In a recent posting, I explained how a vast space of cryptographic keys can be represented by a small piece of data. That’s due to the sheer power of exponential growth. To see a vast space of keys arising from sheer ingenuity, it’s worth a visit to the Musée Cluny in Paris, which houses a [...]

People have undergone many forms of visual torture over the years to read on the go.  iPhone eReaders are one of the latest, but by historical standards, not as brutal on the eyes as you might think.
Here’s a 1620 edition of the works of Silius Italicus, a Roman poet. (A piquant aside: It may have [...]

Among the collection of small collections that I’ve accumulated willy-nilly over the years is a group of ancient Roman brooches.

A so-called “bilingual” Attic vase speaks two visual languages. One side is painted in the older “black-figure” style, the other side with the newer—and for us, more familiar—”red-figure” style.
Tetraktys mentions such a vase in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It depicts the Homeric heroes Achilles and Ajax taking a break from slaughtering Trojans to [...]

Distinguishing authentic artifacts from forged or misattributed ones is an essential challenge for archaeologists and art historians. Scientific tests, though, often prove incomplete or inconclusive (or simply misleading). In such cases, the best line of defense against forged artifacts is an expert with a finely honed intuitive sense for authenticity—sometimes called a fakebuster. (In Tetraktys, [...]

In my first “Praise of Folly” post, I talked about some of the antiquarian books in my collection. There’s another I’d like to mention…

Distinguishing authentic artifacts from forged or misattributed ones is an essential challenge for archaeologists and art historians. Scientific tests, though, often prove incomplete or inconclusive (or simply misleading). In such cases, the best line of defense against forged artifacts is an expert with a finely honed intuitive sense for authenticity—sometimes called a fakebuster. (In Tetraktys, [...]

Cultural amnesia is a leitmotif of Tetraktys. Blog posts are usually too brief to breathe life into forgotten cities, religions, and heroes. But they seem the perfect place to spotlight bits of lost history under our noses–in the kitchen.

In the West today, most people know ginger as a substance vaguely commemorated in the names of [...]

While I rarely wear it, I love jewelry.  I don’t care for articles of conspicuous consumption, gold-and-gem laden stuff in which “luster = lucre.”  (My favorite period is Art Nouveau, whose sins of gaudiness are altogether different.) What I admire are pieces whose craftsmanship transcends their material value, whose conspicuousness is not done away with, [...]

The section headings of Tetraktys are ornamented with a silver coin.  The coin’s faces also compose the circles of the Tetraktys emblem illustrated at the beginning of the book.

This coin overlapped in time and place with Pythagoras himself. It’s intriguing for a few reasons, some historical, some mystical…

Shipping a pound of wood pulp across a continent is a wasteful way to send a few megabytes of data—data that can now fly through the ether in seconds. This downside of printed books is why I bought a Kindle a couple of months ago.  I’m happy to start bidding adieu to other print-book byproducts. [...]

Many authors wince at the stock-image covers that emerge after their books are handed off to their publishers. But I was lucky with Tetraktys.
The cover artist, Melissa Lucar, produced a graphic that I find beautiful. And I also enjoy it because its images are rooted in the story.