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    The Book of Signs
    The Book of Signs
    The Book of Signs
    Ebook252 pages31 minutes

    The Book of Signs

    By Rudolf Koch

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    This unusual collection of primitive and medieval symbols provides one of the most fertile single sources of decorative ideas available today. It is also a graphic history of the development of written communication and offers a singular insight into the psychology of the primitive mind.
    The Book of Signs contains 493 classified and documented illustrations, collected, drawn, and explained by the celebrated typographer Rudolf Koch. Divided into 14 different categories, it includes General Signs, The Cross, Monogram of Christ, Other Christian Signs, Monograms of Medieval Church and State Leaders, Stone Masons' Signs, The Four Elements, Astronomical Signs, Astrological Signs, Botanical Signs, Chemical Signs, House and Holding Marks, Miscellany, and Runes.
    "Provides the contemporary artist with a rich design vocabulary on which to improvise."—Art in Focus.
    "An inspiration to graphic artists everywhere."—Graphis.
    "An artistic and typographical achievement of considerable beauty and worth."—Psychiatric Quarterly.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateDec 31, 2013
    ISBN9780486153902
    The Book of Signs

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    Reviews for The Book of Signs

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Nice book, but to simple, I expected to have more information.

    Book preview

    The Book of Signs - Rudolf Koch

    + The Book of Signs +

    which contains all manner of

    symbols used from earliest times to the middle

    ages by primitive

    peoples and Early Christians

    +

    Collected drawn and explained

    by Rudolf Koch

    Translated from the German

    by Vyvyan Holland

    +

    This Dover edition, first published in 1955, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the English translation originally published by the First Edition Club of London in 1930.

    This book belongs to the Dover Pictorial Archive Series. You may use the designs and illustrations for graphics and crafts applications, free and without special permission, provided that you include no more than ten in the same publication or project. (For permission for additional use, please write to Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501.)

    However, republication or reproduction of any illustration by any other graphic service whether it be in a book or in any other design resource is strictly prohibited.

    International Standard Book Number

    eISBN-13: 978-0-486-15390-2

    ISBN-10: 0-486-20162-7

    Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

    20162735

    www.doverpublications.com

    The Illustrations

    in this book

    were once cut on wood by Frik Kredel,

    Offenbach am Main

    *

    The copies of this book

    have been printed in Professor

    Rudolf Koch’s magere deutsche type.

    Contents

    1. General signs.

    2. The Cross.

    3. The Monogram of Christ or Chrismon

    4. Other Christian signs.

    5. The Monogram.

    6. Stonemasons’ signs.

    7. The four Elements.

    8. Astronomical signs.

    9. Astrological Signs.

    10. Botanical Signs.

    11. Chemical Signs.

    12. House- and Holdings-Marks

    13. Signs from various sources

    14. Runes

    Note

    Students of modern printing will be aware that Rudolf Koch is an outstanding personality in the modern development of the graphic arts in Germany, and has achieved fame as a type-designer, calligrapher, artist and book-binder. : : : : The present translation of his Book of Signs contains 493 symbols, used from ancient times up to the middle ages, which have been collected by Koch and his friends from carvings, inscriptions and manuscripts. Among them are Byzantine monograms, the signs of the Cross, the Holy initials, stonemason’s signs, the signs of the four elements, and botanical, astrological and chemical signs. They have been redrawn and explained by Rudolf Koch himself, and cut on wood by Fritz Kredel. As readers will readily see, they have, in their present form at least, visual as well as symbolic beauty.

    A. J. A. Symons

    1. General signs.

    The dot is the origin from which all signs start, and is their innermost essence. It was with this idea that the Masonic lodges of old expressed the secrecy of their guilds by means of the dot.

    The vertical stroke represents the one-ness of God, or the Godhead in general; it also symbolizes power descending upon mankind from above, or, in the opposite direction, the yearning of mankind towards higher things.

    In the horizontal stroke, on the other hand, we see the Earth, in which life flows evenly and everything moves on the same plane.

    The angle, or the meeting of the celestial and the terrestrial. As they possess nothing in common, they touch, but do not cross one another, This sign represents the reciprocation between God and the World. In Masonic lodges of Middle Ages the right angle was the sign of Justice and Integrity.

    In the sign of the Cross God and Earth are combined and ace in harmony. From two simple lines a complete sign has been evolved. The Cross is by far the earliest of all signs, and is found everywhere, quite apart from the conception of Christianity.

    The circle, being without beginning or end, is also a sign of God or of Eternity. Moreover, in contrast with the next sign, it is a symbol of

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