Books & ideas

Italy before Italy

Valeria Caldarella Allaire — 2025-05-06T12:44:46Z

Does Italy have a history before unification? Located at the heart of the Mediterranean, the peninsula gives the impression of being a cultural koiné but is in fact characterized by political, economic, and social diversity.

In Magellan's Wake

Ivan Jablonka — 2021-10-27T06:30:00Z

Fernand de Magellan's “circumnavigation of the globe” in 1519-1522 conceals a whole fascinating and little-known universe: crews, kings, peoples, plants, peaceful or bloody encounters, hopes and fears. But, come to think of it: did Magellan really circumnavigate the globe?

The Names of Fame

Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen — 2019-10-31T08:00:00Z

Artists make a name for themselves thanks to their works. But what name? During the Renaissance, artists are usually designated by their first name or by a patronym. But to become famous, painters have often endeavoured to invent the names with which they wanted to achieve fame.

Immodest Modesty

Marie Gaille — 2016-11-24T08:00:00Z

The Renaissance reinvented modesty – that contradictory passion which reveals while hiding. In a masterful book, Dominique Brancher shows how this art of circumvention spanned a variety of knowledge, especially medical knowledge, in the sixteenth century.

A Glimpse of Free Government?

Jean-Fabien Spitz — 2015-05-04T05:30:00Z

How should one interpret the “Allegory of Good Government”, a fresco painted by Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena in 1338? Is it praising the law that preserves the peace within the city and protects individuals, or the wisdom that naturally guides men towards the common good?

Pieces of History

Pierre Savy — 2014-11-20T09:00:00Z

In his last published essay, Jacques Le Goff, who recently passed away, examines the problem of historical periodization. He defends the idea of a “long Middle Ages” and refuses to see the Renaissance as a distinct period in its own right. His book is a reflection on our chronological frameworks.

Art History in the Time of Nationalism

William Diebold — 2014-09-22T07:30:00Z

Between the start of the Franco-Prussian War and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, art historians in Germany and France were studying the Italian Renaissance and the Gothic monuments of the Middle Ages. Passini's recent book analyses the role of French and German nationalism in the shaping of art history.

Interweaving Eastern and Western Perspectives

Christian Joschke — 2013-05-02T08:44:48Z

In Florence and Baghdad, Hans Belting writes a new history of the human gaze based on its symbolic value in relation to the image. His starting point is the cultural transfer between the East and the West, leading to the invention of perspective in the 16^th century. The author examines two different forms of cultures of the gaze and lays the groundwork for a global art history.