Book Description
Out of the clash of genius and the caprice of popes came the most glorious monument of the Renaissance
It was the splendor—and the scandal—of the age. In 1506, the ferociously ambitious Renaissance Pope Julius II tore down the most sacred shrine in Europe—the millenniumold St. Peter's Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine over the apostle's grave—to build a better basilica. Construction of the new St. Peter's spanned two centuries, embroiled twenty-seven popes, and consumed the genius of the greatest artists of the age—Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael, and Bernini. As the basilica rose, modern Rome rose with it as glorious as the city of the Caesars. But the cost was unimaginable. The new basilica provoked the Protestant Reformation, dividing the Christian world for all time.
In this swift, colorful narrative, R. A. Scotti brings to life the artists and the popes, the politics and the passions behind this audacious enterprise. Gothic cathedrals reach up to heaven, but the basilica brings heaven to earth, and the new St. Peter's was the defining event of the high Renaissance.
In the tradition of Brunelleschi's Dome, Scotti turns sacred architecture into a spellbinding human epic of enormous daring, petty jealousy, and staggering genius.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome Alliteration..........2007-09-03
Scotti's ability to tie the present to the past is impressive and instructive. I listened to the audio book and was both educated and inspired. Scotti built an understandable timeline and an understated history of popes and painters (and sculptors). My only complaint is that the alliteration was both constant and contrived.
Too many popes, not enough building.......2007-08-06
I very much anticipated reading a history of the building of St. Peter's. I was dismayed to learn that this book is a thinly-researched effort that is too pope-bio focused, with very little concentration on the building itself.
Full of anachronisms, full of misinformation. If you can keep your lunch down when reading chapter titles like "The Knaves of Saint Peter's", you are a better man than I am.
Thank God that I borrowed it from the library as opposed to buying it!
The Sacred and the Profane - a Grand Enterprise.......2007-07-23
Saint Peter's Basilica is at once a magnificent place of worship and a symbol of both the best and worst in the hearts, minds and souls of its human designers. A wondrous architectural and engineering achievement, the logistics and financial excesses and abuses contributed in no small way to the fracturing of the Catholic Church, sparking the Protestant Reformation and leading to the counter-Reformation at the Council of Trent.
BASILICA chronicles the story of this unique structure, spanning decades of human tumult and artistic controversy. Author R.A. Scotti (whose works include the fascinating SUDDEN SEA: THE GREAT HURRICANE OF 1938) offers the reader a lively portrayal of the strategies and machinations of artists, clerics, politicians and others. BASILICA is filled with gripping drama, expansive egos, and enough plot twists to keep the reader engaged the 320-some pages.
Some of the reviews, particular those from "scholars," refer to historical inaccuracies. As I am not a Renaissance scholar, I cannot comment upon them. The only complaint that I would have about the book is when the author editorializes on the Catholic faith itself. Although infrequent, these criticisms seem to be based on issues other than the subject matter of the book. Nevertheless, the book provides a fascinating look into the [arguably] crowing achievement of Renaissance architecture.
Exciting, Interesting Tale - but what was left out?.......2007-03-19
Very well written and apparently balanced account of the"space program" of the middle ages. Would have been 5 stars but the word "Cluny" does not appear in the book. With an omission that huge one wonders what else of great significance also was lost along the way.
If You Are Interested In St. Peter's..........2007-01-17
Today, St. Peter's Basilica and Square is one of the architectural glories of the world. But, when Pope Julius II decided to demolish the ancient Basilica and build a new one (to his glory and, oh yes, God's too), there was no guarantee that it would even be completed, let alone that it would surpass the original. In fact, at many times over the more than a century it took to finish the job, the basilica was abandoned, redesigned and restarted by many different hands.
In Basilica, Ms. Scotti does an good job of taking us through the many iterations that led to the final result. She shows us the changes in design and the labor and engineering skill that it took to make those designs a reality. She gives us a taste for the personalities--Julius, Bramante, Michelangelo, Sixtus, etc.--who drove the project forward. All of this is quite well done.
If her insights, particularly into people and world events, seem a little superficial; well, that's to be expected. She's chosen a very narrow topic that covered a lot of years and people. It's difficult to go into much depth when you want to cover a lot of ground in a relatively easy to read book. And at least she manages to keep her aesthetic judgements from overwhelming the story. Not always an easy thing to do. Anyone who wants the broad strokes in the creation of this masterpiece wouldn't go wrong in taking a look at this book.
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The Altars and Altarpieces of New St. Peter's: Outfitting the Basilica, 16211666 (Monuments of Papal Rome)
Louise Rice
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521554705 |
Book Description
Following the completion of the construction of new St. Peter's in the second decade of the seventeenth century, a series of monumental altarpieces was commissioned to decorate its altars. Here for the first time the altarpieces of St. Peter's are considered collectively, within the liturgical and artistic program of the building as a whole. Louise Rice takes a comprehensive approach to this critical chapter in the history of Italian Baroque art, offering insight into the mechanisms, motives, and meanings of papal patronage in the premier church of Catholicism.
Customer Reviews:
A very scholarly book.......2004-03-12
As a big fan of St. Peter's Basilica, I found this book to be one of the most scholarly treatments available in English.
It's not for the average person looking for a tour guide, but if you're interested in the artists of this period or the politics involved in selecting altarpieces for the Basilica, then Louise Rice's book is a well documented resource. She even gives the background of the subject matter (saint, miracle, etc) better than I have been able to find elsewhere.
My only wish is that the book covered all the altarpieces. For example, the Transfiguration Altar based on Raphael's painting is not covered.
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St. Peter's in the Vatican
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521640962 |
Book Description
St. Peter's in the Vatican has a long and turbulent history. First constructed in the fourth century to honor the tomb of St. Peter, the Early Christian edifice was gradually torn down and replaced by the current structure. The history of the design and construction of this new building spans several centuries and involved several of the most brilliant architects, including Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini, of the early modern period. This volume presents an overview of St. Peter's history from the late antique period to the twentieth century.
Book Description
Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante—together these artists created some of the most glorious treasures of the Vatican, viewed daily by thousands of tourists. But how many visitors understand the way these artworks reflect the passions, dreams, and struggles of the popes who commissioned them? For anyone making an artistic pilgrimage to the High Renaissance splendors of the Vatican, George L. Hersey's book is the ideal guide.
Before starting the tour of individual works, Hersey describes how the treacherously shifting political and religious alliances of sixteenth-century Italy, France, and Spain played themselves out in the Eternal City. He offers vivid accounts of the lives and personalities of four popes, each a great patron of art and architecture: Julius II, Leo X, Clement VII, and Paul III. He also tells of the complicated rebuilding and expanding of St. Peter's, a project in which Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo all took part.
Having set the historical scene, Hersey then explores the Vatican's magnificent Renaissance art and architecture. In separate chapters, organized spatially, he leads the reader through the Cortile del Belvedere and Vatican Museums, with their impressive holdings of statuary and paintings; the richly decorated Stanze and Logge of Raphael; and Michelangelo's Last Judgment and newly cleaned Sistine Chapel ceiling. A fascinating final chapter entitled "The Tragedy of the Tomb" recounts the vicissitudes of Michelangelo's projected funeral monument to Julius II.
Hersey is never content to simply identify the subject of a painting or sculpture. He gives us the story behind the works, telling us what their particular themes signified at the time for the artist, the papacy, and the Church. He also indicates how the art was received by contemporaries and viewed by later generations.
Generously illustrated and complete with a useful chronology, High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican is a valuable reference for any traveler to Rome or lover of Italian art who has yearned for a single-volume work more informative and stimulating than ordinary guidebooks. At the same time, Hersey's many anecdotes and intriguing comparisons with works outside the Vatican will provide new insights even for specialists.
Customer Reviews:
beautiful book.......2005-07-28
It is a very useful guide to the vatican palace and to st peter.
It is centered in a very particular period. The tremendous richess of ancient art in the palace is completelly absent.
Book Description
History And Description of the Basilica With A Plan And 110 Illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
St. Peter's.......2006-07-03
This book was a good memory-jogger after the fact of a visit to St. Peter's.
Stunning accomplishment!.......2005-09-20
Every good Catholic should have this small and lovely illustrated book on the Basilica. It goes into true depth and descriptive details of this most monumental of religious structures.
Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
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The Complete Book of Stencilcraft
J. day simon
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 067121862X |
Book Description
Comprehensive guide for decorating most flat surfaces. Covers preparing stencil paper, transferring designs, use of paints and brushes, more. 220 illustrations, including many stencil patterns for lovely florals, decorative alphabets, and charming figures.
Book Description
In this timely collection, several eminent international relations experts consider the twentieth century's recurring failure to construct a stable and peaceful world order in the wake of war. Why has peace been so difficult to build? The authors reflect on post-war periods, drawing out historical parallels and offering essential insights on how to navigate toward peace across unstable strategic landscapes.
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Altered Landscapes: The Photographs of John Pfahl (Untitled)
John Pfahl , and
Peter C. Bunnell
Manufacturer: Friends of Photography Bookstore
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0933286236 |
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The Altered Landscape
Manufacturer: University of Nevada Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0874173302 |
Book Description
Over the past decade, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno has been assembling a collection of works depicting a broad range of landscapes known as The Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck Collection. This book is intended as an introduction to The Altered Landscape Collection. But even more, it introduces readers to the specific aesthetic objectives of the artists creating the photographs and to the larger issues of humankind's attitudes toward and uses of the land. Lavishly illustrated with reproductions of work from The Altered Landscape Collection, this book is a breathtaking contribution to the history of contemporary art. Far more than an "art" book, The Altered Landscape is a provocative, richly intelligent exploration of the attitudes and values within which art is made, and of the ways by which artists, and ordinary people, respond to the world around them.
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Altered Landscapes
John Pfahl
Manufacturer: Friends of Photography
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBGHUO |
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Altered Landscapes: Christianity in America 1935-1985
David W. Lotz
Manufacturer: Eerdmans Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0802804551 |
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A Climb Through Altered Landscapes
Ian Parks
Manufacturer: Blackwater Pr
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0952855739 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Label & Narrow Web, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2007. The length of the article is 3012 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Flexo plate evolution: digital plate processing has altered the landscape in flexography. The conventional systems still abound, but digital is taking market share, and some new equipment is poised to gain attention.
Author: Jack Kenny
Publication:
Label & Narrow Web (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 12
Issue: 3
Page: 54(5)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Family Practice News, published by International Medical News Group on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1018 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Molecular research has altered landscape of cystic fibrosis: seminal articles of the year.(Children's Health)
Author: Timothy F. Kirn
Publication:
Family Practice News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 33
Issue: 19
Page: 68(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Photo Marketing, published by Photo Marketing Association International on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 2709 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: A new world: digital transition has altered landscape for the industry's biggest companies.
Author: Bonnie Gretzner
Publication:
Photo Marketing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Photo Marketing Association International
Volume: 79
Issue: 12
Page: 30(3)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Arid Environments, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
We studied the habitat preferences of Eurasian scops-owls in a semi-arid Mediterranean region undergoing large-scale habitat alteration. Generalized linear models were used to examine patterns of habitat preference at three different spatial scales: core area, home range and landscape, comparing the habitat composition around occupied and unoccupied territories. At the core area scale, owls occupied dry land tree plantations, ephemeral rivers (ramblas) and riverine forests. At the home range and landscape scales, they preferred dry land tree plantations and ramblas, the model stressing the importance of the borders between them. The length of paved roads and the presence of conspecific neighbours were also significant variables in the landscape scale model. During the study period, the population declined by 52.4%. Territory desertion was probably prompted by the increasing use of dry land plantations, ramblas and riverine forests as building land. Environmental impact studies and assessments continue to disregard the potential of agro-landscape elements for regulating hydrological flows and for hosting fauna. The present study adds to a growing number of papers revealing the importance of traditional agro-landscapes in southeastern Spain, despite whose findings, no long-term, spatially explicit measures have been proposed by environmental authorities.
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Assessing Rational Expectations 2: "Eductive" Stability in Economics
Roger Guesnerie
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Econometrics
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ASIN: 0262072580 |
Book Description
The rational expectations hypothesis (REH) dominates economic modeling in areas ranging from monetary theory, macroeconomics, and general equilibrium to finance. In this book, Roger Guesnerie continues the critical analysis of the REH begun in his Assessing Rational Expectations: Sunspot Multiplicity and Economic Fluctuations, which dealt with the questions raised by multiplicity and its implications for a theory of endogenous fluctuations. This second volume emphasizes "eductive" learning: relying on careful reasoning, agents must deduce what other agents guess, a process that differs from the standard evolutionary learning experience in which agents make decisions about the future based on past experiences. A broad "eductive" stability test is proposed that includes common knowledge and results in a unique "rationalizable expectations equilibrium." This test provides the basis for Guesnerie's theoretical assessment of the plausibility of the REH's expectational coordination, emphasizing, for different categories of economic models, conditions for the REH's success or failure.
Guesnerie begins by presenting the concepts and methods of the eductive stability analysis in selected partial equilibrium models. He then explores to what extent general equilibrium strategic complementarities interfere with partial equilibrium considerations in the formation of stable expectations. Guesnerie next examines two issues relating to eductive stability in financial market models, speculation and asymmetric price information. The dynamic settings of an infinite horizon model are then taken up, and particular standard and generalized saddle-path solutions are scrutinized. Guesnerie concludes with a review of general questions and some "cautious" remarks on the policy implications of his analysis.
Books:
- Berkshire Cottages: Vanishing Era
- Biotechnology for the Environment: Wastewater Treatment and Modeling, Waste Gas Handling (Focus on Biotechnology)
- California Bungalows of the Twenties
- Careers for Crafty People & Other Dexterous Types (Careers for You Series)
- Charles Rose, Architect
- Charleston Style: Past and Present
- Charleston Style: Past and Present
- Charter of The New Urbanism
- China's New Dawn: An Architectural Transformation
- Circadian Rhythms: Methods and Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology)
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![Patterns of territory settlement by Eurasian scops-owls (Otus scops) in altered semi-arid landscapes [An article from: Journal of Arid Environments]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21DJRFXNFBL.jpg)