Books published by publisher Shepheard-Walwyn

A chance discovery provided the author with the key to unlocking the centuries old enigma of Botticelli's Primavera - the famous Renaissance masterpiece painted for the private viewing of a Medici. Its pagan figures in a paradisical spring meadow illuminated the cryptic world of the Renaissance pagan revival. Botticelli's allegory emerged to address its personal message directly to a young Medici, one of the known world's richest young men. Botticelli's cleverly disguised message for Lorenzo Minore, is to be found on the right side of La Primavera, where Chloris draws Zephyr's attention to it. This book is extremely well researched and beautifully produced with eighty color plates, a full pullout reproduction of La Primavera and numerous details from this and other Renaissance paintings. Lane-Spollen clearly explains the fusion of Christian and pagan imagery which is reflected in La Primavera, placing it in the wider context of the history, religion and politics of the period. The author employs a readable style which will make this book suitable for those familiar with this period looking for more detail about a beloved painting, and those who are new to the Renaissance and Art History. Lane-Spollen gives a clear overview of why and how Botticelli conveyed his message in code: An esteemed circle of scholars around the Medici, disillusioned with a worldly and corrupted medieval Church, searched for a purer, unadulterated Christianity in the pre-Christian foundations of their faith. This was a dangerous occupation in a society where the reach of the Church was present in all matters public and private. In 1460 a manuscript was brought to Cosimo de'Medici. Its author, Hermes, was revered by Augustine and the early Church Fathers. Its revelations on the true nature of Man held the evidence they were seeking and stood in stark contrast to the teachings of the medieval church and had no place for man as a lowly humble sinner who must throw himself on the mercy of the Church. Neoplatonism and the Hermetic corpus which so inspired the Medici circle, saw Man as unique among all species and possessing a 'spark of the divine'. Though heretical and blasphemous in the extreme, this philosophy had a profound effect and spread rapidly. As Burckhardt noted, "it became the breath of life for all the most instructed minds of Europe". Convinced by its impeccable provenence, the Medici circle of philosophers and poets strived to merge the three great but competing religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, into a single religion in harmony with their orginal pre-Christian foundations. Expressing this newly discovered 'God-like' being in art stimulated the creative imagination of the early Renaissance as artists like Botticelli, Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Raphaello strove to express 'divine' Man's dignity, his innate capability and the profound depths of his potential for greatness.

As an introduction to Shakespeare, this presentation of extracts from Shakespeare's greatest plays and sonnets should capture the imagination of parents and children alike. Shakespeare presents a gamut of human emotions - love, humour, murder, sorcery, violence and greatness. Each text is stylistically distinct, and the skilful use of calligraphy heightens and underscores the phonetic and dramatic qualities of Shakespeare's verse. The book explores four themes: young love, laughter and innocence; the dark and the sinister in human nature; war; and the choices facing us in life, as represented by the three caskets in "A Merchant of Venice".

This is part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times. Each entry places the subject in the context of their age and evokes what was distinctive and interesting about their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.

Part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times, Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England is more than a work of reference: it is a book to read and enjoy. Drawing on the discoveries of archaeologists and other researchers, the author of this volume has prepared over 140 short biographies which convey more than the bare facts of his subjects' lives: he places them in the contact of their time and evokes what was distinctive and interesting in their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.

This is part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times. Each entry places the subject in the context of their age and evokes what was distinctive and interesting about their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.

Part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times, Who's Who in Victorian Britain is concerned with the 'Age of Empire.' Victoria was the first English monarch to see her name given to the period of her reign while she was still alive: it was used as early as 1851. There were enough constant factors through-out the Victorian Age to give coherence to it. With the Royal Navy enforcing the Pax Britannica over much of the world, affording protection to shipping and trade, piracy virtually disappeared. There were large additions to the Empire and the Queen became Empress of India. Britain's statesmen, and the Queen through her family connections with other royal monarchs, sought to hold the balance of power between the conflicting ambitions and shifting fortunes of the other European empires. But at the end of her reign the Boer War introduced a note of uncertainty. Domestically, the period saw an oligarchic constitution being adapted in stages to an industrial society. It was the age when Britain was manufacturer to the world, but at some cost to the working class whose needs were taken up by writers, thinkers and reformers. Into a religious age, the seeds of doubt were sown by Darwin and the new Biblical critics. Each of the 190 short biographical essays places the subject in the context of their age and evokes what was distinctive and interesting about their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.