In contrast to the role traditionally fulfilled by secular rulers, the pope has been perceived as an individual person existing in a body subject to decay and death, yet at the same time a corporeal representation of Christ and the Church, eternity and salvation. Using an array of evidence from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries, Agostino Paravicini- Bagliani addresses this paradox. He studies the rituals, metaphors, and images of the pope's body as they developed over time and shows how they resulted in the expectation that the pope's body be simultaneously physical and metaphorical. Also included is a particular emphasis on the thirteenth century when, during the pontificate of Boniface VIII (1294-1303), the papal court became the focus of medicine and the natural sciences as physicians devised ways to protect the pope's health and prolong his life. Masterfully translated from the Italian, this engaging history of the pope's body provides a new perspective for readers to understand the papacy, both historically and in our own time.

The geographical coverage will be an urban one.

This book demonstrates how Calvin's uncompromising stance on sacred images gained favor throughout Europe and was increasingly seen in the years between 1550 and 1600 as the unavoidable culmination of the Sola Scriptura principle. It also documents in detail how Catholic doctrine evolved to counteract the radical positions of Calvinism and how this doctrine translated through pastoral action into the new artistic trends - in both architecture and painting - which dominated the Seventeenth century.

Illustrates the development and rapid spread of Louis Daguerre's photographic invention in France by a variety of daguerreotypes drawn from the collection of the Musee d'Orsay.