The Lost Language of Symbolism, Volume I

About this book

A printer's watermark or a carving above a doorway can become an unexpected mystery in Harold Bayley's hands. He follows the same shape through old books, religious emblems and signs used in everyday trade.

The first volume of The Lost Language of Symbolism reproduces a wide array of images and proposes connections between them. Bayley often moves from resemblance to historical explanation with more confidence than the evidence warrants. Even so, his collection rewards looking closely. A familiar motif begins to feel less familiar when it appears again on a medieval mark, an emblem and the frontispiece of another book.