“What sort of collection should a library hold? How should books be classified? What is the function of lists?”
Renaissance
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Italian Fruit Detective Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings for Disappeared Produce
“Renaissance paintings, medieval archives, cloistered orchards—one Italian scientist is uncovering secrets that could combat a growing agricultural crisis.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Soundscapes of the Silenced
“In late Renaissance Florence one in five women lived behind institutional walls whose rule was sensory mortification. Historians are struggling to recover their inexpressible secrets.”
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories by Jeannette Cooperman, Jackson Arn, Andrew Hui, Myriam Gurba, and Simon Hattenstone.
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Here I Gather All the Friends’: Machiavelli and the Emergence of the Private Study
“Reading is a form of necromancy, a way to summon and commune once again with the dead, but in what ersatz temple should such a ritual take place?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Silence Is the Loudest Part of ‘Renaissance: A Film’
“More than anything, ‘Renaissance’ is a testament that Beyoncé is a brand that stands for absolutely nothing beyond its own greatness.”
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Lucrezia Borgia
History may have pigeonholed her as Renaissance Italy’s most notorious seductress, but it’s high time we give the Duchess of Ferrara a closer look.
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: The Reign of Catherine de’ Medici
When your husband and male heirs are too useless or too dead to rule, you have to take matters into your own poison-gloved hands.
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Anne Boleyn
In Tudor England’s big-sleeved game of thrones, winning and dying were not mutually exclusive.