In 1620, separatists from the Church of England set sail across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Understanding themselves as spiritual pilgrims, they left to preserve their liberty to worship God in accordance with their understanding of the Bible....

British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including co...

What did it mean to be 'civilized' in Early Modern England? Keith Thomas's seminal studies "Religion and the Decline of Magic", "Man and the Natural World", and "The Ends of Life", explored the beliefs, values and social practices of the years bet...

Buddhism has become a uniquely favored religion in our modern age. A burgeoning number of books extol the scientifically proven benefits of meditation and mindfulness for everything ranging from business to romance. There are conferences, courses, an...

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654 or later) is the most celebrated woman artist of the baroque period in Italy. Her career spanned more than 40 years, as she moved between Rome, where she was raised and trained by her father, Orazio Gentileschi, to Fl...

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) crafted a public persona and personal mythology that earned him the romantic sobriquet the "Last Knight" and that perpetuates his legend to this day. In his lifelong quest to establish himself as Europe's n...

Gathering together over 160 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints, this book offers an unprecedented examination of the shifting iconography of slavery in British and European art between 1760 and 1840. In addition to considering how the work...

Conspirator and assassin, philosopher and statesman, promoter of peace and commander in war, Marcus Brutus (ca. 85-42 BC) was a controversial and enigmatic man even to those who knew him. His leading role in the murder of Julius Caesar on the Ides of...

This comprehensive guide covers the historically rich and nuanced territory of Central Leinster, from the western borderlands of the medieval English Pale to the wild expanse of the Bog of Allen and further west to Clonmacnoise, cradle of early monas...

Painted in 1468, "Saint Michael Triumphant over the Devil" is the first documented work by Bartolome Bermejo (c. 1440 – c. 1501), a 15th-century Spanish artist by whom only about 20 paintings are known. Acquired by the National Gallery in 1995, the p...