This work unfolds the idea of “nothing” out of a Titian painting of Danaë and the shower of gold. Michele Jaffe’s philological and pictorial argument links, across several languages, such seemingly disparate concepts as money, coins, mothers (through the mint’s matrix), subjects, courtiers, prostitutes (through etymologies that join minting, standing-under, standing-for), ciphers, codes, and the codex form.This ambitious book is a cultural history of the “cipher” zero as code and as nothing, as the absence of value and the place-holder constructing value. It traces the wide-ranging implications of “nothing”—not only in mathematics but also in literature. Along the way, it makes important points about the orthography and editing of early modern texts, and about the material affinities of these texts with painting and minting.
Format:
CONTRIBUTORS: Michele Jaffe
EAN: 9780674839502
COUNTRY: United States
PAGES:
WEIGHT: 494 g
HEIGHT: 235 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Harvard University Press
DATE PUBLISHED: 1999-09-30
CITY:
GENRE: HISTORY / World
WIDTH: 165 cm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Italy, c 1500 onwards to present day, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Renaissance style, History of art, Literary studies: general, Cultural studies, European history
Michele Jaffe is the author of the novel The Stargazer and other fiction for adults and young adults.
