The Mosaics of Norman Sicily: Limited Edition de Luxe Otto Demus [Near Fine] [Hardcover]

Description

The Mosaics of Norman Sicily by Otto Demus This is a *VERY RARE* deluxe limited first edition/1st printing copy published simultaneously with the first trade edition by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1950. This is hand-numbered copy #31 out of only 220 copies reserved for members of the prestigious Collector s Book Club in London. It is bound in full burgundy Moroccan leather with gilded lettering and design work. The top page edges are gilded and the pages are made of a thick, premium paper. Other deluxe features: Marbled endpapers and a sewn-in silk ribbon placeholder. 120+ illustrations. ***Only Deluxe Limited Edition available for sale anywhere online. No record of a copy being available for sale or sold on eBay in the past 10 years. 1988 high grade reprints sell for over $300 and lower grade common trade first editions sell for up to $300*** Condition: VERY GOOD+ to NEAR FINE Strongly bound with a square spine and firm hinges and joints. Boards are colorful and unfaded with light rubbing to the leather in a few places and light dust soiling to page ends. The interior is clean with undamaged and untoned pages. The half-title page has former owner info in pen above a bookplate. Rear pastedown also has a price written in ink. It s in beautiful collectible edition, exceptionally rare and luxuriously bound and printed. ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR This groundbreaking book provides all the archaeological and documentary data necessary for a close study of the church mosaics and monuments, data which were in part never ascertained, in part never collected before. It analyzes the monuments themselves as works of art, reveals the men behind their work; and assigns single decorations (or parts of decorations) their places within the framework of the Sicilian and the Byzantine art and religious developments. Otto Demus (born St. Pölten, Austria, 1902; died Vienna, 17 November 1990) was an Austrian art historian and Byzantinist. Between 1921 and 1928, Demus studied art history at the University of Vienna under Josef Strzygowski, receiving his Ph.D. summa cum laude. The main scholarly fruits of his British years were his highly influential essay on middle Byzantine mosaic programs, Byzantine mosaic decoration (1947), and his foundational and seminal study of the Mosaics of Norman Sicily (1949). He wrote some of the most important works on medieval art in the 20th century. Book will ship insured, priority mail and with signature on delivery to protect and safeguard your new treasure. I have bought and sold books and art on eBay for over a decade and have a 100% satisfaction rating. I am now selling on ABE Books. I m a collector first and know what it's like to receive items not matching the seller s descriptions or that were poorly packaged and damaged in transit. That is why I offer a 100% satisfaction, money back guarantee, and go to great lengths to accurately describe my rare, signed and collectible books and post pictures of the ""actual book."" I carefully...