A gorgeous, illustrated study of the ways in which shells were circulated, depicted, collected and valued during a time of remarkable global change, by aristocrats and apothecaries, scholars... read more
Reframes the Silk Road as a diplomatic route, not simply a commercial thoroughfare, especially during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. Draws on documents from Dunhuang.
Genial mix of aesthetics, lit crit, philosophy, art and history. Rabelais, Vermeer, ancient Rome and a classical Greek text in 16 vols about a single meal. The latter would have given Proust... read more
The great historian of late antiquity mixes the personal with the scholarly in telling the story of his life and work. Engagement with the non-European world has been intrinsic to his work.
In a particularly elegant diplomatic gesture, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid sent an elephant to Aachen in 802 AD. This fresh perspective draws on many Arabic sources.
Erudition and curiosity impel this vivid, detailed portrait by the world's foremost expert on Linnaeus: this biography won several prizes when it was first published in Sweden in 2019.