Medieval painters built up a tremendous range of technical resources for obtaining brilliance and permanence. In this volume; an internationally known authority on medieval paint technology describes these often jealously guarded recipes; lists of materials; and processes.
#1077413 in eBooks 2012-05-11 2012-05-11File Name: B00A735PV4
Review
23 of 32 people found the following review helpful. Poor images; rubbish translation; pompous waffle.By Mark J. JonesI paid rather a lot for this slim volume; and am very dissatisfied with it. Firstly; the content. The language is pompous and peppered with annoying quotations intended to support the author in making a point. Occasionally; the link between text and quotation is so tenuous that the inclusion of a comment is baffling. There is lots of pompous waffle; self-evident observations; and meaningless statements; not to mention some very involved (and hugely patronising) schematics supposed to elucidate the design process. The poor quality of the translation may not help (see below); but Senosiain is the offender here.Furthermore; Senosiain makes a number of completely unsubstantiated comments; e.g. p. 73 "The Tower of Babel was built with clay approximately 27;000 years ago." There is no conclusive evidence to support this claim; and one wonders how many other comments show a similar disregard for scientific rigour. He also fails to engage with the (increasingly important) need for ecologically-friendly building to a satisfactory extent.Many of the images (e.g. Fig 1.52 on page 42) appear to have been scanned and then enlarged with all the loss of resolution one might expect from such a process. This detracts hugely from a book which; like other architectural works; relies heavily on images to make a point.The translation is atrocious. This may occasionally add to the impression of patronising pomposity (e.g. "savage beasts" used in preference to the more usual "wild animals" on page 76). In other places; no attempt has been made at translation at all. The Dogon people of Mali and Burkina Faso are referred to using the Spanish plural "Dogones" (p. 72); not usual in English. Similarly; the "nuraghe" (usual use in English of the Italian plural of singular "nuraga") structures of Sardinia are referred to using the Hispanicised plural "nuragas" (p. 78).Even worse; the same section on page 78 refers to the location of the "nuragas" as being in "Cerdentilde;a". It was only a fleeting knowldege of Spanish coupled with an acquaintance with the "nuraghe" as structures which enabled me to work out that "Cerdentilde;a" is the un-translated Spanish word for Sardinia. Why has this word escaped translation?As a final example of the poor quality of the translation; the work uses the word "Eskimo"; long ago discarded in English language material in favour of the ethonym "Inuit" because of the racist connotations of "Eskimo". It means "raw flesh eater"; and was applied to the Inuit in a derogatory fashion by neighbouring tribes. This again shows the lack of linguistic sensitivity which pervades the translation. This is totally and utterly unnecessary. The translator seems to have had little grasp of the subject; or even of the process of Spanish-English translation.In my estimation; the book seriously undermines the reputation of Elsevier for quality publications. It suggests a lack of rigour in the selection and assessment of the translator. Coupled with the image resolution problems referred to above; the whole thing smacks of total disregard for the reader.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Excellent! I highly recommend...By Grace G.I really enjoyed this book. It is interesting; elegant; and inspiring. I wish the united states would embrace a more natural form of architecture as its new standard.