Simon Vance
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English
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"Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day's work. It can send you to sleep, or send you into battle. A Brief History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair...
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Language
English
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The competition began with the creation of the doors for the church of St. John the Baptist. Lorenzo Ghiberti, a young, unknown, and inexperienced painter, produced an elegant panel cast almost entirely in a single sheet of bronze. Filippo Brunelleschi, a local goldsmith, designed a far more dramatic and expressive panel that also drew considerable attention. In the end, Ghiberti was chosen to make the doors. Brunelleschi took a path that led him...
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Language
English
Description
Buon appetito! Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well?
The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. Italian food is city food.
Delizia! is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.
A...
Author
Language
English
Description
Auguste Rodin was not only the greatest sculptor-known for such works as The Thinker, The Kiss, The Hand of God, and dozens of others-but also one of the most remarkable personalities of modern times. He was an artist who outraged contemporaries with his disturbingly unfinished monuments, a sensualist who shocked France with his scandalous relationships, and a friend to the most gifted writers and artists of his day. Frederic V. Grunfeld's exhaustive...