A Dictionary of Symbols

A classic encyclopedia of symbols by Catalan polymath Joan Cirlot that illuminates the symbolic underpinnings of myth, modern psychology, literature, and art.

From the Egyptians on, no form of learning was more vital to the ancient world than the knowledge of symbols, and it was no less important to the civilizations of the Orient, even into modern times. In the Occident, thinking about symbols shaped the great art of the medieval age, and, to a very large extent, the new developments of the renaissance and the baroque, before gaining a distinctly new importance with the discovery of the “unconscious” in the twentieth century. The poet and art critic Juan Eduardo Cirlot’s Dictionary of Symbols first came out in 1958; soon translated into English, it has since proved an indispensable and endlessly stimulating resource for scholars and students of fields from art to literature to psychology to philosophy. Whether discussing the nature of the Mandala, the symbolic dimensions of the cow, heron, hippopotamus, or planet Saturn, Cirlot’s book is an unrivaled source of information, instruction, inspiration, and simple pleasure. This new, expanded edition of the Dictionary includes new entries as well as an epilogue by Cirlot’s daughter Victoria discussing her father’s poetry and work as an art critic and its close connection to Surrealism.

Juan Eduardo Cirlot (1916–1973) was a poet, art critic, hermeneutist, mythologist, and musician. He wrote several books on the history and theory of art, published several poetry collections, and composed music.

Philip Pullman is the author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, the third book of which, The Amber Spyglass, was the first children’s book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in the UK. His most recent novel is The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, the first book in a new companion trilogy to His Dark Materials. He lives in Oxford, England.

Valerie Miles, an editor, writer, and translator, co-founded the literary journal Granta in Spanish and also established the NYRB Classics series in Spanish. She curated the first exhibition dedicated to Roberto Bolaño’s archive papers. She is author of A Thousand Forests in One Acorn. She lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Victoria Cirlot, is a medieval scholar and professor of Romance Philology at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Her recent books include La visión abierta, Del mito del grial al surrealismo and Grial. Poética y mito.