The alphabetic labyrinth : the letters in history and imagination
This text examines the many ways in which the letters of the alphabet have been assigned value in many key systems over two millennia. The book also presents the more general history of lettering, printing and calligraphy, providing an informative guide for art and cultural historians.
Print Book, English, 1999, ©1995
1st paperback ed View all formats and editions
Thames and Hudson, New York, N.Y., 1999, ©1995
History
320 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm
9780500280683, 0500280681
41038873
I. The alphabet in context
II. Origins and historians
III. The alphabet in classical history, philosophy and divination
IV. Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism: the alphabet in the Hellenistic and early Christian Era
V. Calligraphy, alchemy and ars combinatoria in the Medieval Period
VI. The Kabbalah
VII. Rationalizing the alphabet: construction, real character and philosophical languages in The Renaissance
VIII. The Social Contract, Primitivism and Nationalism: the alphabet in the 18th century
IX. The alphabet in the 19th century: advertising, visible speech and narratives of history
X. 20th century: Eclecticism, technology and the idiosyncratic imagination
"First published in hardcover in the United States of America in 1995 by Thames and Hudson Inc. ..."--Title page verso