Book Description
The book that inspired The Rule of Four—discover the secret codes of the best-selling novel!
One of the most famous books in the world, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, read by every Renaissance intellectual and referred to in studies of art and culture ever since, was first published in English by Thames & Hudson in 1999.
It is a strange, pagan, pedantic, erotic, allegorical, mythological romance relating in highly stylized Italian the quest of Poliphilo for his beloved Polia. The author (presumed to be Francesco Colonna, a friar of dubious reputation) was obsessed by architecture, landscape, and costume—it is not going too far to say sexually obsessed—and its 174 woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens.
In 1592 an attempt was made to produce an English version but the translator gave up. The task has been triumphantly accomplished by Joscelyn Godwin, who succeeds in reproducing all its wayward charm and arcane learning in language accessible to the modern reader. 174 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Tiresome, Slow - but Mind-Expanding?.......2005-06-22
Imagine the most boring person in the world telling you about this "erotic" dream he had. As soon as he starts, you realize that to this guy "erotic" means "sensual" and he has a Medeival dread of his own sexuality. He spends hours meticulously describing every pebble, every stone, every crack in the architecture, every flower in the gardens, every thread of the costumes worn by the armies of lovely (but "virginal") nymphs he encounters along the way.
Out of the 466 pages of the hardcover 2nd edition, there is action on approximately 75 of them. The rest is lengthy and uninteresting description of the marvels Poliphilo sees in his dream. Everything is described in superlative terms, and the figure is repeated so often you can almost sing along with Poliphilo: "X such that was never seen/made/matched by Y." Where X is the thing described and Y is an obscure allusion to classical mythology or European lore of a person or place famous for its association with X or items like it. The classical allusions are so frequent and so obscure, the reader will need a guidebook probably twice as thick as the Hypnerotomachia itself in order to understand them all.
People prate of the beauty of this book, but ... I won't deny that the book itself, as a physical object, is quite beautiful, and the illustrations are interesting (however the women who are described in the text as "beautiful" are drawn sort of doughy with double chins and chubby baby-fat limbs.) But the average modern reader will not be able to slog through what must have been considered in the Renaissance to be an enchanting pageant of loveliness. The ceaseless barrage of adjectives and the narrator's simpering reluctance to ever take any sort of action will frustrate most members of a 21st-century audience.
This book is not without its merits, which are the reason I awarded it two stars. The first 150 pages are quite delightful, because things are actually happening in the story, the experience is still new, and the interminable tedium of the next 300 pages has not yet beaten the reader's brain into a catatonic state. The sumptuous banquet at the court of Queen Eleuterylida is a memorable highlight. There's an interesting scene right in the middle of the book, in which Poliphilo explores a ruined cemetery and reads epitaphs of unfortunate wights who died of love. Numerous descriptions of pagan rituals are interesting, if not accurate. The book is completely saturated with Greco-Roman paganism, which was a fad at the time it was written.
The act of reading the Hypnerotomachia can be rewarding in spite of, or perhaps because of its tedium. I forged onward with the grim determination that I would finish this book, no matter what ... my eyes rolled in my head as I fought off sleep, hypnotic streams of uninteresting adjectives reducing my awareness to a dreamlike state. I would read pages and afterwards have no memory whatsoever of what they had contained. Strange ideas and mental pictures emerged which seemed to come, not from the book, but from somewhere behind it. I found myself titllated by vivid erotic fantasies which seemed totally unrelated to what I was reading. Was this some sort of magic, intentionally worked by the author of the Hypnerotomachia, or was it my subconscious mind desperately trying to entertain itself in the face of such monumental dullness?
I recommend this book for anyone interested in a non-chemical psychedelic experience. But try to find it at the library, don't spend your hard-earned money.
Inspiration of the Rule of Four.......2005-06-19
The great success of The Rule of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason) made Francesco Colonna's book known to large numbers of readers who would not have heard of it otherwise; however famous the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili might have been to historians of renaissance literature it was hardly an everyday name to everyone else. It was inevitable, therefore, that any publisher with an English translation in its lists was going to bring out a popular edition for the potential new market.
And so it has proved. Thames & Hudson had produced a high-quality English edition as recently as 1999, and now offer a paperback edition at a much lower price, retaining the same high quality of paper and printing, but with a different page size. The book is set in Monotype Poliphilus, in principle the same typeface that was used by Aldus Manutius five centuries earlier for the original book. In principle only, however, as comparison with the facsimile from the original that is reproduced near the end of the book will show that the modern typeface is much less black in appearance - cleaner and lighter if you like the modern tendency, or paler and weaker if you don't. All of the original illustrations are included (including one that was accidentally omitted from the 1999 edition).
Joscelyn Godwin, the translator, decided to aim for clarity rather than a close representation of Colonna's style in English. For some readers this will be a disappointment, resulting in a pale shadow of the original, but if they want to understand what the book is about then it was probably inevitable. In the Introduction, Godwin gives a sample of what his translation might have looked like if he had tried to reproduce Colonna's style: "In this horrid and cuspidinous littoral and most miserable site of the algent and fetorific lake stood saevious Tisiphone, efferal and cruel with her viperine capillament, her meschine and miserable soul, implacably furibund". If that is the kind of thing you like to read you will certainly regard Godwin's version as a travesty, but if you want to get through the book you will probably prefer the text that he actually provides: "On this horrid and sharp-stoned shore, in this miserable region of the icy and foetid lake, stood fell Tisiphone, wild and cruel with her vipered locks and implacably angry..."
Unread.......2004-07-31
I havent read this book as of yet, but I am replying to a reader who was wonering how the pronounce the title. Taken from www.ruleoffour.com: "Since its publication in 1499, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (pronounced Hip-ner-AH-toe-mak-ee-a Poh-LI-fi-ly) has baffled scholars who have tried to unveil its many mysteries."
Haven't read it, but..........2004-07-28
Perhaps someone should tie this in with The Rule of Four?! After reading that I determined that reading the real book from the 15th century would not be up my alley. I do highly recommend The Rule of Four...it was a good read. If only someone would give a phonetic pronunciation of this Hypner....whatever. It's the premise for a best-seller & I've no idea how to pronounce it!
Colonna for the fourth grade reader........2002-09-03
An earlier reviewer remarked "Fortunately Joscelyn Godwin didn't try to reproduce Francesco Colonna's difficult and idiosyncratic Italian in English, otherwise the book would have been as difficult to read as 'Ulysses' and needed another volume just for footnotes." The correct word is unfortunately. The present translation is a lifeless, dumbed down document. I wasted my money.
Book Description
Adding buildings and other man-made creations to a painting demands an understanding of perspective. Perspective is crucial to accuracy and realism, allowing a structure to fit in seamlessly with its surroundings. Yarnell starts basic, with one-point perspective, using first a box and then entire houses with doors, windows, roofs and porches to demonstrate how perspective can change. He also covers more complex two-point perspective, where two sides of a building are visible.
Painting Perspective features seven projects, which build on the first section's introduction to perspective and boast simple and well-illustrated instructions perfect for both beginning and intermediate painters.
Customer Reviews:
Good artwork.......2007-03-07
His artwork is good. It is helpful in learning techniques to eventually graduate in doing your own work by just looking a scene or picture. All of his books are great, predictable, but great.
Yarnell review Perspective.......2005-09-26
A very straght forward and very simple to understand book on perspective. Sure there are more complex and detailed books on this subject on the market, many of which are on my book shelf, but this one is great for beginners and intermediate painters. His video on perspective makes a nice companion to this book.
Book Description
"This dazzling, full-color book provides a fun, practical introduction to photo-editing with Photoshop Elements for both home and business users and anyone who wants to jump right in and enhance their images."
--Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher of DT&G Magazine
Are you new to digital photography and image editing software? This dazzling, full-color book provides a fun, practical introduction to photo-editing with Photoshop Elements for both home and business users--and anyone who wants to jump right in and enhance their images. Discover forty valuable techniques and hundreds of creativity-inspiring images, plus a CD filled with images for practice and a tryout version of Photoshop Elements 2--all at an exceptional price. You'll learn to use the File Browser, change image size, enhance faces, fix blurry images, correct under- and overexposed images, turn photos from color to black-and-white, remove people and objects from photos, add special effects, and much more.
Brought to you by Sybex and YoungJin.com, a leading South Korean book publisher founded in 1987. Youngjin.com is known for brilliant graphics and digital photography books, featuring exceptionally stylish designs and high-quality images.
40 Digital Photo Retouching Techniqueswill show you how to:
* Use Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
* Correct lighting and contrast
* Turn color photos into sepia-toned or black-and-white images
* Color black-and-white photos
* Remove red eye, eliminate blemishes, and enhance facial features
* Create studio backgrounds and professional picture packages
* Clean-up, combine, and resize images
* Create reflections and text effects
* Whip up photographic and other special effects
* Make a web banner
* Create a photo gallery for the web
* And more!
Customer Reviews:
Only for beginners.......2005-07-07
I can't say that this book helped me that much. The only reason I would give it a 3 is because the price, but part of the book was binded incorrectly. I mean honestly...who binds a book with an entire section upside down and backwards. I say save your money for a better book if you understand the difference between high and low resolution images. If you don't look it up...it will save you the money.
Useful digital photographers handbook.......2003-10-04
40 DIGITAL PHOTO RETOUCHING TECHNIQUES.
YoungJin.com
Sybex Books http://www.sybex.com)
ISBN 89-314-3502-9
The fact that this book is not a large manual is a bit of a change from the norm, but then it doesn't have to be to do the job that it sets out to achieve. That is to give the reader exactly the information required to do the most common tasks that are required by the new user of digital cameras.
It does not go into lots of detail that is unnecessary for the audience that this book is aimed at, which is the new user of a digital camera who wants the best images they can achieve without a lot of learning.
It is not a dummies book, it just sets out the most common things that you may need to fix up after taking your photos with your new digital camera or scanned images.
Unfortunately the makers of the cameras do not tell you that there are generally certain steps which must be taken to improve the quality of your images once you have them in your computer. You can of course, take them to a photo shop to have the enhancements done for you, but this book helps you to do all those changes yourself. In effect it is a "User's Help Manual" in disguise.
Sensibly the book bypasses the complex learning curves and esoteric information that puts most learner users off even doing the most basic touch-ups that can turn an ordinary snapshot into a worthwhile image with much more of the detail enhanced, which is why the shot was taken in the first place.
Included with the book is a trial version of Adobe's Elements 2 which can be used to follow all the lessons in a simple, easy to follow fashion. This is a sensible way to market the program, and it certainly looks easy.
I would assume that unless you are studying photography and using a photographic manipulation program, all you want to do is have the best image you can get in the fastest time. After all, the learning curve is way to big for most users to bother with.
The book starts out introducing the user to the Elements 2 interface and explains what you are going to see, and what it means. This leads into opening files (images/photos for newbies) and is the only book that I have seen that lists double clicking the desktop to open the explorer panel as a shortcut.
Once you are familiar with that and can find your images you are given instructions on particular methods of saving your images once you have made your alterations, and why you use different methods for your final result, be it for print, slideshow or the web.
Web users need to be aware of file size constraints which are not considerations for other types of image storing, and this is something that gets overlooked very easily, especially when email is involved.
After that the reader is taken directly to the correction techniques for the most common problems to be encountered, and how to remedy them. This is the main body of the book and is where it shines.
The reader is shown, by means of simple instructions using screen captures, what it is that they need to do to get much more from a quick snap that didn't quite come out as planned. No need to understand what is behind the fix, just follow the instructions and if you can do what is explained, then you can apply the same fix to your own images, it is that simple.
Utilise this 200 page, glossy paper, almost pocket sized book to add makeup, take away blemishes, add and remove colour, change colour and antique images. You can also add special effects to enhance and alter images sensibly to achieve a totally different effect.
BOTTOM LINE.
This is a great book for the newcomer to digital photography, and the techniques will apply to almost every photo editing software, not just the Elements 2 program packaged as a trial.
The book is almost an ad for the program but that isn't a bad thing, just good marketing, and if it helps to get the most from your new images then it achieves what it set out to do.
This book is definitely a must for beginners to check out and keep beside the computer.
Tim Skyrme (2003)
http://www.artzend.com
Book Description
With digital camera usage now established, the demand for easy, affordable photo editing tools has increased. Adobe's Photoshop Elements leads the way as an affordable image editing tool. This easy-to-follow, full-color guide shows all digital photographers how to make their photos look their best with dozens of well-organized, hands-on techniques. Readers learn how to change or replace a color, enhance faces, fix burred images, correct poor exposures, create a slide show, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent introduction to photo retouching.......2007-07-24
I had received a review copy of 40 Digital Photo Retouching Techniques with Photoshop Elements (published by Young Jin) from the US distributor, O'Reilly Media. It's thin as such guides go - 208 pages - but if you haven't yet gone beyond taking a digital picture into actually manipulating images, this a good introduction.
It's based around Photoshop Elements - a "lite" version of Photoshop that I've mentioned before - and even comes with a trial version on an accompanying CD. This isn't a comprehensive title on the subject of digital retouching; you can literally read a number of books on the subject and still not know everything about it. But as a way of getting your feet wet, it's solid.
Instead of learning one general technique after another, the book guides you through, as the title says, 40 different things you might want to do, incorporating what you need to know for each one. It's actually not all retouching in the classic sense of fixing a visual problem, though there is plenty of that. You start with learning how to correct contrast, move into gaining control over the colors in a photo, then get to a chapter called Enhancing Portraits, with some tricks I haven't seen before, like adding eye shadow to the image of a woman who wasn't wearing makeup. The book finally moves into general editing, adding special effects, and even such topics as adding motion blur and making greeting cards and web banners.
Of course, you can't expect to have all the information you would get in a larger volume. For example, they show one technique for creating high contrast black and white images from color ones, but there are at least three ways I can think of to also create black and white results, but with even more control. However, for someone new to photo manipulation - or someone, like me, who knows a fair amount but is always looking for new things to learn - this is a good book.
Quick intro to Photoshop Elements 5.......2007-06-06
Adobe's Photoshop Elements 5.0 (PE5) is an advanced photo editor that combines most of the special tools of the standard bearer, Photoshop, with affordable cost and a manageable learning curve. The current version 5 also includes an organizer that lets the user assemble his pictures in albums, combine them in slide shows on DVDs, and more.
For those who want to get a quick overview of many of the powerful tools available in PE the book by Zack Lee is an excellent guide. (Note: the author of the first edition is listed on the O'Reilly Web site as John Kim). In short chapters it leads the reader step-by-step through various editing procedures, using photos provided on a CD included with the book. Many basic editing steps can be achieved in different ways using the large selection of available tools, and the author purposely varies common procedures from example to example to optimize the learning experience. Of course, a complete discussion of all the tools available in PE5 requires a heftier text, such as O'Reilly's Photoshop Elements 5 - The Missing Manual.
After a brief introductory overview of the Editor window the following 6 chapters cover Correcting Contrast, Manipulating Colors, Enhancing Portraits, Editing Skills and Special Effects, Very Special Effects, and Using and Sharing Images. Going beyond the standard editing tools provided in basic photo editors, the reader also gets exposed to the many powerful special tools such as layers, levels, and the many brushes and erasers that do a lot more than the names would imply. With special tools portraits are made more flattering by adjusting skin color and retouching skin imperfections, resizing eyes, and streamlining jowly cheeks. A nice snapshot can be changed into an attractive portrait by blurring the background and removing background objects altogether. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
The book is attractively bound and presents step-by-step colorful screen shots of the photos at the different stages of editing, as well as of the corresponding editor windows. Sometimes the tool marks, such as the "crawling ants" outlines of selected objects, are hard to distinguish in the illustrations, but this is usually not a great obstacle in following the examples.
After completing the examples in the book the reader has been exposed to many of the powerful editing tools in Photoshop Elements 5.0. A useful index makes it easy to go back to specific examples for a refresher on how to perform certain adjustments or how to use certain tools. Highly recommended.
Book Description
"This dazzling, full-color book provides a fun, practical introduction to photo-editing with Photoshop Elements."
--Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher of DT&G Magazine
This second edition of our wildly popular, full-color introduction to photo-editing with Photoshop Elements offers dozens of hands-on techniques that reflect the product's latest features. Dive right in and make your photos look their absolute best with this fun, practical guide. Learn how to use the file browser, change image size, enhance faces, manage file size, correct white balance, enhance your subject, use raw format, and much more. The companion CD contains a tryout version of Photoshop Elements, utilities, and hundreds of images. Nowhere else will you find such valuable advice, creativity-inspiring images, with a CD, at such an affordable price.
40 Digital Photo Retouching Techniques will show you how to:
* Use Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 effectively
* Correct color and light
* Add color to black-and-white photos
* Remove red eye, eliminate blemishes, and enhance facial features
* Develop studio backgrounds and professional-style picture packages
* Clean up, combine, and resize images
* Split up scanned images
* Open and process RAW image files
* Create reflections and text effects
* Correct flaws with the Healing Brush
* Straighten distorted images
* Create a web banner
* Build a photo gallery for the web
* And more!
How is this book different?
* Written for digital image enthusiasts in a language that's easy to understand
* Presents inspiring, full-color images on every page
* Combines technical details with artistic inspiration
* Lets you dive right in and get creative with your digital camera
* Groups topics thematically for quick reference
* Provides a thorough introduction to Photoshop Elements 3.0 and digital imaging
* Uses practical step-by-step instructions, explanations, short-cuts, and tips
* Leads you to rapid mastery of retouching techniques
Customer Reviews:
it's ok...........2006-08-24
The Book is simple, alone it is not enough to learn Elements but as an addition to other books, you will find in it useful hints. You do have to apply them to your own photos by adjusting their instructions since they teach by using their photos and giving exact settings for that photo. Don't buy if it's the only book you will own, good as another source!
How to edit JUST 40 photos.......2006-06-12
This book has a CD with 40 photos, and includes specific instructions on how to edit those photos. Want to edit your own photos? Then this book is of little use to you, except in the unlikely event you want to make the EXACT same edits. When it comes to the edits, it does not instruct you WHAT you are doing or WHY you are doing it - it is just "click this button, enter values 10, 19, and 245" with nothing to help you understand why you are clicking that or using those specific buttons. I have read 6 books on photshop elements, and this is the only one I found that was completely unhelpful. The CD does not add value - it has only the sample photos and a "trial" version of elements 3 that is easily downloaded from adobe's website (if you want a trial version).
very easy to learn.......2005-04-25
A nice attraction of the book is the accompanying CD. It has a bunch of example images that you can try out the book's techniques on. But just as importantly, it has a trial version of Photoshop Elements. To some of you, just getting the latter might be well worth the entire book.
In any event, the book guides you through the most common usages of Elements. Much simpler than the full Photoshop. Which is really for professionals. Elements is more attuned towards the amateur market, where you have a need for easy to learn methods of touching up your digital images, and these are often photos.
Average customer rating:
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Darkebrood Volume One : A Gallery Girls Book (Gallery Girls Collection)
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ASIN: 0865620105 |
Book Description
Werewolves and vampires are just the tip of this macabre menagerie. In this Gallery Girls collection, we see women meld with all forms of the animal kingdom, each exuding their own dangerous charms. Darkebrood features the illustrative talents such talents as Blas Gallego, Tomas Giorello, Esteban Maroto, Maren, Maraschi, Mitch Byrd, Sanjulian, Roca, and many more. Cover art by DeMiguel.
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