Download or read book The Medici Giraffe written by Marina Belozerskaya and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-06-27 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration, spanning two thousand years, of the central role exotic animals have played in war, diplomacy, and the pomp of rulers and luminaries.
Download or read book Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence written by Angelica Groom and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-10-22 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the diverse roles exotic animals, both living species and depicted as motifs in art, played in the fashioning of the Medici’s courtly identity.
Download or read book The Breathless Zoo written by Rachel Poliquin and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From sixteenth-century cabinets of wonders to contemporary animal art, The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing examines the cultural and poetic history of preserving animals in lively postures. But why would anyone want to preserve an animal, and what is this animal-thing now? Rachel Poliquin suggests that taxidermy is entwined with the enduring human longing to find meaning with and within the natural world. Her study draws out the longings at the heart of taxidermy—the longing for wonder, beauty, spectacle, order, narrative, allegory, and remembrance. In so doing, The Breathless Zoo explores the animal spectacles desired by particular communities, human assumptions of superiority, the yearnings for hidden truths within animal form, and the loneliness and longing that haunt our strange human existence, being both within and apart from nature.
Download or read book Giraffe written by Edgar Williams and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their extraordinary long necks, distinctive camouflage, graceful movements, and friendly nature have made giraffes one of the most fascinating and beloved animals on the planet. But while giraffes once roamed the Great Plains of Africa in huge herds, their numbers have greatly diminished, and they are now entirely dependent on humanity for their survival. In Giraffe, Edgar Williams explores not only the biology of the tallest animals on earth, but also their impact on human history—including in ancient Egypt, where giraffes were kept as exotic pets; the Middle Ages, when giraffes were considered mythical beasts as improbable and mysterious as the dragon; and the Victorian era, in which giraffe hunting was considered an exhilarating sport. Giraffe is the first book to provide a comprehensive, twenty-first-century view of the giraffe in art, literature, film, and popular culture, as well as its natural history from prehistory to modern times. With new insights into the giraffe’s genetics and evolution, this book will appeal to those interested in the giraffe’s unique biology and to anyone who admires the majestic giraffe.
Download or read book Medusa s Gaze written by Marina Belozerskaya and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tazza Farnese is one of the most admired objects from classical antiquity. A libation bowl carved from banded agate, it features Medusa's head on its outside and, inside, an assembly of Egyptian gods. For more than two millennia, these radiant figures have mesmerized emperors and artists, popes and thieves, merchants and museum goers. In this, the first book-length account of this renowned masterpiece, Marina Belozerskaya traces its fascinating journey through history. That it has survived at all is a miracle. The Tazza's origins date back to Ptolemaic Egypt where it likely enhanced the power and prestige of Cleopatra. After her defeat by Emperor Augustus, the bowl began an amazing itinerary along many flashpoints in world history. It likely traveled from Rome to Constantinople. After that city's sack by crusaders in 1204, it returned west to inspire the classical revival at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II at Palermo. The Tazza next graced Tamerlane's court at Samarqand, before becoming an obsession of Renaissance popes and princes. It witnessed the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the turbulent aftermath of the French Revolution, and the birth of the modern Italian state. Throughout its journey, the Tazza aroused the lust of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Mongol rulers, consoled a heart-broken duchess, inspired artists including Botticelli and Raphael, tempted spies and thieves, and drew the ire of a deranged museum guard who nearly destroyed it. More than a biography of the world's most cherished bowl, Medusa's Gaze is a vivid and delightful voyage through history.
Download or read book Giraffe Reflections written by Dale Peterson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-09-09 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a cultural, historical, and pictorial history of giraffes, describing their biology and behavior and demonstrating their grace and elegance through over one hundred photographs.
Download or read book Lives of the Early Medici written by Janet Ross and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Beautiful Fall written by Alicia Drake and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-02-28 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive biography of the late designer, Karl Lagerfeld, and his infamous rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent. In the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and longing, celebrities and aspirants flocked to the heart of chic, and Paris became a hothouse of revelry, intrigue, and searing ambition. At the center of it all were fashion's most beloved luminaries - Yves Saint Laurent, the reclusive enfant terrible, and Karl Lagerfeld, the flamboyant freelancer with a talent for reinvention - and they divided Paris into two fabulous halves. Their enduring rivalry is chronicled in this dazzling exposè of an era: of social ambitions, shared obsessions, and the mesmerizing quest for beauty. "Deliciously dramatic... The Beautiful Fall crackles with excitement."-New York Times Book Review "Fascinating." -New York Times "Addictive." -Philadelphia Inquirer "It's like US Weekly, 1970s style." -Gotham "A story constructed as exquisitely as a couture dress. . . . It moves stylishly forward, with frequent over-the-shoulder glances at some very dishy background." -Boston Globe
Download or read book Zeraffa Giraffa written by Dianne Hofmeyr and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books. This book was released on 2015-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the astonishing true story of Zeraffa, a giraffe who was sent as a gift from Egypt to France in 1826. A young boy, Atir, takes care of Zeraffa on her epic journey and the sailors sing songs as she gazes down at them. In France, Atir leads her through the countryside, and thousands of people marvel at Zeraffa. Paris falls in love with Zeraffa. The King builds her a special house in the Jardin des Plantes. On warm nights, the young princess visits, while Atir whispers stories to Zeraffa of a hot land far away. The amazing story by an award-winning author of a giraffe's extraordinary voyage from Africa to Paris.
Download or read book Animal Traffic written by Rosemary-Claire Collard and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parrots and snakes, wild cats and monkeys---exotic pets can now be found everywhere from skyscraper apartments and fenced suburban backyards to roadside petting zoos. In Animal Traffic Rosemary-Claire Collard investigates the multibillion-dollar global exotic pet trade and the largely hidden processes through which exotic pets are produced and traded as lively capital. Tracking the capture of animals in biosphere reserves in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize; their exchange at exotic animal auctions in the United States; and the attempted rehabilitation of former exotic pets at a wildlife center in Guatemala, Collard shows how exotic pets are fetishized both as commodities and as objects. Their capture and sale sever their ties to complex socio-ecological networks in ways that make them appear as if they do not have lives of their own. Collard demonstrates that the enclosure of animals in the exotic pet trade is part of a bioeconomic trend in which life is increasingly commodified and objectified under capitalism. Ultimately, she calls for a “wild life” politics in which animals are no longer enclosed, retain their autonomy, and can live for the sake of themselves.
Download or read book Piero di Cosimo written by Dennis Geronimus and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Piero di Cosimo: Painter of Faith and Fable makes available the proceedings of a conference of the same name, hosted by the Dutch University Institute for Art History (NIKI), Florence, in September 2015, at the conclusion of the second of two exhibitions dedicated to Piero at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. It is the twelfth publication in the NIKI series and the first such anthology to be published by Brill.
Download or read book Cargoes in Motion written by Burkhard Schnepel and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative collection of essays that foregrounds specific cargoes as a means to understand connectivity and mobility across the Indian Ocean world. Scholars have long appreciated the centrality of trade and commerce in understanding the connectivity and mobility that underpin human experience in the Indian Ocean region. But studies of merchant and commercial activities have paid little attention to the role that cargoes have played in connecting the disparate parts of this vast oceanic world. Drawing from the work of anthropologists, geographers, and historians, Cargoes in Motion tells the story of how material objects have informed and continue to shape processes of exchange across the Indian Ocean. By following selected cargoes through both space and time, this book makes an important and innovative contribution to Indian Ocean studies. The multidisciplinary approach deepens our understanding of the nature and dynamics of the Indian Ocean world by showing how transoceanic connectivity has been driven not only by economic, social, cultural, and political factors but also by the materiality of the objects themselves. Essays by: Edward A. Alpers Fahad Ahmad Bishara Eva-Maria Knoll Karl-Heinz Kohl Lisa Jenny Krieg Pedro Machado Rupert Neuhöfer Mareike Pampus Hannah Pilgrim Burkhard Schnepel Hanne Schönig Tansen Sen Steven Serels Julia Verne Kunbing Xiao
Download or read book How Giraffes Work written by Graham Mitchell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-02 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are few creatures more beautiful, aloof, and fascinating than giraffes. Their social and ecological impact has been documented by many researchers. However, the inner workings of extant giraffes are less well known. That is why Graham Mitchell decided to write How Giraffes Work: a comprehensive overview of the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry--in short, the normal functions--of a free-living, wild animal in its natural environment. A zoologist, veterinarian, and physiologist, Mitchell explains how giraffes get through their day. Additionally, he takes readers through the evolution of their physical characteristics, such as their size, shape, and coat markings. His approach integrates history with the physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, behavior, evolution, genetics, ecology, climate science, and more. Each chapter follows the discovery and utility of a different characteristic of giraffes. Illustrated with over two hundred figures and diagrams, the book explains how giraffes might have evolved and survived over many millions of years as well as how our perception of them has changed throughout history. So, how do giraffes work? The answers lie in a story filled not only with the details of their internal working but also with the labors of the extraordinary scientists who have put so many pieces of this puzzle together.
Download or read book For Profit written by William Magnuson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2022-11-08 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley From legacy manufacturers to emerging tech giants, corporations wield significant power over our lives, our economy, and our politics. Some celebrate them as engines of progress and prosperity. Others argue that they recklessly pursue profit at the expense of us all. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson reveals that both visions contain an element of truth. The story of the corporation is a human story, about a diverse group of merchants, bankers, and investors that have over time come to shape the landscape of our modern economy. Its central characters include both the brave, powerful, and ingenious and the conniving, fraudulent, and vicious. At times, these characters have been one and the same. Yet as Magnuson shows, while corporations haven’t always behaved admirably, their purpose is a noble one. From their beginnings in the Roman Republic, corporations have been designed to promote the common good. By recapturing this spirit of civic virtue, For Profit argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of us—not just shareholders—benefit from the profits of enterprise.
Download or read book The Animal in Ottoman Egypt written by Alan Mikhail and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals in rural Egypt became enmeshed in social relationships and made possible many tasks otherwise impossible. Rather than focus on what animals represented or symbolized, Mikhail discusses their social and economic functions, as Ottoman Egypt cannot be understood without acknowledging animals as central shapers of the early modern world.
Download or read book The Birth of Venus Random House Reader s Circle Deluxe Reading Group Edition written by Sarah Dunant and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new deluxe eBook edition features more than eighty additional pages of exclusive, author-approved annotations throughout the text, which contain new illustrations and photographs, to enrich your reading experience. You can access the eBook annotations with a simple click or tap on your eReader via the convenient links. Access them as you read the novel or as supplemental material after finishing the entire story. There is also Random House Reader’s Circle bonus content, which is sure to inspire discussion at book clubs everywhere. Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florence palazzo. A child of the Renaissance with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the artist’s abilities. But Alessandra’s parents have made plans for their daughter, and she is soon married off to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, the reign of the Medicis, with their love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, is being threatened by the hellfire preaching and increasing brutality of the fundamentalist monk Savonarola and his reactionary followers. As the city shudders with violence and change, Alessandra must find her own way—and finally explore the passions she’s kept so long at bay. “Simply amazing, so brilliantly written . . . almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant.”—Antonia Fraser “A broad mural bursting with color, passion, and intrigue.”—People
Download or read book Animal Underworld written by Alan Green and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2006-03-07 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vast and previously undisclosed underground economy exists in the United States. The products bought and sold: animals. In Animal Underworld, veteran investigative journalist Alan Green exposes the sleazy, sometimes illegal web of those who trade in rare and exotic creatures. Green and The Center for Public Integrity reveal which American zoos and amusement parks dump their "surplus" animals on the middlemen adept at secretly redirecting them into the private pet trade. We're taken to exotic-animal auctions, where the anonymous high bidders are often notorious dealers, hunting-ranch proprietors, and profit-minded charlatans masquerading as conservationists. We visit some of the nation's most prestigious universities and research laboratories, whose diseased monkeys are "laundered" through this same network of breeders and dealers until they finally reach the homes of unsuspecting pet owners. And we meet the men and women who make their living by skirting through loopholes in the law, or by ignoring the law altogether. For anyone who cares about animals; for pet owners, zoo-goers, wildlife conservationists, and animal welfare advocates, Animal Underworld is gripping, shocking reading.
