In the golden years of the baroque era, Poland expressed creative ties to East and West in extraordinary works of fine and decorative art. This illustrated book displays more than 150 pieces that celebrate the cross-cultural richness of Poland's creative output during this period. From the dramatic uniform of the winged hussar complete with feathered wings and leopard skin to traditional portraits of royalty to a Turkish-style beverage service, these splendid objects represent Poland's diversity and breadth at a time when it was the largest land empire in Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This book is the catalogue for a major exhibition at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. The Art Institute of Chicago, Huntsville Museum of Art. The San Diego Museum of Art. The Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

This monograph serves as an introduction to the art, architecture and literary culture of the Eastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries. The geographical area under discussion comprises the regions of contemporary Lithuania, western Belarus and western Ukraine. The introduction of the Renaissance and Baroque classical revival into these lands is considered here within the political context of nationalistic and religious loyalties, as well as economic status and class. The central discussion focuses on the issue of national identity and religious loyalty in the inter-relation between the Byzantine inheritance of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian populace and the Polonizing Catholic influences entering from the west. A close study is made of the royal, noble and urban patronage of the richly-diverse visual and literary modes developed in these two centuries, as well as examining the cultural achievements of the many national groups in the Eastern Commonwealth, including Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Poles, Armenians, Jews, Karaite and Islamic Tatars. A major issue explored here is the problem of restoring and conserving the vast amount of devastated material culture in these regions, particularly in Belarus.

This sixth volume in the AVISTA series considers medieval travel from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, placing the physical practice of transportation in the larger context of medieval thought about the world and its meaning. The papers included cover vehicle design and logistical management, the practicalities of how travellers oriented themselves, and the symbolism of the landscapes and maps created in the Middle Ages.

It's the middle of a heat wave, and Charlie Schroeder is dressed in heavy clothing and struggling to row a replica eighteenth-century bateau down the St. Lawrence River. Why? Months earlier, Schroeder realized he knew almost nothing about history. But he wanted to learn, so the actor spent a year reenacting it. This book is Schroeder's account of the time he spent chasing Celts in Arkansas, raiding a Viet Cong village in Virginia, and flirting with frostbite en route to "Stalingrad" in Colorado. Along the way, he illuminates just how much the past can teach us about the present.--From back cover.