Isis unveiled, Volume 2 (of 2), Theology

Or, the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church, as Witnesses and Teachers of the one Catholic Faith and Practice. By John P. Lundy, Presbyter. 1 vol. demy 4to. Beautifully printed on superior paper, with over 200 illustrations throughout the text, and numerous large folding plates. Cloth, gilt top, $7.50. Half morocco, extra, gilt top, $10.00. Full morocco, extra, or tree calf, $15.00.

This is a presentation of the facts and verities of Christianity from the earliest monuments and contemporary literature. These include the paintings, sculptures, sarcophagi, glasses, lamps, seal-rings, and inscriptions of the Christian Catacombs and elsewhere, as well as the mosaics of the earliest Christian churches. Many of these monuments are evidently of Pagan origin, as are also the symbols; and the author has drawn largely from the ancient religions of India, Chaldea, Persia, Egypt, Etruria, Greece, and Rome, believing that they all contained germs of religious truths which it is the province of Christianity to preserve, develop, and embody in a purer system. The Apostles’ Creed is exhibited, with its parallel or counterpart, article by article, in the different systems thus brought under review.

The book is profusely illustrated, and many of the monuments presented in facsimile were studied on the spot by the author, and several are specimens obtained in foreign travel. This is one of the most valuable contributions to ecclesiastical and archæological literature. The revival of Oriental learning, both in Europe and America, has created a demand for such publications, but no one has occupied the field which Dr. Lundy has chosen. The Expositions which he has made of the symbols and mysteries are thorough without being exhaustive; and he has carefully excluded a world of collateral matter, that the attention might not be diverted from the main object of the work. Those who may not altogether adopt his conclusions will nevertheless find the information which he has imparted most valuable and interesting.

“When, indeed, we say that from beginning to end this book will certainly be found to possess a powerful interest to the careful student, and that its influence for good cannot fail to be considerable, we in nowise exaggerate its intrinsic merits. It is one of the most valuable additions to our literature which the season has produced.”—New York Times.

“Our sense of the beauties of this tale may be appreciated by the acknowledgment that for insight into human nature, for poetical thought, for grace, refinement, intellect, pathos, and sublimity, we prize the Epicurean even above any other of the author’s works. Indeed, although written in prose, this is a masterly poem, and will forever rank as one of the most exquisite productions in English literature.”—Literary Gazette.

A Series of Sixty Engravings, from the Works of J. M. W. Turner, R.A. With Biographical Sketch and Descriptive Text by Ralph N. Wornum, Keeper and Secretary of the National Gallery, London. One volume, folio, India Proofs. Elegantly bound in half Levant morocco, extra, gilt edges, $50.00. Full Levant morocco, extra, very elegant, $75.00.

The Turner Gallery is already so well known to lovers of art and to students of Turner, that, in announcing a reissue of a limited number of copies of this important National Work, little need be said by way of comment or introduction. The Original Engravings have, for the first time, been employed, instead of the electrotype plates hitherto used, thus securing impressions of more genuineness and brilliancy than have yet been offered to the public. Of the high-class character of the Engravings themselves, and of the skill and excellence with which they are executed, such well-known names as Jeens, Armytage, Willmore, E. Goodall, Brandard, Wallis, Cousens, and Miller, will be a sufficient guarantee.

“In selecting the subjects, the publisher has chosen judiciously. Many of his grandest productions are in this series of Engravings, and the ablest landscape engravers of the day have been employed on the plates, among which are some that, we feel assured, Turner himself would have been delighted to see. These proof impressions constitute a volume of exceeding beauty, which deserves to find a place in the library of every man of taste. The number of copies printed is too limited for a wide circulation, but, on that account, the rarity of the publication makes it the more valuable.

Illustrated with 500 Plates, 300 of which are in Colors, Gold and Silver, and 200 in Tinted Lithography (Camaïeu). Executed in the finest style of the art, by Messrs. Didot & Co., of Paris. Representing Authentic Examples of the Costumes and Ornaments of all Times, among all Nations. With numerous choice specimens of Furniture, Ornamental Metal Work, Glass, Tiles, Textile Fabrics, Arms and Armor, Useful Domestic Articles, Modes of Transport, etc. With explanatory Notices and Historical Dissertations (in French). By M. A. Racinet, author of “Polychromatic Ornament.” To be issued in 20 parts. Small 4to (7½ × 8½ inches), $4.50 each. Folio, large paper (11½ × 16 inches), in cloth portfolio, $9.00 each.

“The Messrs. Firmin Didot & Co., of Paris, a firm that disputes with the house of Hachette & Co. the honor of supplying France and the world with the most beautiful books at the cheapest rates compatible with the greatest excellence in editing and ‘making,’ have recently published the beginning of a work which, by making its appeal chiefly to the eye, is sure of a welcome in this picture-loving age of ours. This is the History of Costume, by A. Racinet, well-known already to that portion of our public which is interested in the decorative art by his illustrated work on ornament. L’Ornement Polychrome.—Racinet gives the word ‘costume’ almost as wide a sweep of meaning as Viollet-le-Duc gives to furniture in his now famous Dictionnaire du Mobilier. * * * * The field surveyed consists not only of costumes proper, but of arms, armor, drinking vessels, objects used in the service of the church, modes of transport, harness, head-gear and modes of dressing the hair, domestic interiors, and furniture in the ordinary acceptation of the term.

Each plate is to be accompanied with an explanatory text, and there will be added an historical study, so that little will be wanting to make this one of the completest encyclopædias of the sort that has ever appeared. * * * * A charming taste has presided over the selection of the subject, and the abundant learning that has been brought to bear in the collection of illustrations, from so wide a field of human action, is made to seem like play, so lightly is it handled. * * * * No scientific arrangement is observed in the order in which the subjects are presented. We have ancient Egypt, Assyria, Rome, Greece, India, Europe in the middle ages, and from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Japan, Turkey, Syria, Russia, and Poland, mixed up for the present, as if the work were an illustrated report of a fancy ball; and, to most of us, the gay parade as it rolls along is none the less pleasant for this want of order.”—Scribner’s Monthly.

“The name of Firmin Didot & Co., of Paris, is such a guarantee of mechanical execution in a book, that it is sufficient to state that Le Costume Historique is fully on a par with any of the former publications of this distinguished house. In addition to its other features, this work has numerous illustrations, giving restorations of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian interiors. In fact the work is conceived on a large plan, and will be found most useful to the artist. With such a book as a reference, some of the glaring inconsistencies we still see from time to time on the stage, where periods as to costume, some hundreds of years apart, are terribly mixed up, might be prevented, and the unities saved. The publishers have had the excellent idea of reducing the size of the illustrations, so as to bring the price of this picture-cyclopædia of the costume of the world within the means of the most prudent book-buyer.”—N. Y. Daily Times.

“A new work on costume, most expensive to the publishers and cheap to the subscribers. Parts I., II., and III., with twenty-five pictures in each, are ready. We have minutely examined them, and find them worthy of great praise, both for general excellences of execution and for the recondite and curious sources drawn upon—the latter characteristic making the collector master of a great many pictorial facts and illustrations whose original sources are hard even to see and impossible to become possessed of.”—Nation.

“This work is unquestionably the best work on its subject ever offered to the public, and it will engage very general attention. In shapeliness and convenience, too, it leaves nothing to be desired, which cannot be said often of cyclopædias of costume. One can enjoy the colors and contents of these ‘parts’ while lounging in a veranda or rocking in a boudoir. It is not necessary to adjourn to a public library and to an immovable chair.”—Evening Post.

Edited, with notes, by Philip Gilbert Hamerton, Editor of the “Portfolio.” Twenty Plates, by Balfourier, Bodmer, Bracquemond, Chattock, Flameng, Feyen-Perrin, Seymour Haden, Hamerton, Hesseltine, Laguillermie, Lalanne, Legros, Lucas, Palmer, Rajon, Veyrassat, etc. The text beautifully printed on heavy paper. Folio, tastefully bound in cloth, full gilt, $10.00.

Among the contents of this choice volume, may be mentioned “The Laughing Portrait of Rembrandt,” by Flameng; Twickenham Church, by Seymour Haden; Aged Spaniard, by Legros; The Hare—A Misty Morning, by Bracquemond; The Thames at Richmond, by Lalanne; The Ferryboat, by Veyrassat, etc.

A series of eighteen choice plates by Flameng, Le Rat, Rajon, Wise, Waltner, Brunet-Debaines, Gaucherel, Richeton, etc., after the paintings by Masaccio, Bellini, Giorgione, Moroni, Mantegna, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Cuyp, Maes, Hobbema, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Turner, and Landseer, with Notes by Ralph N. Wornum (Keeper of the National Gallery). The text handsomely printed on heavy paper. Folio, tastefully bound in cloth, full gilt, $10.00.

To admirers of Etchings, the present volume offers several of the most notable of recently executed plates, among others the Portrait of Rembrandt, by Waltner; The Parish Clerk, after Gainsborough, by the same etcher; The Burial of Wilkie, after Turner, by Brunet-Debaines; Portrait of a Youth, after Masaccio, by Léopold Flameng, etc.