This compelling book offers a new paradigm for the periodization of the arts, one that counters a prevailing Italianate bias among historians of northern Europe of this era. The years after 1500 brought the construction of several iconic Late Gothic...

For John Ruskin, one of the leading cultural critics of the nineteenth century, Venice represented his ideal of civic society, where culture, government and faith were in creative harmony – "The Paradise of Cities". This was not the fallen city of th...

Julien-David Le Roy's "Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece", initially issued in 1758, first revealed to European eyes the wonders of Greek classical architecture. Overnight, Greece became the rage, much to the chagrin of Giovanni Battist...

All but forgotten today, eight historic gardens that once flourished along the length of the Thames in early Tudor London are here historically recreated and analysed in this richly illustrated book. One of the gardens belonged to Sir Thomas More and...