Author: Alberto Toso Fei
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description

Author: Jennifer Dasal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143134590
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings? ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.

Author: Alberto Toso Fei
Publisher: Marsilio Editori
ISBN: 9788895836133
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"As the 13th century drew to a close, Marco Polo returned from China with the Ruyi, a legendary scepter he stole from Emperor Kublai Khan. After Marco Polo's death, the magical sword lay hidden with the traveler in his tomb in Venice. Today, both the tomb and the scepter have vanished. Carlo Dolfin, an old Venetian professor, has found some papers in his personal archive that could be of vital importance to locate the Ruyi. But he needs your help to find it, before it falls into the wrong hands"--

Author: Thomas Frederick Crane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Author: Anonymous
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781020441318
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This beautifully illustrated book offers a collection of traditional legends and tales from the city of Venice. From stories of love and intrigue to tales of ghosts and magic, these works evoke the rich cultural heritage of one of the world's most beloved cities. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author: Woislav M. Petrovitch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature, Serbian
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
A collection of Serbian folk tales preceded by background to the history and cultural traditions of the Slavic people, including short essays on good and evil spirits, vampires, superstition, Christmas Eve, wedding rites, etc.

Author: Alberto Toso Fei
Publisher: Marsilio Editori
ISBN: 9788895836171
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The mysteries and legends of the Eternal City are unveiled through the interactive pages of the WhaiWhai guidebook: an unconventional guide for tourists and travelers who are looking for an out-of-the-ordinary experience. In the WhaiWhai guidebook series, readers will experience an interactive treasure hunt through six cities, unlocking their mysteries and discovering their most charming corners. To play, all you need is the WhaiWhai guide and a mobile phone. Send a text message to WhaiWhai that includes a special code and immediately receive your first clue. As you travel to each new location throughout the city, a new clue is revealed. Each city has a different treasure, and finding it will be an exciting experience. WhaiWhai combines history and fantasy, allowing readers to step into a story that plays out inside the city, sparking their curiosity and making them the hero of an adventure. In Rome: The Ruyi, discover what’s hiding behind the history of the Eternal City. The story of the magical sword Marco Polo stole from China continues in another city, a city at least as exceptional as Venice. It appears that over the centuries, the Ruyi changed hands many times, from popes to artists, from necromancers to prostitutes, from lords to commoners; each learned the history of this magical object and each hid it in a different place for a different reason. The Ruyi reached Rome centuries ago; the city now bears so many signs of its passage that traditional Roman legends can be read in light of this incredible story. Carlo Dolfin, the old professor who learned of the affair in Venice, believes that the scepter came to Rome, but can no longer be recognized in its original form. That's not all. Some documents he hastily recovered suggest that even the Roman Empire was rooted in the power of a magical object and that the strength of the Caesars declined when they lost track of it. He therefore suspects that the Chinese Ruyi could be a variation of that magical object from ancient Rome.

Author: Sophia Psarra
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787352390
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
From the myth of Arcadia through to the twenty-first century, ideas about sustainability – how we imagine better urban environments – remain persistently relevant, and raise recurring questions. How do cities evolve as complex spaces nurturing both urban creativity and the fortuitous art of discovery, and by which mechanisms do they foster imagination and innovation? While past utopias were conceived in terms of an ideal geometry, contemporary exemplary models of urban design seek technological solutions of optimal organisation. The Venice Variations explores Venice as a prototypical city that may hold unique answers to the ancient narrative of utopia. Venice was not the result of a preconceived ideal but the pragmatic outcome of social and economic networks of communication. Its urban creativity, though, came to represent the quintessential combination of place and institutions of its time. Through a discussion of Venice and two other works owing their inspiration to this city – Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital – Sophia Psarra describes Venice as a system that starts to resemble a highly probabilistic ‘algorithm’, that is, a structure with a small number of rules capable of producing a large number of variations. The rapidly escalating processes of urban development around our big cities share many of the motivations for survival, shelter and trade that brought Venice into existence. Rather than seeing these places as problems to be solved, we need to understand how urban complexity can evolve, as happened from its unprepossessing origins in the marshes of the Venetian lagoon to the ‘model city’ that endured a thousand years. This book frees Venice from stereotypical representations, revealing its generative capacity to inform potential other ‘Venices’ for the future.

Author: Dorothy Macardle
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781783807383
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description

Author: John Berendt
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0679429220
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.