Parutions
Walter Pohl, Veronika Wieser (éd.) : Emerging Powers in Eurasian Comparison, 200–1100
This book compares the ways in which new powers arose in the shadows of the Roman Empire and its Byzantine and Carolingian successors, of Iran, the Caliphate and China in the first millennium CE. These new powers were often established by external military elites who had served the empire. They remained in an uneasy balance with the remaining empire, could eventually replace it, or be drawn into the imperial (...)
Rochelle Ziskin : Private Salons and the Art World of Enlightenment Paris
In Private Salons and the Art World of Enlightenment Paris, Rochelle Ziskin explores in depth two remarkable salons that generated significant art criticism during the mid-eighteenth century. These were sites where the faculties of artistic and aesthetic judgment were intensively cultivated. One politically active group gathered at the house Mme Doublet, where the celebrated amateur Petit de Bachaumont (...)
Philippe George : Art et histoire au temps de Charles le Téméraire. “L’ymage d’or” du duc de Bourgogne à Liège (1467-1471)
Le reliquaire de Charles le Téméraire est une œuvre d’art majeure du patrimoine artistique international et l’un des fleurons du Trésor rénové de la Cathédrale de Liège. La multiplicité des questions que suscite ce groupe orfévré, dans un dossier interdisciplinaire très complexe, contribue à l’engouement sans cesse croissant d’un large public pour le « siècle de Bourgogne ». L’ouvrage se veut novateur dans la (...)
Hope Williard : Friendship in the Merovingian Kingdoms. Venantius Fortunatus and His Contemporaries
This book explores how one early medieval poet survived and thrived amidst the political turbulence of sixth century Gaul—with a little help from his friends. Born in northern Italy, Venantius Fortunatus made his career writing for and about members of the Merovingian elite. Although he is no longer dismissed as an opportunistic poetaster who wrote undistinguished flattery for undeserving kings and aristocrats, (...)
Garritt van Dyk : Commerce, Food, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England and France. Across the Channel
“Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are” was the challenge issued by French gastronomist Jean Brillat-Savarin. Champagne is declared a unique emblem of French sophistication and luxury, linked to the myth of its invention by Dom Pérignon. Across the Channel, a cup of sweet tea is recognized as a quintessentially English icon, simultaneously conjuring images of empire, civility, and relentless rain (...)
Marcello Fantoni : Italian Courts and European Culture
Between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century, princely courts dominated the Italian political scene. These courts were effervescent centers of cultural production. As such, they became a model for European monarchies who imported Italian courtly forma del vivere (‘style of life’) to legitimize their power and to define social status. This phenomenon included architecture and painting, theater and music, (...)
Stephen Bowd, Sarah Cockram, John Gagné (éd.) : Shadow Agents of Renaissance War. Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond
Who were the shadow agents of Renaissance war ? In this pioneering collection of essays scholars use new archival evidence and other sources, including literature, artworks, and other non-textual material, to uncover those men, women, children and other animals who sustained war by means of their preparatory, auxiliary, infrastructural, or supplementary labour. These shadow agents worked in the zone between (...)
John France : Medieval France at War. A Military History of the French Monarchy, 888-1305
This book provides an overarching, comprehensive analysis of the French military in the medieval period. The focus is on the armies of the French monarchy and the lands close around them, extending from the Low Countries to Provence. Central themes include recruitment and payment ; military organisation ; leadership, strategy, and tactics ; weapons and arms ; chivalry, military culture, and the rise of military (...)
Joël Blanchard, Pierre-Anne Forcadet, Axel Degoy (éd.) : Procès politiques au temps de Louis XI. Le cardinal Balue
Le cinquième volume des procès politiques au temps de Louis XI est consacré au cardinal Balue, dont la carrière fulgurante et la chute ont fait l’objet d’une forte médiatisation. Son procès a opposé pendant plus de douze années deux instances judiciaires, le roi et le pape, et dans cet affrontement Louis XI a dû céder. Par un basculement spectaculaire, le roi, familier des poursuites pénales, s’est trouvé (...)
Antoine Lilti : L’Invention de la célébrité. 1750-1850
Les stars sont aujourd’hui omniprésentes : elles peuplent nos villes, nos écrans et nos imaginaires. La culture de la célébrité semble être un trait incontournable de nos sociétés médiatiques, une conséquence de la société du spectacle et de la culture de masse. L’Invention de la célébrité montre que les mécanismes de la célébrité se sont développés dès le XVIIIe siècle en Europe, avant de s’épanouir à l’époque (...)