Bibliography: B

Bain, George
Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction
[-], 1951, facsimile reprint by Dover Publications, 1972
160 pp., hundreds of b&w illustrations
LC 73-75875
ISBN 0-486-22923-8

Keywords:
patterns, spirals, petroglyphs, labyrinths, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe

Comment:
Contains one "labyrinth symbol" which is a unicursal form, said to be from the Book of Kells. TL

Comment:
Beautiful (and often copied) drawings of 225 Pictish and Celtic spiral and knot patterns, showing the step-by-step geometric construction that underlies them. CY

Bakhtiar, Ardalan and Laleh
The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture
University of Chicago Press, 1973, 1979
ISBN 0-226-02560-8

Keywords:
houses of worship, religious iconography, Middle East

Bancroft, Anne
Origins of the Sacred: The Spiritual Journey in Western Tradition
Arkana/Routledge and Kegan Paul/Methuen, 1967
201 pp.

Keywords:
megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, prehistoric, ancient, medieval, Europe, Greece, Rome

Comment:
Despite the new-agey-sounding title, this is a well-written (but, sadly, unillustrated) survey of the religious practices of prehistoric and early historic European cultures; Bancroft deftly integrates archaeoastronomy, funerary architecture, shamanism, and myth into the larger context of sacred endeavor; the book also contains an excellent bibliography. CY

Barnsley, Michael
Fractals Everywhere

Keywords:
natural proportion

Baudez, Claude and Picasso, Sidney
Lost Cities of the Maya
translated from the French by Sharon AvRutick
Gaillmard, 1987 [in French]; Harry N. Abrams Discoveries, 1992
176 pp., profusely illustrated in colour and b&w
LC 91-75505
ISBN 0-8109-2841-8

Keywords:
houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, metrology, religion, myth, cosmology, religious iconography, ancient, medieval, Meso-America

Comment:
All of the books in the digest-sized Harry Abrams Discoveries series on the history of archaeology suffer from very small type, but each volume is lavishly illustrated, well written, and beautifully designed, and the archival prints and photographs are well worth the price.

Bauval, Robert and Gilbert, Adrian.
The Orion Mystery
New York: Crown, 1994
325 pp., illustrated with drawings and 16 b&w photos

Keywords:
houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, metrology, religion, myth, cosmology, religious iconography, ancient, Egypt

Comment:
Controversial theories regarding a revised date for the construction of the Sphinx at Giza and its archaeoastronomical relationship to the Great Pyramid. CY

Comment:
236 pages of text, guest appearance by Rudolf Gantenbrink, 7 appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 16 b&w photographs, and numerous drawings. JCP

Beardsley, John
Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists
Abbeville Press, 1995
223 pp., colour illustrations

Keywords:
vernacular architecture, symbolic landscaping, modern, North America

Comment:
Discusses the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas. SS

Bentman, Reinhard and Mźller, Michael
The Villa as Hegemonic Architecture
Humanities Press International, 1992
176 pp., b&w illustrations

Keywords:
natural proportion, patterns, ratio, golden section, spirals, polygons, vernacular architecture, symbolic landscaping, Renaissance, Europe

Comment:
The authors apply Marxian dialectic to the study of 16th century Palladian villa architecture. Barrance C. Lespine's lengthy essay on the thesis of this book is archived on the Sacred Landscape site as Politics and the Palladian Ideal: The Lords of Paradise. CY

Berriman, Algernon
Historical Metrology
[-], 1950s(?), reprinted by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1972

Keywords:
metrology

Comment:
An important book. Someone should do the world a service and put it back in print again. BC

Biaggi, Christina
Habitations of the Great Goddess
Knowledge, Ideas, and Trends, Incorporated, 1994
202 pp., illustrated with colour and b&w photos and line illustrations
ISBN 1-879198-18-5

Keywords:
spirals, megaliths, petroglyphs, houses of worship,funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
The foreword by Marija Gimbutas firmly places this work in the context of Gimbutas' "Old Europe" archaeology; Biaggi's primary emphasis is on the remarkable similarity of construction details and site orientations shared by the nelolithic temples and tombs of Malta and Scotland. CY

Bicknell, Marjorie and Hoggatt, Verner E. Jr. [eds.]
A Primer for the Fibonacci Numbers
The Fibonacci Association, 1973

Keywords:
natural proportion, ratio, golden section, spirals

Comment:
A collection of articles from the early (1963-1973) issues of "The Fibonacci Quarterly" on the Fibonacci numbers and related sequences in a variety of mathematical areas and in nature. Problems and solutions. More extensive than the material in Hoggatt's "Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers." PB

Comment:
see under Hoggatt for related material. CY

Blackwell, William
Geometry in Architecture
Key Curriculum Press, 1984
LC 83-10281
ISBN 1-55953-018-9

Keywords:
natural proportion, patterns, ratio, golden section, spirals, polygons, polyhedra, links between geometry-music-architecture

Comment:
Reviews the timeless geometric relationships that govern architectural design. Filled with beautiful illustrations. Discusses applications of the fundamental laws of harmony, symmetry and order in the creation of forms and patterns. MZ

Bonwick, James
Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions
[-], 1894; facsimile reprint: Dorset Press, 1986
328 pp., no illustrations
ISBN 0-88029-070-6

Keywords:
megaliths, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, cosmology, religious iconography, ancient, Europe

Comment:
A rather dated and chatty compilation of early source material on ancient Ireland, combined with the author's own touristic notes; its virtue is the breadth of mythological, anthropological, and archaeological material covered.

Bord, Janet and Bord, Colin
Earth Rites
[-], 1982

Bord, Janet
Mazes and Labyrinths of the World
Dutton, 1975
illustrated
ISBN 0-525-47441-2

Keywords:
petroglyphs, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, prehistoric, ancient, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, religious iconography, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, world survey

Comment:
A picture book; has some good pictures and information hard to get elsewhere. TL

Bord, Janet and Bord, Colin
Sacred Waters: Holy Wells
Granada, 1985

Bord, Janet and Bord, Colin
The Secret Country
[-], 1978

Bouleau, Charles
The Painter's Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art
originally published in French as
Charpentres, La Geometrie Secrete des Peintres
English translation by Jonathan Griffin
Editions du Seuil, 1963; Thames & Hudson/Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963
268 pp., b&w illustrations

Keywords:
ratio, golden section, Pythagoras, geometry in art-music-architecture, medieval, renaissance, modern, Europe

Comment:
Hundreds of works of art retrospectively analyzed in order to determine the principles of geometric construction underlying them. CY

Bosman, Leonard
The Meaning and Philosophy of Numbers
Rider and Company, 1974
ISBN 0-09-119271-4

Keywords:
cosmology, number symbolism

Comment:
Spiritual analysis of numbers by a Theosophist who discusses the implications of each number from one to ten, showing that they represent cosmic and creative processes. Incorporates information from ancient Egypt and Greece. MZ

Bragdon, Claude
The Beautiful Necessity: Seven Lectures on Theosophy and Architecture
Alfred A. Knopf, 1910, 1922; 2nd Edition, George Routledge and Sons, 1922
111 pp., b&w illustrations

Keywords:
natural proportion, patterns, ratio, golden section, spirals, polygons, polyhedra, Pythagoras, Fibonacci, geometry in art-music-architecture, religion, religious iconography, number symbolism, ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, Asia, Europe, Greece, Rome

Comment:
One of Bragdon's most generally accessible works; beautifully illustrated with Bragdon's detailed renderings, it deals primarily with the latent geometry and the sacred Platonic underpinnings of his app.roach to art deco architecture and acknowledges his debt to the work of Jay Hambidge. CY

Bragdon, Claude
The New Image
Alfred A. Knopf, 1928
190 pp., b&w illustrations

Comment:
Contains an important explanation of Bragdon's theories relating architecture to music via their common basis in geometric ratio and proportion, with many lovely architectural renderings by Bragdon. CY

Bragdon, Claude
A Primer of Higher Space: The Fourth Dimension; To Which Is Added Man the Square: A Higher Space Parable
Alfred A. Knopf, 1923
81 pp., b&w illustrations

Keywords:
polygons, polyhedra, religion, cosmology, number symbolism, magic squares, modern, North America

Comment:
This is one of Bragdon's Theosophically-inclined works on geometry; it is not a practical book on architectural design. The illustrations are more diagrammatic than usual for Bragdon, CY

Bragdon, Claude
Projective Ornament
The Manas Press, 1915
79 pp., b&w illustrations, colour frontispiece

Keywords:
patterns, polygons, polyhedra, geometry in art-music-architecture, number symbolism, modern, North America

Comment:
How to use plane projections of regular polygons to create art deco architectural friezes; similar to the work of Edward B. Edwards, but with far stronger symbolic intent. Contains many beautiful illustrations by the author. CY

Brennan, M.
The Stars and the Stones
Thames and Hudson, 1983

Brown, John Gary
Soul in the Stone: Cemetery Art From America's Heartland
University Press of Kansas, 1994
246 pp., numerous b&w photos
ISBN 0-7006-0634-3

Keywords:
funerary-cemetery-burial sites, vernacular architecture, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, folklore, religious iconography, freemasonic symbolism, sacred site tourism, modern, North America

Comment:
A well-photographed survey of American vernacular, oddball, figural, and symbolic grave markers of the 19th and 20th centuries; includes memorials whose iconography relates to the Freemasons, Oddfellows, Woodmen of the World, and other fraternal orders. CY

Brown, Peter Lancaster
Megaliths, Myths and Men: An Introduction to Astro-Archaeology
Blandford Press, 1976; Taplinger Publishing, 1976; Harper Colophon, 1978
324 pp., 142 b&w illustrations
ISBN 0-06-090578-6 [Harper Colophon pbk]

Keywords:
megaliths, mounds, petroglyphs, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, ley lines, religion, myth, folklore, cosmology, metrology, religious iconography, prehistoric, ancient, world survey

Comment:
A technically dense history of archaeoastronomical theory, with particular reference to Britain and Egypt; the author presents solid evidence for ancient astronomical knowledge and supports the metrological work of Alexander Thom while gently deriding John Michell for his over-reliance on number symbolism. CY

Bruns, Toms
The Secrets of Ancient Geometry and Its Use
Rhodos, 1967
2 vols, 331 + 252 pp., 381 plates

Keywords:
natural proportion, patterns, ratio, golden section, spirals, polygons, polyhedra, Pythagoras, Fibonacci, geometry in art-music-architecture, ancient

Comment:
Book One, on the origins of sacred geometry, provides the pracical foundation for the undertsanding of works by Michell and Stechini. BC

Bryant, Page
The Earth Changes Survival Handbook
Sun Books, 1983

Bryant, Page
Terravision: A Traveler's Guide to the Living Planet Earth
Ballantine Books, 1991

Keywords:
natural sacred sites, archaeoastronomical observatories, ley lines, feng shui, religion, sacred site tourism, ancient, medieval, renaissance, Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America

Burckhardt, Titus
Chartres and the Birth of the Cathedral
English translation by William Stoddart ĘĘĘ
Foreword by Keith Critchlow
World Wisdom Books, 1996
16 color photos,10 b&w photos, over 100 line drawings
ISBN 0-941532-23-2

Keywords:
geometry in art-music-architecture, houses of worship, funerary-cemetery-burial sites, labyrinths, symbolic landscaping, religion, myth, cosmology, religious iconography, freemasonic symbolism, number symbolism, medieval, renaissance, Asia, Europe, Middle East

Burckhardt, Titus
Sacred Art in East and West: Its Principles and Methods
originally published in French as
Princep et Methodes de L'Art Sacre
English translation by Lord Northbourne
Paul Derain, 1958; 1st U.K. ed. 1967; Perennial Books Ltd., 1977, 1986
160 pp., b&w illustrations
ISBN 0-900588-11-X

Comment:
A valuable general introduction to the subject of sacred art around the world. CY

Burl, Aubrey
The Stone Circles of the British Isles
Yale University, 1976; 7th printing, 1989
410 pp.
LC 75-43311
ISBN 0-300-02398-7

Keywords:
megaliths, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, prehistoric, Europe

Comment:
Contains a good bibliography. KO

Burl, Aubrey
Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual
Shire, 1983

Keywords:
megaliths, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, prehistoric, Europe

Burl, Aubrey
Prehistoric Avebury
Yale University, 1979

Keywords:
megaliths, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, prehistoric, Europe

Burl, Aubrey
Rings of Stone
Frances Lincoln, 1979

Keywords:
megaliths, archaeoastronomical observatories, symbolic landscaping, prehistoric, Europe

Butler, Christopher
Number Symbolism
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970
ISBN 0-7100-6766-6

Keywords:
medieval, renaissance, religion, cosmology, number symbolism, modern, world survey

Comment:
Traces the history of numerological allegory from its beginnings in Greece and its appearance in the Bible, to its effect upon the philosophical and scientific thought of the Renaissance. Butler believes numerological tradition has three main elementsŃa cosmological science of creation according to numbers, a belief that the numbers of the Bible had an allegorical significance, and a symbolic arithmology connected with magic, the occult, and astrology. A serious study for all interested in a deep understanding of the meaning of numbers. MZ

The Bibliography is organized alphabetically by author's last name

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