This book was originally published in 1954. Mrs Armstrong gives a full-length historical study of an important and admirable figure of Robert Estienne. Through his scholarly work and his ideals of artistry and craftsmanship of printing, he also brought understanding to the dissemination of a culture.

This collection of thirteen essays examines sixteenth-century type design in France. Typefaces developed during this period were to influence decisively the typography of the centuries which followed, and they continue to influence a great many contemporary typefaces. The papers' common goal is to establish the paternity of the typefaces described and critically to appraise their attributions, many of which have previously been inadequately ascribed. Such an approach will be of interest to type historians and type designers seeking better-documented attributions, and to historians, philologists, and bibliographers, whose study of historical imprints will benefit from more accurate type descriptions. The papers and illustrations focus on the most important letter-cutters of the French Renaissance, including Simon de Colines, Robert Estienne, Claude Garamont, Robert Granjon, Pierre Haultin, and also include a number of minor masters of the period.

Buying and Selling explores the many facets of the business of books across and beyond Europe, adopting the viewpoints of printers, publishers, booksellers, and readers. Essays by twenty-five scholars from a range of disciplines seek to reconstruct the dynamics of the trade through a variety of sources. Through the combined investigation of printed output, documentary evidence, provenance research, and epistolary networks, this volume trails the evolving relationship between readers and the book trade. In the resulting picture of failure and success, balanced precariously between debt-economies, sale strategies and uncertain profit, customers stand out as the real winners.

Specialist Markets in the Early Modern Book World, edited by Richard Kirwan and Sophie Mullins, investigates an underexplored yet important facet of early modern book production. Bringing together 19 detailed case studies, this volume considers and reconstructs the characteristics of specialist book production in the early modern period. In particular it explores the motives that led to specialisation ranging from the desire for profit on the part of risk-taking, entrepreneurial individuals or family firms to the more propagandist or missionising aims of corporate groups who subsidised production, often without regard for profit. The book also explores the economic and personal pressures and perils that accompanied specialist production, which was often a risk-laden enterprise that could end in financial and social ruin.

Developments in garden art cannot be isolated from the social changes upon which they either depend or have some bearing. Bourgeois and Aristocratic Cultural Encounters in Garden Art, 1550 - 1850 offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover how complex relationships between bourgeois and aristocrats have led to developments in garden art from the Renaissance into the Industrial Revolution, irrespective of stylistic differences. These essays show how garden creation has contributed to the blurring of social boundaries and to the ongoing redefinition of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Also illustrated is the aggressive use of gardens by bourgeois in more-or-less successful attempts at subverting existing social hierarchies in renaissance Genoa and eighteenth-century Bristol, England; as well as the opposite, as demonstrated by the king of France, Louis XIV, who claimed to rule the arts, but imitated the curieux fleuristes, a group of amateurs from diverse strata of French society. Essays in this volume explore this complex framework of relationships in diverse settings in Britain, France, Biedermeier Vienna, and renaissance Genoa. The volume confirms that gardens were objects of conspicuous consumption, but also challenges the theories of consumption set forth by Thorstein Veblen and Pierre Bourdieu, and explores the contributions of gardens to major cultural changes like the rise of public opinion, gender and family relationships, and capitalism. Garden history, then, informs many of the debates of contemporary cultural history, ranging from rural management practices in early seventeenth-century France to the development of a sense of British pride at the expansive Vauxhall Gardens favored equally by the legendary Frederick, Prince of Wales, and by the teeming London masses. This volume amply demonstrates the varied and extensive contributions of garden creation to cultural exchange between 1550 and 1850. -- Publisher's description.

"The twelve essays contained in When Greece Flew Across the Alps provide a reconstruction of the status of Greek studies in the vast area lying between Spain and Russia, Austria and the Scandinavian Peninsula, between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Although closely related to the revival of Greek studies in fifteenth-century Italy, European Hellenism acquired distinctive peculiarities thanks to the influence of the Reformation, the advent and spread of printing, and initiatives taken by individuals or institutions. By analyzing this important aspect of the reception of the Classics, this volume contributes to a better understanding of early modern European culture. Contributors include: Ovanes Akopyan, Johanna Akujärvi, Gianmario Cattaneo, Federica Ciccolella, Natasha Constantinidou, Iulian Mihai Damian, Christian Gastgeber, Tua Korhonen, Han Lamers, Marianne Pade, Inmaculada Pérez Martín, Luigi-Alberto Sanchi, and Raf Van Rooy"--