The Proverbs, an Old Testament book of “wisdom” writing found in the third section of the Jewish canon, known as the Ketuvim, or Writings. The book’s superscription, “The proverbs of Solomon. . . ,” is not to say that it as a whole or even individual proverbs should be credited to King Solomon, for

Revelation to John, last biblical book of the New Testament. It is the only book of the New Testament classified as apocalyptic literature rather than didactic or historical, indicating thereby its extensive use of visions, symbols, and allegory, especially in connection with future events.

Epanagoge: …Slavic codes including the Russian Book of Rules, an administrative code.

Tyconius: 382; The Book of Rules), his sole surviving work, is a handbook for interpreting Scripture, and In Apocalypsin (c. 385?) is a commentary on Revelation that applies the rules set out in the earlier handbook.

Avicenna: Life and education: …Knowledge) and Kitāb al-najāt (Book of Salvation), and compiled new and more-accurate astronomical tables.

Jorge Luis Borges: Life: …El libro de arena (1975; The Book of Sand), both of which are allegories combining the simplicity of a folk storyteller with the complex vision of a man who has explored the labyrinths of his own being to its core.

William Shakespeare: Collaborations and spurious attributions: …a scene or so for The Book of Sir Thomas More (c. 1593–1601) when that play encountered trouble with the censor. Collaborative writing was common in the Renaissance English stage, and it is not surprising that Shakespeare was called upon to do some of it. Nor is it surprising that,…

William Makepeace Thackeray: Early writings: The Book of Snobs (1848) is a collection of articles that had appeared successfully in Punch (as “The Snobs of England, by One of Themselves,” 1846–47). It consists of sketches of London characters and displays Thackeray’s virtuosity in quick character-drawing. The Rose and the Ring,…

Taliesin: The Book of Taliesin, the oldest surviving copy of his works (written about 700 years after his time), attributes to him a variety of poems, some on religious themes, some arcane verses that belong to Celtic mythological traditions and that are very difficult to decipher,…

John Barth: The Book of Ten Nights and a Night (2004) and The Development (2008) are collections of interconnected short stories. Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons (2011) features a character from The Development who injures his head and then, with each change of the…

Valley of the Kings: In the “Book of That Which Is in the Underworld,” for instance, he travels in the boat of the sun god through 12 divisions that represent the 12 hours of the night. In the “Book of Gates,” giant serpents guard the portals through which the sun has…

Apocalypse of Baruch, a pseudepigraphal work (not in any canon of scripture), whose primary theme is whether or not God’s relationship with man is just. The book is also called The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch because it was preserved only in the 6th-century Syriac Vulgate. It was originally

Frank Bidart: The Book of the Body (1977) features the dramatic monologues of an amputee and of a suicidal anorexic.

Giovanni Della Casa: …etiquette manual, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il cortegiano (“The Courtier”), in being more concerned with the details of correct behaviour in polite society than with courtly etiquette. Like Il cortegiano, Della Casa’s manual became widely read throughout Europe.

biblical literature: Legislation: The Covenant Code, or Book of the Covenant, presented in chapters 20–23, immediately following the Decalogue (Ten Commandments), opens with a short passage on ritual ordinances, followed by social and civil law applying to specific situations (case law), including the treatment of slaves, capital crimes, compensation for personal injuries…

Book of the Dead, ancient Egyptian collection of mortuary texts made up of spells or magic formulas, placed in tombs and believed to protect and aid the deceased in the hereafter. Probably compiled and reedited during the 16th century bce, the collection included Coffin Texts dating from c. 2000

The Book of the Dean of Lismore, miscellany of Scottish and Irish poetry, the oldest collection of Gaelic poetry extant in Scotland. It was compiled between 1512 and 1526, chiefly by Sir James MacGregor, the dean of Lismore (now in Argyll and Bute council area), and his brother Duncan. The

Geoffrey Chaucer: Forebears and early years: …and his first important poem—Book of the Duchess—seems further evidence of his connection with persons in high places.

The Book of the Dun Cow, oldest surviving miscellaneous manuscript in Irish literature, so called because the original vellum upon which it was written was supposedly taken from the hide of the famous cow of St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise. Compiled about 1100 by learned Irish monks at the monastery of

Otfrid: Otfrid’s fame rests on his Evangelienbuch (c. 870; “Book of the Gospels”), a poem of 7,416 lines, which is extant in three good contemporary manuscripts (at Vienna, Heidelberg, and Munich). It is an exceptionally valuable document, not only linguistically as the most extensive work in the South Rhine Franconian dialect…

Valley of the Kings: …as well as the “Book of the Heavenly Cow,” in which Nut is transformed into a cow on whom Re ascends to the firmament. Astronomical figures decorate the ceilings of several burial chambers.

Ari Thorgilsson the Learned: …historian whose Íslendingabók (Libellus Islandorum; The Book of the Icelanders) is the first history of Iceland written in the vernacular. Composed before 1133 and covering the period from the settlement of Iceland up to 1120, it includes information on the founding of the Althing (parliament) and on the settlement of…

Judah ha-Levi: …Zion, and the Sefer ha-Kuzari (“Book of the Khazar”), presenting his philosophy of Judaism in dialogue form.

Crusades: The Latin East after the Third Crusade: The Livre au Roi (Book of the King), an important section of the Assizes of Jerusalem, dates from his reign. He also dealt wisely with Saladin’s brother, al-ʿĀdil of Egypt. On Amalric’s death in 1205, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem-Acre were divided, and in 1210…

James Jesse Strang: …him by an angel) The Book of the Law of the Lord from golden plates from the Ark of the Covenant. Strang then established a secret society that swore allegiance to him and operated under puritanical rules.

Aleister Crowley: …reported mystical experiences and wrote The Book of the Law, a prose poem which he claimed had been dictated to him by a discarnate being called Aiwass. In it he formulated his most famous teaching: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” The sentiment was not…

Zelia Maria Magdalena Nuttall: …library in England; and in The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans (1903), which printed in facsimile the Codex Magliabecchiano, a similar pictographic work that she had found in Florence.

Valley of the Kings: …of Day” and the “Book of Night,” which depict Nut, the sky-goddess, spread out across the heavens, as well as the “Book of the Heavenly Cow,” in which Nut is transformed into a cow on whom Re ascends to the firmament. Astronomical figures decorate the ceilings of several burial…

guild: Early history: The famous Book of the Prefect, a manual of government probably drawn up by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI in the year 900, provides a picture of an elaborate guild organization whose primary function was the imposition of rigid controls, especially for financial and tax-raising purposes, on…

alchemy: Arabic alchemy: …from a larger work called Book of the Secret of Creation, which exists in Latin and Arabic manuscripts and was thought by the Muslim alchemist ar-Rāzī to have been written during the reign of Caliph al-Maʾmūn (ad 813–833), though it has been attributed to the 1st-century-ad pagan mystic Apollonius of…

Yucatec language: …of Chilam Balam and the Book of the Songs of Dzitbalché.

Sir Richard Burton: Trieste: His Book of the Sword (1884), a dazzling piece of historical erudition, brought him no more financial success than any of the others. In 1880 he published his best original poetry, The Kasidah, written under a pseudonym and patterned after the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

Daoism: Texts on the cult of Laozi: …the Transformations of Laozi (Laozi bianhuajing), shows him in cosmic perspective, omnipresent and omnipotent, the origin of all life. His human manifestations are listed, followed by his successive roles in legendary history, as the sage counsellor of emperors. Next, five of his more recent appearances are mentioned, dated 132–155…

William Blake: Blake as a poet: …life a little further in The Book of Thel (1789), the first of his published myths. The melancholy shepherdess Thel asks, “Why fade these children of the spring? Born but to smile & fall.” She is answered by the Lilly of the Valley (representing water), the Cloud (air), and the…

Giovanni Boccaccio: Early works: The Teseida (probably begun in Naples and finished in Florence, 1340–41) is an ambitious epic of 12 cantos in ottava rima in which the wars of Theseus serve as a background for the love of two friends, Arcita and Palemone, for the same woman, Emilia; Arcita…

Aleister Crowley: …achievement was the publication of The Book of Thoth (1944), in which he interpreted a new tarot card deck, called the Thoth, that he had designed in collaboration with the artist Frieda Harris.

Arabic literature: Emerging poetics: …for his Kitāb al-badīʿ (The Book of Tropes), in which he provides a list of five major poetic devices (including metaphor and simile) and then lists a further group of “discourse embellishments.” While his goal was to demonstrate that these devices were present in Arabic writing from the outset…

Urizen: …including America, a Prophecy (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), and The Song of Los (1795), and then, more ambitiously, in the unfinished manuscript Vala, or The Four Zoas, written from approximately 1796 to 1807. In an engraving from Europe, a Prophecy (1794), Blake depicts Urizen as a grim scientist,…

William Morris: Iceland and socialism: The exquisitely illuminated A Book of Verse, telling once more of hopeless love and dedicated to Georgina Burne-Jones, belongs to 1870.

Sharaf ad-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī: …known is the Ẓafernāmeh (1424/25; The Book of Victory). It is a history of the world conqueror Timur (Tamerlane; 1370–1405) and was probably based on the history of the same name by Nizam ad-Dīn Shami, a work written at Timur’s request.

Girolamo Cardano: …Liber de ludo aleae (The Book on Games of Chance) presents the first systematic computations of probabilities, a century before Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Cardano’s popular fame was based largely on books dealing with scientific and philosophical questions, especially De subtilitate rerum (“The Subtlety of Things”), a…

mirror for princes: …Princes, and Gerald of Wales’s Book on the Education of a Prince, all written between about 1180 and 1220.

Pahlavi language, extinct member of the Iranian language group, a subdivision of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Pahlavi is a Middle Persian (sometimes called Middle Iranian) language, meaning that it was primarily used from the end of Achaemenian dynasty (559–330 bce)

papermaking: Book paper: Most book papers are made of various combinations of chemical wood pulp; for lower-priced grades groundwood, semichemical, and de-inked wastepaper are also used. In addition to pulp, the “furnish” from which book papers are made contains various amounts of sizing, fillers, and dyes.

false scorpion, any of the 1,700 species of the order Pseudoscorpiones (sometimes Chelonethida) of the arthropod class Arachnida. They resemble true scorpions but are tailless and only 1 to 7.5 mm (0.04 to 0.3 inch) long. The chelicerae (first pair of appendages) bear silk-gland openings, and the

false scorpion: The book scorpion (Chelifer cancroides), 4 mm long, occurs in houses and libraries. It feeds on book lice, carpet beetle larvae, clothes moths, and bedbugs.

bookcase, piece of furniture fitted with shelves, often enclosed by glass doors, to hold books. A form of bookcase was used in early times: the illuminated manuscript Codex Amiatinus (ad 689–716) in Florence contains an illustration of the prophet Ezra writing in front of a cupboard with open doors

Geoffrey Rush: …the World War II drama The Book Thief (2013), in which he played a German man who, with his wife, shelters an abandoned girl and a Jewish refugee. In 2016 Rush appeared in the action fantasy Gods of Egypt, and the following year he portrayed Albert Einstein in the first…

history of publishing: The Great Depression: …that stimulated sales was the Book Token, a form of gift certificate. The invention of an English publisher, Harold Raymond, the Book Token could be exchanged for a book of specified value at any participating bookshop. It was at first opposed by many booksellers; but it went on to become…

book lung, form of respiratory organ found in certain air-breathing arachnid arthropods (scorpions and some spiders). Each book lung consists of a series of thin plates that are highly vascular (i.e., richly supplied with blood) and are arranged in relation to each other like the pages of a book.

bookmobile, shelf-lined motor van or other vehicle that carries books to rural and urban areas, establishes library service in areas that are too small to justify the creation of a stable branch, and acts as a demonstration model for communities that can afford library service and may choose to

Ahl al-Kitāb, in Islamic thought, those religionists—Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, as well as the imprecisely defined group referred to as Sabians—who are possessors of divine books (i.e., the Torah, the Gospel, and the Avesta), as distinguished from those whose religions are not based on

Paul Erdős: …to say, “That’s straight from The Book.” As for Bertrand’s postulate, no one doubted that Erdős had found The Book proof.

book club: In the United States the Book-of-the-Month Club (1926) and the Literary Guild (1927) were the first such enterprises, the former distributing more than 200,000,000 new copies of fiction and nonfiction in its first 40 years, especially to areas where there were few bookstores. Book clubs—and similar marketing ventures patterned after…

bookbinding, the joining together of a number of leaves or folios (most frequently of paper, parchment, or vellum) within covers to form a codex or book, as opposed to a roll or scroll. Bookbinding began when the codex started to replace the roll. The earliest elaborately decorated bookbindings

bookcase, piece of furniture fitted with shelves, often enclosed by glass doors, to hold books. A form of bookcase was used in early times: the illuminated manuscript Codex Amiatinus (ad 689–716) in Florence contains an illustration of the prophet Ezra writing in front of a cupboard with open doors

Murray Bookchin was an American anarchist, political philosopher, trade-union organizer, and educator best known for his organizing activities on behalf of labour unions and his vehement critiques of capitalism, globalization, and humanity’s treatment of the environment. Bookchin was the son of

calligraphy: Writing manuals and copybooks (16th to 18th century): …first copybook published in England, A Booke Containing Divers Sortes of Hands (1570; this title also translates Cresci’s), is the work of a French Huguenot immigrant writing master, Jean de Beauchesne, and John Baildon (or Basildon), about whom nothing further is known. Divers Sortes of Hands has characteristics of both…

Anglican chant: When John Marbeck published The Booke of Common Praier Noted (1550), he used the first seven psalm tones for the canticles and tone eight for the psalms. Like Marbeck, various English composers used the psalm tones in their polyphonic (multipart) psalm settings, placing them in the tenor part “measured,”…

Simon and Garfunkel: Bookends: The stark black-and-white cover of Bookends (1968) reflected Simon’s ever-developing themes of alienation and loneliness. It was the first album for which Simon and Garfunkel were credited as producers (alongside longtime engineer Roy Halee), and it seemed surprisingly cohesive in light of the first…

Booker Prize, prestigious British award given annually to a full-length novel in English. Booker McConnell, a multinational company, established the Booker Prize in 1968 to provide a counterpart to the Prix Goncourt in France. Initially, only English-language writers from the United Kingdom, the

Booker Prize, prestigious British award given annually to a full-length novel in English. Booker McConnell, a multinational company, established the Booker Prize in 1968 to provide a counterpart to the Prix Goncourt in France. Initially, only English-language writers from the United Kingdom, the

Booker Prize, prestigious British award given annually to a full-length novel in English. Booker McConnell, a multinational company, established the Booker Prize in 1968 to provide a counterpart to the Prix Goncourt in France. Initially, only English-language writers from the United Kingdom, the

Booker Prize: In 1992 the Booker Russian Novel Prize was set up to reward contemporary Russian authors, to stimulate wider knowledge of modern Russian fiction, and to encourage translation and publication of Russian fiction outside Russia. The Russian prize was disassociated from the other Bookers in 1999, after which sponsorship…

Booker T. and the MG’s, American band that was among the finest instrumental ensembles in soul music in the 1960s. The original members were organist Booker T. Jones (b. November 12, 1944, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.), drummer Al Jackson, Jr. (b. November 27, 1935, Memphis—d. October 1, 1975,

Kakata: …is the site of the Booker Washington Institute (1929; Liberia’s first vocational and agricultural school), the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute, and several church secondary schools. Rubber production, diamond prospecting, and subsistence rice farming are important to Kakata’s economy. Barite deposits are found in the nearby Gibi Ridge. Pop. (2008)…

Cory Booker is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2013 and began representing New Jersey in that body later in the year. He was the first African American from the state to serve in the Senate. Booker previously was mayor of Newark (2006–13). Booker was born

Cory Booker is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2013 and began representing New Jersey in that body later in the year. He was the first African American from the state to serve in the Senate. Booker previously was mayor of Newark (2006–13). Booker was born

Phoenix Suns: Behind sharpshooter Devin Booker, the Suns nearly made the playoffs following the 2019–20 NBA season. That improvement paled in comparison with that of the following season when a young Phoenix team—having traded for superstar point guard Chris Paul in November 2020—jelled under the guidance of head coach…

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-guitarist, one of the most distinctive artists in the electric blues idiom. Born into a Mississippi sharecropping family, Hooker learned to play the guitar from his stepfather and developed an interest in gospel music as a child. In 1943 he moved to

bookkeeping, the recording of the monetary values of the transactions of a business. Bookkeeping provides the information from which accounts are prepared but is a distinct process, preliminary to accounting. Essentially, bookkeeping provides two kinds of information: Management officials,

pamphlet, brief booklet; in the UNESCO definition, it is an unbound publication that is not a periodical and contains no fewer than 5 and no more than 48 pages, exclusive of any cover. After the invention of printing, short unbound or loosely bound booklets were called pamphlets. Since polemical

insect: Annotated classification: Order Psocoptera (booklice or psocids) Small or minute insects with long filiform antennae, delicate membranous wings (though many are wingless), head with Y-shaped epicranial suture, enlarged post-clypeus (sclerite on the face); maxilla with a rodlike lacinia (inner lobe) partly sunk into head capsule; labial palps much reduced;…

bookmaking, gambling practice of determining odds and receiving and paying off bets on the outcome of sporting events (particularly horse racing), political contests, and other competitions. Some Commonwealth countries (including the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), Belgium, and Germany

best seller: Bookman, an American magazine of literature and criticism, began running best-seller lists in 1895, when it began publication. The list was compiled from reports of sales at bookstores throughout the country. Similar lists began to appear in other literary magazines and in metropolitan newspapers. The…

bookmobile, shelf-lined motor van or other vehicle that carries books to rural and urban areas, establishes library service in areas that are too small to justify the creation of a stable branch, and acts as a demonstration model for communities that can afford library service and may choose to

bookplate, a label with a printed design intended to indicate ownership, usually pasted inside the front cover of a book. Bookplates probably originated in Germany, where the earliest known example, dated about the middle of the 15th century, is found. The earliest dated bookplate extant is also

Mao Chang: …dynasty (221–206 bc), a massive burning of books took place in which most copies of the Confucian classics were destroyed. After the founding of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), an intensive campaign was undertaken to replace the classics; older scholars who had memorized these works in their entirety provided…

children’s literature: North versus south: by Marguerite Mitchell, Books, Children and Men, 1944; 4th ed., 1960): “In the matter of literature for children the North surpasses the South by a large margin.” For Hazard, Spain had no children’s literature; Italy, with its Pinocchio and Cuore, could point only to an isolated pair of…

Almohads: The Booksellers’ Mosque (Kutubiyyah) in Marrakech and the older parts of the mosque of Taza date from his reign. Neither did the movement for a return to traditionalist Islam survive; both the mystical movement of the Sufis and the philosophical schools represented by Ibn Ṭufayl and Averroës (Ibn…

pornography: …than 50 pornographic shops on Holywell Street (known as “Booksellers’ Row”) in London. Pornography continued to flourish during the Victorian Age in Britain and in the United States despite—or perhaps because of—the taboos on sexual topics that were characteristic of the era. The massive and anonymous autobiography My Secret Life…

history of publishing: Selling and promotion: The publisher’s techniques for book promotion have become increasingly sophisticated in all advanced countries. The typical traveler or book salesman is likely to hold a college degree, certainly in the United States; he receives a careful briefing from the home office, with…

bookcase, piece of furniture fitted with shelves, often enclosed by glass doors, to hold books. A form of bookcase was used in early times: the illuminated manuscript Codex Amiatinus (ad 689–716) in Florence contains an illustration of the prophet Ezra writing in front of a cupboard with open doors

Olivia Wilde: Directing: …feature film directorial debut with Booksmart (2019), a raunchy high-school comedy about two overachieving seniors (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein) who are shocked to discover that their partying classmates were also accepted to top colleges. Angry over missed experiences, the duo attempts to have as many adventures as possible in…

Women’s Prize for Fiction: The prize was administered by Booktrust, an English literary advocacy organization, and sponsored and organized by the Orange Group. It was judged by a female panel chosen by the prize’s founders. Organizers dismissed accusations of sexism, though they formed a shadow panel of male judges for the 2001 contest. In…

bookworm, any insect (e.g., moths, beetles) whose larval (or adult) forms injure books by gnawing the binding and piercing the pages with small holes. No single species may properly be called the bookworm because a large number of insects feed upon dry, starchy material or paper and may damage

history of photography: Landscape and architectural documentation: Alfred and John Bool and Henry Dixon worked for the Society for Photographing Old London, recording historical buildings and relics. In the 1850s the French government commissioned several photographers to document historical buildings. Working with cameras making photographs as large as 20 by 29 inches…

history of photography: Landscape and architectural documentation: Alfred and John Bool and Henry Dixon worked for the Society for Photographing Old London, recording historical buildings and relics. In the 1850s the French government commissioned several photographers to document historical buildings. Working with cameras making photographs as large as 20 by 29 inches (51 by…

Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument: …well-stocked trout streams, and the Boole Tree, with a height of 269 feet (82 metres) and a circumference of 35 feet (11 metres), the largest known tree in any U.S. national forest. Dome Land Wilderness, one of five wilderness areas within the national forest, is a lofty region northeast of…

George Boole was an English mathematician who helped establish modern symbolic logic and whose algebra of logic, now called Boolean algebra, is basic to the design of digital computer circuits. Boole was given his first lessons in mathematics by his father, a tradesman, who also taught him to make

Boolean algebra, symbolic system of mathematical logic that represents relationships between entities—either ideas or objects. The basic rules of this system were formulated in 1847 by George Boole of England and were subsequently refined by other mathematicians and applied to set theory. Today,

foundations of mathematics: Boolean local topoi: A topos is said to be Boolean if its internal language is classical. It is named after the English mathematician George Boole (1815–64), who was the first to give an algebraic presentation of the classical calculus of propositions. A Boolean topos is…

fore-and-aft sail: The mainsail always has a boom, pivoted on the mast. Historically, it represented an important advance over the ancient square sail; it first appeared in the Mediterranean as the lateen sail. Full-rigged ships carried both types of sail; modern sport sailing craft carry fore-and-aft sails exclusively because of their ready…

government economic policy: Stabilization policy problems: During booms, tax revenues rise and the need for expenditures on unemployment compensation decreases, channeling a larger proportion of the national income into government coffers; these effects are accentuated if the tax system is progressive because tax revenues rise more rapidly than money incomes. Provided that…

boxing: Professional boxing: …after being knocked out by Ray (“Boom Boom”) Mancini in a championship fight that was nationally televised in the United States. (It was most likely the cumulative effect of the punishing blows throughout the match that led to Kim’s death, however, and not the final knockout punch.) Despite improved safety…

Dorothy Arzner: Early life and work: …which she created the “boom mike,” a long pole with a microphone attached that followed the actors around but remained out of camera range, thus giving the actors a mobility that had been prohibited by the stationary microphones previously used. The film, which starred Bow, was also innovative in…

Dorothy Arzner: Early life and work: …which she created the “boom mike,” a long pole with a microphone attached that followed the actors around but remained out of camera range, thus giving the actors a mobility that had been prohibited by the stationary microphones previously used. The film, which starred Bow, was also innovative in…

Jack Conway: The 1940s: …box-office success with the lively Boom Town, which chronicles two oilmen (Gable and Tracy) as they compete in business and romance; Lamarr and Claudette Colbert also starred in the drama. Conway had another hit with Love Crazy (1941), a deft comedy about a couple (Powell and Loy) whose marriage becomes…

Tom Brokaw: …including The Greatest Generation (1998), Boom!: Voices of the Sixties (2007), The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America (2011), and The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate (2019). A Long Way from Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland (2002) and A Lucky Life Interrupted: A…

kangaroo: Behaviour: …male (“old man,” or “boomer”) dominates during the mating season. Males fight for access to females by biting, kicking, and boxing. These methods are also used by kangaroos to defend themselves against predators. With their agile arms, they can spar vigorously. They can also use the forepaws to grip…