John Freely Libros

Nymans is one of the National Trust’s most popular properties, a vision of English tradition amid a landscape of rolling woodland. Yet appearances can be deceptive. The manor house is just a hundred years old, and the Messel family who built it were not English aristocracy but German Jewish immigrants. The vision was their triumphant creation. From Refugees to Royalty is the first book to chart the extraordinary journey of the Messel family from their roots in Germany to their new life in England. At the heart of the story lies an astonishing irony. The earliest Messels were turned into refugees by an edict of the British royal family, when George III issued a decree expelling the Jews. Two hundred years later, the wheel came full circle when the youngest Messel, Tony Armstrong-Jones, walked down the aisle with Princess Margaret, four times great-granddaughter of George III. John Hilary is a great-great-grandson of Ludwig Messel, who founded the garden at Nymans. In this beautifully illustrated book, full of colour, heartache and celebrity, he documents the rich cultural legacy of the Messels as world-famous designers, collectors, scientists and architects.

This is the astonishing story of Sabbatai Sevi, 17th-century rabbi, Kabbalist and probable manic depressive, who convinced large numbers of Jews throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa that he was their long-awaited Messiah. And then, on threat of painful death from the Turkish Sultan, apparently converted to Islam and in so doing created the strange Donme sect - outwardly Muslim, yet clinging secretly to Sabbatai's strange form of mystical Judaism - a sect that may survive to this day.

This classic guide to Istanbul by Hilary Summer-Boyd and John Freely - the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' ("The Times"), 'a guide book that reads like a novel' ("New York Times") - is here, for the first time since its original publication thirty-seven years ago, published in a completely revised and updated new edition. Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city. Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveler will want to see. Practical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.

Istanbul's history is a catalogue of change, not least of name, yet it has managed to retain its own unique identity. John Freely captures the flavour of daily life as well as court ceremonial and intrigue. The book also includes a comprehensive gazetteer of all major monuments and museums. An in-depth study of this legendary city through its many different ages from its earliest foundation to the present day - the perfect traveller's companion and guide.

Aladdin’s Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John Freely explains how, as the Dark Ages shrouded Europe, scholars in medieval Baghdad translated the works of these Greek thinkers into Arabic, spreading their ideas throughout the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain, with many Muslim scientists, most notably Avicenna, Alhazen, and Averroës, adding their own interpretations to the philosophy and science they had inherited. Freely goes on to show how, beginning in the twelfth century, these texts by Islamic scholars were then translated from Arabic into Latin, sparking the emergence of modern science at the dawn of the Renaissance, which climaxed in the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.

Inside the Seraglio takes us behind the doors of Topkapi Sarayi and the other palaces of the Ottoman sultans who for more than six centuries ruled one of the world's most powerful empires. The heart of the palace was the Harem, the women's quarters, ruled by the Valide, or Queen Mother.Described here and illustrated throughout with images of this sequestered court, is the history and life of this remarkable palace in all its colour and opulence, and the story of its influence on a great empire.

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Mehr als 1 000 Jahre vor Kopernikus, Galilei und Newton haben viele Gelehrte das Wissen der Antike bewahrt, Naturerscheinungen beobachtet und experimentiert. In einer glänzenden Kulturgeschichte lässt John Freely zum ersten Mal die faszinierenden Entdeckungen der mittelalterlichen Menschen Revue passieren. Brillant weist er nach, dass – entgegen unseren Vorstellungen – die Grundlagen der modernen Wissenschaft und zahlreicher moderner Theorien wesentlich früher gelegt wurden, ja viele Erkenntnisse im Mittelalter vorweggenommen wurden. Zugleich erzählt er von den vielen unbekannten Menschen, die sich erklären wollten, was in der Natur vor sich ging, und damit die wissenschaftliche Revolution der Moderne vorbereiteten. John Freely lässt uns das »finstere« Mittelalter mit neuen Augen sehen und erfüllt es mit neuem Leben.

Elegant erzählt John Freely das wechselvolle Leben eines der bedeutendsten Gelehrten der Renaissance. Dieses Buch vereinigt Biographie und spannende Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Die wohl wichtigste wissenschaftliche Entdeckung der Neuzeit, dass die Erde und die Planeten um die Sonne kreisen und die Erde einmal in 24 Stunden um ihre Achse rotiert, verdanken wir Kopernikus (1473-1543). Er war einer der größten Universalgelehrten aller Zeiten: Sprachwissenschaftler, Rechtsanwalt, Arzt, Diplomat, Politiker, Mathematiker, Naturwissenschaftler, Künstler, Geistlicher und Astronom. Zugleich vereinigte er die Erkenntnisse der Antike, der mittelalterlich-islamischen Welt wie auch der neuzeitlichen Naturwissenschaften. In seiner neuen Biographie schildert John Freely das bewegte Leben des Kopernikus, erklärt seine Theorien, vergegenwärtigt die atemlose Epoche der frühen Neuzeit und der Renaissance und zeigt, was es heißt, im »Kopernikanischen Zeitalter« zu leben.