The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe summarizes the political, social, and cultural history of medieval Central Europe (c. 800-1600 CE), a region long considered a "forgotten" area of the European past. The 25 cutting-edge chapters present up-to-date research about the region's core medieval kingdoms -- Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia -- and their dynamic interactions with neighboring areas. From the Baltic to the Adriatic, the handbook includes reflections on modern conceptions and uses of the region's shared medieval traditions. The volume's thematic organization reveals rarely compared knowledge about the region's medieval resources: its peoples and structures of power; its social life and economy; its religion and culture; and images of its past.

The end of World War I in 1918 meant a radical transformation of Central Europe: the multicultural space of former empires became divided into individual nation-states. This altered all spheres of life, deeply impacting the discipline of art history as well. The cosmopolitan vision of art history developed by figures from the Vienna School such as Franz Wickhoff and Alois Riegl was gradually replaced by new self-referential narratives. This nationalist tendency was reinforced by the division of Europe after World War II. In the wake of Jiří Kroupa’s pioneering studies, this volume takes a truly transcultural approach to art produced in the Central European region from the 12th to the 20th century. Freed from national prejudices, a region shaped by the constant movement of people, ideas, and objects emerges.

This is the first comprehensive study of Byzantine influence on the art and iconography of East Central Europe and also the first account of the disciplinary development of Byzantine Studies in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

This collection examines how the Society of Jesus used art and architecture in its missionary efforts in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth. The Jesuits used a variety of visual media to re-invigorate the cult of miraculous images, saints, and local Catholic customs in the Central European region, where a tradition of religious dissent went back to the legendary Hussites of the 15th century. Jesuit art is seen as resulting from the transfer, local adaptation, and visualization of ideas about image theology, the order's global mission, its self-promotion, and the construction of the religious past. Examining the architecture, statues, images, murals, and decorative programs of Jesuit complexes and other visual media (devotional prints, medieval images), the essays here demonstrate how the Jesuit Order cultivated the subjects and functions of art to promote concepts of Catholic piety as they grew into one of the most successful agents of Catholic Reform in the Bohemian kingdom.

The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age is a wide-ranging survey of a crucial period in prehistory during which many social, economic, and technological changes took place. Written by expert specialists in the field, the book provides coverage both of the themes that characterize the period, and of the specific developments that took place in the various countries of Europe. After an introduction and a discussion of chronology, successive chapters deal with settlement studies, burial analysis, hoards and hoarding, monumentality, rock art, cosmology, gender, and trade, as well as a series of articles on specific technologies and crafts (such as transport, metals, glass, salt, textiles, and weighing). The second half of the book covers each country in turn. From Ireland to Russia, Scandinavia to Sicily, every area is considered, and up to date information on important recent finds is discussed in detail. The book is the first to consider the whole of the European Bronze Age in both geographical and thematic terms, and will be the standard book on the subject for the foreseeable future.

Provides a systematic history from prehistory to the establishment of the Czech Republic.

Works in the Museum's collection that embody the Renaissance interest in classical learning, fame, and beautiful objects are illustrated and discussed in this resource and will help educators introduce the richness and diversity of Renaissance art to their students. Primary source texts explore the great cities and powerful personalities of the age. By studying gesture and narrative, students can work as Renaissance artists did when they created paintings and drawings. Learning about perspective, students explore the era's interest in science and mathematics. Through projects based on poetic forms of the time, students write about their responses to art. The activities and lesson plans are designed for a variety of classroom needs and can be adapted to a specific curriculum as well as used for independent study. The resource also includes a bibliography and glossary.

Illustrated in color throughout, this handsome volume presents selected papers from an international symposium held in June 2001 marking the completion of a ten-year project to conserve the Last Judgment mosaic, at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The project was a partnership between the Office of the President of the Czech Republic, the Prague Castle Administration, and the Getty Conservation Institute. The goal of the symposium was to present the methodology, research, and results of the project, which involved conserving one of the finest examples of monumental medieval mosaic art in Europe. The volume's essays are divided into three parts, which cover the historical and art-historical context, conservation planning and methodology, and project implementation and maintenance. Topics addressed include the history, iconography, and visual documentation of the mosaic; the development and application of surface cleaning and protective coating techniques for the mosaic's glass tesserae; and post-treatment monitoring and maintenance.

This text on mathematical problem solving provides a comprehensive outline of "problemsolving-ology," concentrating on strategy and tactics. It discusses a number of standard mathematical subjects such as combinatorics and calculus from a problem solver's perspective.