Provides synonym studies on the most important meanings and ideas of each entry.

The "Vows of the Peacock" - written in 1312 and dedicated to Thibaut de Bar, bishop of Liège - recounts how Alexander the Great comes to the aid of a family of aristocrats threatened by Indians. The poem remained popular throughout the fourteenth century and was soon followed by two sequels. Twenty-six illuminated manuscripts constitute part of a catalogue and concordance of all Peacock manuscripts. One of the most provocative, (PML, MS G24), has twenty-two miniatures which illustrate chivalry and courtly love, as epitomized in the text. An unusually high number of scurrilous marginalia, however, surround them. An interdisciplinary exploration of iconography, reception, image-text-marginalia dynamics, and context reveals their ultimate polysemy as scatological comedians and serious harbingers of sin.

"The story of literature in sixteen acts, from Alexander the Great and the Iliad to ebooks and Harry Potter, this engaging book brings together remarkable people and surprising events to show how writing shaped cultures, religions, and the history of the world"--

"This book focuses on how literate artisans began to write about their discoveries starting around 1400: in other words, it explores the origins of technical writing. Artisans and artists began to publish handbooks, guides, treatises, tip sheets, graphs and recipe books rather than simply pass along their knowledge in the workshop. And they tried to articulate what the new knowledge meant. The popularity of these texts coincided with the founding of a "new philosophy" that sought to investigate nature in a new way. Smith shows how this moment began in the unceasing trials of the craft workshop, and ended in the experimentation of the natural scientific laboratory. These epistemological developments have continued to the present day and still inform how we think about scientific knowledge"--

A profusely illustrated, full-color retrospective of John Stevens' work with letterforms. Includes calligraphy and lettering -- artworks, personal work, experimental work, commissioned work -- as well as graphic work and type design. His body of work spans paper to stone, books to walls, to type and the digital realm. In the text, John presents his approach to a design or work and his thoughts on letterforms, and continues with a discussion on tools, teaching, design and writing in general. Using his body of work as example, he makes the case that barriers between fine arts and graphic arts are mostly irrelevant. A must have for calligraphers, lettering artists, typographers, type designers – anyone who love letters.

In this collection of articles written over forty years, Packer sets out his beliefs about the authority of Scripture and the principles that should be applied when interpreting it. Important topics such as the adequacy of human language, upholding the unity of Scripture, and challenges in Biblical interpretation are considered in the first two sections: "Gods Inerrant Word" and "Interpreting the Word." In the final section, "Preaching the Word," Packer turns his attention to pastoral leaders and the importance of correct and responsible expository preaching.

Functional analysis of the written word in eight and ninth century Carolingian European society demonstrates that literacy was not confined to a clerical elite, but dispersed in lay society and used administratively as well.