Over 5,000 works published since the fifteenth century on textiles as art, craft, technology, industry & commerce. Including archaeological, ethnographic, religious (Islamic, Christian, Buddhist), secular, decorative, folk, textiles - Asia, Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Africa - prehistoric, ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo - woven silk, wool, linen, cotton, velvet, printed textiles, embroidery, lace, carpets, dyeing, tapestry, costume, and related subjects. Most with collations; many with descriptions; some with illustrations ...

The enduring influence of the architect Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) derives primarily from his monumental theoretical foray Der Stil in der technischen und tektonischen Künsten (1860-62), here translated into English for the first time. A richly illustrated survey of the technical arts (textiles, ceramics, carpentry, masonry), Semper's analysis of the preconditions of style forever changed the interpretative context for aesthetics, architecture, and art history. Style, Semper believed, should be governed by historical function, cultural affinities, creative free will, and the innate properties of each medium. Thus, in an ambitious attempt to turn nineteenth-century artistic discussion away from historicism, aestheticism, and materialism, Semper developed in Der Stil a complex picture of stylistic change based on scrutiny of specific objects and a remarkable grasp of cultural variety. Harry Francis Mallgrave's introductory essay offers an account of Semper's life and work, a survey of Der Stil, and a fresh consideration of Semper's landmark study and its lasting significance.

Medieval Architecture and its Intellectual Context reflects the range of Peter Kidson's own interests and are united in following his approach to medieval architecture and art: a determination to see buildings and objects in the intellectual terms of the time in which they were created.