Civilization: An Appreciation of the Victories of Scholarship, Science, and Art - Volumes I - VII [Complete Set]

New York: The International College Society , 1926. Stated: "Copyrighted 1923, 1926 by The International College Society, Inc." This is the "Patrons Edition. Prepared expressly for Patrons of Honor..." featuring two beautiful pictorial color plates in red, white and blue over gold b.g. and "in commemoration of the World War veterans and the widows and orphans that American patriots have not forgotten." Each volume with dark green linen cloth boards, gilt cover and spine titles, design, moderate shelf wear, bump. Front covers features titles with torch and laurels oneither side, below titles is emblem of DVRC with American goddess comforting two disabled warriors and golden V at bottom corner with blind-stamped border fields. Spines feature titles and subtitles with volume numbers. Heavy stock deckled pages generally very good, clean. Several leaves remaining uncut in the set. Bright gilded exterior top edges. Each features over fifty amazing photo plates with detailed captioned tissue guards. Binds good, square; hinges intact. Attractive and complete, and very substantial seven volume set. Arranged in easily digestiable chapters of the great, known, ancient civilizations of humankind including the Egyptians, Persians, Hebrews, Babylonians, Phoenecians, etc. and their first languages, writing, decorative arts, and pottery. A fabulous introduction to humanity's historical achievements and an appreciation of the victories of scholarship, science and art. Volume I entitled: "The Dawn of Magnificence: Early Man, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, The Hebrews, and Phoenicia." Frontispiece of late 19th Century Sphinx with camels and Egyptians of era with tissue guard: "Sphinx Near Cairo. Egypt. IV Dynasty 2900-2750 B. C. The Sphinx was dedicated to the sun god Ra. The body of a lion with a human head has... many legends. Indicates... limitations of mind unable to conceive man as entirely dominating the brutish or animal." Contents: "The Man; The Work; Words and Phrases; A Beginning; Prehisotirc Man; Primitive Decoration; The Geginnings o fthe Potter's Art; Written Lnaguage; Egypt; Prehistoric Egypt; Historic Egypt; The Old Empire; The Middle Empire; The New Empire; Babylonia, Assyria; Persia; The Hebrews; Phoenicia; and, a Bibliography." 252 pages. Volume II: "The Pursuit of Perfection: Greece - Rome." Frontispiece of The Victory of Samothrace, The Louvre, Paris with tissue guard: "One of the finest expressions of movement left us by antiquity. There is a victorious swing to the body and the very marble seems animated... the artist has succeeded in so impressing life and movement that all thought of the material is eliminated." Contents: "Religion and Thought; Social Conditions; Education; Literature; Archaic Sculpture; The Awakening; The Golden Age; Age of Individualism; The Hellenistic Age; Early Rome; The Empire; The Decline and Fall; and, a Bibliography." 254 pages. Volume III: "The Period of Adjustment: The Dark Ages." Frontispiece of The Cathedral at Rheims with tissue guard: "If Paris is the brain of France, then the Rheims is its heart. It was the coronation place of the early Frankish kings and here Joan of Arc brought Charles VII to be crowned in 1429. The finest product of Gothic times." Many plates of fantastic architecture and the artistic elements therein. Contents: "The Byzantine Empire; The Gothic States; The Franks; Ireland; Great Britain; Mahomet; Charlemagne; Feudalism; The Guilds; The Crusades; Art and Architecture; and, a Bibliography." 229 pages. Volume IV: "The Time of Awakening: The Middle Ages." Frontispiece bust of Dante Alighieri at Naples Nation Museum with tissue guard: "This remarkable bronze bust is said to have been copied from a death mask. Previous to Dante all Italian scholars wrote in Latin... proving in his immortal poem Italian worthy of such use. This he did for love of Italy, but to-day his name and works belong to world literature." Great works of art and architecture grace this volume. Contents: "Nationalism; Individualism; Science; Literature; Architecture; Sculpture; Painting; Crafts; Discovery; Conscience; and, a Bibliography." 275 pages. Insured post. Volume V: "The Epoch of the Individual: The Revolution." Frontispiece painting of John Charles Stuart, Duke of Lenox, Van Dyck, 1599-1631, Metropolitan Museum, New York with tissue guard: No artist ever rivaled Van Dyck as painter of the aristocracy and royal family of England. It does not require close study of this portrait of a Stuart prince to understand why Van Dyck was knighted and made court painter, even while not being an Englishman." Contents: "England; Russia, Prussia, Spain, Italy; The Netherlands; The Great Individualist; The Legacy; The Coming Storm; The Revolution; Napoleon; and, a Bibliography." 253 pages. Volume VI: "The Age of Attainment: The Nineteenth Century, The Present." Frontispiece painting of The Thinker, In Front of the Pantheon, Paris, Auguste Rodin with tissue guard: "The Frenchman, Rodin, was one of the greatest of modern sculptors and most original... some of his work goes beyond into the grotesque. This bronze figure shows Rodin at his best. In pose and expression it offers the distinct impression of primitive man's greatest gift and care, the necessity to think." Interestingly, the contents of this volume revisit most of the themes of volume IV's Middle Ages, somewhat reordered, and more "natural or down-to-earth," for the nineteenth century culture. Contents: "Nationalism; Individualism; Science; Literature; Exploration and Discovery; Painting; Sculpture; Architecture; Crafts; and, a Bibliography." 209 pages. Volume VII: "Appreciation." Frontispiece painting of The Madonna and Child, Albrecht Durer, The Altman Collection, with tissue guard: "The old masters combined many of the fundamentals of composition in aa single painting. We have stability here, finished by the triangular outline of the group, while the curved contours of the individual faces give the softness and sense of delicacy necessary to the subject" The final volume of the set presents an original overview of European civilization influence in the present with essays on variety of aspects. Contents: "An Appreciation of European Culture and Art by Brown Lanone; How Understand Art - Its Simplicity; How to Recognize the Feeling of Life in Art; How Inaction or Death Is Suggested to You; How to Determine Strength and Beauty in Art; How to Understand 'Idealization' in Art; How to Determine Balance of Weight and Action in Art; The Balance of Movement; ...; French Art the Language of the Civilized World by Lorado Taft; The Seamless Web of Our Legal History by John H. Wigmore; Protection of Man in Industry by Dudley M. Holman; European Contributions to Criminology by Robert Ferrari; Our Indebtedness in Sociology by William H. Tolman; Our Debt to European City Planning by J. Horace McFarland; Origins of European Literature by Daniel Jordan; Our Indebtedness to the Culture of Many Lands by Edmund Janes James; An Appreciation of the Sources of Our Child Welfare Work by Mrs. Robert H. Tate; and, Our Educational Inheritance by A. Steele Baylor." Finally a thirty-page index for all volumes. 241 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.