Dumbarton Oaks

Book Description

The Dumbarton Oaks Research and Study Center in Washington, D.C., administered by Harvard University, is a famed museum and study center specializing in pre-Columbian art, Byzantine studies, and garden history and design. Long known for its museum pavilion, designed by the noted architect Philip Johnson, Dumbarton Oaks sits within one of the most spectacular gardens in America.

Customer Reviews:

The Words of an Emperor.......2005-06-28

"De Administrando Imperio" is a fascinating look into the mind of a well read Byzantine Emperor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who lived from 905-959 AD. This book is in fact a secret imperial foreign policy manual, written for his son Romanus. As such, the point of view demonstrated in this book is very unlike anything you will find in the writings of other famous Byzantine authors. In this text you gain a deeper understanding of the apprehension the Byzantines had about the various northern tribes and the respect that they had for the Roman heritage of the Latins and for the strength of the Arabs.

This book is a well-organized collection of various bits of foreign policy advice. In this edition, the text is bilingual, with the original Greek and an English translation on opposite pages. This arrangement is very handy for checking the English translation or helping to read the original.

The book is divided into an introduction and 53 different chapters, each on a different theme. The introduction is fascinating in itself as it tells much of how someone born and raised to be a Byzantine emperor understood government. The chapters are divided by geography and nations in the following order; Pechenegs, Russians, Hungarians (called Turks), Bulgarians, Arabs, Spain, Lombardy, Venice, Dalmatia, Croats, Serbs, Armenians, Georgians, Cyprus, Peloponnese, and Cherson in the Crimea.

A must read for anyone interested in Byzantine governance or the history of the 10th century.

Lots of anecdotes, very little to be gleaned.......2004-06-14

This text was written as a guide on effective governance from Constantine Porphyrogenitus to his son. As a guide qua the Byzantine Empire, it probably proved extremely useful. The book is full of detailed information about the demography and geography of the Byzantine lands and peoples. It includes cultural highlights and major occurrances and potential disputes within the empire. As such, it is a vital reference to an incoming emperor. To the modern reader, however, it serves as more of a historical document than a relevant guide. Unlike Machiavelli's works, which are also grounded in historical precedent, De Administrando Imperio includes little in the way of commentary. Machiavelli used historical anecdotes to illustrate a point he was making, following one with the other. Constantine, on the other hand, perhaps preferring the lighter touch with his legacy, simply allows the reader to draw thier own conclusions about the anecdotes. This is an admirable course for an instructor to take, but when one seeks the wisdom of a more experienced man, the light touch ends up being a little dissappointing. The side-by-side translation is useful for readers of Greek in case of controversial translation. Overall, the book is lively and engaging, but not terribly useful for purposes of enlightenment.

Byzantine Precursor to Machiavelli's The Prince.......2000-04-14

Excellent translation, and notes, of this treatise on realpolitik written in the 10th century AD. The author, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, ruled the most powerful European polity of the period and intended the treatise to be a guidebook for his son in dealing with the empire's neighbours.

It is a manual on statecraft and diplomacy, as well as providing crucial historical and ethnographic information of the period it deals with. Byzantine foreign policy is clearly borne out and the ruthlessness of some of it's 'byzantine' recommendations put this treatise on a par with Machiavelli's The Prince in it's realpolitical nature. For instance, Constantine's recommendations on how to deal with different types of enemies extends to allies and friendly neighbours, should they be deemed enemies or dangerous at some point in the future. It is a definite 'eye-opener' and first hand account of the complicated world of a superpower's diplomatic and international relations in the medieval world five centuries before Machiavelli.

The translation itself, with extensive and very helpful notes, is excellent and flows well - not clumsy, as some translated documents can be/seem. The preface is also useful, charting the history of the document and begs the very tantalising question of whether this treatise could have found it's way to early Renaissance Italy and Machiavelli.

It is not as entertaining as Machiavelli's The Prince but it was written and intended solely as a manual on statecraft. It may also cause some difficulty for the general reader (from a Western perspective) in getting to grips with the historical, geographical and ethnographic details, as it deals with these issues extensively but Byzantine history is not that well known, on a general level, in the US and Western Europe outside of academic circles. Those familiar with Byzantine history and early East European history will find this an informative document. From an academic point of view it is an invaluable source for Byzantine history and the early history of international relations.

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The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan (Dumbarton Oaks Studies)
S. Thomas Parker
Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | Italy | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Archaeology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0884022986

Book Description

Until the 1980s, the Roman frontier in modern Jordan was among the least studied of the empire's far-flung border regions. From 1980 until 1989, the Limes Arabicus Project investigated the frontier east of the Dead Sea. Excavation focused on the late Roman legionary fortress of el-Lejjun as well as soundings of four smaller but contemporaneous forts. The project's regional survey recorded over five hundred other archaeological sites in the area, dating from the Paleolithic to the Late Islamic periods. This report presents detailed results from the excavated forts, a broad range of material cultural evidence from animal bones to bedouin burials, and provides a synthesis of the history of this frontier, which witnessed the first confrontation between the Byzantine Empire and the forces of Islam.

Falsifications and misreconstructions of pre-Columbian art: A conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 14th and 15th, 1978

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Falsifications and misreconstructions of pre-Columbian art: A conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 14th and 15th, 1978

Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0884021114

Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

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Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Religious | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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Through Their Own Eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines Saw It

ASIN: 0884023117

Book Description

From the veils of the first-century Jewish temple, to the Orthodox iconostasis, to the tramezzi of Renaissance Italy, screens of various shapes, sizes, and materials have been used to separate spaces and order communities in religious buildings. Drawn from papers presented at a recent Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Studies symposium, the contributors to this volume use a variety of perspectives to approach the history of religious screens and examine the thresholds that they mark. Focusing on the Middle Ages and Renaissance in the East and West, the volume includes discussions of screens in Egypt, Byzantium, the Gothic West and Italy. Some authors argue that screens, and particularly the one marking the threshold between the sanctuary/choir and nave, were conduits rather than barriers. Other authors emphasize the critical role of screens in dividing the laity and clergy, men and women, the pure and impure.

This volume provides new research on the history of religious screen and important insights into the many ways in which the sacred and profane are separated within ecclesiastical contexts.

Mughal Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium Series in the History of Landscape Architecture)

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Excellent

Mughal Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium Series in the History of Landscape Architecture)
James L., Jr. Wescoat
Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Landscape | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Landscape | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0884022358

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-07-13

An excellent book with great photos of many places almost impossible for Americans to visit. A delightfully well written text. Great book on a subject far too little has been written about.

Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Pre-Columbian Studies)

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Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Pre-Columbian Studies)
Karl A. Taube
Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica (Cambridge World Archaeology)

ASIN: 0884022757

Book Description

Omec Art at Dumbarton Oaks presents the Olmec portion of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. It illustrates all thirty-nine Olmec art objects in color plates and includes many complementary and comparative black-and-white illustrations and drawings. The body of Pre-Columbian art that Robert Bliss carefully assembled over a half-century between 1912 and 1963, amplified only slightly since his death, is a remarkably significant collection. In addition to their aesthetic quality and artistic significance, the objects hold much information regarding the social worlds and religious and symbolic views of the people who made and used them before the arrival of Europeans in the New World.

This volume is the second in a series of catalogues that will treat objects in the Bliss Pre-Columbian Collection. The majority of the Olmec objects in the collection are made of jade, the most precious material for the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica from early times through the sixteenth century. Various items such as masks, statuettes, jewelry, and replicas of weapons and tools were used for ceremonial purposes and served as offerings.

Karl Taube brings his expertise on the lifeways and beliefs of ancient Mesoamerican peoples to his study of the Olmec objects in teh Bliss collection. His understanding of jade covers a broad range of knowledge from chemical compositions to geological sources to craft technology to the symbolic power of the green stone. Throughout the book the author emphasizes the role of jade as a powerful symbol of water, fertility, and particularly, of the maize plant which was the fundamental source of life and sustenance for the Olmec. The shiny green of the stone was analogous to the green growth of maize. This fundamental concept was elaborated in specific religious beliefs, many of which were continued and elaborated by later Mesoamerican peoples, such as the Maya. Karl Taube employs his substantial knowledge of Pre-Columbian cultures to explore and explicate Olmec symbolism in this catalogue.

A Pre-Columbian World (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Pre-Columbian Studies)

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A Pre-Columbian World (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Pre-Columbian Studies)
Anna Blume , Elizabeth Hill Boone , Warren R. DeBoer , Tom D. Dillehay , Enrique Florescano , Robert L. Hall , Mary W. Helms , Simon Martin , Ramiro Matos , Polly Schaafsma , and Karl A. Taube
Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 088402315X

Book Description

The articles in this book conceptualize the ancient New World through new and varied approaches, from iconography to the history of anthropology. The many essays in this volume explore the vast vista of the Pre-Columbian world, including representations of history, memory, and knowledge in Andean visual imagery and Pre-Columbian narrative, the ideology of rain making, and Maya beliefs about animal transformations.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)

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Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Byzantine Studies)
Irfan Shahid
Manufacturer: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

Byzantine | World | History | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books

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ASIN: 0884021521

Book Description

Walt Meade's close encounter with a rare Catskill coyote is only one of many intimate moments described by the author. Growing up on the edge of a small town or working on a rugged hillside farm, Walt felt a fascination for wild things not always shared by those who had to earn a living from the land.

He tells of the pure enjoyment of nature by the young boy, the demands of rural life when growing to manhood and the sheer delight in everything "wild" in maturity.

With patience born of reverence, Walt sought out the private lives of the creatures who lived and struggled beyond- and sometimes within- his garden gate. His discovery of the magic of the camera made the challenge even greater- to capture through the lens the beautiful and fleeting, the rare and elusive life in the unnoticed corners of the untamed places around him.

Customer Reviews:

finest interpreter of Catskill Mountain nature in a century.......1997-09-27

Not since John Burroughs has a writer been able to capture the beauty, peace and essence of the Catskill Mountains as did Walter Meade. For anyone who delights in fine photography, this book offers some of the lovliest photos of Northeastern wildlife ever taken. Meade's ability to find and record animals like bobcat, white-tailed deer and raccoons as they go about their daily lives is unequalled - his love for nature glows from every page.

Book Description

The whole gang goes to a mountain hot-spring resort where a herd of Ditto cause loads of confusion! Soon, it's Valentine's Day, and everybody - even the Pokemon - knows what that means!

Customer Reviews:

Uh oh, Pokemon have gone to the hot springs..........2003-06-15

This issue of the shojo(girls) manga, Magical Pokemon Journey, has these stories:
(1)Excitement At The... Hot Springs?!: Cute little Hazel wins a trip to go to some Hot Springs Resort, and brings along Granpa, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Clefairy. While inside the Hot Springs, Granpa resorts to his perverted ways and peers in on Hazel while she's bathing, but luckily Pikachu ends up stopping the sicko, with 'shocking' results. Unfortunately that distraction causes a Ditto to sneak in without notice, causing a whole lot of confusion...
(2)Valentine Heartbeats: A little story about Clefairy and Pikachu and valentine's day. Crazy hijinks are to unfold later...
(3)Bonus Bonus 1 'Yumi Tsukirino's Road To Becoming A Pokemon Master': The artist and creator of this manga answers some fan questions about the manga and the Pokemon RPG.
(4)Bonus Bonus 2 'Let's Catch Some Pokemon': The cast of this manga meet the cast of the Pokemon anime. Ash and Misty introduce Hazel and Coconut to the signature Pokemon-catching tool, the PokeBall.Jigglypuff and Brock face-off in a cooking contest. Pikachu and Pikachu try to balance things on their heads, and Misty and Hazel answer some often-asked questions.
If you like Pokemon, you should get this manga; especially if you like shojo manga. For such a cheap price, you've got nothing to lose. :)

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