Scarlett is a university graduate with a master's in biophysics and a chip on her shoulder. Artie is a retired professor of art history. They've been hired by a wealthy collector to authenticate a cache of paintings discovered under the floorboards of an Italian townhouse. And they've taken an instant--and intense--dislike to each other. The ......
Entangled Memories and Emotional Loss in Early America
Untangling the private feelings, ambitions, and fears of early Americans through their personal writings from the Revolution to the Civil War. Modern readers of history and biography unite around a seemingly straightforward question: What did it feel like to live in the past? In Longing for Connection, historian Andrew Burstein attempts to answer ......
Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625), an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a noble family, was one of the first women artists of Europe to establish an international reputation during her lifetime. This book explores the evolution of Sofonisba Anguissola's art from her training in Cremona, through her service at the court of Philip II ......
This book explores the influence of classical texts upon early European settlers and inhabitants of the Tidewater region of Virginia, addressing how Greek and Roman literature and culture shaped and sometimes challenged prevailing assumptions about personhood, liberty, town planning, and representative government in Virginia during the period of ......
A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate
A little-known story of mutiny and murder illustrating the centrality of smuggling and slavery in early American society On the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where the crew sold enslaved Africans in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of ......
Deception, Entrapment, and Execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots
The Walsingham Gambit provides the reader with a new and unique insight into the hidden history associated with the regicide of Mary, Queen of Scots. This hidden history is revealed in great detail by R. Kent Tiernan, who describes how the English deception planners led by Sir Francis Walsingham designed, engineered, and executed a complex ......
A Renaissance Treatise on the Healing Properties of Gemstones
In early modern Europe precious and semiprecious stones were valued not only for their beauty and rarity but also for their medical and magical properties. Lorenzo de' Medici, Philip II of Spain, and Popes Leo X and Clement VII were all treated with expensive potions incorporating ground gems such as rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. Medical and ......
Chinese Silk in the Early Modern Transpacific Trade, 1500-1700
An Object of Seduction explores the early modern trans-Pacific export of Chinese silk to New Spain. It argues that the increasing demand for silk contributed to the parallel development of silk fashion and sericulture in China and New Spain, and also created conflicts on imperial regulations about foreign trade and hierarchical systems.
On October 24, 1588, Paolo Barbieri murdered his wife, Isabella Caccianemici, stabbing her to death with his sword. Later, Pablo would claim to have acted in a fit of madness-but was he criminally insane or merely pretending to be? In this riveting book, Monica Calabritto addresses this controversy by reconstructing Paolo's life, prosecution, and ......