Books published by Cosimo Classics

To those who love it, life in France may be a perpetual dream of enchantment. There is a sense of art everywhere, rarely to be met with except in Italy. Every Frenchman is an artist, and every place he enters, he makes his studio. It is surprising to see in the simplest, the most uneducated peasant, a knowledge and a sense of art or historical research, unheard of in our own country, or even in England. In short, France is France. Nobody can properly describe it to you if you have not been there. You must go and see it, and enjoy it for yourself.-from the PrefaceAmerican author and traveler CHARLES GIBSON (b. 1875) summered in France and turned his idyllic journeys into this agreeable travelogue, a portrait of a long-ago time when travel was a romantic adventure. Combining snippets of history and legend uncovered during explorations of ancient tombs, churches, and fortresses with enchanting descriptions of the villages and landscapes he visited, Gibson introduces us to both charming aristocrats who open their gothic chateaux to visitors and pleasant peasants who run quaint rural inns.First published in 1905, this is an enthralling work that continues to delight readers today.OF INTEREST TO: Francophiles, armchair travelers

The Etruscans are one of history's great mysteries -- a sophisticated society that flourished at the heart of the Classical world and then vanished, leaving relatively few archaeological remains and few records of their culture. The Etruscans were adept at magic, and Etruscan books of spells were common among the Romans but they have not survived. While greatly influenced by the Greeks, the Etruscans retained elements of an ancient non-Western culture, and these archaic traits contributed greatly to the civilization once thought of as purely Roman (gladiators, for example, and many kinds of divination). Leland retrieves elements of Etruscan culture from the living popular traditions of remote areas of the Italian countryside where belief in "the old religion" survives to an astonishing degree. Recorded when many of these secret beliefs and practices were fading away, this remarkable volume deals with ancient gods, spirits, witches, incantations, prophecy, medicine, spells, and amulets, giving full descriptions, illustrations, and instructions for practice.

Reproduction of the original: The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by John William Burgon

The social life of New York at this period was invested with a peculiar charm. Wealth and refinement, money-making and good-breeding, were blended as never before. -from Chapter XLVI: The Final Struggle From the exuberance of post-Revolutionary Manhattan to the great debate over incorporating the independent municipality of Brooklyn into the City of New York, this final volume of an extraordinary three-volume history of New York remains an informative and entertaining resource today. Volume 3 relates tales of social elegance and bustling commerce, of the founding of Alexander Hamilton's newspaper and Broadway theaters, of grand civic projects of park creation and library building... of the modern foundations of one of the planet's most influential cities. Numerous captivating illustrations depict: . Fifth Avenue at Madison Square . bird's eye view looking south from General Grant's tomb . police parade . Cathedral of St. John the Divine . the Plaza Hotel and Metropolitan Club . bridge at Canal Street in 1800 . Washington Arch . and dozens more. Originally published from 1877 to 1881, this is a delight to browse-for history buffs and lovers of the grand metropolis alike. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Martha J. Lamb's Wall Street in History. American historian MARTHA J. LAMB (d. circa 1892) was a prolific author, publishing children's books, novels, short stories, and magazine articles, as well as serving as editor of the Magazine of American History. Active in charitable organizations, she founded Chicago's Home for Friendless and Half-Orphan Asylum, and was secretary of the city's first Sanitary Fair in 1863. MRS. BURTON HARRISON, née Constance Cary (1843-1920), was the wife of Burton Novell Harrison, personal secretary to Jefferson Davis. Recollections Grave and Gay (1911), her autobiography, relates her childhood in pre-Civil War Virginia and her experience as a young adult there during the war.