Portraits of the Renaissance
The trading success of the Italian city-states that helped make the Renaissance possible also made portraits a status symbol. The art form reached new heights in the hands of Leonardo, Raphael, Van Eyck, Antonello da Messina, Holbein, and other masters of the age. This recent publication sheds new light on some familiar images.
Published by Assouline
128 p., 15 x 11.5, hardcover
ISBN: 9782843238901
Peter Abelard after Marriage
Everyone knows the story of Abelard and Heloise and their blistering affair. But though the consequences are impossible to ignore, what followed is not so frequently examined. This new work not only looks at Abelard's guidance of his one-time lover, but his ability as a musician and the role his music played in Heloise's liturgy.
Published by Cistercian Publications
346 p., 8.5 x 5.5, paperback
ISBN: 9780879073114
A Common Stage: Theater and Public Life in Medieval Arras
This archaeological investigation into medieval drama in 13th-century France reveals how entertainments were conceived, transmitted, received, and recorded and how groups and individuals participated. Drama not only mirrored society, Symes maintains, but helped shape public opinion and spark debate.
Published by Cornell University Press
360 p., 6.5 x 9, hardcover
ISBN: 9780801445811
Reading in the Wilderness
The act of reading is a private matter -- right? Well, it can be, but nowadays we have blogs and wikis to help us share what we're reading, writing, and thinking. In the Middle Ages, devotional reading experiences weren't necessarily private, either: they depended on whether you were part of a monastic community and what access you had to devotional works. In Reading in the Wilderness, Jessica Brantley looks specifically at an illustrated Carthusian miscellany currently in the British Library, which she believes reveals something about how both group spectatorship and private study took place in Medieval England.
Published by University of Chicago Press
344 p., 9 x 6, hardcover
ISBN: 9780226071329
Archeology and the Pan-European Romanesque
The Romanesque architectural style that was popular in the 11th and 12th centuries has long been regarded as a re-awakened interest in classical architecture. Drawing on archaeological evidence, Tadhg O'Keefe maintains that rather than a conscious rebirth of classical style, the Romanesque represents a fragmentation of Roman heritage.
Published by Duckworth Academic and Bristol Classical Press
160 p., 8 x 5, paperback
ISBN: 9780715634349
