By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War

This brilliant vignette of seventeenth-century Rome, its Baroque architecture, and its relationship to the Catholic Church brings to life the friendship between

Examines the court of Pope Leo X in sixteenth-century Rome, and discusses the popularity of the Pope's white elephant, Hanno, a gift from the king of Portugal.

Why didn't the ancient Greeks or Romans wear pants? How did they shave? How likely were they to drink fine wine, use birth control, or survive surgery? In a ser

This book offers a full picture of the elephant in the Graeco-Roman world, featuring contemporary accounts of elephants performing on the battlefield. The autho