A learned study of the history of the altarpiece in Renaissance Italy from the 13th to 17th century. Accompanied with beautiful images, DE discusses the development and narrative categories ... read more
A labour of love and scholarship, this is a study of the extraordinary Royal Library of Dom Joao V (1706-1750) of Portugal that was destroyed in 1755 in the Lisbon earthquake. The library co... read more
A splendid illustrated book on the dramatic figures in wood and stone that started appearing in the palaces and churches of the German-speaking lands in the C17th.
The title could pass off as a short story by M.R. James or as one of the exploits of Robert Louis Stevenson's little-known, rather Ruritanian sleuth called Prince Florizel. It is in fact a d... 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.
A new and updated edition of the great French historian's 1990 Europe: A History of Its Peoples. First published in 1990, this has now been brought up to date, from the fall of the Iron Curt... read more
A huge work of scholarship that brings the late C5th/early C6th world to life. Theoderic stabilised Italy and extended his kingdom to include parts of France, the Iberian peninsula and the w... read more
Where did refugees from the American and French Revolutions go? This remarkable historical perspective shows how opening doors can be more profitable than closing borders.
The European revolutions of 1848 and their aftermath, explored through a series of set-pieces by the renowned historian, author of The Sleepwalkers and Iron Kingdom.
A foray into the rich but slender vein of European art history devoted to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. During the 50 years in question, the region experienced successive Tsarist rule, Germ... read more
An ironic moment, perhaps, for a major new biography of the man who first uttered, 'The lamps are going out all over Europe' (August, 1914)... Grey remains the longest-ever serving Foreign S... read more
A superb account of how European imperialism in Asia was undermined by a network of ingenious radicals, who used printing presses, global travel and the colonisers' languages to spread their... read more
Translated from the German, this is a substantial book on the man who led Europe out of the Napoleonic chaos; the father of realpolitik, according to Kissinger.
The brilliant Princeton historian guides us through the relationship between magic and the Renaissance, demystifying the Magus' relationship with science, art, and engineering in early-moder... read more
Contacts and connections as the drivers of cultural change: the West was built on far more than the values of ancient Greece and Rome, as per the Victorian paradigm. Erudite and compelling.
A study of the way in which Vesuvius and the excavations in the Bay of Naples in 1738 and afterwards became a potent political and emotional vehicle for artists, intellectuals, Grand Tourist... read more
Aztec art in Brussels, West African ivories in Antwerp... the great artists (D?rer, Bosch etc) were drawing on more than rediscovered classical texts. JJ considers the Renaissance as "a conv... read more
Despite its often fraught encounters with democracy, science and secular culture, the Catholic Church's story in the modern era is one of remarkable survival.
In less than a month in 1870, the Prussian army invaded France, captured Napoleon III and changed the balance of world power. Its success had far-reaching effects...
A broad survey that considers the roles of individual leaders in C20th European history. Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini of coures, but also Tito, Adenauer, Thatcher, Kohl, Gorbachev and others... read more
This book was in our summer catalogue but we include it (exceptionally) in the present one too because it is outstanding. As in her 'Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire' (200... read more
A fascinating look at the way 29 European internal borders were made and have shifted; while some of these reflect the faultlines of old horrors, they also offer new hope. Perceptive and ext... read more