First published in 1622, Jeremias Drexel's 'Zodiacus christianus' (or 'Christian Zodiac') was a remarkable work of religious iconography and spiritual self-help. Raised a Lutheran but converting to Catholicism in his youth, Drexel (1581-1638) was well placed to publish a book that appealed to Protestants as well as Catholics, his 'Zodiac' appearing in multiple reprints, re-editions and translations across Europe during his lifetime and posthumously across the rest of the seventeenth century in an astonishing arc of popularity. The orbit of his readers' catchment was geographically - and denominationally - wide to a conspicuous degree. Drexel was among the most-read authors of that century, a genuine luminary in the culture of the German Baroque, and arguably the most published writer of the period. Offering the first modern translation into English since the early seventeenth century, this critical edition re-acquaints Anglophone audiences with a sample of the spiritual and philosophical writings of a figure whose significant publication record made him a bestseller during his lifetime and for many decades afterwards. As well as addressing issues of spiritual iconography with relation to 'signs of predestination', the book also has much to say about authorship, publishing and the dissemination of ideas. Including a scholarly introduction, full footnotes and an up-to-date bibliography, this new edition does much to help reveal these themes within the complex interconnections between religion, mysticism, iconography and scholarship in early modern Europe.

In this book, Boston University Professor of Astronomy Michael Mendillo takes readers deep into the annals of history, showing how visual depictions of the heavens evolved in tandem with science and religion throughout much of Western culture. With unprecedented scope and scale, Professor Mendillo explores how cave art, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, paintings and architecture reflected some of the great religious and secular battles taking place over the course of centuries. Enter a world of biblical proportions, where constellations of ancient heroes and pagans were thoroughly recast as Christian saints and the Twelve Apostles. This nontechnical narrative brings vitality and accessibility to some of the most enduring subjects in human history, offering a lively new exploration of the visual connections between celestial phenomena and artistic expression. “Ever wonder how religion and art became forces of imagination on our night skies? Or how the night skies became forces of imagination on our religion and art? In this brilliant study of constellations and culture, Michael Mendillo, professor of astronomy at Boston University, reveals that the canopy of stars has been an ideologically contested space from the beginning, ensuring that the next time you look up, the sky will look completely different to you.”- Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History "Saints and Sinners impressionistically reveals the connections of art, astronomy, and religion in Western culture to illuminate the age-old quest for celestial-terrestrial connections.” - Roberta J.M. Olson, author of Giotto’s Portrait of Halley’s Comet and Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe “Professor Mendillo’s book does a priceless service, opening the doors of our minds to images that will stir us, because the heavens are part of us, and we all long to know how and why.” - Rev. David R. Thom, MIT Chaplain and Convener of the Cambridge Faculty Roundtable on Science, Art & Religion "Over a lifetime devoted to astronomical research and teaching, Michael Mendillo has indulged a parallel passion for artistic representations of the heavenly bodies. In this sumptuous volume, he explores the projection of our changing belief systems onto the constant stars.” - Dava Sobel, author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter and The Glass Universe

Dark Media and the Materiality of Nothing -- Haunted Media -- Good Copies, Bad Copies -- Social Detritus, Paper Detritus.

The emblem was big business in early-modern Europe, used extensively not only in printed books and broadsheets, but also to decorate pottery, metalware, furniture, glass and windows and numerous other domestic, devotional and political objects. At its most basic level simply a combination of symbolic visual image and texts, an emblem is a hybrid composed of words and picture. However, as this book demonstrates, understanding the precise and often multiple meaning, intention and message emblems conveyed can prove a remarkably slippery process. In this book, Peter Daly draws upon many years’ research to reflect upon the recent upsurge in scholarly interest in, and rediscovery of, emblems following years of relative neglect. Beginning by considering some of the seldom asked, but important, questions that the study of emblems raises, including the importance of the emblem, the truth value of emblems, and the transmission of knowledge through emblems, the book then moves on to investigate more closely-focussed aspects such as the role of mnemonics, mottoes and visual rhetoric. The volume concludes with a review of some perhaps inadequately considered issues such as the role of Jesuits (who had a role in the publication of about a quarter of all known emblem books), and questions such as how these hybrid constructs were actually read and interpreted. Drawing upon a database containing records of 6,514 books of emblems and imprese, this study suggests new ways for scholars to approach important questions that have not yet been satisfactorily broached in the standard works on emblems.

This book integrates history, theology, and art and analyzes the Jesuits’ cross-cultural mission in late imperial China. Readers will find a rich collection of resources from historical sites, museums, manuscripts, and archival materials, including previous unpublished works of art. The production and circulation of art from different historical periods and categories show the artistic, theological, and missional values of Christian art. It highlights European Jesuits, Asian Christians, transnationalism, and gives voice to Chinese Christian women and their patronage of art in the seventeenth century. It offers a rare systematic study of the relation between art and mission history.

The essays gathered here capture fresh perspectives on the literary environments of the eighteenth century. The core concern of this volume is culture – the ways in which it shapes literature and is in turn influenced by it: the “ways” of fiction. Especially commissioned from experts in the field, essays cover the whole of the century, embracing such themes as class, gender, nationhood, politics, and identity. Through scrutiny of familiar and less well-known authors alike, the collection forms a stimulating and provocative anthology. It will naturally appeal to scholars and students of the novel, as well as to historians of culture, and all those concerned with eighteenth-century studies. A broader readership will also find much here to enhance their appreciation of fiction as a cultural artefact. Responding to a growing fascination with this period in British history, these essays open vital new perspectives on the novel at a key moment in its development.

This book arises from a symposium held in Oxford to consider the most fruitful trajectories of rhetoric in the 21st century. The gathering comprised an international delegation of leading scholars convened to assess—from an array of perspectives – the various possible futures of the ancient discipline of rhetoric as it responds vitally to the evolving contexts of the new millennium. This collection commemorates that event by extending its scrutiny into a number of specific fields of inquiry. It includes a foreword by Prof James J. Murphy, an introductory article by the editors, and six further articles commissioned from among the participants. The introduction provides a detailed account of the symposium, and foregrounds the delegates’ articles with a résumé of their arguments and consequent relevance to the overarching theme. Each contribution is a freshly minted and original piece of scholarship, true to the generative and interactive spirit of the enterprise, and speaking pertinently to the field of international rhetoric studies at the present time. Rhetoric in the Twenty-First Century addresses a spectrum of concerns. Scholars and students of rhetoric and language-use will naturally find much of interest here, and the inclusive ambit of the work will also appeal to students of ethics, religion, comparative literature, intercultural studies, and the growing field of communication studies.