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Francis Ford Coppola (Contemporary Film Directors)
by Jeff MenneAcclaimed as one of the most influential and innovative American directors, Francis Ford Coppola is also lionized as a maverick auteur at war with Hollywood's power structure and an ardent critic of the postindustrial corporate America it reflects. However, Jeff Menne argues that Coppola exemplifies the new breed of creative corporate person and sees the director's oeuvre as vital for reimagining the corporation in the transformation of Hollywood. Reading auteur theory as the new American business theory, Menne reveals how Coppola's vision of a new kind of company has transformed the worker into a liberated and well-utilized artist, but has also commodified individual creativity at a level unprecedented in corporate history. Coppola negotiated the contradictory roles of shrewd businessman and creative artist by recognizing the two roles are fused in a postindustrial economy. Analyzing films like The Godfather (1970) and the overlooked Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) through Coppola's use of opera, Menne illustrates how Coppola developed a defining musical aesthetic while making films that reflected the idea of a corporation as family--and how his studio American Zoetrope came to represent a new brand of auteurism and the model for post-Fordist Hollywood.
Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry
by Michael BulmerIf not for the work of his half cousin Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory might have met a somewhat different fate. In particular, with no direct evidence of natural selection and no convincing theory of heredity to explain it, Darwin needed a mathematical explanation of variability and heredity. Galton's work in biometry—the application of statistical methods to the biological sciences—laid the foundations for precisely that. This book offers readers a compelling portrait of Galton as the "father of biometry," tracing the development of his ideas and his accomplishments, and placing them in their scientific context.Though Michael Bulmer introduces readers to the curious facts of Galton's life—as an explorer, as a polymath and member of the Victorian intellectual aristocracy, and as a proponent of eugenics—his chief concern is with Galton's pioneering studies of heredity, in the course of which he invented the statistical tools of regression and correlation. Bulmer describes Galton's early ambitions and experiments—his investigations of problems of evolutionary importance (such as the evolution of gregariousness and the function of sex), and his movement from the development of a physiological theory to a purely statistical theory of heredity, based on the properties of the normal distribution. This work, culminating in the law of ancestral heredity, also put Galton at the heart of the bitter conflict between the "ancestrians" and the "Mendelians" after the rediscovery of Mendelism in 1900. A graceful writer and an expert biometrician, Bulmer details the eventual triumph of biometrical methods in the history of quantitative genetics based on Mendelian principles, which underpins our understanding of evolution today.
Francis I and Sixteenth-Century France
by Robert J. KnechtThe reputation of Francis I, king of France (1515-47 ) has fluctuated over the centuries. Acclaimed as ’noble’ and ’great’ in the sixteenth century, he came to be unfairly denigrated under the Bourbon kings and the republic. But, in the twentieth century, research based on archival material has restored his standing as one of the most important rulers of his age. The present volume brings together seventeen articles by Robert Knecht published over several decades on particular aspects of the reign, with three specially translated from French into English. They examine the period in more depth than was possible in the author's 1994 biography of Francis I, and include studies of the Concordat of 1516 with the papacy, the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, the lit-de-justice of 1527, and the visit to France of the Emperor Charles V in 1540. Other articles consider the king’s attitude to the Reformation, his court, his relations with Paris and visits to Aquitaine, his patronage of architecture as demonstrated by his building of the château of Fontainebleau, and his relations with his mother, Louise of Savoy, and sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême. The king’s love of books and the political advice he received from scholars are also considered as well as the extent of his ’absolutism’. Two articles compare the English and French Reformations and the nobilities of the two countries. The volume is intended as a contribution to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Francis I’s accession.
Francis I: The Maker of Modern France
by Leonie FriedaFrancis I (1494-1547) was inconstant, amorous, hot-headed and flawed. Arguably he was also the most significant king that France ever had. A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with. Bestselling historian Leonie Frieda's comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs - and the most enigmatic.
Francis I: The Maker of Modern France
by Leonie FriedaFrancis I (1494-1547) was inconstant, amorous, hot-headed and flawed. Arguably he was also the most significant king that France ever had. A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with. Bestselling historian Leonie Frieda's comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs - and the most enigmatic.
Francis I: The Maker of Modern France
by Leonie FriedaFrancis I (1494-1547) was inconstant, amorous, hot-headed and flawed. Yet he was also arguably the most significant king that France ever had. This is his story. A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king, a man who was the exemplar of courtly and civilised behaviour throughout Europe. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with. Yet he was also capricious, vain and arrogant, taking hugely unnecessary risks, at least one of which nearly resulted in the end of his kingdom. His great feud with his nemesis Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, defined European diplomacy and sovereignty, but his notorious alliance with the great Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent threatened to destroy everything. With access to never-before-seen private archives, Leonie Frieda's comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs - and the most enigmatic.Read by Carole Boyd(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018
Francis I: The Maker of Modern France
by Leonie FriedaLeonie Frieda, the bestselling author of Catherine de Medici, returns to sixteenth-century Europe in the evocative and entertaining biography, Francis I.Catherine de Medici’s father-in-law, King Francis of France, was the perfect Renaissance knight, the movement’s exemplar and its Gallic interpreter. An aesthete, diplomat par excellence, and contemporary of Machiavelli, Francis was the founder of modern France, whose sheer force of will and personality molded his kingdom into the first European superpower. Arguably the man who introduced the Renaissance to France, Francis was also the prototype Frenchman—a national identity was modeled on his character. So great was his stamp, that few countries even now are quite so robustly patriotic as is France. Yet as Leonie Frieda reveals, Francis did not always live up to his ideal; a man of grand passions and vision, he was also a flawed husband, father, lover, and king.With access to private archives previously unused in a study of Francis I, Frieda recreates a remarkable era of French history to explore the life of a man who was the most human of the monarchs of the period—and yet, remains the most elusive.“Superb and vivid . . . brings the world of Francis I to life, skillfully delineating the moves and major players in both European and domestic politics . . . and also gives the reader wonderful glimpses of the often licentious court life of that time . . . Frieda suggests that, under Francis I, France preserved its political power, greatly increased its cultural influence, and positioned itself for the Grand Siecle that his Bourbon successors would soon preside over.” —Wall Street Journal
Francis Marion and the Legend of the Swamp Fox
by Kate Salley PalmerThe story of one of the heroes of the American Revolution.Attacking from the swamps at night, Francis Marion, and his brigade slowed the British and their march up the coast to attack George Washington's Continental Army.
Francis Mortoft: His Book, Being His Travels Through France And Italy 1658-1659 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series #57)
by Malcolm LettsThis is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1925.
Francis Parkman, Historian as Hero: The Formative Years
by Wilbur R. JacobsA historian who lived the kind of history he wrote, Francis Parkman is a major--and controversial--figure in American historiography. His narrative style, while popular with readers wanting a "good story," has raised many questions with professional historians. Was Parkman writing history or historical fiction? Did he color historical figures with his own heroic self-image? Was his objectivity compromised by his "unbending, conservative, Brahmin" values? These are some of the many issues that Wilbur Jacobs treats in this thought-provoking study. Jacobs carefully considers the "apprenticeship" of Francis Parkman, first spent in facing the rigors of the Oregon Trail and later in struggling to write his histories despite a mysterious, frequently incapacitating illness. He shows how these events allowed Parkman to create a heroic self-image, which impelled his desire for fame as a historian and influenced his treatment of both the "noble" and the "savage" characters of his histories. In addition to assessing the influence of Parkman's development and personality on his histories, Jacobs comments on Parkman's relationship to basic social and cultural issues of the nineteenth century. These include the slavery question, Native American issues, expansion of the suffrage to new groups, including women, and anti-Catholicism. Francis Parkman, Historian as Hero will be important reading for everyone interested in nineteenth-century American culture and the writing of history. A historian who lived the kind of history he wrote, Francis Parkman is a major--and controversial--figure in American historiography. His narrative style, while popular with readers wanting a "good story," has raised many questions with professional historians. Was Parkman writing history or historical fiction? Did he color historical figures with his own heroic self-image? Was his objectivity compromised by his "unbending, conservative, Brahmin" values? These are some of the many issues that Wilbur Jacobs treats in this thought-provoking study. Jacobs carefully considers the "apprenticeship" of Francis Parkman, first spent in facing the rigors of the Oregon Trail and later in struggling to write his histories despite a mysterious, frequently incapacitating illness. He shows how these events allowed Parkman to create a heroic self-image, which impelled his desire for fame as a historian and influenced his treatment of both the "noble" and the "savage" characters of his histories. In addition to assessing the influence of Parkman's development and personality on his histories, Jacobs comments on Parkman's relationship to basic social and cultural issues of the nineteenth century. These include the slavery question, Native American issues, expansion of the suffrage to new groups, including women, and anti-Catholicism.
Francis Poulenc: Notes from the Heart
by Roger Nichols Nicolas Southon’He plays the piano well,’ wrote the society hostess Mme de Saint-Marceaux in her diary on 18 March 1927. ’His compositions are not devoid of talent but he’s not a genius, and I’m afraid he thinks he is.’ Intelligent though the lady was, she got this one spectacularly wrong. Poulenc has in fact outpaced his colleagues in Les Six by many a mile, as singers and instrumentalists all over the world will attest, and while he would never have accepted the title of ’genius’, preferring ’artisan’, a genius is increasingly what he appears to have been. Part of the answer lay in always being his own man, and this independence of spirit shows through in his writings and interviews just as brightly as in his music, whether it’s boasting that he’d be happy never to hear The Mastersingers ever again, pointing out that what critics condemn as the ’formlessness’ of French music is one of its delights, voicing his outrage at attempts to ’finish’ the Unfinished Symphony, writing ’in praise of banality’ - or remembering the affair of Debussy’s hat. And in every case, his intelligence, humour and generosity of spirit help explain why he was so widely and deeply loved. This volume comprises selected articles from Francis Poulenc: J’écris ce qui me chante (Fayard, 2011) edited by Nicholas Southon. Many of these articles and interviews have not been available in English before and Roger Nichols's translation, capturing the very essence of Poulenc’s lively writing style, makes more widely accessible this significant contribution to Poulenc scholarship.
Francis Scott Key's Star-Spangled Banner (Step into Reading)
by Monica Kulling Richard WalzFrancis Scott Key was a very busy man. He and his wife had 11 children. He was a lawyer and many people came to him for advice. But whenever he had a moment, he would jot down a line of poetry. He loved writing poems. When the War of 1812 broke out, Francis became even busier. He was well-respected and often called upon to help keep the peace as the war between the United States and England raged on. One fateful night Francis and his friend helped talk the British Navy into releasing a prisoner of war. But they couldn't return home just yet because the Battle of Fort McHenry was starting! If the British captured the fort, America might very well lose its independence. Francis and his friends could only sit on a boat and observe the battle. For 25 hours they watched in awe. What Francis saw inspired him to write a poem that would become America's national anthem! This Step 3 reader is perfect for children who are ready to read independently.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Francis Watkins and the Dollond Telescope Patent Controversy (Science, Technology and Culture, 1700-1945)
by Brian Gee edited by McConnellFrancis Watkins was an eminent figure in his field of mathematical and optical instrument making in mid-eighteenth century London. Working from original documents, Brian Gee has uncovered the life and times of an optical instrument maker, who - at first glance - was not among the most prominent in his field. In fact, because Francis Watkins came from a landed background, the diversification of his assets enabled him to weather particular business storms - discussed in this book - where colleagues without such an economic cushion, were pushed into bankruptcy or forced to emigrate. He played an important role in one of the most significant legal cases to touch this profession, namely the patenting of the achromatic lens in telescopes. The book explains Watkins's origins, and how and why he was drawn into partnership with the famous Dollond firm, who at that point were Huguenot incomers. The patent for the achromatic telescope has never been satisfactorily explained in the literature, and the author has gone back to the original legal documents, never before consulted. He teases out the problems, lays out the evidence, and comes to some interesting new conclusions, showing the Dollonds as hard-headed and ruthless businessmen, ultimately extremely successful. The latter part of the book accounts for the successors of Francis Watkins, and their decline after over a century of successful business in central London.
Francis Willughby's Book of Games: A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games and Pastimes
by Jeffrey L. Forgeng David CramFrancis Willughby's Book of Games, published here for the first time, is a remarkable work and an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in early modern social history. Dating from the 1660s, it was left unfinished when the writer died in 1672 at the age of 36. Nevertheless, Willughby's manuscript, even in its unpolished form is a goldmine of detail providing a snapshot of mid seventeenth century life, language and culture. The manuscript itself lists a wide variety of sports, games and pastimes, including football, hurling, card games, tennis and children's games. As well as providing rules and a description of the various games (often with accompanying sketches to explain particular points) there are numerous fascinating snippets of related information (such as the care of fighting cocks), that bring the subject to life, whilst the section on children's games is particularly poignant. Besides the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, the fact that Willughby embarked on the project from a scientific perspective adds to the value of the book. Willughby had been admitted to the Royal Society in 1661 and for a number of years prior to that had been collaborating with the naturalist John Ray. It is clear that Willughby's Book of Games was highly influenced by his scientific pursuits and was an extension of his natural history work, utilising the same skills of systematic observation, description and classification. Providing not only a word-for word transcription of the Book of Games, this volume also contains a host of interpretative material to complement the original data. As well as a biography of Willughby and a detailed description of his manuscript, a substantial glossary of games and obsolete terms is provided, together with a bibliography of Willughby's literary remains and more general reference works. Taken together, this publication provides an unparalleled resource for scholars of early modern England.
Francis of Assisi: A New Biography
by Augustine ThompsonAmong the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.In this authoritative and engaging new biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The result is a complex yet sympathetic portrait of the man and the saint. Francis emerges from this account as very much a typical thirteenth-century Italian layman, but one who, when faced with unexpected crises in his personal life, made decisions so radical that they challenge his own society—and ours. Unlike the saint of legend, this Francis never had a unique divine inspiration to provide him with rules for following the teachings of Jesus. Rather, he spent his life reacting to unexpected challenges, before which he often found himself unprepared and uncertain. The Francis who emerges here is both more complex and more conflicted than that of older biographies. His famed devotion to poverty is found to be more nuanced than expected, perhaps not even his principal spiritual concern. Thompson revisits events small and large in Francis's life, including his troubled relations with his father, his contacts with Clare of Assisi, his encounter with the Muslim sultan, and his receiving the Stigmata, to uncover the man behind the legends and popular images.A tour de force of historical research and biographical writing, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography is divided into two complementary parts—a stand alone biographical narrative and a close, annotated examination of the historical sources about Francis. Taken together, the narrative and the survey of the sources provide a much-needed fresh perspective on this iconic figure. "As I have worked on this biography," Thompson writes, "my respect for Francis and his vision has increased, and I hope that this book will speak to modern people, believers and unbelievers alike, and that the Francis I have come to know will have something to say to them today."
Francis of Assisi: The Life
by Augustine ThompsonThis elegant and accessible biography of one of Catholicism's most beloved saints was originally published as Part 1 of Francis of Assisi: A New Biography by Augustine Thompson, O.P. It stands alone as a richly informed portrait of a man whose complex faith and commitment continue to inspire today. An introduction by Thompson places his biography in the context of continuing discussions about Francis's legacy, particularly the new Pope's decision to adopt the saint's name.
Francis of Assisi: The Life of a Restless Saint
by Volker LeppinAn award-winning historian reconstructs the life of Francis of Assisi, uncovering the man behind the myths One of the most famous figures in Christian history, Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226) was revered as a miracle worker during his life and quickly canonized after his death. He has inspired generations of Christians and other spiritual seekers, from medieval ascetics to 1960s hippies and modern environmentalists. The &“poverello&” wrote poems praising the sun, moon, and stars, spoke to the birds, and—so the story goes—even tamed a wolf. But what do we know for sure about who he was, and what is simply legend? Drawing on centuries of scholarship, Volker Leppin pieces together fragments of Francis&’s life story to find a seeker who never reached his destination, a man whose extraordinary charisma drew others in yet who was uncomfortable in the spotlight. Amazingly, Francis stayed within the fold of the church while offering a new and radical vision of Christianity that proved wildly popular. Leppin&’s Francis of Assisi sets Francis&’s inner emotional and spiritual world against a broader historical background to show how the message of this inspiring and often vexing medieval saint continues to resonate in our contemporary world.
Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi
by Tomie De PaolaBeautifully drawn illustrations pair with great storytelling in this glimpse into the life of Francis of AssisiIn lively prose and folksy paintings, Tomie dePaola gives a glimpse into the life of Francis of Assisi. After witnessing his father disrespect a beggar, Francis comes to forsake his worldly possessions and travel from village to village helping the poor and sheltering animals. dePaola's recognizable artistic style and episodic telling of events in the life of Francis are accessible to young readers, and the humble tales of the lives of the saints are told with tenderness and reverence. This is a fixed-format ebook, which preserves the design and layout of the original print book.
Francisca y Katupyrí: Camino a San Miguel
by Gabriel Bobillo Martín BlascoUna novela de aventuras, viajes, intrigas y el largo camino hacia la independencia de la Argentina. <P><P> Francisca, una niña de 11 años, acompaña a su padre Efraín en una travesía de tres meses en galera de Buenos Aires a Tucumán. Ambos son esclavos y escoltan a Don Pedro Medrano, rumbo al Congreso que reunirá a los representantes de las Provincias Unidas del Río de La Plata y decidirá la independencia de nuestra Patria. Luego de enfrentar las inclemencias del terreno, el clima y la fauna local, la galera es descubierta por una partida de mercenarios contratados por los realistas para interferir con el Congreso. <P><P>Y tras una intensa persecución son interceptados bajo fuego. Cuando todo parece perdido, Medrano, Francisca y su padre son rescatados por una tropa informal de indios guaraníes y los mercenarios se ven forzados a huir. Por lo menos por un tiempo. Sin embargo, la tropa guaraní se encuentra camino a la Banda Oriental, para engrosar las filas de Artigas y no puede ofrecerse a escoltarlos durante el resto del viaje. Herido, y a cambio de la promesa de liberar a su hija de su esclavitud, Efraín accede a que Francisca se les anticipe a caballo para llevar a Tucumán una documentación vital para el Congreso. Los guaraníes, por su parte, le ofrecen como custodia a Katupyrí, el menor de sus hombres. <P><P>Un niño duro y precoz de 12 años, que asistirá a Francisca como su baqueano y protector. Juntos, los chicos emprenden una carrera de obstáculos que incluye más persecuciones y hasta algún enfrentamiento para lograr entregar los documentos antes de que sea demasiado tarde.
Francisca: Princesa del Perú
by Alonso Cueto"Mi misión esencial en el mundo ya no era reinar, sino recuperar todos mis pasados". Figura emblemática del naciente Virreinato peruano, en cuyo corazón se baten las sangres de dos imperios, Francisca Pizarro Huaylas Yupanqui, heredera exiliada del linaje de los incas e hija del conquistador Francisco Pizarro, se supo siempre una "princesa mimada, enriquecida, desterrada", así como una "viajera encarcelada, liberada y libre". Escindida entre el Perú y España, la íntima historia de Francisca, colmada de devoción, cálculo, pasión y nobleza, es también la de una época de connivencias políticas. En ese entramado de ambiciones dinásticas se configura el escenario de un mundo que se impone a la fuerza, y otro que se extingue bajo sus dominios, pero que pervive en la palabra de quienes invocan el pasado con más orgullo que nostalgia. Con el aliento poético y la finura narrativa que distinguen a sus novelas históricas, Alonso Cueto ha sabido dotar de luz y voz propias a un personaje memorable. Francisca. Princesa del Perú inscribe en el imaginario literario el destino histórico de una mujer que quiso vivir siempre a la altura de las cuatro palabras de su nombre.
Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524-1599: Conflict Beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19:1-10) (Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700)
by Steven E. TurleyFranciscans in sixteenth-century New Spain were deeply ambivalent about their mission work. Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the first archbishop of Mexico, begged the king to find someone else to do his job so that he could go home. Fray Juan de Ribas, one of the original twelve 'apostles of Mexico' and a founding pillar of the church in New Spain, later fled with eleven other friars into the wilderness to escape the demands of building that church. Fray Jerónimo de Mendieta, having returned from an important preaching tour in New Spain, wrote to his superior that he did not want to enlist again, and that the only way he would return to the mission field was if God dragged him by the hair. This discontent was widespread, grew stronger with time, and carried important consequences for the friars' interactions with indigenous peoples, their Catholic co-laborers, and colonial society at large. This book examines that discontent and seeks to explain why the exhilaration of joining such a 'glorious' enterprise so often gave way to grinding discontent. The core argument is that, despite St. Francis's own longing to do mission work, his followers in New Spain found that effective evangelization in a frontier context was fundamentally incompatible with their core spirituality. Bringing together two streams of historiography that have rarely overlapped - spirituality and missions - this book marks a strong contribution to the history of spirituality in both Latin America and Europe, as well as to the growing fields of transatlantic and world history.
Franciscans and Scotists on War: John Duns Scotus’s Theology, Anti-Judaism, and Holy War in Early Modernity (Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge)
by Ian Campbell and Todd ResterFranciscan friars were everywhere in the early modern Catholic world, a world that stretched from the Americas, through Western and Central Europe, to the Middle East and Asia. This global brotherhood was as deeply entangled in the great religious wars that convulsed Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as it was in the Spanish and Portuguese empires. While the political and imperial theories of Dominicans like Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolome de Las Casas, who took the theology of Thomas Aquinas as their starting point, are well-known, this has not been the case for Franciscan thinking until now.The Franciscans and their allies built a body of political writings around the theology of John Duns Scotus (1265/6–1308), and this book presents a wide selection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Scotist writings on politics, warfare, and empire in English for the first time. Beginning with Scotus’s own doctrine on the forced baptism of Jews, this collection translates John Mair (1467–1550) on European imperialism and holy war, Alfonso de Castro (1495–1558) on the Schmalkaldic War of the 1540s, Juan Focher (1497–1572) on the war against the Chichimeca Indians of Mexico, and John Punch on the British and Irish Civil Wars of the 1640s and 1650s.The availability of these primary sources for teaching and research will clarify the connection between religion, politics, and imperialism in the early modern world.
Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series)
by Zachary A. MatusOne of the major ambitions of medieval alchemists was to discover the elixir of life, a sovereign remedy capable not only of healing the body but of transforming it. Given the widespread belief that care for the body came at the cost of care for the soul, it might seem surprising that any Franciscan would pursue the elixir, but those who did were among its most outspoken and optimistic advocates. They believed they could distill a substance that would purify, transmute, and ennoble the human body as well as the soul. In an age when Christians across Europe were seeking material evidence for their faith and corporeal means of practicing their devotion, alchemy, and the elixir in particular, offered a way to bridge the terrestrial and the celestial.Framed as a history around science, Franciscans and the Elixir of Life focuses on alchemy as a material practice and investigates the Franciscan discourses and traditions that shaped the pursuit of the elixir, providing a rich examination of alchemy and religiosity. Zachary A. Matus makes new connections between alchemy, ritual life, apocalypticism, and the particular commitment of the Franciscan Order to the natural world, shedding new light on the question of why so many people claimed to have made, seen, or used alchemical compounds that could never have existed.
Francisco Franco: The Times and the Man
by Joaquín ArrarásFrancisco Franco: The Times and the Man, is the English translation of Dr. Joaquin Arrara´s’ biography of Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the Spanish general and politician who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975—a period commonly known as Francoist Spain in Spanish history.Born in 1892 in El Ferrol, Spain, Franco was a career soldier who rose through the ranks until the mid-1930s. When the social and economic structure of Spain began to crumble, he joined the growing right-leaning rebel movement. He soon led an uprising against the leftist Republican government and took control of Spain following the bloody Spanish Civil War (1936-39) when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Franco then presided over a brutal military dictatorship, persecuting political opponents, repressing the culture and language of Spain’s Basque and Catalan regions, and censuring the media. He died in Madrid in 1975, as Spain transitioned to a democracy.“It is with Franco, then, that [Arrarás] is concerned, with his character, his early upbringing, his entrance into the army, his thrilling adventures, his dramatic military career that made him through merit alone a captain at the age of twenty and Europe’s youngest general at thirty-two. We next find him, on his return home, commissioned to establish the Spanish West Point, immediately destroyed by the new government. Quickly after this there follow the world-stirring events that now are history.[…]“Fortunately the author’s work, in its transformation from Spanish into English, has lost none of its freshness and flavor. The velvet is still on the fruit. We have apparent here the same journalistic verve, the same vividness of narration, the same colorful descriptions and sharp-edged statement of facts…”
Francisco López de Gómara's General History of the Indies
by Clayton Miles Lehmann Angela HelmerThis work is the first English translation of the entire text of part one of sixteenth-century Spanish historian Francisco López de Gómara’s General History of the Indies. Including substantial critical annotations and providing access to various readings and passages added to or removed from the successive editions of the 1550s, this translation expands the archive of texts available to English speakers reconsidering the various aspects of the European invasion of America. General History of the Indies was the first universal history of the recent discoveries and conquests of the New World made available to the Old World audience. At publication it consisted of two parts: the first a general history of the European discovery, conquest, and settlement of the Americas, and the second a detailed description of Cortés’s conquest of Mexico. Part one—in the multiple Spanish editions and translations into Italian and French published at the time—was the most comprehensive, popular, and accessible account of the natural history and geography of the Americas, the ethnology of the peoples of the New World, and the history of the Spanish conquest, including the most recent developments in Peru. Despite its original and continued importance, however, it had never been translated into English. Gómara’s history communicates Europeans’ general understanding of the New World throughout the middle and later sixteenth century. A lively, comparatively brief description of Europe’s expansion into the Americas with significant importance to today’s understanding of the early modern worldview, Francisco López de Gómara’s General History of the Indies will be of great interest to students of and specialists in Latin American history, Latin American literature, anthropology, and cultural studies, as well as specialists in Spanish American intellectual history and colonial Latin America.