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Hatchards Bookstore, Piccadilly, London since 1797
Hatchards 1801 facade at 189-90 Piccadilly, London By P. F. Sommerfeldt – Not many booksellers can claim to have been around since 1797. Fewer have hosted...
Leanda de Lisle’s The White King Opens Up A Marvelous Window
By Patrick Hunt – Readers used to courtly fanfare in larger than life Tudor and Jacobean characters – Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and...
Scripta Manent: News from the Medici Grand Dukes
Medici Maiolica Armorial Plate, 16th. c. (image V&A) By Andrea M. Gáldy – Alessio Assonitis & Brian Sandberg, eds. The Grand Ducal Medici and their...
A New Baron Munchausen
Gottfried Franz, “Munchausen Riding the Cannon Ball” circa 1896 (image public domain) By P. F. Sommerfeldt – That far-fetched frolic of the rogue...
It’s Raining – Bronzes ! Florence Exhibitions of Ancient Bronze 2015
Hellenistic or Roman, probably after Lysippos (Greek, c. 365-c. 310 B.C.) Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth (courtesy of Florence Exhibition) By Andrea M. Gáldy...
War! What Is It Good For? – Book Review
Battle Scene – recolored- on Trajan’s Column, Rome (Image Courtesy of National Geographic Media) By Jack Martinez – War! What is it Good For?...
Review: Irving Finkel’s The Ark Before Noah
Ottoman Period Noah’s Ark illumination from Sultanahmed Bazaar, Istanbul (Photo P. Hunt 2014) By Patrick Hunt – The Atrahasis Flood Tablet I first...
Odyssey from Iskenderun to Beirut to America: An Extraordinary Memoir in “The Way It Turned Out”
Iznik Tile, Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Third Phase, 16th c. By P. F. Sommerfeldt – Memoirs are by nature usually suspect; this one truly raises the bar....
Turin’s Egyptian Museum
Egyptian Dancer painted on limestone ostracon, XIXth Dynasty, c. 1200 BCE, 20 x 15 cm, (Photo: P. Hunt 2012) By Patrick Hunt – Every year for the past...
Hannibal and Me: A Review
Hellenistic Marble Bust of Hannibal, likely from Capua, Italy (Photo in public domain ) By Patrick Hunt The subtitle of Andreas Kluth’s insightful book...