Publisher's Synopsis
Christensen's encyclopaedic knowledge of both world art and a vast understanding of literature allows him to move easily from a discussion of the invention of moveable type in Korea to Johannes Kepler's search for the harmony of the spheres to the strange journey of an iron sculpture from Benin to the Louvre. Other essays cover the Popul Vuh of the Maya as exemplum of translation, the pioneering explorations of the early American naturalist John Bartram, the balletic works of Louis-Ferdinand Celine.