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Pictograph to Alphabet and Back: Reconstructing the Pictograph Origins of the Xajil Chronicle (Transactions Vol. 102 #4)
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The House of Barnes: The Man, The Collection, The Controversy (Memoir Vol. 266)
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Our Price: $35.00
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Our Price: $45.00
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The Xajil Chronicle of the Kaqchikel Maya of Guatemala is topically the most diverse, lengthy, and organizationally complex of the surviving highland-Maya historical texts that were first recorded alphabetically in the colonial period. In this monograph, the author demonstrates that much of the Chronicle was redacted from preconquest pictographic documents, documents that new are lost.
Both the organization and topical coverage allow the author to identify the specific genres of the pictographic originals and characterize the content of preconquest historical “archives” as well as gauge the amount of information contained in such documents, which would necessarily have been committed to memory by indigenous historians.
Robert M. Hill II is Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University. His research, carried out mostly in the highland regions of Guatemala, has refined understanding of how the ancient Maya became the modern Maya. He is the author of several articles and books, including Colonial Cakchiquels: Highland Maya Adaptations to Spanish Rule, 1600-1700 (1992) and, with Judith Maxwell, Kaqchikel Chronicles (2006)
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The House of Barnes: The Man, The Collection, The Controversy is a beautifully written study of the extraordinary art collector and volatile personality Albert C. Barnes. The book places him in the context of his own era, shedding new light on the ideas and movements (about art collecting, education, and aesthetics) that shaped so much of his thinking.
The Barnes’ major holdings of largely post-impressionist art include more than 800 paintings, with a strong focus on Renoir (181 canvases), Cézanne (69), Matisse (59), and Picasso (46 paintings and drawings). In its entirety, it is the greatest single collection of such art that has remained intact.
The last chapters of the book address the controversial events surrounding the Barnes Foundation’s move to Philadelphia, including vehement opposition—as well as strong support. There is an analysis of the Foundation’s financial plight, a review of the major court cases over the decades, and a characterization of the fervent reactions following the court’s decision to allow the move to take place.
The monograph is recommended for a broad audience, including those interested in art and art collecting, the role of art in education, and the development of cultural institutions.
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Wright's Ferry Mansion, 2 Volume Set: Volume 1: The House; Volume 2: The Collection
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Astronomy in the Maya Codices: Memoirs Vol. 265
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Our Price: $95.00
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Our Price: $75.00
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A jewel of early 18th-century house museums, Wright’s Ferry Mansion is also Pennsylvania’s best-kept secret, tucked away along the banks of the Susquehanna River in Columbia, PA. Built in 1738 for the dynamic English Quaker Susanna Wright, the house has been restored and furnished by The von Hess Foundation. These beautiful volumes tell the fascinating history of the house and its original owner Susanna Wright, who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and other luminaries of early Pennsylvania. It is the only Pennsylvania English Quaker house furnished exclusively to the first half of the 18th century. The collection includes important Philadelphia William and Mary and Queen Anne furniture and English ceramics, metals, glass, and needlework, all pre-dating 1750. The appendix contains the original text of numerous letters, wills, inventories, poems, and two treatises by Susanna Wright and her brother James. Author and art historian Elizabeth Meg Schaefer has been curator of the mansion since 1982. 2-volume hardcover set in slipcase. Vol. 1 describes the house and furnishings; Vol. 1 describes each item in detail. Color photos.
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The Precolumbian Maya were closely attuned to the movements of the Sun and the Moon, the stars and the planets. Their rituals and daily tasks were performed according to a timetable established by these celestial bodies, a timetable based on a highly complex calendar system. Agriculture provided the foundation for their civilization, and the skies served as a kind of farmer’s almanac for when to plant and when to harvest. In this remarkable volume, noted Maya scholars Harvey Bricker and Victoria Bricker offer invaluable insight into the complex world of the Precolumbian Maya, and in particular the amazing achievements of Maya astronomy, as revealed in the Maya codices the indigenous hieroglyphic books written before the Spanish Conquest. This far-reaching study confirms that, independent of the Old World traditions that gave rise to modern Western astronomy, the Precolumbian Maya achieved a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy based on observations recorded over centuries. Illus.
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William Lewis, Esquire: Enlightened Statesman, Profound Lawyer, and Useful Citizen
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History of Alexander the Great (Transactions Vol. 102 #3)
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Our Price: $19.95
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Our Price: $35.00
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Lewis (1752-1819) was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, Federalist and abolitionist. His descendant Esther Ann McFarland spent years locating records by and about Lewis and compiling this study. “History buffs will be fascinated by this authentic account of the role a leading Phila. lawyer played in shaping the character of our nation while we transitioned from colonial to post-revolutionary times. As an advisor to our Founding Fathers, a champion of individual rights, a strong advocate for abolition of slavery, a state legislator, an inaugural officer of the Phila. Bar Assoc. and Pennsylvania’s first U.S. Attorney and second fed. judge, William Lewis had a major impact on the development of our laws and the balance achieved by our fed. and state governments.” Illus.
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Flora Kimmich (translator)
G. W. Bowersock (preface)
Brian Bosworth (foreword)
Flora Kimmich has translated J.G. Droysen’s classic study into English for the first time. Through her masterly rendering she brings this foundational work of modern historiography of the ancient world to a new audience. Based entirely on ancient sources, this is an exhaustive, beautifully narrated account of Alexander from the origins of the ancient Macedonian kingdom to Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 B.C. Droysen’s interpretation of Alexander, first published in 1833 by a 25-year-old Privatdozent, is colored both by the idealistic exuberance of German romanticism and the wars of liberation and, in a substantially revised second edition published in 1877, by the imperial optimism of a newly consolidated Germany. This translation of the 1877 edition, with complete notes, does full justice to Droysen’s celebrated prose style. The monograph is enhanced with special introductory sections by Glen W. Bowersock and Brian Bosworth. Map.
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