This early work on Italian Villas and their Gardens is a beautifully illustrated look at the subject. Chapters include; Florentine Villas, Sienese Villas, Roman Villas, Villas near Rome, Genoese Villas, Lombard Villas and Villas of Venetia. This fascinating work is thoroughly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of all historians Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

"Architecture and Philosophy: New Perspectives on the Work of Arakawa and Madeline Gins "is a collection of essays on the work of architect Arakawa and poet Madeline Gins and in particular their book "Architectural Body" (2000). The essays approach their cutting edge and ambitious project to design 'an architecture against death' from various angles and disciplines including aesthetics, architecture, linguistics, philosophy. The papers retrace the place of "Architectural Body" in the aesthetic landscape of art at the turn of the 21st century and assess the utopian stance of their work.

While journalists document the decline of small-town America and scholars describe the ascent of such global cities as New York and Los Angeles, the fates of little cities remain a mystery. What about places like Providence, Rhode Island; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Laredo, Texas; and Salinas, California-the smaller cities that constitute much of America's urban ladscape? Jon R. Norman examines how such places have fared in the wake of the large-scale economic, demographic, and social changes that occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century. Small Cities U.S.A. illustrates how smaller cities changed over the last third of the century, exploring how a large group of these cities have experienced divergent fates of growth and prosperity or stagnation and dilapidation. Drawing on an assessment of eighty small cities between 1970 and 2000, Norman considers the factors that have altered the physical, social, and economic landscapes of such places. These cities are examined in relation to new patterns of immigration, shifts in the global economy, and changing residential preferences among Americans. In doing so, he presents the first large-scale comparison of smaller cities across time in the United States. This study shows that small cities that have prospered over time have done so because of diverse populations and economies. These "glocal" cities, as Normal calls them, are doing well without necessarily growing into large metropolises.

Featuring eight innovative studies by prominent scholars of medieval art and architecture, this special issue of Medieval Encounters examines the specific means by which art and architectural forms, techniques, and ideas were transmitted throughout the medieval world (ca. 1000-1500). While focusing on the Mediterranean region, the collection also includes essays that expand this geographic zone into a cultural and artistic one by demonstrating contact with near and distant neighbors, thereby allowing an expanded understanding of the interconnectedness of the medieval world. The studies are united by a focus on the specific mechanisms that enabled artistic and architectural interaction, as well as the individuals who facilitated these transmissions. Authors also consider the effects and collaboration of portable and monumental arts in the creation of intercultural artistic traditions. Contributors are: Justine Andrews, Maria Georgopoulou, Ludovico Geymonat, Heather E. Grossman, Eva Hoffman, Melanie Michailidis, Renata Holod, Scott Redford and Alicia Walker.

"Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior "examines the interior as a "stage" upon which modern life and lifestyles are consciously fashioned and "performed," and from which modern identities are projected by and through design. Scholars from Europe, Canada, America and Australia present a range of interior environments--domestic interiors, sets for stage and film, exhibition spaces, art galleries, hotel lobbies, cafes and retail spaces--to explore each as an intersection of fashion, lifestyle and performance. Sharing the thesis that the fashionably dressed body and the interior can be seen as part of the same creative and expressive continuum, the essays highlight the ways in which interiors can give shape to and dramatize modern life.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2010. Designing the Modern Interior reveals how the design of the inside spaces of our homes and public buildings is shaped by and shapes our modern culture. The modern interior has often been narrowly defined by the minimalist work of elite, reforming architects. But a shared modernising impulse, expressed in interior design, extends at least as far back as the Victorians and reaches to our own time. And this spirit of modernisation manifested itself in interiors, designed both by professionals and by amateurs, which did not necessarily look modern and often even aimed to imitate the past. Designing the Modern Interior presents a new history of the interior from the late 19th to the 21st century. Particular characteristics are consistent across this period: a progressive attitude towards technology; a hyper-consciousness of what it is to live in the present and the future; an overt relationship with the mass media, mass consumption and the marketplace; an emphasis on individualism, interiority and the 'self'; the construction of identities determined by gender, class, race, sexuality and nationhood; and the experiences of urban and suburban life.