Celtic fairy traditions
A. E. in the Fairy-Faith
The poet A. E. supplies a visionary language for the Otherworld.
Loading Lumitheca…
Explore a subject
Ideas travel through people, institutions and books. These entries introduce figures and works documented in the collection and connect them with the passages and images that inform their histories.
Choose a question, then follow the entry to its original sources.
Explore Gautama Buddha’s life, search for awakening, first teachings and death through early discourses, historical evidence and Buddhist art.
Buddhist history · The search for awakeningExplore Jesus’ life, teaching and crucifixion, the Gospel accounts, Christian beliefs about resurrection and incarnation, and his place in Islam.
Christian origins · History, Gospel and interpretationExplore Muhammad’s life, the first-revelation account, the Hijra and community at Medina, the Quran, prophetic example and historical sources.
Islamic history · Revelation, community and prophetic exampleExplore Moses through the Exodus story, Sinai and Torah, historical evidence, Jewish interpretation, Christian reception and the Quran’s account of Musa.
Biblical tradition · Exodus, covenant and prophecyExplore Abraham’s covenant and family stories, Jewish interpretations, Christian readings of faith and the Quran’s account of Ibrahim.
Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions · Covenant and faithMeet a historical figure through Redgrove’s account.
Alchemy and medicine, Redgrove's historical accountBegin with the funerary work behind many of the Egyptian entries.
Egyptian funerary religionExplore an alchemical book that combines images, words and music.
Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)45 entries · A–Z
Celtic fairy traditions
The poet A. E. supplies a visionary language for the Otherworld.
Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions · Covenant and faith
Explore Abraham’s covenant and family stories, Jewish interpretations, Christian readings of faith and the Quran’s account of Ibrahim.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Willette’s cover for Paul Delmet’s Nouvelles Chansons appears among the book’s French designs.
Medieval learning, Redgrove's historical account
The scholar whom Redgrove places in his alchemical history while questioning the authenticity of attributed alchemical works.
Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Maier’s alchemical emblem book brings engraved images, epigrams, prose and three-voice music into a single sequence.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
The Modern Poster reproduces Beardsley’s Bodley Head design and his Avenue Theatre announcement.
Japanese heroic legend, Davis retelling
The powerful warrior and companion of Yoshitsune portrayed in Davis's cycle of heroic legends.
Egyptian funerary religion
A variable collection of funerary texts rather than a single fixed book.
Celtic fairy traditions
Collector who distinguishes reliable folk testimony from conclusions drawn from it.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
A tablet to Confucius stands within a shrine framed by carved dragons in Hayes’s photograph.
L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
Robes and throne ornament surround the emperor in the palace portrait reproduced by Hayes.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Hardy’s To-Day poster turns a lightly drawn figure into an energetic magazine announcement.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
The Modern Poster credits Potthast with a Barnum & Bailey circus advertisement.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
The dissenting minister whose apparition accounts became an important source for Sikes.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Penfield’s Harper’s for March design joins a fashionable figure with the magazine’s name and month.
Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic
The Hermetic text used to connect upper and lower worlds through analogy.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Grasset’s Salon des Cent exhibition poster joins a large female figure with flowers and lettering.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Walker’s design for The Woman in White opens the English poster-design discussion.
Buddhist history · The search for awakening
Explore Gautama Buddha’s life, search for awakening, first teachings and death through early discourses, historical evidence and Buddhist art.
Welsh customs as described by Wirt Sikes
The wedding-bidding representative described by Sikes, whose garlanded staff served as an emblem of office.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Herkomer’s Black and White advertisement places a raised sign above a dramatic figure.
Japanese heroic legend, Davis retelling
The warrior portrayed in Davis's legend as the Dragon King of Lake Biwa's champion against a giant centipede.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
Stories of previous births in which the Buddha-to-be develops his dedication.
Poster and book-cover design in The Modern Poster (1895)
Forain is credited with the exhibition announcement for the Arts de la Femme reproduced in The Modern Poster.