Over 1,000 motifs reprinted from a rare book of design first published in France in 1870. Ornate Cyrillic and Greek letters, corners, borders, page heads, and more as they appeared in illuminated Russian manuscripts.

This book takes you on a journey where no writer has ever taken you before. Author Valerie Kirschenbaum not only dreams of a Renaissance "the likes of which the world has never seen", she gives you the actual blueprint. In warm and intimate prose, she shows you how and why we will experience this Renaissance in our lifetime. Responding to the recent National Endowment for the Arts survey, which documented a precipitous, 20-year decline in America's reading habits, she presents an electrifying new solution for captivating a generation of readers reared on television, movies and music videos. With 860 gorgeous, full colour images from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Maya, India, China, Japan, Tibet, and medieval Europe (many never seen by an American audience), Kirschenbaum provides what world renowned graphic designer Milton Glaser described as "the visual history of the universe and its relationship to writing." She combines the breathtaking beauty of illuminated manuscripts with today's latest technologies to create a scintillating multisensory experience.

This magnificent design treasury reproduces over 400 historic designs that embellish objects, manuscripts, monuments and buildings created in Britain from the 5th to the 14th centuries. Ranging from simple to sophisticated, the designs have been meticulously translated into highly decorative copyright-free line drawings by illustrator Eva Wilson. Artists and craftspeople will find this book a fertile source of design inspiration from a decorative-arts tradition of dazzling virtuosity, reflecting the rich intermingling of Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Viking and other early aesthetic influences. Drawn chiefly from artifacts in the collections of various British museums and libraries, the selection includes: A gold buckle from the royal burial site at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, Spiral scroll patterns from the Lindisfarne Gospels, Decorated letters from 7th-century manuscripts, Borders from the Book of Durrow, Designs from stone sculpture of the Viking Age, Embroidered designs from the Bayeux Tapestry, Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis, 13th- and 14th-century patterned floor tiles, ... and much more. This important, extensively researched sourcebook explores the historical background of the designs, and presents the patterns and motifs arranged thematically, demonstrating in detail how similar elements combine to produce a design as intricate as a decorated initial or as simple as a filled square or ornamental border. Here, then, is a comprehensive treasury of authentic, ready-to-use motifs that will lend medieval flair and flavor to almost any art or crafts project.

The decorative arts of the Middle Ages — richly ornate, filled with religious and mythic symbolism — were especially remarkable for the complexities of their design and their inspired craftsmanship. This fascinating volume presents nearly 1,000 illustrations of medieval ornament, consisting mostly of architectural elements from German Romanesque and Gothic churches and other buildings. Originally compiled by the German architect, painter, and engraver Karl Alexander von Heldeloff (1788–1865) as a source of study and inspiration for practicing artists and architects, this grand pictorial archive has been exactingly reproduced from a rare original edition, complete with new English translations of the German captions. The book is filled with precisely detailed engravings of doors, windows, decorative stonework, columns, pedestals, and more. It remains a richly varied resource of authentic images of medieval ornament, ideal for students of architecture and the decorative arts and essential for graphic artists and designers in search of royalty-free illustrations.

A world list of books in the English language.

Rich selection of more than 120 intricate images of snowflakes, based on photographs taken by W. A. Bentley (1865–1935) over a 50-year period, will provide an endless source of inspiration for artists, designers and decorators. Royalty-free black-and-white designs are ideal for use in textile and wallpaper designs, for needlework and craft projects.