it made a welcome change to discover Elizabethan England through the eyes of a lesser mortal.' The Historical Novels Review Thomas Finbow is more than just a humble falconer, in the service of Sir Robert Vicary and Lady Margaret. He is a widowed father, a skilled ex-soldier and tenacious hunter. Far from the court and corruption of London, Thomas resides in the picturesque Berkshire Downs. All is as it should be until Lady Margaret’s loathsome brother is found murdered. To distract from her mourning, Lady Margaret travels to London, in search of gryfalcons, with Thomas accompanying her. However, when they reach the city things take a dark turn. Secrets begin to unravel and it becomes clear that the murder of Lady Margaret’s brother is only a small piece of a greater puzzle. Once Thomas starts to put the pieces together, he realises that he, and his Mistress, are in grave danger. With a target on his back, Thomas must come face to face with some of London’s most fearsome criminals. Chasing the truth at all costs, the falconer’s wits and strength are put to the test. A tale of murder, lust and courage, Thomas Finbow must reveal secrets of the past in order to make sense of the present. John Pilkington was born in Preston, into one of the oldest Lancashire families. He writes historical fiction as well as drama which has been adapted for radio, theatre and tv. He is the author of the Thomas the Falconer Mystery series, including The Ruffler's Child and A Ruinous Wind. Praise for John Pilkington: ‘A sturdy and entertaining historical for fans of Elizabethan mysteries’ Library Journal ‘This latest entry in Pilkington’s Thomas the Falconer series is a vigorous adventure featuring a likeable hero, an intriguing plot and a fine sense of period ambience.’ Booklist

    In this second guide, Elspeth Morrison not only covers the final three Niccol˜ novels for the first time, but also provides a wealth of additional information about all of the earlier novels and highlights the links between the two now-completed series. Once again, she illuminates the real figures and events and the cultural and literary allusions Dunnett weaves into her works, translating foreign phrases and offering up fascinating background details, from the history of golf and the argot of galley slaves to the uses of puffins and polar bears. Together with the first Companion, The Dorothy Dunnett Companion II provides a complete and essential guide to the world of Lymond and Niccolo.

    In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds -- from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women ever to wear a crown.

    In fact, the most elaborate outfits of the period could cost more than a good-sized farm out in the Mugello. Yet despite its prominence in both daily life and the economy, clothing has been largely overlooked in the rich historiography of Renaissance Italy. In Dressing Renaissance Florence, however, Carole Collier Frick provides the first in-depth study of the Renaissance fashion industry, focusing on Florence, a city founded on cloth, a city of wool manufacturers, finishers, and merchants, of silk dyers, brocade weavers, pearl dealers, and goldsmiths. From the artisans who designed and assembled the outfits to the families who amassed fabulous wardrobes, Frick's wide-ranging and innovative interdisciplinary history explores the social and political implications of clothing in Renaissance Italy's most style-conscious city.Frick begins with a detailed account of the industry itself—its organization within the guild structure of the city, the specialized work done by male and female workers of differing social status, the materials used and their sources, and the garments and accessories produced. She then shows how the driving force behind the growth of the industry was the elite families of Florence, who, in order to maintain their social standing and family honor, made continuous purchases of clothing—whether for everyday use or special occasions—for their families and households. And she concludes with an analysis of the clothes themselves: what pieces made up an outfit; how outfits differed for men, women, and children; and what colors, fabrics, and design elements were popular. Further, and perhaps more basically, she asks how we know what we know about Renaissance fashion and looks to both Florence's sumptuary laws, which defined what could be worn on the streets, and the depiction of contemporary clothing in Florentine art for the answer.For Florence's elite, appearance and display were intimately bound up with self-identity. Dressing Renaissance Florence enables us to better understand the social and cultural milieu of Renaissance Italy.

    Telugu, the language spoken in today's Andhra Pradesh region of southern India, has a classical literary tradition extending over a thousand years. Suranna's masterpiece comes from a period of intense creativity in Telugu, when great poets produced strikingly modern innovations. The novel explodes preconceived ideas about early South Indian literature: for example, that the characters lack interiority, that the language is formulaic, and that Telugu texts are mere translations of earlier Sanskrit works. Employing the poetic style known as campu, which mixes verse and prose, Pingali Suranna's work transcends our notions of traditional narrative. "I wanted to have the structure of a complex narrative no one had ever known," he said of his great novel, "with rich evocations of erotic love, and also descriptions of gods and temples that would be a joy to listen to."The Sound of the Kiss is both a gripping love story and a profound meditation on mind and language. Shulman and Rao include a thorough introduction that provides a broader understanding of, and appreciation for, the complexities and subtleties of this text.

    It is a result of a lifetime of study and research by the outstanding authority on the life and works of the great Florentine. Because of the unique and diverse character of Leonardo's achievements, the reissue of The Notebooks is an event of enduring importance in the fields of art, Literature, science and technology. 1180 Pages.

    The selections included here, chosen for their pastoral tone, speak across the centuries and inform the spiritual concerns of today.Drawing on Luther’s Bible prefaces and commentaries, his treatises and sermons, his letters, his “table talk,” and his enduring hymnbook, Faith and Freedom will provide a spiritual resource for anyone seeking the heritage of modern Christian spirituality. Moreover, it requires no specialized knowledge of Reformation theology or Church history. Rich in language, direct, powerful, fresh in ideas, and often disquieting in their effect, the writings of Luther provide compelling reading.

    He has made these poems sing.”—Paul AusterA forgotten masterpiece of French poetry, Emblems of Desire is a selection of 449 love poems first published in Lyons in 1544. Full of passionate ironies and charged obscurity, Maurice Scève is considered a sixteenth-century Stéphane Mallarmé. His oblique self-portraiture laid the groundwork for many contemporary poets. Poet Michael Palmer calls Richard Sieburth “one of our finest living scholars and translators.”Maurice Scève (c.1500–c.1564) was at the center of Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love.

    Unlike their male counterparts, their sitters have not been judged for their professional accomplishments. In this groundbreaking study, Barbara J. Harris argues that the roles of aristocratic wives, mothers, and widows constituted careers for women that had as much public and political significance and were as crucial for the survival and prosperity of their families and class as their husband's careers. Women, Harris demonstrates, were trained from an early age to manage their families' property and households; arrange the marriages and careers of their children; create, sustain, and exploit the client-patron relationships that were an essential element in politics at the regional and national levels; and, finally, manage the transmission and distribution of property from one generation to another, since most wives outlived their husbands.English Aristocratic Women unveils the lives of noblewomen whose historical influence has previously been dismissed, as well as those who became favorites at the court of Henry VIII. Through extensive archival research of documents belonging to more than twelve hundred families, Harris paints a collective portrait of upper-class women of this period. By recognizing the full significance of the aristocratic women's careers, this book reinterprets the politics and gender relations of early modern England. Barbara J. Harris is Professor of History and Women's Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her previous works include Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham, 1478-1521.

    Ian Heath has assembled 247 drawings and other illustrations to depict the native peoples of South America and the eastern parts of North America as well as Spanish, English, French and even German adventurers and explorers. The accompanying text also offers a clear account of the rise and development of the various European colonies. Includes extensive bibliography.

    Tom had secretly loved Anne his entire life. Told he is not highly born enough to pursue her, he learns to hide his feelings, especially after Anne catches the eye of Henry VIII.Despite his deepening disquiet about Anne’s growing relationship with the king, Tom remains at Anne’s side as one of her staunchest friends and supporters. Then Anne takes her place as the king’s second consort, and the unthinkable happens.Tom watches helplessly as the woman he loves and his closest friends go on trial for their lives...Grieving for Anne and his friends, Tom remembers Anne’s tumultuous journey to become Henry’s queen.What is the cost of love?Winner of 2003 Glyph Award for Publishing Excellence.

    The excitement of these ancient tales was best captured in public recitations at coffeehouses from Iran to northern India. Each oration was given a particular flavor by the storyteller, who departed freely from the written text, which itself varies in composition and structure from manuscript to manuscript. An illustrated version of the "Hamzanama" was commissioned early in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, in the second half of the sixteenth century, by the teenage emperor himself. Consisting of 1400 paintings of an unusually large format, it was one of the earliest products of the royal Mughal painting atelier, and perhaps the most ambitious. The enormous size of the illustrations, which are nearly two feet high each, can be explained by their role in complementing the recitations; their sometimes broad and animated style conveys the vigor of the tales. Just over a tenth of the 1400 paintings from Akbar's commission survive today, and this publication of "The Adventures of Hamza" brings together 60 of the greatest of these works from collections all over the world, and places them alongside new translations of the related text passages.

    The study reveals new meanings of gender and identity relating to the experiences of men and women in early modern German history.