David Brown Book Company
Bohemian and Moravian graduals 1420-1620.
This authoritative text presents a full survey of extant graduals (books containing the music for the mass) that were created in Bohemia and Moravia, for Catholic or Hussite mass. Graham (his affiliation is not noted) details the historic and liturgic context of the graduals then describes the patronage of these expensive books; the local literary guilds and nobility; and the scribes, illuminators, composers, and binders who created the books. Iconography of the illuminations is also discussed. The remaining text features detailed descriptions of each gradual (134 in all), noting ID marks, cover, leaves, layout, script, decoration, contents, bibliography, and including a summary and history. Published in an oversized format (8.5x11.25 inches), the volume concludes with a section of color plates of excellent quality (though the images are reproduced in small format, three or more to a page), and b&w plates of features of the binding. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Cambridge illuminations; the conference papers.
The 26 papers of this handsome, oversized volume (8.5x11.25 inches) were presented in earlier form at a conference held in 2005 as part of a major exhibition of 215 manuscripts from the collection of Cambridge University Library and exhibited at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The papers, written by manuscript scholars in Europe and the US, describe and analyze specific manuscripts, dating from the 12th through the 15th century, often contextualizing them in a broader stylistic context. The volume, which is well illustrated with color and b&w plates, will be of interest to medievalists. Distributed in North America by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Cardiff; architecture and archaeology in the medieval diocese of Llandaff.
The proceedings of the July 2004 annual conference of the British Archaeological Association comprise 11 papers on the capital city of Wales, where the conference was held. Historians and art historians as well as archaeologists consider such features as the evidence of the early Christian monuments, the Early Gothic fabric of Llandaff Cathedral and its place in the West Country school of masons, and three rood-screens in southeast Wales. There is no index. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Castles of the Morea, rev.ed.
Long out of print, this extraordinary work was first published in 1953, five years after the author graduated from Harvard and received a traveling fellowship from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Douglas Gordon undertook to visit, photograph, and describe the medieval fortresses in the Peloponnese at a time when studying Greece meant studying the ancients, and at a time (the end of the Greek Civil War) when such travel was difficult. Also remarkable is his evocative use of language, conveying his passion for the subject. This reprint makes the work available again with a new foreword by Glenn R. Bugh (history, Virginia Polytechnic Institute) setting Andrews' work in context and offering some new scholarship. The Grimani maps — a collection of 17th-century fortification plans that inspired Andrews — are reproduced in color rather than b&w as in the original. The volume is oversize, measuring 9.25x12.25 inches. Books from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens are distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The churchyard.
They are the primary sources of information about many aspects of past life, and often they are the only sources. Along with bones are artifacts with which people were buried, the receptacles in which they were buried and the means of covering the graves. The Wharram Perry church and churchyard have yielded their secrets to archeologists for a couple of decades now, and this magnificent description of the over 900 medieval bodies and other evidence gives the workers as well as their findings their due. This Yorkshire site had burials from about 950 to 1906, and this report reflects the long time the church was active, describing the churchyard and the land, the excavations, the human remains, the burials, the pottery, the small objects of various materials, including coins and glass, and environmental evidence. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Cloth and clothing in early Anglo-Saxon England, AD 450-700.
Rogers, of The Anglo-Saxon Laboratory, details how clothing was made in the Early Anglo-Saxon period from AD 450 to AD 700. She draws on material excavated from settlements and cemeteries in England and discusses clothing manufacturing in the context of gender, immigration, economy, and the meaning of costume in Anglo-Saxon society. After detailing the process of production, she describes the main cloth types, costume accessories, styles, and regional and chronological variations, as well as those based on age and social status. Many illustrations are provided throughout. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The coins and the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine economy of Palestine.
In summer of 1971, the project began archaeological excavations in the sand dunes that covered Caesarea, the former port and capital of Palestine, and continued steadily for 12 summers with further intermittent efforts until 1995. Evans (art history, Temple U.) examines coins found there that illuminate the history of the city and environs from the fourth century BCE to the seventh CE. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Coinage of the crusaders and the world of Islam.
Collector Azzopardi, who specializes in the coins of Malta, the Middle Ages, and the Crusades, here provides a survey of crusader, Islamic, and related coins, most of them produced between the 11th-17th centuries. Short historical essays precede the coins in each of the categories described, which include different states, reigns, or events. Published in an oversized format (8.75x12 inches), the volume contains images of all the coins of this impressive collection with short descriptive entries. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Common ground; archaeology, art, science, and humanities; proceedings.
Mattusch (George Mason U.), Donohue (Bryn Mawr College), and Brauer (Harvard U. Art Museums) present the proceedings of the August 2003 International Conference of Classical Archaeology, which began with a keynote address calling for a "unifying vision" in studies of archaeology, literature, epigraphy, geography, prehistory and history, art, and technology. The archaeologists, art historians, conservation scientists, and others responsible for the 140 papers, 21 posters, eight colloquia, and two roundtable sessions were apparently tasked with advancing such a goal in sessions discussing the history of archaeology, recycling in antiquity, magic and religious practices, cultural interactions in the classical world, museums and collecting in the past, numismatics and epigraphy, Dionysiac imagery, ancient technology through modern lenses, boundaries and the classical "periphery," conservation and restoration, methods and meanings in funerary practices, Roman social history and archaeology, elements of archaeology in the ancient world, recording the past, iconography in sculpture, landscapes, iconography of myth, and children in ancient Greece. New discoveries from sites around the world were also reported in a number of other sessions. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A corpus of Anglo-Saxon and medieval pottery from Lincoln.
Young and Vince continue the projected 10-volume series making the analysis of archaeological excavations in the city of Lincoln from 1970 to 1987 available to a wider readership than those with access to the reports of individual excavation projects. They explain the methodology and dating, then describe pottery in chronological chapters from early Anglo-Saxon (450-650) to post-medieval/early modern (1600-1770). Line drawings accompany the descriptions. A formal catalogue and technical appendices are included, along with color photographs of selected pieces. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Creations; medieval rituals, the arts, and the concept of creation.
To trace part of the transformation of the concept of creation from biblical to modern times, scholars of music, literature, the visual arts, and theology focus on medieval liturgical practice, artistic production in the modern era, and the interconnections between the two. Their topics include creation and recreation in Irish bardic poetry, the new manner of composing in the years around 1800, and vignettes of Kabbalistic and deconstructive thought. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Current research in Egyptology; proceedings.
Postgraduate students from around the world report on recent research in the field of Egyptology. Many of the 13 papers explore various aspects of the Egyptian language and ancient Egyptian literature. Others address such topics as the ritual meaning of the materials used to construct Tut'Ankhamun's body armor, and the potential of using stable isotope analysis to investigate dietary patterns in pre- dynastic Egypt. The volume is not indexed. Editor Dann teaches archaeology at the U. of Durham. Distributed in the U.S. by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Current research in Egyptology; proceedings.
This volume contains 13 papers from postgraduate students presenting at the Sixth Annual Current Research in Egyptology Symposium, held at the UK's U. of Cambridge in January 2005. Among the topics examined in the multidisciplinary papers are children and the dead in New Kingdom Egypt, Egyptian artifacts from Central and South Asia, royal women's tombs in the Valley of the Queens, the material significance of predynastic and early dynastic palettes, and Egyptian royal women and diplomatic activity during the New Kingdom. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Current research in Egyptology; proceedings.
This volume contains 13 papers from postgraduate students presenting at the Seventh Annual Current Research in Egyptology Symposium, held at the UK's U. of Oxford in April 2006. The proceedings are multidisciplinary in nature and include such topics as the significance of manifestations of the dead as evidenced in texts from the Old Kingdom to the Coptic period, radiocarbon dating of ancient Egyptian mummies and their associated artifacts, the archival history of Coptic documents from Jeme Held in the British Library, cattle petroglyphs in the eastern desert of Egypt, new findings of Meroitic pottery from Sudan, the locational significance of scatological references in the Coffin Texts, and the localization of the Shasu-land of Rameses II's rhetorical texts. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Daily life ornamented; the medieval Persian city of Rayy.
The exhibit at the Oriental Museum in Chicago (no date cited) and this companion volume demonstrate how archaeologists work with shards, while illuminating aspects of life along the Silk Road from the ninth to the 14th centuries in the Persian city south of the Caspian Sea. Among the topics are Erich Schmidt's excavations during the 1930s, putting the whole picture together, and industry and innovation. There is no index. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Das Moller-Florilegium; Hans Simon Holtzbeckers Blumenalbum für den Bürgermeister Barthold Moller.
Both of the sumptuous botanical albums produced by the 17th-century Hamburg artist are presented in a suitably grand oversized format (10x14.25 inches), with essays discussing the life, work, and influences of the artist; the garden and artistic patronage of the mayor who commissioned his work; and the paintings within the albums. The botanical paintings of fruit, exotic plants, and flowers are presented in full-page color plates, with catalog entries that cite at length earlier bibliography and descriptions. Typical for this publisher, this is a beautifully produced volume, well bound, with color plates of the best quality, and contained in a suitably heavy case. A glossary is provided, but there is no index. The text is in German. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Dealing with the dead; archaeological perspectives on prehistoric Scandinavian burial ritual.
The 14 essays in this volume examine how prehistoric Scandinavian burial rituals can be interpreted within contemporary Swedish contract archaeology. They analyze the material culture of burial rituals from a historical perspective and aim to indicate the range and depth of current Swedish archaeology. The essays are case studies of graves and collective religious rituals over a broad period of time (Neolithic, Viking, Bronze, and Iron Ages, for example) and region (such as Uppland, eastern and southern Sweden) and topics such as gender, symbolism, and terminology. Authors of the essays are associated with the Archaeological Excavations Department of the Swedish National Heritage Board or The Museum of National Antiquities in Sweden. There is no index. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Deir El-Behari in the Hellenistic and Roman periods; a study of an Egyptian temple based on Greek sources.
From 1988 to 1990, and again in 1995 and 2002, Lajtar (archaeology, Warsaw U.-Cairo) documented reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, but he also discovered nearly 100 Greek inscriptions that had not been reported earlier, and made observations and corrections to many more that had been reported. Here he presents his findings on cult activities there during Ptolemaic and Roman times, and catalogs the sources of the Greek inscriptions. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Deliciae fictiles III; architectural terracottas in ancient Italy; new discoveries and interpretations; proceedings.
Specialists in architectural terracottas from Italy and elsewhere consider roofing systems and decorations on them made from the material throughout ancient Italy. After reviewing recent research generally, the 44 papers, 10 in English and most of rest in Italian, cover Etruria; Umbria and Abruzzo; The Faliscans, Rome, and Latium; Campania and Magna Graecia; and Sicily. They are not indexed Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The earlier Iron Age in Britain and the near continent.
Haselgrove (archaeology and ancient history, U. of Leicester, UK) and Pope (archaeology, U. of Cambridge, UK) present 26 research papers that review current archaeological knowledge about Earlier Iron Age (c. 800-400/300 BC) communities in Britain, for the most part, but also across the waters in France, Ireland, Denmark, and the Low Countries. Papers discuss the character of settlement in southern Britain, a review of metalwork, evidence on the intensification of animal husbandry, the social organization of agriculture, environmental evidence, deposit patterns at Crick Covert Farm in Northamptonshire, the ritual use of domestic space, the aesthetics of landscape on the Berkshire Downs, the emergence of early Iron Age chieftain's graves, burial practices and social constructions in the Marne-Moselle region of France, and similar topics. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The early prehistory of Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan; archaeological survey of Wadis Faynan, Ghuwayr and al-Bustan and evaluation of the pre-pottery Neolithic A site of WF16.
The 25 chapters of this major study each present the results of excavation carried out at this pre-neolithic site in Jordan. Published in an oversized format (8.5x12 inches), a wealth of drawings, photos, charts, and other visual aids are incorporated into the text. Four initial chapters describe the archaeological survey of the region, including its rock art. Subsequent chapters discuss topics that include the sediment micromorphology, chipped stone, worked bone, and radiocarbon dates. The final chapter, WF16 and the pre-pottery neolithic of the southern Levant is given in both English and Arabic versions. A detailed bibliography is provided; there is no index. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
