Acclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his own experiences as a member of the AIDS generation to this universal story of love and loss set in New York City and Minneapolis at the peak of the AIDS crisis. Both a tribute to the generation gutted by the pandemic and a powerful exploration of heartbreak, recovery, and how love can defy grief, AFTER FRANCESCO is a balm for anyone who’s ever struggled through a period of darkness and come out the other side thanks to good friends, a bit of dark humor, and a reason to fight. "Like Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, author-activist Malloy's newest novel is a heartrending portrayal of the realities of healing.” —Oprah Daily, Best LGBTQ Books of the Year The year is 1988 and 28-year-old Kevin Doyle is bone-tired of attending funerals. It’s been two years since his partner Francesco died from AIDS, an epidemic ravaging New York City and going largely ignored by the government, leaving those effected to suffer in silence, feeling unjustifiable shame and guilt on top of their loss. Some people might insist that Francesco and the other friends he’s lost to the disease are in a better place, but Kevin definitely isn’t. Half-alive, he spends his days at a mind-numbing job and nights with the ghost of Francesco, drunk and drowning in memories of a man who was too young to die. When Kevin hits an all-time low, he realizes it’s time to move back home to Minnesota and figure out how to start living again—without Francesco. With the help of a surviving partners support group and friends both old and new, Kevin slowly starts to do just that. But an unthinkable family betrayal, and the news that his best friend is fighting for his life in New York, will force a reckoning and a defining choice. “This novel is fresh, well-observed, often funny, sometimes angry, and always real. I can’t think of another novel about the AIDS years that captures that difficult, messy, intense age more accurately or movingly.”—Christopher Bram, author of Gods & Monsters

In the first book systematically to give evidence of conjugal co-rule at an Italian Renaissance court, and the first full length scholarly study of Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga, Sarah Cockram shows their relationship in an entirely new light. The book draws on (and presents) a large amount of unpublished archival material, including almost unprecedented surviving correspondence between and around these Renaissance princely rulers. Using these sources, Cockram shows Isabella and Francesco's strategic teamwork in action, illuminating tactics of collaboration and dissimulation. She also reveals behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity; court procedures; sexual politics and seduction; gift-giving and network-building; rivalries, intrigues and assassinations. Several epistolary themes emerge: insights into the couple's communication practices and double-dealing, their use of intermediaries, and attention to security matters. This book's analysis of Isabella's co-rule with her husband, supported by other members of the Gonzaga dynasty, sees her sometimes in the role of subordinate partner, sometimes guiding the couple's actions. It shows how, despite appearances at times, the couple shared common diplomatic policy as well as human, material, and cultural resources; joint administration; and the exercise of authority and justice. Thus emerges a three-dimensional picture of the mechanisms of power and power sharing in the age of Machiavelli.

Dieser Band stellt die erste umfassende Untersuchung italienischer Architekturzeichnungen aus der Sammlung Cronstedt im Nationalmuseum Stockholm vor. Besprochen werden rund 180 Zeichnungen aus der Zeit zwischen 1570 und 1620. Darunter befinden sich Werke von Francesco da Capriani daVolterra, Carlo Maderno und anderen in Rom ansässigen Architekten, die für Kirchen, Kapellen, Paläste, Gärten und Brunnen angefertigt wurden – viele von ihnen stellen die wichtigsten und doch kaum bekannten Quellen für die Architektur des Spätmanierismus und Frühbarock dar. Ebenfalls enthalten sind Pläne und Detailzeichnungen französischer Künstler, die viele antike Monumente ebenso akribisch dokumentierten wie die Bauten der Renaissancebaumeister Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo, Michelangelo und Vignola. Italian Architectural Drawings kommt aufgrund aktueller Forschungsergebnisse zu ganz neuen Zuschreibungen, die auf einer genauen Analyse der Zeichnungen (Papier, Medium, Technik, Montage) beruhen. Ergänzende Vergleichsabbildungen und eine fotografische Bestandsaufnahme der Wasserzeichen runden diesen Band ab.