category. If you're buying this book as a student for a class, I can only hope you have more than one semester to give to the material. Northern Renaissance Art covers an enormous time period and many countries. It approaches in diversity the far better known works and ideas of the Italian Renaissance. No one seriously discusses the Italian Renaissance in a single semester - the material is taught in a series of classes. The same limitations and requirements should apply to teaching the Northern Renaissance. Art history today no longer focuses on aesthetic questions of style; as a result a student faces a lifetime's study of a period's culture and history.
However, there are some basics. If one word could define what separates the two worlds of the Italian and Northern Renaissance - that word would have to be naturalism. Northern European artists revel in achievements of realism that far surpass the Italians, who, while perfectly capable of such stylistic work, prefer a more intellectually formalized approach. Indeed, Michelangelo dismissed northern artist's attention to nature and care for photographic details as incidental, and excessively ephemeral, when contrasted to his Italian art which used images for projecting deeper spiritual values. The public, however, was delighted with the landscapes, and their non-abstract openness. Many artists from the north specialized in landscape, and it became a manner so associated with them that it was not uncommon for Italian painters to hire Northern artists to fill in the 'less important' landscape backgrounds of their larger canvases.
The Italian Renaissance differed also in that it was singularly connected to the revival and reappreciation of ancient 'pagan' works of art. These antiquities provided a challenge, as well as a reawakening, for the artists and thinkers of Italy. In the north artists did not have at hand magnificent works of ancient architecture or sculpture: as a result intellectual challenges were quite different; though initially tied to the Italian thinking, the northern artists more and more shifted focus onto their own immediate world. As the fifteenth century closed they became attuned to newer discoveries from the exploration of new (not ancient)worlds by sea, and the individuals emancipation brought about through the beginnings of Protestant thought. For moderns this means that the Northern Renaissance often appears closer to us and our own post photographic record of the world. The artist's sense of intimacy with nature seems little different than what most of us know as landscape art. Their religious works also convey a striking ease with space less contrived than our eyes find the representation of space in most Italian painting of the same era. All made the more attractive for being so accessible. Some of this difference marks profound religious and philosophical differences - northern art has about it some of the fervor of emancipation - there is here a reflection of the Armana naturalism revolting against the old art of a more dogmatic less individualistic Egypt. Eventually Italian artists would adapt to this new naturalism, especially in the north of Italy in Venice, in the works of Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian.
This book introduces the reader to the early Flemish master painters, such as Van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, the later great German artists, such as Durer and Holbein and Grunewald, and the strange inner universe of Bosch. Topping off the age are the works of one of the grandest of all humanists, Pieter Bruegel the elder. And these are just some of the great painters! There remains a wealth of sculpture and architecture, drawing and craft work. Moreover, the Northern Renaissance is also an artistic universe filled with fresh new theories and a milieu profoundly effected by the great religious upheaval of the Reformation.
Snyder gives as good an overview of so much material as one could hope for - his work replete with an enormous number of images, many of which have for nearly half a millenium been accepted as iconic. The text treats the material with a practised consideration, born of many years study. However; the impetus of the book is to direct the reader further afield, and this is indisputably the author's greatest achievement and the point of such a survey work. The real jewels for readers will be enlarging these discoveries by travel and on site awareness, these efforts made more satisfying through study of specific texts directed at the new artists whose work transforms your view of what the Renaissance was.

Divine Subjection: The Rhetoric Of Sacramental Devotion In Early Modern England by Gary Kuchar (Assistant Professor of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a blend of theoretical analysis and close readings in historical context in order to better understand the connection between devotional literature and early modern English culture. Chapters discuss the "gendering" of god in the poetry of Richard Crashaw, representation and embodiment in John Donne's "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions", representation of the recusant soul in the works of Robert Southwell, and concepts of body, word, and self as written by Thomas Traherne. A meticulous and scholarly text for intermediate to advanced history, theology, and philosophy students, Divine Subjection treats its subject matter with psychoanalytical expertise and in-depth examination.

Divine Subjection: The Rhetoric Of Sacramental Devotion In Early Modern England by Gary Kuchar (Assistant Professor of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a blend of theoretical analysis and close readings in historical context in order to better understand the connection between devotional literature and early modern English culture. Chapters discuss the "gendering" of god in the poetry of Richard Crashaw, representation and embodiment in John Donne's "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions", representation of the recusant soul in the works of Robert Southwell, and concepts of body, word, and self as written by Thomas Traherne. A meticulous and scholarly text for intermediate to advanced history, theology, and philosophy students, Divine Subjection treats its subject matter with psychoanalytical expertise and in-depth examination.

Divine Subjection: The Rhetoric Of Sacramental Devotion In Early Modern England by Gary Kuchar (Assistant Professor of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a blend of theoretical analysis and close readings in historical context in order to better understand the connection between devotional literature and early modern English culture. Chapters discuss the "gendering" of god in the poetry of Richard Crashaw, representation and embodiment in John Donne's "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions", representation of the recusant soul in the works of Robert Southwell, and concepts of body, word, and self as written by Thomas Traherne. A meticulous and scholarly text for intermediate to advanced history, theology, and philosophy students, Divine Subjection treats its subject matter with psychoanalytical expertise and in-depth examination.

Divine Subjection: The Rhetoric Of Sacramental Devotion In Early Modern England by Gary Kuchar (Assistant Professor of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a blend of theoretical analysis and close readings in historical context in order to better understand the connection between devotional literature and early modern English culture. Chapters discuss the "gendering" of god in the poetry of Richard Crashaw, representation and embodiment in John Donne's "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions", representation of the recusant soul in the works of Robert Southwell, and concepts of body, word, and self as written by Thomas Traherne. A meticulous and scholarly text for intermediate to advanced history, theology, and philosophy students, Divine Subjection treats its subject matter with psychoanalytical expertise and in-depth examination.

Divine Subjection: The Rhetoric Of Sacramental Devotion In Early Modern England by Gary Kuchar (Assistant Professor of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a blend of theoretical analysis and close readings in historical context in order to better understand the connection between devotional literature and early modern English culture. Chapters discuss the "gendering" of god in the poetry of Richard Crashaw, representation and embodiment in John Donne's "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions", representation of the recusant soul in the works of Robert Southwell, and concepts of body, word, and self as written by Thomas Traherne. A meticulous and scholarly text for intermediate to advanced history, theology, and philosophy students, Divine Subjection treats its subject matter with psychoanalytical expertise and in-depth examination.

As someone who wasn't a math major but who has been trying to get up to speed on lebesgue measure and integration, I found this book to be truly accessible. Unlike other "introductory" texts (such as Kopp's "Measure, Integral and Probability") I could follow the reasoning in this book without much difficulty.

The only criticism I have of the book has to do with the first chapter. Its purpose is to provide background mathematical material and given the author's clear ability to explain difficult concepts, I wish that it covered that material in greater detail.

For others who may be looking to build a foundational understanding of this material but who may not be mathematicians, I'd also recommend Pitt's "Measure and Integration for Use" (1985) or his "Integration, Measure and Probability" (1963) (both out of print but fairly easy to find). Those books, along with Jones', are well-used items in my library.

This book is truly marvelous. Unlike many other books written by mathematicians, this one does not focus entirely on the overlycomplicated symbolism that has become so frighteningly common in modern textbooks on pure mathematics. The author, for the most part, demonstrates the concept before moving on to nonconstructive methods. This is accomplished via simple pictures, depicting simple figures such as rectangles. By using these to demonstrate the concepts of set theory, and lebesgue measure, the reader almost certainly will develop some awareness of lebesgue integration. For someone not already familiar with set theory (like myself) I suggest writing down the key terms of set theory (presented in the first 23 pages of the book) and keeping them with you while reading. Mathematical rigorousness should come secondary to understanding the key concepts, and therefore the reader might want to skip over nonessential ideas (usually some kind of proof related to an extension of a key concept) and go right to what is needed to understand what is going on.

"Lebesgue Integration on Euclidean Space" is a nearly ideal introduction to Lebesgue measure, integration, and differentiation. Though he omits some crucial theory, such as Egorov's Theorem, Jones strengthens his book by offereing as examples subjects that others leave as exercises. The best example of this is his section on L^p spaces for 0 < p < 1.

The book's greatest strength, however, is its readability. Whereas Royden gives no hint as to how much work is needed between steps, Jones highlights important steps in proofs, not just the important proofs. It is this motivated style that makes his book useful.

Jones is so careful in his construction of the theory that differentiation does not appear until Chapter 15, and specific results for R^1 come only in Chapter 16. But the wait is worth it.

While Jones has written a great introduction, the book cannot be used for more advanced courses. As the title suggests, the discussion is restricted to Euclidean spaces. In addition, his direct jump to measure on R^n and the use of "special rectangles" therein make the development incongruous with other books. But what is sacrificed in depth is made up for in breadth, with Jones hinting at how the theory is used in other branches of math. There's even an entire chapter devoted to the Gamma function!

As a student, I have found Jones's book more instructive on basic theory than Royden, Rudin, and Wheeden & Zygmund. I highly recommend it as a first-semester introduction to Lebesgue theory or as a source of clean, fundamental presentations of proofs.

This is a terrific text for a first course in graduate-level real analysis, and is suitable for self-study. It develops Lebesgue integration theory slowly, in a very clear manner. In addition, the latter part of the book covers the basics of Fourier Analysis and important topics in differentiation. I frequently refer to this book, as the results are easy to find.

One of the problems with modern mathematics is its obsession with rigor which has been attended, over the last few decades, by a mushrooming of symbols and jargon. Much of it is not clearly related to the ideas they serve to label, as evidenced by such terms as the topological use of "filter" whose etymology is obscure (ascribed by some to H. Cartan). Moreover, the particular subject of Lebesgue integration and its generalizations is made even more confusing by a wide variety of approaches depending on an author's penchants--many of whom are enamored with a purely axiomatic approach and who make little or no appeal to intuition or--God forbid!--pictures. The author of the present work is obviously someone who has actually taught mathematics and taught it lovingly. This book is an excellent read with lots of interesting topics well explained from a student's point of view. There seems to be a nice ramping from the truly elementary to the sophisticated, which means the book will interest experienced mathematicians, scientists and engineers. There are lots of "doable" problems that the reader can solve along the way. For the experienced mathematician these little problems help alot as a refresher (Oh!, now I remember, that's how you do it.). I like the emphasis on Euclidean space. Somehow, I always feel more comfortable there! It gives me things I can actually construct and doodle on paper. And, it allows the author to use a few figures in a meaningful way. Which is another of the book's strong points and if I could recommend a future improvement, it would be to bring on more of those pictures! Tristram Needham has done a nice job along these lines with his book "Visual Complex Analysis." (I ordered several copies as Christmas gifts--just kidding!). Anyone who has taught mathematics and genuinely wished to be understood by his students has, at various times, drawn them pictures. Inside the cover sheets are lists of integration formulae, a fourier transform table, and a table of "assorted facts" on things like the Gamma function; which show that this is not only a book on Lebesgue integration but a calculus book with the Lebesgue integral occupying center stage. Everyone who has been enamored by the notion of the integral--as I was as a freshman calculus student and have been ever since--will want to have this book on their shelf.

The critical notes and selection, as well as the editing, make this (with its companion volumes The Oxford Book of Italian Madrigals and The Oxford Book of French Chansons)the book of choice for madrigal singers. The only problems I find with the book are the tiny print, the pseudo-alphabetical arrangement, and the binding which is quite tight.

The scholarship is flawless and it definitely belongs on the shelf of any madrigal group's artistic director. You really can't hope to have a madrigal group without these books.

This is the definitive volume for all singers of 16th and early 17th century English madrigals. Ideal for small groups who want to sing a range of madrigals (both merry and sorrowful) on the hoof without having to juggle separate sheets and volumes. All the favourites are here. The typeface is clear and the A5 format easy to handle. The collection is arranged alphabetically but there is a usful listing by composer for those putting programmes together. Philip Ledger's editing is light of touch and should not offend the purists.

An excellent, well-edited anthology! I appreciate the critical comments in the appendix. Also helpful is the given number of voices for each madrigal listing in the index. A perfect volume for my university "Vocal Chamber Ensemble".

This book is great for any madrigal choir to use. It has selections for SAB through SSATBB.

What a great source for any madrigal group! This book contains a cappella madrigals of 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts (mostly SATB or SSATB) by the major composers of English madrigals, such as Byrd, Farmer, Gibbons, Morley, Ward, Weelkes & Wilbye. If you sing or study this type of music, you must have this book.

Also check out "English and Italian Renaissance Madrigals" (CD) by the Hilliard Ensemble -- the Oxford book and the English Madrigals CD of this wonderful 2-CD set have 16 songs in common.

It's a very interesting astronomy book, it's explain how they've thought about the motion of the planets(epicycles)in the past(AC)by the time of the Ptolemy and Babylonia.

The main desire of Ptolemy in writing his Almagest is to explain and account for the motions of the apparently erratic celestial beings in terms of perfect and circular motions. In doing so he introduces the epicyclic (which states that the center of a smaller circle orbits around the earth and the object orbits around the smaller circle) and the eccentric hypotheses (which supposes that the center of the circular motion of the planet is not exactly centered on the earth), which are ultimatly equivalent to eachother in terms of result. Begining with the motion of the sun in the sky and moving on to the less accountable outer planets, Ptolemy moves his mathematics brilliantly with a nod to a story teller's art. Some may find his introduction of his equant (something that is often said to defile his principles of perfect motion), which explains the retrogradation of the outer planets, to be a let down to the fanfare of perfection in the stars. Yet, overall, the Almagest manages to recapture the magic and wonder of the universe through complicated mathematical hypotheses and to succesfully lay the ground for the break throughs of Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler to come. If you are at all interested in astronomy or mathematics, you ought to read this.

so it turns out that the center of the eccentric circle that the planets travel on travels on its own circle but be careful this is not a giant epicycle on a small deferent! haha! genius!!

Adding to the other comment below about star names beginning with "al-," I might add that the title "Almagest" itself is an Arabic translation of the original Greek "Megale Syntaxis."

The mathematics is difficult to follow, but as it is developed from Euclid and Eratosthenes it is reliable. The observations have been made from a very wide area and over a long time; but while the mechanics may be rather mysterious the results are impressive.

Does the front cover always show Penelope weaving at her loom? - the ancients obviously thought highly of Homer and the Greek myths.

The Tetrabiblos survives together with the parallel Greek. Since the Almagest went through successive transliterations/translations (and interpretations?), it might not be too surprising if the Greek text has disappeared.

And what of Ptolemy's other books? - his geography for example. The Almagest has observations from Ceylon to Thule, including Britain. The ancients must have travelled widely.

Is there anywhere an account of the origin of the names of stars and constellations? These seem to have accumulated over time. Many star names begin "Al-", from the Arabic, I suppose.

Well done!

Although this is an overview book, there is so much here to recommend it to the artist. I do C&I for my historical group (SCA) and this is such a wonderful source!

This is one of the best books on illuminated manuscripts currently available. The book is hardcover, full color throughout, and many nice reproductions. There is a nice variety in the work shown and good commentary. If you get this at the discounted price, this is a hard book to beat in quantity and quality. Along with A History of Illuminated Manuscripts this is a must-have book.

What can I say? I have been researching this specific field now for the last five years, and rarely find such a magnificent reproduction as this! Excellent job on the colour balance, and many miniatures I have not seen in any other books. Well done.

Best "bang for the buck" period illumination book on the market. Every page is crammed with beautiful, clear color photos of ten centuries of period illumination styles. There are 'leaves' and 'hours' in there that I have never seen before. Best of all (and unlike other books I could name) it's affordable and within the reach of the true 'starving artist' (and it's about time).

What a marvellous collection of Illustrated Manuscripts. A couple of other reviewers stated that this was one of the best books of this kind ever published.I certainly have no dispute with them as it is the best I've seen.
Going through this book gives one the feeling of viewing the greatest illustrated books that were the domain of the rich and powerful from the 7th. Century to the 17th.Century. Unless you were of that class,you had little chance of ever seeing,touching and certainly no chance whatsoever of owning one of these books.
Until the Gutenberg press of the 1450's there were no printed books,which meant that any book had to be drawn and lettered printed by hand,taking years of painstaking and highly talented work.Hence,they were extremely expensive and available to the very few.Even someone who owned or had access to books like these,even they would be very lucky if they saw more than a few in their lifetime.In this book we get to see hundreds of the manuscripts from literally hundreds of these rare masterpieces.They come from all over Europe and from a span of roughly a thousand years.
It'as amazing to think that in the 14th.Century,it was possible to build massive Cathedrals;but a book like this for the masses was not even imaginable.

good illustrations, intertaining book

While this book contains chapters of material e.g. introduction, calendar, Gospel Lessons, Hours of the Virgin, Pentitential Psalms etc., the core of the book is the descriptions of the illustrations themselves. These description provide a variety of information - bits of biography of the artist, history of the manuscript (confirmed and confirmed), information regarding the style, the imagery etc. The "chapter" material provides samples of the texts, the development of the specific portion of the Book of Hours, etc. This provides the overall context for the materials.

The indices provide access by manuscript, artist, early owners; an appendex provides the outline of the major offices by incipit (first phrase) to place individual illustrations in the overall context of the prayer hour.

Don't be intimidated - the text is easily followed but one unfamilar with the prayer book content or with illuminated manuscripts. But you can also enjoy the book simply going through the pictures - like a stroll through a museum without a docent or tape.

This is a beautiful book. It has full color images througout and contains examples of several pieces that I have not seen in other books. I have a coleection of lllumination books and am thrilled with this addition.

This well-organized survey of the Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance art takes the reader through the various parts of the book of hours illustrating both the historical and artistic development from the earliest manuscript examples to incunabula. Lavishly illustrated with examples taken only from the Pierpont Morgan Library, where Wieck is a curator, the book is also a mini catalog of that collection. While the "reader" could fully enjoy this book by simply looking at the pictures, Wieck's text is full of illuminating tidbits. The book also contains some detailed descriptions of medieval liturgy and religious practices that may be of interest to some readers.

The Pierpont Morgan Library's collection of manuscripts and printed works contains some truly beautiful works of art. I was privileged to see some of them at an exhibit in the Kimbell Art Museum. This book was offered as a catalog of the exhibit and I immediately bought it as a reminder of what I had seen. The illustrations in this book, though not quite as visually stunning, are nevertheless representative of the originals. Bibliographic information is rather sparse but the further reading section is nice.

Painted Prayers gives both the structure of the book itself and the reason behind its popularity during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was the laity in general, and more specifically the female laity, that owned these works as a kind of, "direct, democratic, and potentially uninterrupted access to God, the Virgin Mary, and the saints." (p.14). It is fascinating to see the incorporation of Christian, and sometimes pagan, symbols and iconography, and even humor, in the miniatures and marginalia of the Books of Hours. The miniatures often depicted biblical, or historical, scenes in modern settings and dress. Patrons would often have their portraits, coats of arms, monograms, or intials incoprorated into the Books of Hours that they had commissioned. With the advent of printing in the 15th century Books of Hours, with their pictures, became even more successful as they could now reach out to a wider audience.

If you ever have the opportunity to see an exhibit featuring Books of Hours I recommend you see it. Failing that, Painted Prayers is a good stand in.

Whether you rate this a 10 or a 2 depends on your reading tastes. No doubt many people would find the topic uninteresting, and if the topic or the author are not subjects you enjoy, then don't bother to buy it. Not being a lit. buff myself, my attraction for the book was the author's commentary, with the goldmine of quotable material found therein. This is an impressive volume of literary history, and I doubt that anyone else could have done such a thorough job and still made the topic come to life with such vigorous exposition. Opinionated? You bet. That's part of what makes it enjoyable to read. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the book, you may want to contact Oxford University Press directly. As one of the twelve volumes constituting the "Oxford History of English Literature" series, they have continued to print it over the years.

Tolkien, in a letter to George Sayer as recorded in his biography JACK: A LIFE OF C. S. LEWIS, says that this is "a great book, the only one of his [Lewis's] that gives me unalloyed pleasure." Coming from Tolkien, this is very high praise indeed. Originally published as ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY EXCLUDING DRAMA and for some inexplicable reason recently renamed, this book, Lewis's longest work, will not be found in the libraries of the causal C. S. Lewis fan for the simple fact that it is a textbook and is aimed not at the general reader but instead the academic world (even in those days there was that damned phenomena of `publish or perish!'). For those who are studying this material, however, will find the book a very remarkable one at that. As a previous reviewer noted, Lewis began referring to this text as "O Hell!" as the writing process became very tedious to him. This book was ten years in the writing, and by the time it was ended Lewis wanted to concentrate more on theology and Narnia than this "critical nonsense." The end sections of the book do not shore this weariness, however, so have no fear.

Although books of this sort always, by necessity, impose artificial time lines on literature which, in the long run, do not have a lot to do with the true literary history. To study literature in the sixteenth century, one should not confine oneself to going behind or in front of the time line to get a fuller understanding of the significance of the text. However, this is not really a fault of Lewis and it is a very difficult error to correct for literary historians. However, Lewis pulls off this artificial time limit very well by clearly illustrating the many strenghts and the many weaknesses of this century's literature.

Because it is for the student of literature, much of the more radical elements of this text will be lost without a general knowledge of the preconceptions the academic world has in regard to the literature in question. The opening chapter ("New Learning and New Ignorance") stands as one of Lewis's most famous academic writing because of the sheer implications and challenges set forth in the chapter. He debunks many of the fashionable scholarly trends, focusing on how much of what the scholars say is off base. Lewis argues that the during the sixteenth century much of the literature proved extremely dull, saying the authors wrote like "elderly men". Toward the close of the century, however, something radical began to take place. There was a renewal and an elevation in quality from drab to gold, as Lewis puts it. Most literary scholars and historians think the Renaissance is responsible for this, but Lewis says this theory has no truth, because the humanists who were responsible for the Renaissance were terrible scholars and brought death to the literature they presented, presenting the classics' virtues as ills and instead focused on the way the classics said what they said. The humanists focused on the language and left the literature itself alone. Everything else about the literature they hated. Lewis continually attacks the humanists, stating that "the new learning [that of the humanists] created the new ignorance." His belief that the Renaissance never occurred in England, and if it did it was of no literary importance, is as radical a literary belief as accepting the Book of Mormon to the Bible would be to a Christian.

The rest of the book reads as a survey of the literature of the period. All major and quite a large number of minor authors are represented in this. As a textbook, this stands as fascinating reading, for Lewis constantly illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of whoever he is dealing with, and his numerous quotations from the texts dealt with show the true skill of selection to prove a point. All of the quotations give a further understanding in context of Lewis's prose. If all textbooks were written with such skill and wit, there would not be the incredible resentment (myself included) of the price tag on most college text books.

Lewis's 1938 on Donne, published in SEVENTEENTH CENTURY STUDIES PUBLISHED IN SIR HERBERT GRIERSON has made him the heretic and central enemy of all Donne scholars and fans. Here he does not attack him but helps readers deal with Donne's metre. However, Lewis only gives five pages to Donne, and he was fond of saying that "Donne's place is that of a minor poet."

The reception of this book was fair, although the most resentment came from the academic circle. People accused Lewis of, as Sayer says in his biography, grossly oversimplifying by presenting only two classifications: drab and gold. Yvor Winters goes to the extreme when she says that "Mr. Lewis has simply not discovered what poetry is."

Of all the volumes in the series this still sells the most. Sayer notes in the aforementioned biography that "many Oxford tutors still warn their students that it is `unsound but brilliantly written.' Nevertheless, or perhaps partly because of this warning, it outsells all the other volumes in this series." While it does not enjoy the monumental place in criticism of THE ALLEGORY OF LOVE, which many would argue is Lewis's most significant piece of criticism, partly because of the radical ideas mentioned above, this work stands as one of the most brilliant and enjoyable survey books every written.

Commissioned as a volume in "The Oxford History of English Literature", "English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama", as it was originally titled, proved such tedium to write that Lewis took to referring to it by the acronym "OHEL". The sixteenth century ends as one of the great ages - arguably the greatest - of English literary genius, but it began dismally. Except in Scotland, where a vigorous Medieval tradition lived on, "authors seem to have forgotten the lessons which had been mastered in the Middle Ages and learned little in their stead. Their prose is clumsy, monotonous, garrulous; their verse either astonishingly tame and cold or, if it attempts to rise, the coarsest fustian. . . . Nothing is light, or tender, or fresh. All the authors write like elderly men."

This period of "bludgeon-work" gave way to something almost worse, "the Drab Age" - "earnest, heavy-handed, commonplace", a time when England did not shine and the peripheral light of Scotland guttered out.

The story would scarcely be worth telling, save for the happy ending, a true eucatastrophe: "Then, in the last quarter of the century, the unpredictable happens. With startling suddenness, we ascend. Fantasy, conceit, paradox, color, incantation return. Youth returns. The fine frenzies of ideal love and ideal war are readmitted. Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Hooker . . . display what is almost a new culture: that culture which was to last through most of the seventeenth century and enrich the very meanings of the words England and Aristocracy. Nothing in the earlier history of our period would have enabled the sharpest observer to foresee this transformation."

Had the scope of his labors not been set by his commission, Lewis would doubtless have preferred to skip the clumsy and drab, to delve into the riches of the Age of Gold. Still, despite his preferences, he was an apt choice to mine the less precious veins. Unlike many of his academic colleagues, who then as now regarded literature as merely a "job", Lewis read avidly in the most obscure corners. Little though he admired the early and drab writers, he was familiar with their work and could tease out virtues as well as point to flaws.

Three points about this history stand out as unexpected or significant. First is the fine opening chapter, "New Learning and New Ignorance", which contests the commonplace view that the medieval period was a vale of ignorance from which mankind was happily rescued by the Renaissance. That opinion is no longer prevalent in scholarly circles (where Lewis is now sometimes derided for expounding the conventional wisdom - much like accusing Shakespeare of writing in cliches!), but most general readers take it for granted. Lewis' presentation is one-sided, but it is a side that needs to be heard.

Second, Lewis devotes considerable space to Scotland, a territory absent from most of our literature classes. Though the Scots dialect is not easy to parse, Douglas and Dunbar and Lyndsay and their ilk are worthy of acquaintance.

Third - a slighter point than the preceding but interesting in its own right - there is Lewis' treatment of John Donne. As a young man, Lewis wrote a notorious essay on Donne, dispraising the quality of his love poetry and hinting that his vogue was due more to fashion than merit. For these heresies he became the stock villain of every introduction to Donne's work.

The "OHEL" volume takes a different tack. Lewis' appreciation of the "Songs and Sonnets" is warm and perceptive, with a useful disquisition on how to catch the rhythm of Donne's eccentric versification. It was not only, apparently, in matters of faith that Lewis was capable of casting off his youthful skepticism.

Within its genre - the comprehensive academic history - Lewis' effort is as good as a single mind and hand can produce. Similar tomes are nowadays parceled out chapter by chapter, gaining no doubt in narrow expertise but losing personality and perspective. Both are present in plenitude here.

C.S. Lewis's "English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)," first published in 1954, was part of a multi-volume series, The Oxford History of English Literature, and perhaps its most distinguished contribution (but see below). It also doubled as an installment in the Clark Lectures series (for 1944), which contributes an additional subtitle in some listings.

For reasons not immediately apparent, Oxford University Press has reissued this book in a "New Version" as "Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century." As the same fate has overtaken E. K. Chambers on "English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages," probably the other outstanding book in the series, which is now called "Malory and Fifteenth-Century Drama, Lyrics, and Ballads," there seems to have been a policy of titular refurbishing of at least some of the volumes in the series (once known, in an unfortunate acronym, as the O.H.E.L.).

The current titles are accurate enough, although "Poetry and Prose" should have included a warning that Elizabethan drama was covered in a different volume. (Due to the facts of human biology, Lewis' book not unexpectedly covers a slightly longer period than either title indicates.) Still, the changes can cause confusion for anyone not aware of them; given the current prices, this may be more than a little annoying to some people. If you have one version, you probably don't need the other!

Lewis on the "Sixteenth Century" was the product of enormous labor, including actually reading a huge body of writing generally ignored in literary histories, or customarily treated without much firsthand knowledge. Acquaintances -- not all of them friends, or even especially sympathetic -- described Lewis spending his days doggedly reading sermons and polemics, minor poets and bad poets, over the course of years. (He came to refer to the effort by the "infernal" acronym for the series noted above.) The result is a treasury of first-hand information, and with it Lewis' often-witty summations. It is engaging reading, even for those who disagree with Lewis -- and he seemingly set out to overturn most critical orthodoxies established between about 1900 and 1950, as well as a few older ones.

For example, he treats Elizabethan literature as an extension of medieval culture. Humanism, in its period sense of concern for a classicizing Latin style, and the disparaging of the immediate past, is treated as an often-harmful interruption. This reverses a judgment that actually goes back to the period -- but a judgment originally made by self-styled Humanists themselves, of course. And he includes the literature of Lowland Scotland, often ignored, or treated as something apart.

"English Literature in the Sixteenth Century" also appeared as an Oxford paperback under the original title (1973), unfortunately without the bibliographic supplement in which Lewis discussed textual histories and modern editions, if any, of both the well-known and the more obscure English and Scots literature of the late fifteenth through early seventeenth centuries. This portion is, of course, half a century out of date, but Lewis' observations are still of value. Even without this section, the paperback is worthwhile, and may be a good, reasonably-priced, alternative, but anyone familiar with the original form may be disappointed.

Those interested in Lewis as a Christian apologist will find here his considered reflections on many of his predecessors, not all of them flattering, but his comments on doctrine are pretty strictly limited to explaining the issues debated. It may seem odd to see the Reformation through the lense of literary history, but Lewis avoids open advocacy, unlike his "Preface to 'Paradise Lost,'" in which (it seems to me) his concern that readers take Milton seriously tends to blend with a concern that they take seriously their own salvation.

Lewis was also a poet, novelist, and occasional short-story writer. Here he occasionally briefly retells a story, with his usual skill, but, except for some overlapping topics, connections to his own fiction are less obvious than in some of his writings on the Middle Ages. There is a section on the Scots poet Sir David Lyndsay (d. 1555), who provided the epigraph to Lewis' novel "That Hideous Strength" (1946). And, somewhere it includes, as others have noted also, a quotation with the words "Stygian puddle glum." They undoubtedly lurks somewhere behind both the Marshwiggle named Puddleglum and the visit to the Narnian Underlands in "The Silver Chair" (1953, written 1950), although Dante, Virgil (of course), and a host of others, are under contribution there as well.

I was under the impression, from my first reading of the book decades ago, that it was given as a quotation from Gavin Douglas' Scots translation of "The Aeneid" (1513; Lewis describes it with enthusiasm); but I have never been able to locate it in the appropriate section. A recent search of my old copy of the shorter paperback has revealed that it was indeed quoted from a translation, but as an example of bad one, and English, not Scots; of the dramas of Seneca, not Virgil. On page 256 (where I had marked it thirty years ago), "Tacitae Stygis" in "Hippolytus" (line 625), rather weakly rendered by the utterly obscure John Studley ("which cannot now be read without a smile").

Perhaps establishing just how much Lewis read, and with what close attention, no matter how dreary.

(Reposted from my "anonymous" review of September 10, 2003)

One of the primary pleasures of reading literary criticism is to hear someone intelligent talk about books you both have read. This book, then, couldn't be better. Erudite, controversial, innovative--whether you approve of Lewis's opinions or not, they're always good reading. If you're like me, and haven't read many of the sixteenth-century works Lewis discusses, then this literary critical history will give you the related pleasure of hearing someone intelligent talk about . . . anything. Lewis could blow your mind and change your life if he wrote an essay on tying shoes; thankfully, he wrote instead on ideas underpinning the Western world.

In this volume, his work on poetry is especially good. Highlights include the stylistic acrobatics Lewis put himself through to avoid saying 100 times of Drab Age poetry: "I don't like it; you won't either; read something else." Cranky? Yes, but insightfully, entertainingly cranky. Then, when he actually turns proselytiser and suggests you read something--well, I'll admit this volume practically by itself has gotten me interested in early Scottish poetry and the great Elizabethans, not to mention equipped me (almost as an afterthought) with more prosodical knowledge than I received in any of my creative writing classes.

This book is good enough to read all by itself. If you have knowledge of the period, so much the better. Lewis has spoiled me as a literature grad student, permanently I hope; no other critic measures up to his combination of insight and memorable prose.