A pioneering studo of the ar of the Franciscan order that shows how Francisan theological, liturgical, pastoral and missionary strategies were formulated and implemented visually, not by works but by images, bu using contextualizaiton and introducing gender and culture specific visual traits

The book investigates the aesthetic theology embedded in the Franciscan artistic tradition. The novelty of the approach is in applying concepts gleaned from Franciscan textual sources to create a deeper understanding of how art in all its sensual forms was foundational to the Franciscan milieu. Chapters range from studies of statements about aesthetics and the arts in theological textual sources to examples of visual, auditory, and tactile arts communicating theological ideas found in text...

The most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages and their sacred treasure.For a certain period in history, the Knights Templar-the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages-secretly guarded the Shroud of Turin. Worshipped in a relentlessly secret manner, and known in its intimate nature by only a handful of the order’s officials, the swathe of fabric was kept in the central treasury of the Knights Templar, who were known for their expe...

A true, never-before-told story—discovered in a secret Vatican archive—of sex, poison, and lesbian initiation rites in a nineteenth-century convent.In 1858, a German princess, recently inducted into the convent of Sant’Ambrogio in Rome, wrote a frantic letter to her cousin, a confidant of the Pope, claiming that she was being abused and feared for her life. What the subsequent investigation by the Church’s Inquisition uncovered were the extraordinary secrets of San...

Vitruvian Man is the world's most famous drawing, by one of the world's most famous artists. The image - named after a Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius - has become visual shorthand for artistic genius and scientific inquiry, and yet nobody knows anything about it. In Da Vinci's Ghost, critically acclaimed historian Toby Lester examines the forces that converged in 1490 to turn an idea that had been around for centuries into this iconic image, bringing the ghost of an unknown Leonar...

The Renaissance holds an undying place in the human imagination, and its great heroes remain our own, from Michelangelo and Leonardo to Dante and Montaigne. This period of profound evolution in European thought is credited with transforming the West from medieval to modern; reviving the city as the center of human activity and the acme of civilization; and, of course, producing the most astonishing outpouring of artistic creation the world has ever known. Perhaps no era in history was more...

The small village of Rennes-le-Chateau has been the center of an enigma ever since a century ago a local village priest, Berenger Sauniere, spent millions of dollars on decorating the church and surrounding buildings. For decades – despite claims to the contrary by some authors – no-one has been able to explain where Sauniere got the money to pay for the extravagant building works, which have attracted millions of visitors to this small hilltop village – or why he constructed them! The his...

"I recommend this book strongly to anyone serious about understanding Francis of Assisi. I admire the clarity and brevity of the writing. With decisiveness, Thompson cuts through the conflicting medieval accounts of each event in Francis' life, adjusts for the hagiographers' spin and creates a credible chronology out of the blurry dates. His knowledge of medieval Italy allows him to provide insightful explanations of the legal, liturgical, and ecclesiastical practices of the time."...

The Meditation Prayer on Mary Immaculate is one of Padre Pio’s few published writings, penned before he was forbidden by the Church to publish or to engage in correspondence—this for fear a cult would arise around him. Here we encounter a profound spiritual penetration into the mystery of Mary’s unique and sublime role in our salvation. Though brief, it can be read over and over with great benefit since it is –just as the title suggests—both a meditation and a prayer on the meaning of Mary...

Now available as an ebook.Praise for The Flowering of The Renaissance:‘An evocative picture of Rome at the turn of the sixteenth century … the account of Michelangelo is particularly memorable. At the same time Mr Cronin places the Renaissance firmly in its historical, political and religious setting … The book is beautifully written, and in his discussion of such artists as Titian and Giorgione, Cronin shows a rare talent for describing and dissecting paintings.’ Observer

Garry Wills's Venice: Lion City is a tour de force -- a rich, colorful, and provocative history of the world's most fascinating city in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when it was at the peak of its glory. This was not the city of decadence, carnival, and nostalgia familiar to us from later centuries. It was a ruthless imperial city, with a shrewd commercial base, like ancient Athens, which it resembled in its combination of art and sea empire.Venice: Lion City

"Ingrid D. Rowland brings before us today the pieces of an extraordinary sixteenth-century life . . . This is intellectual biography at its best." —Peter N. Miller, The New RepublicGiordano Bruno is one of the great figures of early modern Europe, and one of the least understood. Ingrid D. Rowland's pathbreaking life of Bruno establishes him once and for all as a peer of Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Galileo, a thinker whose vision of the world prefigures ours...