Emperor Of Culture

Author : Robert I. Burns, S.J.
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 1512800953
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Emperor of Culture written by Robert I. Burns, S.J. and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-09-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284) was a true philosopher-king, a medieval monarch whose contributions to science, music, historiography, poetry, fiction, and art have had lasting influence. His grand vision was to bring Castile into the mainstream of high civilization and to create a united artistic and religious people. To that end, he established Castilian as a proper language (it is now the fourth most spoken in the world) and wrote one of the most extensive and influential law codes in western history. After centuries of attention to the northern European countries, scholars increasingly are turning to Hispanic countries in general and to Alfonso's vast influence in particular. The contributors to this volume are all Alfonsine experts who offer the broadest and most comprehensive survey of the ruler's cultural influence. Their topics include Alfonso's role in the founding of Castilian, his patronage of art and theatre, his scientific projects, his rhetoric and chancery, his link to Dante, his achievements as historian and troubadour, and his contribution as the greatest lawgiver of his time. Emperor of Culture fills a gap in English language studies of Alfonso's vast influence. It will be valuable to all students and scholars of medieval Spain.

Author : Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684174341
Total Pages : 675 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China written by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 675 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Huizong was an exceptional emperor who lived through momentous times. A man of many talents, he wrote poetry and created his own distinctive calligraphy style; collected paintings, calligraphies, and antiquities on a large scale; promoted Daoism; and involved himself in the training of court artists, the layout of gardens, and reforms of music and medicine. The quarter century when Huizong ruled is just as fascinating. The greatly enlarged scholar-official class had come into its own but was deeply divided by factional strife. The long struggle between the Chinese state and its northern neighbors entered a new phase when Song proved unable to defend itself against the newly emergent Jurchen state of Jin. Huizong and thousands of members of his family and court were taken captive, and the Song dynasty had to recreate itself in the South.

Author : Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Accumulating Culture written by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an illustrated examination of a collection of Chinese calligraphy, paintings, bronzes, and many other objects amassed by the Song dynasty emperor Huizong (1082-1135). It contributes to a rethinking of the cultural side of Chinese imperial rule and of the court as a patron of scholars and the arts.

Author : Victor Cunrui Xiong
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 0791482685
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty written by Victor Cunrui Xiong and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking at the life and legacy of Emperor Yang (569–618) of the brief Sui dynasty in a new light, this book presents a compelling case for his importance to Chinese history. Author Victor Cunrui Xiong utilizes traditional scholarship and secondary literature from China, Japan, and the West to go beyond the common perception of Emperor Yang as merely a profligate tyrant. Xiong accepts neither the traditional verdict against Emperor Yang nor the apologist effort to revise it, and instead offers a reassessment of Emperor Yang by exploring the larger political, economic, military, religious, and diplomatic contexts of Sui society. This reconstruction of the life of Emperor Yang reveals an astute visionary with literary, administrative, and reformist accomplishments. While a series of strategic blunders resulting from the darker side of his personality led to the collapse of the socioeconomic order and to his own death, the Sui legacy that Emperor Yang left behind lived on to provide the foundation for the rise of the Tang dynasty, the pinnacle of medieval Chinese civilization.

Author : Shih-shan Henry Tsai
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295800224
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Perpetual Happiness written by Shih-shan Henry Tsai and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reign of Emperor Yongle, or “Perpetual Happiness,” was one of the most dramatic and significant in Chinese history. It began with civil war and a bloody coup, saw the construction of the Forbidden City, the completion of the Grand Canal, consolidation of the imperial bureaucracy, and expansion of China’s territory into Mongolia, Manchuria, and Vietnam. Beginning with an hour-by-hour account of one day in Yongle’s court, Shih-shan Henry Tsai presents the multiple dimensions of the life of Yongle (Zhu Di, 1360-1424) in fascinating detail. Tsai examines the role of birth, education, and tradition in molding the emperor’s personality and values, and paints a rich portrait of a man characterized by stark contrasts. Synthesizing primary and secondary source materials, he has crafted a colorful biography of the most renowned of the Ming emperors.

Author : Aurelia Campbell
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295746890
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What the Emperor Built written by Aurelia Campbell and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing’s magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world’s largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle’s palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle’s sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts.

Author : Arkady Martine
Publisher : Tor Books
ISBN 13 : 1250186455
Total Pages : 444 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Memory Called Empire written by Arkady Martine and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel A Locus, and Nebula Award nominee for 2019 A Best Book of 2019: Library Journal, Polygon, Den of Geek An NPR Favorite Book of 2019 A Guardian Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2019 and “Not the Booker Prize” Nominee A Goodreads Biggest SFF Book of 2019 and Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee "A Memory Called Empire perfectly balances action and intrigue with matters of empire and identity. All around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it."—Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation. A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure. "The most thrilling ride ever. This book has everything I love."—Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky And coming soon, the brilliant sequel, A Desolation Called Peace! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author : David Abulafia
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195080408
Total Pages : 486 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Frederick II written by David Abulafia and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, King of Jerusalem, has, since his death in 1250, enjoyed a reputation as one of the most remarkable monarchs in the history of Europe. His wide cultural tastes, his apparent tolerance of Jews and Muslims, his defiance of the papacy, and his supposed aim of creating a new, secular world order make him a figure especially attractive to contemporary historians. But as David Abulafia shows in this powerfully written biography, Frederick was much less tolerant and far-sighted in his cultural, religious, and political ambitions than is generally thought. Here, Frederick is revealed as the thorough traditionalist he really was: a man who espoused the same principles of government as his twelfth-century predecessors, an ardent leader of the Crusades, and a king as willing to make a deal with Rome as any other ruler in medieval Europe. Frederick's realm was vast. Besides ruling the region of Europe that encompasses modern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, eastern France, and northern Italy, he also inherited the Kingdom of Sicily and parts of the Mediterranean that include what are now Israel, Lebanon, Malta, and Cyprus. In addition, his Teutonic knights conquered the present-day Baltic States, and he even won influence along the coasts of Tunisia. Abulafia is the first to place Frederick in the wider historical context his enormous empire demands. Frederick's reign, Abulafia clearly shows, marked the climax of the power struggle between the medieval popes and the Holy Roman Emperors, and the book stresses Frederick's steadfast dedication to the task of preserving both dynasty and empire. Through the course of this rich, groundbreaking narrative, Frederick emerges as less of the innovator than he is usually portrayed. Rather than instituting a centralized autocracy, he was content to guarantee the continued existence of the customary style of government in each area he ruled: in Sicily he appeared a mighty despot, but in Germany he placed his trust in regional princes, and never dreamed of usurping their power. Abulafia shows that this pragmatism helped bring about the eventual transformation of medieval Europe into modern nation-states. The book also sheds new light on the aims of Frederick in Italy and the Near East, and concentrates as well on the last fifteen years of the Emperor's life, a period until now little understood. In addition, Abulfia has mined the papal registers in the Secret Archive of the Vatican to provide a new interpretation of Frederick's relations with the papacy. And his attention to Frederick's register of documents from 1239-40--a collection hitherto neglected--has yielded new insights into the cultural life of the German court. In the end, a fresh and fascinating picture develops of the most enigmatic of German rulers, a man whose accomplishments have been grossly distorted over the centuries.

Author : Harry Sidebottom
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0861542541
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mad Emperor written by Harry Sidebottom and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-06 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Buy the book; it's very entertaining.' David Aaronovitch, The Times A Financial Times, BBC History and Spectator Book of the Year On 8 June 218 AD, a fourteen-year-old Syrian boy, egged on by his grandmother, led an army to battle in a Roman civil war. Against all expectations, he was victorious. Varius Avitus Bassianus, known to the modern world as Heliogabalus, was proclaimed emperor. The next four years were to be the strangest in the history of the empire. Heliogabalus humiliated the prestigious Senators and threw extravagant dinner parties for lower-class friends. He ousted Jupiter from his summit among the gods and replaced him with Elagabal. He married a Vestal Virgin – twice. Rumours abounded that he was a prostitute. In the first biography of Heliogabalus in over half a century, Harry Sidebottom unveils the high drama of sex, religion, power and culture in Ancient Rome as we’ve never seen it before.

Author : Emine Fetvacı
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691194254
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Album of the World Emperor written by Emine Fetvacı and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first study of album-making in the Ottoman empire during the seventeenth century, demonstrating the period’s experimentation, eclecticism, and global outlook The Album of the World Emperor examines an extraordinary piece of art: an album of paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and European prints compiled for the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) by his courtier Kalender Paşa (d. 1616). In this detailed study of one of the most important works of seventeenth-century Ottoman art, Emine Fetvacı uses the album to explore questions of style, iconography, foreign inspiration, and the very meaning of the visual arts in the Islamic world. The album’s thirty-two folios feature artworks that range from intricate paper cutouts to the earliest examples of Islamic genre painting, and contents as eclectic as Persian and Persian-influenced calligraphy, studies of men and women of different ethnicities and backgrounds, depictions of popular entertainment and urban life, and European prints depicting Christ on the cross that in turn served as models for apocalyptic Ottoman paintings. Through the album, Fetvacı sheds light on imperial ideals as well as relationships between court life and popular culture, and shows that the boundaries between Ottoman art and the art of Iran and Western Europe were much more porous than has been assumed. Rather than perpetuating the established Ottoman idiom of the sixteenth century, the album shows that this was a time of openness to new models, outside sources, and fresh forms of expression. Beautifully illustrated and featuring all the folios of the original seventy-page album, The Album of the World Emperor revives a neglected yet significant artwork to demonstrate the distinctive aesthetic innovations of the Ottoman court.