Recreation in the Renaissance - Attitudes towards Leisure and Pastime in European Culture 1350 - 1700
In Renaissance Europe, when 'leisure classes' used social gathering to define civility and the commercialization of leisure was beginning, the human need for recreation became a cultural topos. This book explores the vocabulary of play and games; the spectrum of leisure activities, often gender-specific or appropriate to particular social groups; the medical discourse on the preservation of health, where amusements were assessed as physical exercise; the moral approach to play; legal treatises on gambling; and the visual representation of leisure.
Biesinger, professor emeritus from Eastern Kentucky University, has written a useful guide to nearly 600 years of German history. Germany is one volume of an eight-volume series,Facts On File European Nations. Other volumes cover Austria-Hungary and the Successor States, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Russia, and Spain and Portugal. The target audience is high-school and undergraduate students in need of a history series that focuses on the evolution of the major European countries in a concise, accessible style.
Visions of Heaven - The Dome in European Architecture
There's an ethereal magic to standing beneath a dome, neck craned, looking up at a vision of the heavens created by some long-ago figure of genius. From the Pantheon to the Hagia Sophia, the power of the dome seems transcendent. Photographer David Stephenson's magnificently kaleidoscopic images of dome interiors capture this evanescent drama, and make "Visions of Heaven" one of the most spectacularly beautiful books we've ever produced.
The Role of the Romanies - Images and Counter-Images of ‘Gypsies' / Romanies in European Cultures
Since the arrival of the "Gypsies," or Romanies, in Europe at the beginning of the eleventh century, Europeans have simultaneously feared and romanticized them. That ambiguity has contributed to centuries of confusion over the origins, culture, and identity of the Romanies, a confusion that too often has resulted in marginalization, persecution, and scapegoating. The Role of the Romanies brings together international experts on Romany culture from the fields of history, sociology, linguistics, and anthropology to address the many questions and problems raised by the vexed relationship between Romany and European cultures.
