A classic encyclopedia of symbols by Catalan polymath Joan Cirlot that illuminates the symbolic underpinnings of myth, modern psychology, literature, and art.
Juan Eduardo Cirlot (1916-1973) was born in Barcelona. In 1958,
drawing on his vast erudition, which extended to medieval
hermeneutics, Eastern art and religion, Sufism, and film, he
produced the first edition of A Dictionary of Symbols, a book that
he continued to revise and enlarge for the rest of his life. In the
course of his life, Cirlot worked as a customs agent, for a bank,
and in publishing. He was also known as an avid collector of
medieval swords.
Valerie Miles has translated such writers as Enrique Vila-Matas and
Rafael Chirbes, among many others. She is the editor of A Thousand
Forests in One Acorn- An Anthology of Spanish-Language Fiction and,
with Azar Nafisi, co-editor of That Other World- Nabokov and the
Puzzle of Exile. She lives in Barcelona, Spain, where she teaches
translation and creative writing at the Pompeu Fabra
University.
Jack Sage (1925-2018) enrolled at King's College London in 1946,
studying Spanish language and music and the theater of Golden Age
Spain). In 1956, he was brought on as a lecturer in the Spanish
department at King's College, where he would work for the rest of
his life. He retired in 1990 and spent the next two decades of his
life consulting about the Spanish Golden Age for, among others,
early-music ensembles, the BBC, and the Royal Shakespeare
Company.
Victoria Cirlot is a medieval scholar and professor of Romance
Philology at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Her recent books
include La visi n abierta, Del mito del grial al surrealismo and
Grial. Poetica y mito.
Herbert Read (1893-1968) was an art historian, writer, and
philosopher. A noted English anarchist, he coedited the British
edition of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.
“This new edition could not come at a better time. . . . [T]he
simple act of sifting through this sprawling book is a reminder of
the underlying continuities between world cultures, despite
upheavals, wars, and catastrophes. A Dictionary of
Symbols guides us through what unites us across nations,
religions, and literary and artistic traditions.” —Angelica
Frey, Hyperallergic
"[Cirlot’s] book is not merely a reference work for students of
symbology, but a book to be read at leisure. It does indeed provide
informative and interesting reading. The longer entries can be read
as independent essays, but it is only by reading through the volume
steadily that one can become aware of the intricate interrelations
of symbolic meanings." —Catherine D. Rau, The Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism
"[This] is a volume which can either be used as a work of
reference, or simply read for pleasure and instruction. There are
many entries in this dictionary—those on Architecture, Colour,
Cross, Graphics, Mandala, Numbers, Serpent, Water, Zodiac, to give
a few examples—which can be read as independent essays. But in
general the greatest use of the volume will be for the elucidation
of those many symbols which we encounter in the arts and in the
history of ideas. Man, it has been said, is a symbolizing animal;
it is evident that at no stage in the development of civilization
has man been able to dispense with symbols." —Herbert Read
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