"Here at last is a published translation of this classic essay, available for many years in every major European language except English. It first appeared in 1927 ... and its status has since been established by the numerous commentators who have referred to it as the source of a new kind of interpretation of perspective." -- Robin Evans, AA Files Erwin Panofsky's "Perspective as Symbolic Form" is one of the great works of modern intellectual history, the legendary text that has dominated all art historical and philosophical discussions on the topic of perspective in this century. Finally available in English, this unrivaled example of Panofsky's early method places him within broader developments in theories of knowledge and cultural change. Here, drawing on a massive body of learning that ranges over Antique philosophy, theology, science, and optics as well as the history of art, Panofsky produces a type of "archeology" of Western representation that far surpasses the usual scope of art historical studies. Perspective in Panofsky's hands becomes a central component of a Western "will to form, " the expression of a schema linking the social, cognitive, psychological, and especially technical practices of a given culture into harmonious and integrated wholes. He demonstrates how the perceptual schema of each historical culture or epoch is unique and how each gives rise to a different but equally full vision of the world. Panofsky articulates these distinct spatial systems, explicating their particular coherence and compatibility with the modes of knowledge, belief, and exchange that characterized the cultures in which they arose. Our ownmodernity, Panofsky shows, is inseparable from its peculiarly mathematical expression of the concept of the infinite, within a space that is both continuous and homogenous. "Distributed for Zone Books"

"An augmented edition of the famed interdisciplinary study on saturnine melancholy. Saturn and Melancholy remains an iconic text in art history, intellectual history, and the study of culture generally, despite being long out of print in English. Co-authored by Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl and rooted in the tradition established by Aby Warburg and the Warburg Library, this book has deeply influenced the understanding of the interrelations among humanities disciplines since its first publication in English in 1964. This study offers an unparalleled inquiry into the origin and development of the philosophical and medical theories on which the ancient conception of the Temperaments was based, and their connections to astrological concepts and religious ideas. Representations of melancholy are traced in literature and the arts up to the sixteenth century culminating in an illuminating analysis of Dürer's most famous engraving, Melencolia I. Following the success of Italian, French, and German versions of the work in intervening years, this new edition overseen by Philippe Despoix and Georges Leroux makes available for the first time in decades the original English published text. It is complemented by a new introduction and bibliographical amendments undertaken by Raymond Klibansky after the death of his co-authors, as well as supplemental translations of source material and extensive illustrations which inform the volume's landmark iconographic analysis. Completing this new edition is a new and thorough history of the complex publication history of this pathbreaking collective publication project of the Warburg Library--which almost never saw the light of day--covering more than 80 years, including the rich heritage of this work in the decades after its original publication."--

A study of the changes in the definition and conception of the term "idea," from Plato to the 17th century, when the modern definition emerged.

Abstract: "In June 2012, an early manuscript by renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky was discovered in a vault in a government building in Munich. The manuscript was quickly identified as Panofsky's habilitationsschrift on Michelangelo, a long-missing and legendary document that certified Panofsky to lead university courses, and about which scholars had speculated for decades. The manuscript's origins date back to late spring of 1920 (and was completed when its author was twenty-eight), but in 1933, Panofsky was forced to flee Nazi Germany without being able to go through his office or papers. The manuscript disappeared in the years leading up to World War II and was thought destroyed in the fire-bombing of Hamburg. Following his emigration to the United States in 1934, Panofsky joined the faculty of the newly-formed Institute for Advanced Study, and went on to author a dozen books, including three with Princeton University Press.