THE IDEAL TOWER by Nigel Pennick (Oversized Limited Edition Hardcover)

Limited to only 120 hardcover copies, 12″ x 6″ inches. Book is in new unread condition.

Each book is unique with slightly different color marbled boards. 

More about this unique edition:

From the publisher:

The mystical tower is an archetype expressing human aspiration to the Divine. This book describes that archetype and some of its incarnations in actual towers of stone. Beyond this, the book – in itself – makes manifest the archetype!

The Dustwrapper

It is the nature of stone towers to be unchanged as the skies around alter in a manner that is never random, but beyond our control. This principle is expressed in the dustwrapper where the tower is created by block printing against a background created by “decalcomania”,  a technique used by surrealists such as Max Ernst and Ithell Colquhoun to introduce automatism into their work. The resulting patterns can have a strange appeal to the eye, perhaps because they can exhibit a natural tendency towards fractialisation, whereby the same branching pattern reproduces itself at different scales. As skies vary so the variation produced by decalcomania has been embraced. There is no text to distract the eye.

The paper used is, befitting the subject matter, primarily made from stone! Marble to be specific. This has been sandwiched between transparent film and cartridge paper, but a panel can be touched and seen on the inside of the part of the wrapper covering the front board. Such a substantial dustwrapper is required to protect other books on the shelf from….

The Cover

The Ideal Tower becomes incarnate, emerging in three dimensions from the front cover of the book. It is, mostly, made from stone, being marble dust bound with a resin. It has been given a light wash of ochre and other pigments to emphasise the relief. The weathervane is made of bronze (dust bound with resin). The sky in the background is now represented by one of a variety of traditional marbled paper designs prepared by Kate Brett of Payhembury Papers. As the sky is beyond the control of the builder so the selection of paper was placed beyond the control of the publisher, and Kate was invited to supply a variety of traditional marbled designs that seemed somewhat reminiscent of skies. It has a quarter lambskin leather binding.

The Text & Illustrations

CONTENTS

Preamble

BOOK  I

A VERTICAL PILGRIMAGE

Introduction

LEVEL  I

The Entrance

At the Base Level: Standing Above the Foundation

The Mundus  or Crypt

The First Stage

The Four Directions

LEVEL  II

The Winding Stair and the Second Stage

LEVEL  III

The Eightfold

LEVEL  IV

The Stage Of the Eight Directions

LEVEL  V

At the Level of the Sixteenfold

LEVEL  VI

The Stage of the Thirty-Two-Fold

LEVEL  VII

The Upper Stage

APPENDIX

Five Craftsmens’ Stories

BOOK  II

THE PRACTITIONERS’ RESULT : VISIONARY STEEPLES IN THE ETERNAL TRADITION

Towers of the Phoenix

Visionary Steeples of Wren’s Churches

Towers of the New Churches after 1711

The Epitome of  Operative Sacred Geometry

The Steeples of James, Archer, Hawksmoor & Flitcroft

Towers of the Winds

Other and Later Steeples of the Tradition