We’re pleased to announce the publication of A Scarlet Renaissance: Essays in Honor of Sarah Blake McHam, edited by Arnold Victor Coonin. The volume takes its place in Italica’s ongoing series, Studies in Art & History.

Twelve essays by former doctoral students honor the achievements of Sarah Blake McHam as a teacher, mentor and scholar. Topics cover a wide range of Italian art, ranging from the trecento to the early seventeenth century, including work in various media, especially Renaissance sculpture. These works share McHam’s methodology of applying interdisciplinary evidence to rigorously understand the role art plays within its culture.

The contributions include Arnold Victor Coonin, Preface and Acknowledgments * Debra Pincus, “Like a Good Shepherd”: A Tribute to Sarah Blake McHam * Amy R. Bloch, Perspective and Narrative in the Jacob and Esau Panel of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise * David Boffa, Sculptors’ Signatures and the Construction of Identity in the Italian Renaissance * Meghan Callahan, Bronzino, Giambologna & Adriaen de Vries: Influence, Innovation and the Paragone * Arnold Victor Coonin, The Spirit of Water: Reconsidering the Putto Mictans Sculpture in Renaissance Florence * Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio, From Medalist to Sculptor: Leone Leoni’s Bronze Bust of Charles V * Phillip Earenfight, Civitas Florenti[a]e: The New Jerusalem and the Allegory of Divine Misericordia * Gabriela Jasin, God’s Oddities and Man’s Marvels: Two Sculptures of Medici Dwarfs * Linda A. Koch, Medici Continuity, Imperial Tradition and Florentine History: Piero de’ Medici’s Tabernacle of the Crucifix at S. Miniato al Monte * Heather R. Nolin, A New Interpretation of Paolo Veronese’s Saint Barnabas Healing the Sick * Katherine Poole, Medici Power and Tuscan Unity: The Cavalieri di Santo Stefano and Public Sculpture in Pisa and Livorno under Ferdinando I * Lilian H. Zirpolo, Embellishing the Queen’s Residence: Queen Christina of Sweden’s Patronage of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Members of His Circle of Sculptors * Sarah Blake McHam’s List of Publications.

1st printing. 338 pages, 117 illustrations. Preface, introduction, notes and bibliography; index.

Medieval Naples: A Documentary History

We’re happy to announce the print publication of Ronald G. Musto’s Medieval Naples: A Documentary History, 400-1400 as the latest volume in Italica’s A Documentary History of Naples.

This is a revised and expanded version of the edition published online for the Kindle and iPad over a year ago. This edition includes new readings and additional sections edited by Eileen Gardiner on medieval Naples’ literature, hagiography, literate and book culture. 

A new Introduction offers a comprehensive survey of the periods covered in the historical texts, with a discussion of the historiography and of important research and interpretive issues. These include the material development of the medieval city from Late Antiquity through the end of the Angevin period, the condition and use of the available primary sources and archaeological evidence, with particular attention given to the wide variety of recent excavations and of archival materials, the question of the ruralization and recovery of its urban core through the little known Ducal period — with some discussion of the city’s changing population — the question of Naples’ importance as a commercial and political capital, its developing economic and material base, and the question of its relationship to its hinterland on the one hand and to broader Mediterranean contexts on the other. It also surveys the changes in Naples’ grid plan, its walls and fortifications, its port, and its commercial and residential development. It complements the discussions in Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo’s Medieval Naples: An Architectural a Urban History.

It totals 460 pages, contains 82 readings covering all aspects of Neapolitan urban life and culture from c.400 to c.1400, 74 figures, 60 thumbnail images keyed to a map of medieval Naples, a complete bibliography, index, and a key to external resources, including our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples, our online Bibliographies, and our online image galleries. The book is now available in paperback and the hardcover edition will be ready soon. A revised and expanded Kindle and iPad edition will follow shortly after that.

Medieval Naples

We’re happy to be back after a prolonged season of hard work on other projects. We return with some very good news: the first is that Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo’s Medieval Naples: An Architectural & Urban History has received a very good review in The Burlington Magazine. Written by Cordelia Warr, a leading expert in medieval Neapolitan art history, the review covers the content of the volume, its excellent style, its illustrations and its online components: including over 450 color images of the medieval city and its monuments.

Our second piece of good news is that the print edition of Ronald G. Musto’s Medieval Naples: A Documentary History 400–1400 is now in final page proofs. This is a revised and expanded version of the edition launched online in the Kindle and iPad over a year ago. This edition includes new sections edited by Eileen Gardiner on medieval Naples’ literature, hagiography, literate and book culture. It comes in at over 400 pages, contains 81 readings covering all aspects of Neapolitan urban life and culture from c.400 to c.1400, 74 figures, 60 thumbnail images keyed to a map of medieval Naples, a complete Bibliography, index, and a key to external resources, including our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples, our online bibliographies, and our online image galleries. The book should be available in hardcover and paperback in January 2013. A revised and expanded Kindle and iPad edition will follow shortly after that.

Buddhist Hell Now Published

We’re pleased to announce that Eileen Gardiner’s next volume in her Hell-on-Line series, Buddhist Hell, has now been published.

There is a long tradition of Buddhist descriptions of hell, from the second century BCE until the twentieth century, stretching from Iran and India to China and Japan. These descriptions initially relied heavily on Hindu texts but developed their own distinctive features as elements from various cultural traditions were incorporated and as individuals sought to avoid hell by making additions to the text and then distributing copies freely as pious acts.

This anthology includes twenty-two texts, a preface, introduction, glossary, notes and bibliography to provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of Buddhist hell.