Bibliophobia is a book about material books, how they are cared for, and how they are damaged, throughout the 5000-year history of writing from Sumeria to the smartphone. Its starting point is the contemporary idea of 'the death of the book' implied by the replacement of physical books by digital media, with accompanying twenty-first-century experiences of paranoia and literary apocalypse. It traces a twin fear of omniscience and oblivion back to the origins of writing in ancient Babylon and Egypt, then forwards to the age of Google. It uncovers bibliophobia from the first Chinese emperor to Nazi Germany, alongside parallel stories of bibliomania and bibliolatry in world religions and literatures. Books imply cognitive content embodied in physical form, in which the body cooperates with the brain. At its heart this relationship of body and mind, or letter and spirit, always retains a mystery. Religions are founded on holy books, which are also sites of transgression, so that writing is simultaneously sacred and profane. In secular societies these complex feelings are transferred to concepts of ideology and toleration. In the ambiguous future of the internet, digital immateriality threatens human equilibrium once again.
Bibliophobia is a global history, covering six continents and seven religions, describing written examples from each of the last thirty centuries (and several earlier). It discusses topics such as the origins of different kinds of human script; the development of textual media such as scrolls, codices, printed books, and artificial intelligence; the collection and destruction of libraries; the use of books as holy relics, talismans, or shrines; and the place of literacy in the history of slavery, heresy, blasphemy, censorship, and persecution. It proposes a theory of writing, how it relates to speech, images, and information, or to concepts of mimesis, personhood, and politics. Originating as the Clarendon Lectures in the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford, the methods of Bibliophobia range across book history; comparative religion; philosophy from Plato to Hegel and Freud; and a range of global literature from ancient to contemporary. Richly illustrated with textual forms, material objects, and art works, its inspiration is the power that books always (and continue to) have in the emotional, spiritual, bodily, and imaginative lives of readers.

The Routledge History of Medieval Magic brings together the work of scholars from across Europe and North America to provide extensive insights into recent developments in the study of medieval magic between c.1100 and c.1500.
This book covers a wide range of topics, including the magical texts which circulated in medieval Europe, the attitudes of intellectuals and churchmen to magic, the ways in which magic intersected with other aspects of medieval culture, and the early witch trials of the fifteenth century. In doing so, it offers the reader a detailed look at the impact that magic had within medieval society, such as its relationship to gender roles, natural philosophy, and courtly culture. This is furthered by the book's interdisciplinary approach, containing chapters dedicated to archaeology, literature, music, and visual culture, as well as texts and manuscripts.
The Routledge History of Medieval Magic also outlines how research on this subject could develop in the future, highlighting under-explored subjects, unpublished sources, and new approaches to the topic. It is the ideal book for both established scholars and students of medieval magic.

Although much has been written on the aesthetic value of color, there are other values that adhere to it with economic and social values among them. Through case studies of particular colors and colored objects, this volume demonstrates just how complex the history of color is by focusing on the diverse social and cultural meanings of color; the trouble, pain, and suffering behind the production and application of these colors; the difficult technical processes for making and applying color; and the intricacy of commercial exchanges and knowledge transfers as commodities and techniques moved from one region to another. By emphasizing color's materiality, the way in which it was produced, exchanged, and used by artisans, artists, and craftspersons, contributors draw attention to the disjuncture between the beauty of color and the blood, sweat, and tears that went into its production, circulation, and application as well as to the complicated and varied social meanings attached to color within specific historical and social contexts. This book captures color's global history with chapters on indigo plantations in India and the American South, cochineal production in colonial Oaxaca, the taste for brightly colored Chinese objects in Europe, and the thriving trade in vermilion between Europeans and Native Americans. To underscore the complexity of the technical knowledge behind color production, there are chapters on the 'discovery' of Prussian blue, Brazilian feather techné, and wallpaper production. To sound the depths of color's capacity for social and cultural meaning-making, there are chapters that explore the significance of black ink in Shakespeare's sonnets, red threads in women's needlework samplers, blues in Mayan sacred statuary, and greens and yellows in colored glass bracelets that were traded across the Arabian desert in the late Middle Ages. The purpose of this book is to recover color's complex-and sometimes morally troubling-past, and in doing so, to restore a sense of wonder and appreciation for our colorful world. With its nuanced and complex depiction of how color operated within local contexts and moved across the globe, this book will appeal to art historians, social and cultural historians, museum curators, literary scholars, rhetoric scholars, and historians of science and technology.

法国大革命之前的1780年代，知识分子发现催眠术可以作为对自然现象进行解释的一种方式，并能够治病，于是发展为一项社会运动。本书是达恩顿教授第一部法国史论著，以历来为史家所忽略的催眠术这一科学时尚为切入点，通过大量书信、手稿、手册、报刊等史料，追寻催眠术运动在法国大革命前后的变迁轨迹，探讨催眠术与激进思想、政治运动、民众心态、启蒙运动的终结之间的关联，为揭示法国大革命爆发的起因提供了一个全新的视角。

In the centuries leading up to our own, the volume of traffic across Asian sea routes—an area stretching from East Africa and the Middle East to Japan—exploded, eventually making them the busiest in the world. The result was a massive circulation of people, commodities, religion, culture, technology, and ideas. In this book, Eric Tagliacozzo chronicles how the seas and oceans of Asia have shaped the history of the largest continent for the past half millennium, leaving an indelible mark on the modern world in the process.
Paying special attention to migration, trade, the environment, and cities, In Asian Waters examines the long history of contact between China and East Africa; the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism across the Bay of Bengal; and the intertwined histories of Islam and Christianity in the Philippines. The book illustrates how India became central to the spice trade; how the Indian Ocean became a “British lake” between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; and how lighthouses and sea mapping played important roles in imperialism. The volume ends by asking what may happen if China comes to rule the waves of Asia, as Britain once did.
A novel account showing how Asian history can be seen as a whole when seen from the water, In Asian Waters presents a voyage into a past that is still alive in the present.

本書透過梳理北宋前期的政治過程，分析宋代古文運動展開的歷史脈絡。上篇探討1008至1033年的所謂「天書時代」，如何在真宗與徐鉉後學的合作下，融合漢唐經學、讖緯學、道教思想於一體；下篇探討仁宗朝的古文運動如何在批判天書時代的政治文化中誕生。為探討此一政治過程，本書所關注的士大夫群體遠多於范仲淹及其政治支持者，從而深化仁宗朝古文運動的歷史過程。本書認為，天書時代是趙宋君臣將漢唐君主對「太平」的想像與操作，進行總結性的重組與展示，以為統治的正當性張本；天書時代在仁宗朝的破產，意味著此時士大夫反省，甚至放棄漢唐儒學所賦予的政治理念。是故，從天書時代到古文運動，可謂是中國政治史與儒學史典範轉移的關鍵時期。

Malebranche's Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion is in many ways the best introduction to his thought, and provides the most systematic exposition of his philosophy as a whole. In it, he presents clear and comprehensive statements of his two best-known contributions to metaphysics and epistemology, namely, the doctrines of occasionalism and vision in God; he also states his views on such central issues as self-knowledge, the existence of the external world and the problem of theodicy. His skilful handling of the dialogue form enables the reader to see how he responds to objections made to his earlier work The Search after Truth. This edition presents a translation of the text which is clear, readable and more accurate than any of its predecessors, together with an introduction that analyses Malebranche's central teachings and explains the importance of the Dialogues in the context of seventeenth-century philosophy.

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the formation of lowland North China’s agricultural systems and the transformation of its plains from diverse forestland and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China, and elsewhere, was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin, Lander amalgamates abundant new scientific, archaeological, and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the central Yellow River region, and the rest of the planet, was made possible by the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.

Marking a departure in our understanding of Christian views of the afterlife from 250 to 650 CE, The Ransom of the Soul explores a revolutionary shift in thinking about the fate of the soul that occurred around the time of Rome's fall. Peter Brown describes how this shift transformed the Church's institutional relationship to money and set the stage for its domination of medieval society in the West.
Early Christian doctrine held that the living and the dead, as equally sinful beings, needed each other in order to achieve redemption. The devotional intercessions of the living could tip the balance between heaven and hell for the deceased. In the third century, money began to play a decisive role in these practices, as wealthy Christians took ever more elaborate steps to protect their own souls and the souls of their loved ones in the afterlife. They secured privileged burial sites and made lavish donations to churches. By the seventh century, Europe was dotted with richly endowed monasteries and funerary chapels displaying in marble splendor the Christian devotion of the wealthy dead.
In response to the growing influence of money, Church doctrine concerning the afterlife evolved from speculation to firm reality, and personal wealth in the pursuit of redemption led to extraordinary feats of architecture and acts of generosity. But it also prompted stormy debates about money's proper use—debates that resonated through the centuries and kept alive the fundamental question of how heaven and earth could be joined by human agency.

这是一部具有国际视野的文学评论随笔集，精选作者多年来创作的文章共二十篇，全面展现了作者作为小说家、翻译家独特的文学视野和非虚构写作上的精致文笔。一方面，它对世界各国的知名或新锐作家、诗人进行了深入细致而又眼光独到的长篇评析和推介，这其中既有广为人知的《爱丽丝漫游奇境》、村上春树、雷蒙德·卡佛、保罗·奥斯特、莱昂纳德·科恩等，也有经由本书作者译介而在近年来广受瞩目的詹姆斯·索特（长篇小说《光年》）、杰夫·戴尔（《然而，很美：爵士乐之书》）、塞萨尔·艾拉（《音乐大脑》）等。另一方面，它也是一部有着内在隐秘关联的个人史和创作谈。从《2666》到《爱丽丝漫游奇境》，从《斯通纳》到《光年》，从莱昂纳德·科恩的诗歌到保罗·奥斯特的奇遇，从卡佛的温柔失败到杰夫·戴尔的极乐之路，从硬汉派侦探到爵士乐，从B级电影到隐居乡间，从读书、翻译到写作……一部有浓烈文体意识与个人风格的评论集，一座附带秘密地图的私人图书馆，一次真诚、神秘而美妙的倾心长谈。

时隐时现间，恰巧有位诗人，无惧山巅稀薄的空气，敢于超越世俗，以史诗般的气息赞美当下。因为别搞错了，这些勇敢的年轻人，面对最激烈的战斗，曾尝试着让一位哭喊着饶命的年轻士兵避免堕入阿尔及利亚的地狱（唉，没有成功），他们堪称埃阿斯、阿喀琉斯、赫拉克勒斯和忒勒马科斯、阿尔戈英雄、三个火枪手，甚至是尼摩船长、圣埃克苏佩里、德日进真正的继承者……
至于那些对史诗美德无动于衷的读者，他们可以在这本小书中找到足够多的东拉西扯和离题之话，从中获得乐趣，例如橄榄饭的食谱，应该会让最难缠的人心满意足。
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佩雷克的每一本书都出人意料、别出心裁又自成一派。读者从他的独特作品中体会到的，不仅有新的文学感受，还有怪异、刺激和乐趣。
——《纽约客》（The New Yorker）
在佩雷克作品中，风格、叙事技巧和一般规则成为游戏的托辞。
佩雷克实际上创建了一种周围文本性（péritextualité）实践，此后他每部作品都将具有这一特征。[……]为我们预示了一种游戏机制，这将在其后作品中进一步发展：能指游戏……互文游戏或伪装的引用游戏……以及文体游戏。
——西尔维·罗西安斯基-佩尔兰，《文学研究》（Sylvie Rosienski-Pellerin，Études littéraires）

Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic resonance challenges the fundamental assumptions of modern science. An accomplished biologist, Sheldrake proposes that all natural systems, from crystals to human society, inherit a collective memory that influences their form and behavior. Rather than being ruled by fixed laws, nature is essentially habitual. <em>The Presence of the Past</em> lays out the evidence for Sheldrake's controversial theory, exploring its implications in the fields of biology, physics, psychology, and sociology. At the same time, Sheldrake delivers a stinging critique of conventional scientific thinking. In place of the mechanistic, neo-Darwinian worldview he offers a new understanding of life, matter, and mind.

This collection of essays examines how the paratextual apparatus of medieval manuscripts both inscribes and expresses power relations between the producers and consumers of knowledge in this important period of intellectual history. It seeks to define which paratextual features – annotations, commentaries, corrections, glosses, images, prologues, rubrics, and titles – are common to manuscripts from different branches of medieval knowledge and how they function in any particular discipline. It reveals how these visual expressions of power that organize and compile thought on the written page are consciously applied, negotiated or resisted by authors, scribes, artists, patrons and readers. This collection, which brings together scholars from the history of the book, law, science, medicine, literature, art, philosophy and music, interrogates the role played by paratexts in establishing authority, constructing bodies of knowledge, promoting education, shaping reader response, and preserving or subverting tradition in medieval manuscript culture.

From later antiquity down to the close of the eighteenth century, most philosophers and men of science and, indeed, most educated men, accepted without question a traditional view of the plan and structure of the world. In this volume, which embodies the William James lectures for 1933, Arthur O. Lovejoy points out the three principles--plenitude, continuity, and graduation--which were combined in this conception; analyzes their origins in the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists; traces the most important of their diverse samifications in subsequent religious thought, in metaphysics, in ethics and aesthetics, and in astronomical and biological theories; and copiously illustrates the influence of the conception as a whole, and of the ideas out of which it was compounded, upon the imagination and feelings as expressed in literature.

本书内容为宋昌宗绘制的《守令图》、黄裳绘制的《地理图》、无名氏绘制的《蜀江胜概图》、宋代四川学者税安礼（原托名苏轼）编绘的《历代地理指掌图》四种地理图书的研究与点校、墨线清绘图及以现代地图为底本的复原图，另摘录历代学者相关研究论文，作为附录。本书集个人研究成果与前人研究成果为一体，便于读者全面了解宋代四川地理学成就。

编辑推荐：
1、“摄影界的芥川奖”得主佳作重现：“一张照片，一盒卷。”甄选120幅标志性的极地摄影作品，记录星野道夫旅居北极二十年光影。
2、作者人生最后一段旅程首次披露：收录《西伯利亚日志》（1996年6月30日～7月27日），记录星野道夫最后时光的点滴瞬间。横跨白令陆桥，从阿拉斯加到西伯利亚，英雄的最后一抹色彩。
3、六十四开文库本，向日文初版致敬：星野道夫自然文库系列三书，开本小巧，顺纹易翻；通勤旅行，熨帖称手；专色封面，醒目耐磨。熊伴野趣，雪映清凉，身未动，心已远。
内容简介：
《森林、冰河与鲸》是生态摄影师、旅行作家星野道夫生前最后一部作品，曾连载于《家庭画报》，后因作者在堪察加半岛遭遇棕熊袭击，不幸离世，戛然而止。这部夹杂着人类学田野笔记的趣味的图文旅行手记，被星野道夫研究者誉为高峰和经典。书中，他从阿拉斯加东南部开始，一路向北，跨过白令海峡，再向西，完成从阿拉斯加到西伯利亚，从美洲到亚洲的文化寻根之旅。途中，作者记录下与部族长老的会面，以及找寻神话起源的经过，以及森林、冰河与鲸，三个关键词串联起一个永恒的主题——时间。回到洪荒，从自然中获得直觉与领悟，坚持不懈地用照片与文字去表现真理，以体验和温度，得到幸福。