Nothing can be compared to you, Rome
Image: Emperor Maximilian I My headline comes from a poem written in the 12th century, but its opening line does not prepare one for the punchline. The four lines in…
Adventures in the Louvre
This fact-filled book had been called “essential reading for anyone visiting the Louvre─for those who already know it inside and out and for those who have never been”. This book…
The Rebel Romanov
Placing Julie of Saxe-Coburg in the tangled web of European royalty is actually quite easy: she was the niece of England’s Queen Victoria. And she came very close to being…
A Tapestry of Letters
The appeal and meaning of a tapestry is best appreciated by distancing oneself from it. Especially for large tapestries, one has to stand back 15-20 feet to take it all…
Dazzled by Poetry
A philosopher with a poetic style? That apparently was what the world needed in the early years of the 20th century, as Henri Bergson achieved a level of fame and…
The Conqueror’s Gift
It is typical for an author to summarise the chapters of a book in the Introduction. Sort of like a film teaser, where you get a glimpse of the best…
The Book of Genesis Lay in Ruins
When I first saw the title of this book, Impossible Monsters, I thought it was about members of a certain state legislature whose prime purpose for existence appears to be…
SHOW WINDOW OF THE KINGDOM: The Islands of Orkney
Peter Marshall won the 2018 Wolfson history prize for Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation. He is also Professor of History at the University of Warwick. Thus,…
Maxims for a Fulfilling Life
A combination of adages, maxims, aphorisms and plain old common sense, this book embodies a host of life-long truisms. And while value of the quote depends on each individual person…
Tangled Paths: A Life of Aby Warburg
Review by Professor Marion Dolan Tangled Paths: A Life of Aby Warburg surveys the difficult and troubled story of Aby Warburg (1866-1929), a major figure in the area of intellectual…