Lapidarium
The Secret Lives of Stones
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
'A delightful storybook . . . a portrait of our whole world created from the contents of the ground' Literary Review
'A real cabinet of curiosities' Sunday Times
From the hematite used in cave paintings to the moldavite that became a TikTok sensation; from the stolen sandstone of Scone to the unexpected acoustics of Stonehenge; from crystal balls to compasses, rocks and minerals have always been central to our story.
3,000 years ago Babylonians constructed lapidaries - books that tried to pin down the magical secrets of rocks. In The Secret Lives of Stones, renowned art critic Hettie Judah explores the unexpected stories behind sixty stones that have shaped and inspired human history, from Dorset fossil-hunters to Chinese philosophers, Catherine the Great to Michelangelo.
Discover why alchemists sought cinnabar and sulphur. Unearth the mystery of the tuff statues of Rapa Nui, the lost amber room of Frederick of Prussia and the scandal of Flint Jack. Find out how a Greek monster created coral, moon rock explains the history of Earth's only satellite and obsidian inspired the world's favourite computer game.
Stone by stone, story by fascinating story, The Secret Lives of Stones builds into a dazzling, epoch-spanning adventure through human culture, and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Judah (Frida Kahlo), senior art critic at the British newspaper The i, offers a beautifully illustrated collection of insightful essays that "explore how human culture has formed stone, and the roles stone has played in forming human culture." Judah digs into 60 types, describing, for example, how people in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia turned alunite into alum, a compound used for tanning and textile production: "You could make a fortune from rock and old urine. You just needed the right rock. And the right recipe." Marble offers a look at "the Roman Empire in its pomp" as well as its decline, and diamonds are shrouded in tall tales: "As long as gemstones have been associated with magic, silver-tongued storytellers have attributed powers for both good and ill," Judah writes. Pink ancaster, a form of limestone, is the material used in Barbara Hepworth's 1934 sculpture Mother and Child, and haüyne, a rare mineral, "occurs in a zippy blue that declares modernity." Judah elegantly mixes archaeology, mythology, literature, and philosophy, building a solid case that "so much of what we think of as culture—our modes and places of worship, the tools we use, the materials in which we adorn ourselves, the stories we spin, our graven images—is formed by geology." This clever outing fascinates.
