Remarkable Books: The World's Most Beautiful and Historic Works

258 Pages·2017·110.548 MB·English

by  Collins, Michael(Contributor)

REMARK ABLE

BOOKS
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R E M A R K A B L E

BOOKS
A Celebration of the World’s Most Beautiful and Historic Works
Contributors
Father Michael Collins
with Alexandra Black, Thomas Cussans, John Farndon, and Philip Parker
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Contents
Senior Editor Kathryn Hennessy
Senior Art Editor Jane Ewart
Editors Jemima Dunne, Natasha Khan,
Joanna Micklem, Ruth O’Rourke-
Jones, Helen Ridge, Zoë Rutland,
Alison Sturgeon, Debra Wolter Preface 6
Designers Stephen Bere, Katie Cavanagh,
Introduction 8
Phil Gamble
US Editor Kayla Dugger
Managing Editor Gareth Jones Ancient Egyptian Books 18
Senior Managing Editor Lee Griffiths of the Dead
Picture Researchers Roland Smithies, Sarah Smithies
Various authors
Senior Jacket Designer Mark Cavanagh
I Ching 24
Jacket Design Manager Sophia MTT
Jacket Editor Claire Gell Author unknown
Pre-production Producer Gillian Reid The Art of War 26
Producer Mandy Inness Sun Tzu
Publisher Liz Wheeler The Tale of Genji 54
Mahābhārata 28
Art Director Karen Self Murasaki Shikibu
Vyāsa
Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf
Canon of Medicine 56
Dead Sea Scrolls 30
DK INDIA Various authors Ibn Sīnā
The Domesday Book 58
Senior Managing Art Editor Arunesh Talapatra Vienna Dioscorides 34
Various scribes
Senior Art Editor Chhaya Sajwan, Devika Khosla Pedanius Dioscorides
Art Editor Meenal Goel
Assistant Art Edtior Anukriti Arora 3000 bce–999 ce 1000–1449
Editor Nishtha Kapil
Pre-production Manager Balwant Singh
Production Manager Pankaj Sharma
DTP Designers Jaypal Chauhan, Nityanand Book of Kells 38 The Gospels of Henry the Lion 60
Kumar, Mohammad Rizwan Irish Columban Monks Monks of Helmarshausen
The Blue Qur’an 44 Les Très Riches 64
First American Edition, 2017
Author unknown Heures du Duc de Berry
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
Limbourg Brothers
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 Diamond Sutra 46
Author unknown Directory 70
Copyright © 2017 Dorling Kindersley Limited The Exeter Book 48
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC
Author unknown
17 18 19 20 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Directory 50
001-300185-Sep/2017
All rights reserved.
Contributors
Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved
above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), Lead contributor Contributors John Farndon 
without the prior written permission of the copyright Father Michael Collins Alexandra Black A Royal Literary Fellow at Anglia Ruskin
owner. Published in Great Britain by
Michael Collins is a graduate of A freelance author, Alexandra University in Cambridge, John Farndon
Dorling Kindersley Limited.
the Pontifical Institute of Christian Black’s writing career initially took is an author, playwright, composer, and
A catalog record for this book is available from the Archeology in Rome. His initial her to Japan. She later worked poet. He has written many international
Library of Congress. passion for books and writing for a publisher in Australia, before bestsellers and translated into English
stemmed from his interest in moving to Cambridge, UK. She verse the plays of Lope de Vega and
ISBN 978-1-4654-6362-3
calligraphy. It was further fuelled writes on a range of subjects, from the poetry of Alexander Pushkin.
DK books are available at special discounts when when he discovered that the history to business and fashion.
purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, Book of Kells was once owned by Philip Parker
fund-raising, or educational use. an ancestor, Bishop Henry Jones, Thomas Cussans A historian and former British
For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets,345 who donated it to Trinity College A freelance historian and author diplomat and publisher who studied
Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Dublin in 1663. Michael has based in France, Thomas Cussans History at Trinity College, Cambridge
[email protected]
published books in 12 languages. was for many years a publisher and International Relations at the
Printed and bound in China responsible for a series of bestselling John Hopkins School of Advanced
history atlases. He has contributed International Studies, Philip Parker
All images © Dorling Kindersley Limited to many DK titles, including History: is a critically acclaimed author and
For further information see: The Definitive Visual Guide. award-winning editor.
www.dkimages.com
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
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Gutenberg Bible 74 Micrographia 138
Johann Gutenberg Robert Hooke
Elementa Geometriae 76 Philosophiæ Naturalis 142
Euclid Principia Mathematica
Sir Isaac Newton
Nuremberg Chronicle 78
Hartmann Schedel Systema Naturae 144
Carolus Linneaus
Divine Comedy 84
Dante Alighieri L’Encyclopédie … des Sciences, 146 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 216
des Arts et des Métiers L. Frank Baum
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili 86
Edited by Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert
Author unknown (publisher Aldus Manutius) The Tale of Peter Rabbit 218
A Dictionary of the English Language 150 Beatrix Potter
Harmonice 88
Samuel Johnson
Musices Odhecaton The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm 222
Ottaviano Petrucci Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis 154 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (illustrator
The Codex Leicester 90 Virgil (printer John Baskerville) Arthur Rackham)
Leonardo da Vinci Tristram Shandy 156 General Theory of Relativity 226
Vier Bücher von 94 Laurence Sterne Albert Einstein
menschlicher Proportion Fables in Verse 160 Pro Dva Kvadrata 228
Albrecht Dürer Aesop (publisher John Newbery) El Lissitzky
Il Principe 96 The Wealth of Nations 162 Penguin’s First 10 Paperback Books 230
Niccolò Machiavelli Adam Smith Various authors (publisher Allen Lane)
Epitome 98 Rights of Man 164 The Diary of a Young Girl 232
Andreas Vesalius Thomas Paine Anne Frank
Cosmographia 102 Songs of Innocence and of Experience 166 Le Petit Prince 234
Sebastian Münster William Blake Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1450–1649 1650–1899 1900 ONWARD
Les Prophéties 108 Birds of America 170 Le Deuxième Sexe 236
Nostradamus John James Audubon Simone de Beauvoir
Aubin Codex 110 Procedure for Writing Words, 174 The Feminine Mystique 237
Various authors Music, and Plainsong in Dots Betty Friedan
Louis Braille
The Discoverie of Witchcraft 114 Silent Spring 238
Reginald Scot Baedeker guidebooks 176 Rachel Carson
Karl Baedeker
Don Quixote 116 Quotations from Chairman 240
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra The Pickwick Papers 178 Mao Tse-tung
King James Bible 118 Charles Dickens Mao Tse-tung
Translation committee The Holy Land 180 Directory 242
David Roberts
Hortus Eystettensis 122
Basilius Besler Photographs of British Algae: 186
Cyanotype Impressions
Tutte l’opere d’architettura, 126
et prospetiva Anna Atkins
Sebastiano Serlio Uncle Tom's Cabin 190
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, 128 Harriet Beecher Stowe
Histories, & Tragedies Leaves of Grass 192
INDEX 246
William Shakespeare Walt Whitman
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 255
Dialogo sopra i due massimi 130 On the Origin of Species 194
sistemi del mondo
Charles Darwin
Galileo Galilei
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 196
Bay Psalm Book 132
Lewis Carroll
Richard Mather
Das Kapital 200
Directory 134
Karl Marx
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Now 202
Newly Imprinted
Geoffrey Chaucer (Kelmscott Press)
Un Coup de Dés 208
Stéphane Mallarmé
Directory 210

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Preface
A book is a remarkable thing. It can represent Today a book is still a set of printed pages; yet it
beauty, knowledge, ideas, freedom, and escapism— may also be a digital file that a person can pay to
and, crucially, what is imparted depends on who is access but never physically own.
reading it. To one person a book may be a mine of The historic importance of the book cannot be
information, which informs, enlightens, and illuminates. overstated, as it is through written documentation
To another it may represent a journey into a different that human history and development can be
life, offering something bigger and more extraordinary accurately traced. For centuries books were our
than their own world perspective. To others still, a primary means of spreading knowledge—they
book may be an object of beauty, something to collect, communicated religious and spiritual rituals and
preserve, and treasure. Whatever the motivation for teachings; they enabled scientific theories to be
reading, books and the experiences they give us are shared across the world; they disseminated political
to be cherished. ideas that unified the disenfranchised of society
In theory, what constitutes a book is easy to define: and formed the seeds of revolution. Once the
a set of written or printed pages that are bound preserve of the elite, books have evolved over time
together and convey information. Yet the first “books,” to form a constant and essential part of human life,
thousands of years old, were scrolls inscribed with whether as a school textbook, a travel guide, a
ink, or slabs of bamboo engraved with a script. From sacred text, or a novel for bedtime reading. Through
these ancient beginnings the handwritten book books we educate our children about the world they
evolved into a printed artifact, which eventually live in; through books we teach them how to read.
became mass-produced and available to all. The books on our shelves trace a line through our
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own lives, each one a memory of a time gone by: a However, neither the convenience and portability
place visited, a person we knew, a story we loved. To of the ebook, nor the infinite scope of the internet
know and have access to books is a privilege that is as a source of information, has been able to
easy to underestimate. supersede the vital importance of the book to
Today an understanding of the role of books is human society.
more important than ever. Books represent freedom Remarkable Books offers a window into some of
of expression and of information—subjects once the most beautiful and important books produced
considered controversial, such as political agendas, since the origins of the written word. These books
sexual content, or scientific reasoning, are now are featured as much for their physical beauty—from
firmly within the public domain, largely due to exquisite illuminated manuscripts to masterpieces
authors who dared to challenge established thought in typographic design—as for their historical, cultural,
by publishing texts that were deemed contentious, and social significance—such as scientific papers,
or even heretical. Consequently, throughout history political treatises, and formative children’s literature.
this precious commodity has frequently come under Everybody’s list of the most remarkable books
threat. Religious and political censorship have led in history will be different—the thousands of books
to the banning, and in extreme cases the destruction, that have influenced the world cannot all be included
of many great literary works. Even today, the rise of within these pages. What is presented here is a
the internet and the development of ebooks has selection of unique and extraordinary books without
threatened the popularity and perceived usefulness which the world would be a very different, and
of what was once our most ubiquitous art form. infinitely poorer, place.
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8
INTRODUCTION
Scrolls and Codices
Books are almost as old as writing itself, and their coming Every copy of a scroll or codex was compiled from
marks the watershed between prehistory, when mankind’s manuscripts written out laboriously by hand. This made
story was passed on only by word of mouth, and history, them extremely rare and precious objects. The investment
when it was recorded for future generations to read. of time and effort meant that only the most wealthy and
The first books were written on a wide variety of powerful people could afford to have them made. But
materials, including clay tablets, silk, papyrus (made from their rarity and the way they carried exact wordings into
reeds), parchment (animal skins), and paper (pulped rags). the future gave the earliest books an authority that
They were bound together in various ways, although seemed almost magical. For example, the Ancient Egyptian
sometimes they were not even bound at all. One of the Books of the Dead were scrolls buried with a deceased
world’s oldest books is the Sumerian story of Gilgamesh, person to enable them to carry words that had the power
an ancient epic, which was written down on a collection to guide them even in the afterlife (see pp.18–23).
of clay tablets nearly 4,000 years ago. Books became the foundation stones that the world’s
Until the development of the printed book in the great religions were built upon. They were used to record
fifteenth century, most books came in the form of scrolls ancient stories and beliefs. Some works even helped local
or codices. Scrolls are sheets of papyrus, parchment, or beliefs to develop into major religions by spreading the
paper stuck together end-to-end then rolled up. The definitive words of a great sage or prophet far and wide,
Ancient Egyptians wrote on papyrus scrolls at least and through time from generation to generation. Christians
4,600 years ago. Codices (or a codex, singular) are stacked spread Christ’s words through their Bible, Jews studied
sheets of papyrus, parchment, or paper joined down one the Torah (see p.50), while Muslims followed the Qur'an,
side and bound between a stiff cover so they can hinge Hindus the Mahābhārata (see pp.28–29), and Taoists the
open—rather like a modern book, only handwritten. I Ching (see pp.24–25). All of these books still have a
Codices date back at least 3,000 years, but are often profound impact on lives today, thousands of years after
associated with the spread of Christianity across Europe. they were first written.
1 EGYPTIAN BOOKS OF THE DEAD No two Books of the Dead are the same; 1 MAHĀBHĀRATA Written in Sanskrit, this epic poem recounts tales of ancient
each was tailored to the deceased and their needs in the afterlife. They consist India. The text reached its final form in around 400 bce. The manuscript above
of spells and illustrations on papyrus, and date from around 1991–50 bce. depicts a battle between Ghatotkacha and Karna, and dates from around 1670.
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