Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

Studies the propagandistic and political features of five prominent series of frescoes originating in papal Rome in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Discusses the manipulation of historical events for propagandistic purposes, the importance of inscriptions in controlling interpretation, and the reactions of contemporary viewers.

Studies Raphael's images of supernatural phenomena, including apparitions and prophetic visions, within their contemporary artistic and religious contexts. Asks how a fundamentally naturalistic style of painting like that of the Italian Renaissance can accommodate representations of the supernatural without self-contradiction.

Explores the intersections between monarchy, gender, and art through an investigation of the visual and architectural culture of the eighteenth-century Habsburg empress Maria Theresa.

Examines the wide-ranging influence of games and play on the development of modern art in the twentieth century.

Explores visual culture and the social history of art through an analysis of French images of nineteenth-century Algeria.

Explores the role of Tuscan culture in the poetic construction of a commonwealth. This book focuses on four works: Brunetto Latini's didactic poem, the "Tesoretto"; an illustrated manuscript of the same; and Simone Martini's "Maesta" and Ambrogio Lorenzetti's "Allegory of Good and Bad Government", both painted for the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena.

In the period, 1870 to 1910, technological and manufacturing advances revolutionized Spain's illustrated press and consequently Europeanized the tastes and the expectations of its elite urban readership. This book examines the ideological impact and the technological transformation of image production in Spanish magazines during the Restoration.

Siena of the 13th and 14th centuries was one of the great cities of Europe, and its artists were among those who reshaped the nature and place of painting. Maginnis' book asks the fundamental questions about the painters' lives and work and shows how Sienese society shaped them.

This text examines liturgical manuscripts that members of the Mendoza family commissioned for the cathedral of Toledo. It relates the style, content and function of these manuscripts to the ritual life of the Cathedral and its social and political role in efforts to forge Spanish identity.

A study of Netherlandish triptychs from the early fifteenth century through the early seventeenth century, covering works by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Hieronymus Bosch, and Peter Paul Rubens. Explores how the triptych format structures and generates meaning.

"Provides an interpretation of the development of the ontology of ideas from Descartes to Hume that reaffirms the vital role metaphysical concerns played in early modern thinking"--Provided by publisher.

Examines photo essays from Weimar Germany's many social crises. Traces photography's emergence as a new language that German photographers used to intervene in modernity's key political and philosophical debates: changing notions of nature and culture, national and personal identity, and the viability of parliamentary democracy.

A collection of critical essays by leading scholars on British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott. Essays cover all aspects of Oakeshott's thought, from his theory of knowledge and philosophies of history, religion, art, and education to his reflections on morality, politics, and law.

A collection of essays examining the history of nineteenth-century commercial lithography in Philadelphia. Analyzes the social, economic, and technological changes in the local trade from 1828 to 1878.

An exploration of Vulgar Latin, those features of Latin language that were not recommended by the classical grammarians but existed nonetheless. It portrays the subject as a complicated one, where little is known with certainty, but a great deal can be worked out from analysis of the data.

The efforts to reach a settlement of the enduring and tragic conflict in Darfur demonstrate how important it is to understand what factors contribute most to the success of such efforts. This book reviews data from various negotiated civil war settlements between 1945 and 1999 in order to identify these factors.

Venerated as god and goddess, feared as demon and pestilence, trusted as battle omen, and used as a proving ground for optical theories, the rainbow is woven into the fabric of our past and present. This work traverses the bridges between the rainbow's various roles.

Examines the functioning of credit markets in Mexico, through the agency of notaries, during the Yucatan region's nineteenth-century henequen export boom. Explores the mobilization of capital and the creation of credit markets before banks existed.

A collection of essays examining medieval and early modern texts aimed at performing magic or receiving illumination via the mediation of angels. Includes discussion of Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts.

Focuses on the major role of Barbara Hackman Franklin, a staff assistant to President Nixon, in expanding opportunities for women in government and in American society in general. Shows how the Nixon administration's achievements reflected the national debate over the role of women.

Were the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks "freedom fighters" or terrorist murderers? Eschewing the universal moral principles of traditional Anglo-American analytic philosophy, Joseph Margolis offers an alternative approach that accepts the lack of any neutral ground or privileged normative perspective for deciding moral disputes.

A collection of essays by editor, biographer, bibliographer, and book historian James L. W. West III, covering editorial theory, archival use, textual emendation, and scholarly annotation. Discusses the treatment of both public documents (novels, stories, nonfiction) and private texts (letters, diaries, journals, working papers).

The story of German and Irish migration to America during the 18th century. Wokeck shows how first the German system of immigration, and then the Irish, evolved from earlier, haphazard forms into modern mass transoceanic migration.

Examines the achievements of the Pennsylvania Germans during the Revolutionary War era, in both civilian and military occupations. Originally published by the Pennsylvania German Society in 1908.

A selection of letters written by Alfred B. McCalmont to family members from the American Civil War front from September 1862 to June 1865, covering his service as a colonel in the 142nd and 208th Pennsylvania infantry. First published in 1908 for private circulation.

Reprint of a 1905 English translation of Daniel Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht von Pensylvania (1702). Includes the original German text on facing pages, and annotations comparing that text to a manuscript version.