Few Renaissance Venetians saw the New World with their own eyes. As the print capital of early modern Europe, however, Venice developed a unique relationship to the Americas. Venetian editors, mapmakers, translators, writers, and cosmographers represented the New World at times as a place that the city's mariners had discovered before the Spanish, a world linked to Marco Polo's China, or another version of Venice, especially in the case of Tenochtitlan. Elizabeth Horodowich explores these various and distinctive modes of imagining the New World, including Venetian rhetorics of 'firstness', similitude, othering, comparison, and simultaneity generated through forms of textual and visual pastiche that linked the wider world to the Venetian lagoon. These wide-ranging stances allowed Venetians to argue for their different but equivalent participation in the Age of Encounters. Whereas historians have traditionally focused on the Spanish conquest and colonization of the New World, and the Dutch and English mapping of it, they have ignored the wide circulation of Venetian Americana. Horodowich demonstrates how with their printed texts and maps, Venetian newsmongers embraced a fertile tension between the distant and the close. In doing so, they played a crucial yet heretofore unrecognized role in the invention of America.

This new edition of Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester is the most comprehensive scholarly edition of any of Leonardo's manuscripts. It contains a high-quality facsimile reproduction of the Codex, a new transcription and translation, accompanied by a paraphrase in modern language and a page-by-page commentary, and a series of interpretative essays. This important endeavour introduces important new research into the interpretation of the texts and images, on the setting of Leonardo's ideas in the context of ancient and medieval theories, and above all into the notable fortunes of the Codex within the sciences of astronomy, water, and the history of the earth, opening a new field of research into the impact of Leonardo as a scientist after his death.

In tenth-century Iraq, a group of Arab intellectuals and scholars known as the Ikhwan al-Safa began to make their intellectual mark on the society around them. A mysterious organisation, the identities of its members have never been clear. But its contribution to the intellectual thought, philosophy, art and culture of the era - and indeed subsequent ones - is evident. In the visual arts, for example, Hamdouni Alami argues that the theory of human proportions which the Ikwan al-Safa propounded (something very similar to those of da Vinci), helped shape the evolution of the philosophy of aesthetics, art and architecture in the tenth and eleventh centuries CE, in particular in Egypt under the Fatimid rulers. With its roots in Pythagorean and Neoplatonic views on the role of art and architecture, the impact of this theory of specific and precise proportion was widespread. One of the results of this extensive influence is a historic shift in the appreciation of art and architecture and their perceived role in the cultural sphere. The development of the understanding of the interplay between ethics and aesthetics resulted in a movement which emphasised more abstract and pious contemplation of art, as opposed to previous views which concentrated on the enjoyment of artistic works (such as music, song and poetry). And it is with this shift that we see the change in art forms from those devoted to supporting the Umayyad caliphs and the opulence of the Abbasids, to an art which places more emphasis on the internal concepts of 'reason' and 'spirituality'.Using the example of Fatimid art and views of architecture (including the first Fatimid mosque in al-Mahdiyya, Tunisia), Hamdouni Alami offers analysis of the debates surrounding the ethics and aesthetics of the appreciation of Islamic art and architecture from a vital time in medieval Middle Eastern history, and shows their similarity with aesthetic debates of Italian Renaissance.

The latest book in the Enjoying Great Art series deals with a topic near and dear to most of our lives: Fathers and grandfathers. They are a part of our everyday lives. But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of fathers in art In addition to dozens of famous and (not so famous) depictions of fathers and grandfathers throughout the years, this book includes scriptures and quotes that celebrate the importance of fathers. As with the other books in the "Enjoying Great Art" series, this one contains pictures that are appropriate for adults and children of all ages.(There is one picture of a dad and son that have just finished hunting.) All of the paintings selected for the book are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

Scriptures and paintings that involve water - water carriers, wells, fountains, water falls, lakes, and more: Water is an important part of our everyday life. But do we think of it when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of water in art Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some where water is only a small part of the painting, some where it's the focus of the painting. Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

Maps and globes have been a big part of our everyday life, at least in the past. But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of maps and globes in art In some of the paintings the globes or maps are props, in some they are wall decorations. In some they are only small parts of the painting, and in some they are more the focus of the painting. Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

The latest book in the "Enjoying Great Art" series takes a look at paintings of Venice across several centuries. See this wide variety of paintings of the canals, the buildings, and the people. Enjoyed by adults and students of all ages.