By combining archaeology and information from written sources, with linguistics and genetics and combining these insights with elementary astronomy and insights on the nature of mythology, a new window on the past is opened up. Beginning with Austria’s two most famous artefacts from prehistory, Fanny of Galgeberg and the Venus of Willendorf, the beginnings of religion and time-keeping are uncovered. With the Neolithic and the introduction of a seditary lifestyle, a new way of seeing the world and time is no longer marked out with reference to the moon but rather with reference to the sun.

With the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, known to geneticists as the Yamnaya, a second wave of change sweeps over Europe. When iron becomes the new all-purpose metal, a third wave of change is initiated. In mythology all these developments leave trails of signs that decoded, enabling the myths of old to be understood.

With the arrival of Christianity, new elements are once again introduced. Yet as before, instead of replacing the old beliefs, Christian beliefs and practices are fused onto the old ways and for hundreds of years, a culture of tolerance and parallel cultures is practised. This enables not only the clearly non-Christian iconography that may be found in numerous Early Christian and Medieval churches to be understood but also the lore and customs of Europe.

As the Church slowly becomes established, the Danube ceases to be a barrier and instead becomes a trade route along which wine is shipped upstream whilst iron and salt are shipped downstream. During the Middle Ages,  the first Austrian coins are minted in Krems, a magnificent bible is illuminated and heretics were burnt at the stake, whilst upriver, a king is held to ransom.

During the Renaissance, important astronomical observations are made at Melk and the Wachau becomes the epicentre of a theological controversy and a hotbed of religious insubordination.

Marking the end of the Renaissance, the Counter Reformation brings the people of Krems and the Wachau back into the Catholic fold. With these developments, the last traces of the old ways are either stamped out or are exorcised from churches and rendered harmless. Instead of joire de vivre a culture of guilt is introduced, with this being embodied in a series of trompe l’oeil sculptures in Krems in which perspective is taken to its limits.

The later spirit of the Baroque is epitomised by Baroque monasteries of the valley, with Göttweig and  Dürnstein being taken as case studies. With the Age of Enlightenment, the tenets of the world we know today are introduced, with the flipside of rationalism only emerging during the second half of the nineteenth century when thousands of shippers suddenly find themselves without a livelihood. On this note, the work ends with a cautionary tale told by a relief carved on the end of a barrel in Museum Krems.

Not only drawing from archaeology and the anthropology of human origins, this book utilizes the insights of modern genetics, linguistics and philosophy. Based on an analysis of tool use and the notion of intentionality, a theory of art is arrived at that enables the divide between the sciences and the humanities to be bridged. This provides a platform from which the Venus of Willendorf can be investigated. The work is illustrated with copies of Gravettian Venus figurines, maps, drawings and diagrams as well as with an innovative series of photo-montage collages.

Research shows that the Venus of Willendorf and her 160-odd sisters were not pin-ups. Instead they were part of a culture in which time was followed with reference to the moon and woven textiles were known and appreciated.

Clay was used to make images that were used for pyrotechnical displays and in art, people had a sense of aesthetics that was in no way inferior to ours.

This latter point is established empirically and is backed up by an explanation of why it is that human beings are responsive to the ratio known as the Golden Section.

Although fundamental, this question is never asked. The answer however is simple and continues the analysis of tool-use begun at the beginning.

Embodying the kind of knowledge known by mid-wives, Gravettian Venus figurines reflect the bodily changes that take place over the lifetimes of most women. As such they are a search for identity, with the blank faces posing questions such as: “Who am I?”, “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?”

At the end of the book, there is a paper model of the Venus of Willendorf and the formal rationale of the figurine is translated into a set of curves that with dexterity can be reassembled. Even though it only consists of four shapes, the paper model is challenging for grown-ups and requires a high degree of coordination and patience. Accordingly it is not suitable for children.

For centuries, it was unquestioningly assumed that Parmenides‘ poem was an allegory. More recently it has been suggested that the work is in fact a description of an actual experience, the experience being nothing less than an altered states revelation of divine truth as imparted by a goddess. After introducing Parmenides and his life and times, the evidence for his poem being the transcribed record of a revelation is examined in detail.

Thereafter, Alexander Curtis explains the nuts and bolts of Parmenides‘ thinking with innovative graphic diagrams being used to illustrate key points.

Throughout the work, the relevance of Parmenides‘ philosophy for us today is pointed out and at the end, there is a loose and lively translation of his otherwise challenging poem. This takes Parmenides out of the stifling tradition of academic philosophy and re-instates the seminal, uncompromisingly radical nature of his thought. The notion of truth and how truth is seen and experienced leads to the work of Sappho, who whilst not a philosopher, did try to lead her life according to principles that derive from philosophy and was concerned with searching out the good, the true and the beautiful. To this effect, a selection of new restorations of Sappho’s poems by Albert von Schirnding have been translated by the author into English and form the basis of an introduction to Sappho and her life and times.

Following on from Plato, during the Renaissance, geometry was seen both as a discipline that enabled a scientific understanding of the world and as a way by which man might approach and apprehend the ineffable nature of God. In Vienna, pioneering the use of new mathematical techniques, the First School of Mathematicians and Astronomers played an important role in developing a new astronomy, in which observation and the development of new models were all-important. This reulted in the first formulation of an observed regularity in nature, that was expressed in terms of sines and cosines. Not having algebra at their disposal, the mathematician/astronomers made instruments and used tables to illustrate and articulate the mathematics of sines and cosines.

Meanwhile, theologians struggled to square the new ideas with more traditional conceptions and with the ideals and aspirations of monastic life. At the cutting edge of this endeavour was the mathematician, philosopher, theologian, bishop and cardinal, Nicholas of Kues, otherwise known as Cusanus. In the Wachau, in the Charterhouse of Aggsbach, the view that rational speculation could lead to God view was challenged.

This resulted in the Controversy of the Doctrine of Ignorance in which the monks at Melk also played a role. Yet further South, in Borgo Sansepolcro, the artist and mathematician Piero della Francesca was using complex geometrical constructions as the basis for a new form of painting that was in complete accord with the views expounded by Cusanus as the Controversy developed.

Secretly, these paintings showed how, via a ratio that for centuries was only ever referred to in obscure terms, the bounded and earthly might be overcome. Hidden and yet discernible for those with eyes to see, in a written work, Piero della Francesca hinted at how this geometrical key might be constructed. Prepared for printing by the mathematician, Luca Pacioli, also from Borgo Sansepolcro. Bound in as a part of Pacioli’s Divinia Proportione, Piero’s Libellus made its way to Krems. There, in around 1520, the oblique hint given by Piero at the end of his Libellus was taken up and used in the composition of a sculpture commissioned for the Burgesses‘ Hospice in Krems.

Carved from wood by an anonymous artist, the sculpture shows shows the Saint kneeling in a vat of boiling oil, this being the manner in which he was martyred. At the front, the cauldron is supported by two legs with lion’s feet, whilst at the back it is supported by a column. The column is however a latter addition and was added so as to replace a third leg, which was brutally broken off. The missing leg and the attention given to the muscles of the Saint’s back suggest that the work was originally intended to be seen at eye level in a position that allowed it to be seen from all sides.

Highly significant is the fact that the two front legs are markedly asymmetrical. If the outermost points of the legs are connected and joined to the point where the third leg will have touched the ground, the result is a 13,14,15 triangle. This and other features, suggest that the 13,14,15 triangle was a deliberate and integral part of the composition. This it is conjected, will have been so as to create a sacred space in which the laws of space and time were suspended.

During World War Two, a collection of Renaissance sculptures, including five pieces from Krems, was stored for safe-keeping by the Austrian Institute for Monument Protection in a salt mine at Altaussee. There, they were joined by Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna and thousands of paintings that were intended for Hitler’s art museum in Linz. During the last weeks of the war, the mine and its contents was very nearly destroyed, when in what was supposed to be a final act of apocalyptic destruction, bombs were brought into the mine. After a dramatic show-down, the threat was averted only to be replaced by the danger of both collections being taken as war trophies to Russia. This book introduces the people involved, the mine and the sculptures they saved and the circumstances they were working under. Apart from mass murderers and opportunists, there are also tales of courage and of people being changed by art and unusual circumstances. Via a web of interwoven stories, this book tells the Altaussee story from both Austrian and American points of view.

10.000 years older than the Venus of Willendorf, the figurine known as “Fanny” was found in 1988 on the outskirts of Krems. Made by hunter-gatherers as they followed the River Danube upstream from the Balkans, the so-called “Aurignacians” were the first fully developed modern humans to enter Europe. By combining archaeological reconstructions with insights gained at the Austrian Wolf Science Centre, a picture emerges of Ice Age hunter-gatherers leading semi-nomadic lives in symbiosis with packs of wolves that over time became domesticated. Analysed in the light of Arno Stern’s work with children, the cave art of the period shows that the Aurignacians were concerned with addressing the big questions of life. Upriver from Krems, the Lion Man of Lonetal and an exquisite series of animal sculptures also found near Ulm confirm this and show that shamanism was integral to the culture. Informed by the neurobiology of altered states, an innovative anthropological approach opens up new windows on how the Aurginacians saw the world.

The work begins by identifying the historical context in which Plato was operating and introduces the philosophical problems he was dealing with using the terminology and concepts of his day. This is juxtaposed with analyses made using the insights of modern logic. Plato’s theory of Ideal Forms is introduced along with the triparted nature of his philosophy and the account of love given in his Symposium. The account of the creation given in the Timaeus and the musical structure of the universe then paves the way for Plato’s theory of mind and the musical account of planetary motion given in his Republic. Following Sir Karl Popper, Plato’s atomic theory is seen as providing an explanation of the irrational number pi. It is found that by continuing this approach, the musical harmonies instilled in the world at the very beginning also become explainable. Considering the properties of the fifth element in terms of modern logic then provides a new take on Plato’s notoriously difficult Parmenides.

As an architecture student, Ernst Mössel (1881-1946) saw that traditional architecture had become but an empty shell whose inner rationale and raison d’être was long lost and forgotten. Yet equally, art nouveau and Jugendstil, being copied from nature, were also devoid of real foundations. Analysing the monuments of Antiquity, Mössel found an underlying scheme that, whilst simple, was capable of immense variation. Realising that this was lost key he had been looking for, he demonstrated how the so-called “circle of orientation”, cryptically mentioned in Vitruvius, worked. Used by the Greeks and Romans and in the churches of the Romanesque and Medieval Ages, the key was passed from generation to generation as a trade secret of the stone masons’ guild. With the Renaissance however and the emergence of architects who were not a part of the guild system, the masons became side-lined and knowledge of the key was lost. Apart from introducing Mössel’s work, this book explains why he is not as well-known as he ought to be and places his discovery in a number of wider contexts.

In 1772, the English musician and music historian, Charles Burney (1726-1814) travelled through Austria, Germany and Bohemia and in Krems enthused at the high level of musicality that he found there. One evening, from a barge on the river, he chanced to hear four women singing privately in a house in Stein and was delighted at the competance with which the four voices of the polyphonic composition were sung. Ashore, he observed that in Krems „undistinguished citizens in taverns and farmers at work in the fields, will sing for pleasure, songs in two more voices“.  By featuring pieces of music that were composed in Krems, Stein and Göttweig, the aim of the compilation is to give a musical form to this testimony. The compilation starts with the fragment composed by Beethoven in Gneixendorf:

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Last Musical Thought, adapted for piano by Anton Diabelli, Wien, 1838, ÖNB

https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/viewer.faces?doc=DTL_7996722&order=1&view=SINGLE

Thereafter the earliest piece is by Adam Händl:

Psalm David von Heiligen Ehestandt verdeutscht und mit vier Stimmen zu singen, Wien, 1561, ÖNB

https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/viewer.faces?doc=DTL_4437726

followed by Johannes Baptist Gletle:

Deliciae Sacrae sine Novem Psami Vespertini, Krems, 1687, Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek

https://stimmbuecher.digitale-sammlungen.de/view?id=bsb00094179

Johann Georg Zechner

Well-known in Central Europe during the Baroque, there are today only a few recordings of pieces by Zechner. His music is however preserved in in Göttweig Abbey.

Jakob Linner

Offertorium de Venerab. Sacramento:  a 4 Voci, 2 Violini, Organo e Violone (in D)

Wien, 1832, ÖNB, copy available

Offertorium de Tempore: a 4 Voci, Violetta, Alto Trombone con Organo e Violone (in C)

Wien, 1832, ÖNB, copy available

Aria in F: a Canto Solo, 2 Violini Con Organo et Violone

Handschrift, 18. C., ÖNB, copy available

Engelbert Westermayr

Requiem (in) Es: a 4 Vocibus, Violinis con Organo

Handschrift, 19. C., ÖNB, copy available