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This Week’s Word is “Symbobology.”
Ok — that’s not a real word, but ever since reading The Da Vinci Code, that’s how I think of anything signs or symbol related. My book for Word Wednesday this week is pure geek manna.
Signs and Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings. What’s not to love?
What is Signs and Symbols?
Signs and Symbols is a reprint of a 2008 book and is a small(ish) format hardback encyclopedia of the signs and symbols that appear around the world. The book is bound in an attractive gold on mottled deep-red leather-like color. It’s textured to invoke a tactile impression that we’re holding a book of ancient lore. It’s the closest things I’ve held to a grimoire in a while.
As well as describing what various signs mean, the book also discusses the cultural significance of symbols. How they conveyed humanity’s relationship with the Earth, how they informed civilizations’ social systems and helped crystallize our understanding of the world around us. As well as being religiously significant, many symbols also form the beginning of humanity’s investigations of science.
Like many DK books, Signs and Symbols is broken into several distinct sections.
