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Title:
Rome: A living portrait of an ancient city

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$42.00
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Rather than look only at the physical development of Rome - its buildings, monuments, and urban spaces - Dyson also explores its social, economic, and cultural histories. This approach situates Rome against a background of comparative urban history and theory, allowing Dyson to examine the dynamic society that once thrived there. Dyson follows Rome as it developed between the third century BC and the fourth century AD, dividing the megalopolis into distinct neighborhoods and locales. He shows how these communities, each with its own unique customs and colorful inhabitants, eventually grew into the great imperial capital of the Italian Empire. Dyson integrates the full range of sources available -- literary, artistic, epigraphic, and archaeological -- to create a comprehensive history of the monumental city. In doing so, he offers a dramatic picture of a complex and changing urban center that, despite its flaws, flourished for centuries.

Title:
Style and function in Roman decoration: living with objects and interiors

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$130.00
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This important book puts forward a new interpretation of Roman decorative art, focusing on the function of decoration in the social context. It examines the three principal areas of social display and conspicuous consumption in the Roman world: social space, entertainment, and dress, and discusses the significance of the decoration of objects and interiors within these contexts, drawing examples from both Rome and its environs, and the Western provinces, from the early Imperial period to Late Antiquity. Focusing on specific examples, including mosaics and other interior decor, silver plate, glass and pottery vessels, and jewellery and other dress accessories, Swift demonstrates the importance of decoration in creating and maintaining social networks and identities and fostering appropriate social behaviour, and its role in perpetuating social convention and social norms.

Title:
The origins of the Greek architectural orders

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$51.95
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Summary:
Much of our understanding of the origins and early development of the Greek architectural order is based on the writings of ancient authors, such as Virtruvius, and those of modern interpreters. Traditionally, the archaeological evidence has been viewed secondarily and often made to fit within a literary context, despite contradictions that occur. Barbara Barletta's study examines both forms of evidence in an effort to reconcile the two sources, as well as to offer a coherent reconstruction of the origins and early development of the Greek architectural orders. Beginning with the pre-canonical material, she demonstrates that the relatively late emergence of the Doric and Ionic orders arose from contributions of separate regions of the Greek world, rather than a single center. Barletta's reinterpretations of the evidence also assigns greater importance to the often overlooked contributions of Western Greece and the Cycladic Islands.

Title:
Origins of classical archtecture

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$76.00
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Casting new light on a subject that has preoccupied architects since the Renaissance, Mark Wilson Jones shows how construction, influence, appearance, and meaning found expression in complex and multifaceted designs. New emphasis is placed on the relationship between the orders and the temples of worship that they were created to adorn. Temples were exquisitely made offerings to the divinity, and they also contained valuable offerings. In revealing affinities between certain offerings and the orders, the author explains how these gave architectural expression to sensibilities of intense social and religious significance.

Title:
Antiquity and its interpreters

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$135.00
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"Antiquity and its Interpreters" examines how the physical and textual remains of the ancient Romans were viewed and received by writers, artists, and cultural makers of early modern Italy. This volume reconsiders the complex relationship between the two cultures, in light of recent scholarship in the field a new appreciation and awareness of the act of history writing itself. The case studies analyze specific texts, the archaeological projects that made ‘antiquity’ available, the revival of art history and theory, and the appropriation of antiquities to serve social ideologies, among other topics. Demonstrating that the antique model was itself an artful contruct, "Antiquity and its Interpretors" shows that the originality of Renaissance culture owed as much to ignorance about antiquity as to an understanding of it. It also provides a synthesis of seminal work that recognizes the reciprocal relationship of the Renaissance to Antiquity. Contributors include James Ackerman, David Galbraith, Patricia Fortini Brown, Philip Sohm, Sheila Bonde, Martine Furno II, Marina Belozerskaya, Kenneth D. S. Lapatin, Leonard Barkan, Julia Branna Perlman, Nicola Courtright, Alina A. Payne, Rebekah Smick, Gehard Wolf, Christof Thoenes, Michael Koortbojian, Tod Marder, Phyllis Pray Bober, Richard Betts, Catherine Wilkinson Zerner, Richard Brilliant, Michael Ann Holly, Carl Goldstein.

Title:
Baths and bathing in classical antiquity

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$58.95
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Summary:
Bathing in antiquity elevates a prosaic function to the level of a civic institution for which there is no counterpart in contemporary culture. Enriched by over 500 illustrations, many of them by the author, "Baths and bathing in classical antiquity" is an important sourcebook for this ancient institution. Through hundreds of examples, it reviews and analyzes the structure, function, and design of baths, seeking to integrate their architecture with the wider social and cultural custom of bathing, and examining in particular the changes this custom underwent in Late Antiquity and in Byzantine and Islamic cultures. Yegul explores the complexities of ancient bathing from several points of view. Sociologically, the baths with their vast appeal for all levels of society - were seen as the epitome of democratic ideals and institutions. Politically, they provided the perfect vehicle of propaganda : their lavish and magnificent interiors reflected the might and prosperity of the Roman empire and the apparent generosity of the emperor himself. Architecturally, baths are at the vanguard in the development of Roman building technology. Some of the earliest uses of concrete as a building material and the most innovative applications of the aesthetics of concrete - bold, curvilinear forms, vaults, and domes involved bath buildings. Because of their status as transition between purely utilitarian structures and the more conservative, traditional forms of public and religious architecture, the baths helped to propagate and make acceptable new ideas and new styles in architecture.

Title:
Rome: An architectural history

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$80.00
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The city of Rome is constructed of numerous historical layers and has been influenced by successions of styles, from antiquity to today. What characterizes buildings from the different periods? With text by professor in art history Maria Fabricius Hansen and illustrations by graphic novelist maker Lars Horneman, Rome: An architectural History describes key aspects of the city’s historic buildings. The book introduces Rome’s architecture and urban space while also giving an overview of European architectural history as a whole, as reflected in Rome’s millennia of architectural change.

Title:
The eternal city: a history of Rome

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$47.00
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Summary:
City of the Seven Hills, spiritual home of Catholic Christianity, city of the artistic imagination, enduring symbol of our common European heritage—Rome has inspired, charmed, and tempted empire-builders, dreamers, writers, and travelers across the twenty-seven centuries of its existence. Ferdinand Addis tells this rich story in a grand narrative style for a new generation of readers.

Title:
The Genesis of Roman Architecture

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$89.95
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Existing narratives cast the Greeks as the progenitors of classical art and architecture or rely on historical sources dating centuries after the fact to establish the Roman context. Author John North Hopkins, however, allows the material and visual record to play the primary role in telling the story of Rome’s origins, synthesizing important new evidence from recent excavations. Hopkins’s detailed account of urban growth and artistic, political, and social exchange establishes strong parallels with communities across the Mediterranean. From the late 7th century, Romans looked to increasingly distant lands for shifts in artistic production. By the end of the archaic period they were building temples that would outstrip the monumentality of even those on the Greek mainland. The book’s extensive illustrations feature new reconstructions, allowing readers a rare visual exploration of this fragmentary evidence.

Title:
Adieu, Palmyre

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$37.95
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Voici Palmyre racontée et montrée par deux voyageurs passionnés qui l’ont visitée à de nombreuses reprises. Ce site inouï, détruit en 2015 par la violence de Daech, est reconstitué par les photographies de Ferrante Ferranti qui en donnent une vision exhaustive (temples, agora et théâtre, colonnades et arches, camp de Dioclétien, tombeaux), faisant ainsi oeuvre de mémoire.