In classical mythology Astraea, the goddess of justice, chastity, and truth, was the last of the immortals to leave Earth with the decline of the ages. Her return was to signal the dawn of a new Golden Age. This myth not only survived the Christian Middle Ages but also became a commonplace in the Renaissance when courtly poets praised their patrons and princes by claiming that Astraea guided them. The literary cult of Astraea persisted in the sixteenth century as writers saw in Elizabeth I of England the imperial Astraea who would lead mankind to peace through universal rule.This and other late flowerings of the Astraea myth should not be taken as the final phases of her history. Frederick A. de Armas documents in this book what may well be the last great rebirth of Astraea, one that is probably of greater political, religious, and literary significance than others previously described by historians and literary critics. The Return of Astraea focuses on the seventeenth-century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and analyzes the deity's presence in thirteen of his plays, including his masterpiece, La Vida es Sueho. Her popularity in this period is partially attributed to political motives, reflecting the aspirations and fears of the Spanish monarch Philip IV. In this broad study, grounded on such diverse fields as astrology, iconography, history, mythology, and philosophy, de Armas explains that Astraea adopts many guises in Calderón's dramas. Ranging from the Kabbalah to Platonic thought and from satires on Olivares to cosmogonic myths, he analyzes and reinterprets Calderón's theater from a wide range of perspectives centered on the playwright's utilization of the myth of Astraea. The book thus represents a new view of Calderón's dramaturgy and also documents the popularity and significance of this astral-imperial myth during the Spanish Golden Age.

Although the rigors of modern science increasingly require of its practitioners greater and greater mathematical sophistication, today's students are often ill-prepared to meet the challenge. Mathematical Techniques aims to rectify that situation. Aimed at beginning students in the engineering, mathematical, and physical sciences, the book offers a course in essential mathematical methods--such as analytic geometry, vector algebra, complex numbers, matrix operations, differential equations, double integrals, Laplace transforms, and Fourier series, among many others. Throughout, the book omits mathematical pedantry and obscure proofs, and presents summary material clearly. A large number of exercises and worked examples are included. Students taking the road down to careers in engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and physics will welcome this friendly introduction to important mathematical techniques.

Product Description: Among the many ancient techniques that shift or become problematized during the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, this volume focuses on one in particular, that of ekphrasis. It is through the lens of experimentation with the technique of ekphrasis that we can view Cervantes' texts...read more

Product Description: Authorial studies, or 'career criticism' is a new and distinctive branch of interpretive methodology that explores various paths of European careers, particularly literary careers. In this first book-length study in the field various specialists from Italian, French, English, and Spanish studies collectively discuss literary careers spanning from classical antiquity through the Renaissance...read more

Product Description: The NEH Institute was created to study Spanish drama from 1580–1680 from the perspective of Greek and Roman mythology, and their Renaissance metamorphoses. The book seeks to develop the link between mythology and the comedia through a number of approaches, including the use of astrology, cartomancy, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Santayana's poetics...read more

Product Description: This is the first English work dedicated to an analysis of La estrella de Sevilla since the 1930s. While the question of authorship is again discussed, these essays attempt to go beyond questions of authorship and propose a wide spectrum of new approaches.

Product Description: Calderon de la Barca's La vida es sueno (1636) has proven to be more popular than any of Shakespeare's plays in a number of European countries during the last three centuries. This book is an attempt to capture the openness in contemporary scholarly discourse.