Poetics
Stephen Halliwell
One of the first books written on what is now called aesthetics. Although parts are lost (e.g., comedy), it has been very influential in western thought, such as the part on tragedy.
Read Time: ~1.9 hr
Tao te Ching
by with foreword and notes by Stephen Mitchell (1991)
About this book
"Within ancient Chinese, a sole character possesses a broad, and sometimes contradictory, range of meanings. Moreover, the Tao Te Ching is rife with terms and expressions that have no exact counterpart in English. So while the Tao Te Ching ranks behind only the Bible as the most widely translated book in the world, it remains one of the least understood.". "Jonathan Star's Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition helps remedy this situation. The distinction of this new edition is that it supplies readers with the first comprehensive verbatim translation, which can be used to explore the multiple meanings contained in the Chinese characters. This unique tool gives readers direct access to the text and a way to understand the different interpretations put forth by modern-day translators. Perhaps most important, the verbatim translation gives each reader the ability to penetrate the inner meaning of the text and come up with his or her own personal interpretation."--BOOK JACKET.
Setting / LocationGlobal
Story Era1800s / Victorian
Protagonist / CoreTao te Ching Lead Character
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De diversis artibus
Theophilus
The work is divided into three books. The first covers the production and use of painting and drawing materials (painting techniques, paints, and ink), especially for illumination of texts and painting of walls. The second deals with the production of stained glass and techniques of glass painting, while the last deals with various techniques of goldsmithing and other metalwork. It also includes an introduction into the building of organs. Theophilus contains perhaps the earliest reference to oil paint.
Legenda aurea
selected and translated by Christopher Stace
"Among the books which afford us an insight into the popular religious thought of the middle ages, none holds a more important place than the Legenda Aurea or Golden Legend. The book was compiled and put into form about the year 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, who laid under contribution for his purpose the Lives of the Fathers by S. Jerome, the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, and other books of a like kind; while for the lives of the saints more nearly approaching his own age he appears to have industriously collected such legends as he could meet with, whether in manuscript or handed down by oral tradition."--Prologue.
πολιτεία
Plato
The Republic is Plato's most famous work and one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy and politics. The characters in this Socratic dialogue - including Socrates himself - discuss whether the just or unjust man is happier. They are the philosopher-kings of imagined cities and they also discuss the nature of philosophy and the soul among other things.