Enfilade

Distributed by The University of Chicago Press:

David Pearson, Bookbindings: An Illustrated History (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2026), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1851246458, £50 / $75.

An extravagantly illustrated history of the development of bookbindings, from antiquity to modern day.

Bindings have been an essential—and often beautiful—component of books since the codex form was invented 2,000 years ago. They make books work, but they also provide an opportunity for binders to display their skills. Until book trade processes were industrialized in the nineteenth century, every binding was a unique handcrafted object, no matter how simple or elaborate. Bindings have been made of all kinds of materials—calfskin, parchment, vellum, ivory, even silver—and embellished using many different techniques to satisfy the wishes of owners, ranging from students to kings. How they were produced and decorated has evolved, and many countries have their own distinctive traditions. Bindings may testify to the taste and social status of wealthy connoisseurs, or to the economic necessities of ordinary households. Because they can often be dated and localized, they also give us information about the histories of individual volumes. This lavishly illustrated book provides a fascinating history of the development of bookbindings from Roman times to the present day. Almost all the examples are chosen from the shelves of the Bodleian Library, showcasing the outstanding collection of historic bindings to be found there.

David Pearson is a leading authority on the history of books. His previous books include Provenance Research in Book History and Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories also published by Bodleian Library Publishing.

c o n t e n t s

Birth of the Codex to Medieval Traditions
New Ideas in a World of Print
Craftsmanship & Innovation
Nineteenth-Century Transformations
The Rebirth of Craft Binding
Bindings with a Purpose
Materials & Techniques
Decorative Themes

From Yale UP:

Meredith Gamer, City of the Gallows: Art and Execution in Eighteenth-Century London (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107529, $45.

The macabre, interwoven histories of art and punishment in eighteenth-century London

Over the course of the eighteenth century, the visual arts in Britain flourished as never before. The nation’s first art academies were founded; its first exhibitions of contemporary art were staged; and a vastly expanded public for the arts began to form. This book demonstrates that these developments were intimately linked to another, darker kind of art: the spectacle of capital punishment. Between 1680 and 1820, the number of crimes punishable by death under British law rose dramatically—from roughly fifty to more than two hundred—and at Tyburn, London’s main execution ground, dozens of people were hanged each year before thousands of spectators.

City of the Gallows uncovers the complex and often unexpected connections between eighteenth-century London’s sites of punishment and its spaces of art-making, instruction, and display. Drawing together a wide range of images, objects, and texts—from popular woodcuts and anatomical sculptures to moral tracts and dictionaries of slang—it offers new readings of works by major artists, such as William Hogarth, Johan Zoffany, and Joseph Wright of Derby, and shines a light on others that traditional accounts of the period have overlooked or ignored. In doing so, this book shows how state violence shaped the art and visual culture of this era, whose legacies persist to this day.

Meredith Gamer is associate professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, where she specialises in the art and visual culture of eighteenth-century Britain and the Atlantic world.

From Yale UP:

Amy Boyington, The Country House Dining Room: A History of Georgian Feasting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-0300276923, $40.

The country house dining room was an elaborate theatre for Georgian elites to entertain their guests and, more importantly, show-off their wealth, power and social status. Every detail was carefully orchestrated, usually by the lady of the house, from the decor and tableware to the food and drink served. Decorated with fine art, antique sculptures, and lavish furnishings, the dining room was governed by strict dining etiquette and social rituals. It was expected for guests to eat and drink to excess, so it is perhaps unsurprising that in the Georgian era we see the development of supposed miracle cures for obesity, alcoholism, and related illnesses. Drawing on previously unpublished contemporary accounts of feasts at Holkham Hall, Hardwick Hall, and Blenheim Palace, among others, Amy Boyington brings the Georgian dining experience to life and charts how the dining room encapsulated the intricate cultural and political dynamics of the 18th century.

Amy Boyington is a public historian and popular social media historian (@history_with_amy). Her past roles have included Senior Properties Historian at English Heritage, Trust Director at The Lutyens Trust, and Post-Doctoral Researcher at both Kensington Palace and Queens’ College, Cambridge. She is the author of Hidden Patrons: Women and Architectural Patronage in Georgian Britain.

Now on view at the Musée de la Mode et du Costume in Arles:

Amazons! Horsewomen and Fashion Icons

Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Arles, 22 May — 20 September 2026

Curated by Valerio Zanetti and Clément Trouche

Historically, horsemanship has played a crucial role in women’s emancipation. Since the Renaissance, specific costumes have been designed for each equestrian discipline, the consequences of which extend beyond purely visual and symbolic dimensions. Both the borrowing of elements from men’s wardrobes and the creation of new forms of dress prompted those who would soon be called ‘Amazons’ to question their position in society. The public is here invited to discover the history of these women, whose strength and beauty have often been as much fantasized as misunderstood.

The exhibition brings together over a hundred works, spanning a period from the Renaissance to the Revolution, from the Empire to the contemporary fashion runways. It showcases the evolution of Amazonian fashions, revealing how they allowed female riders and huntresses—as well as female politicians, strollers, and professional equestrians—to engage with and contribute to revolutionizing their identity, sometimes even making it a true raison d’être. Initially considered a challenge to traditional dress conventions, the Amazonian costume was gradually transformed into an essential element of the elegant woman’s wardrobe.

The 17th-century saddle of Queen Christina of Sweden, known as the ‘Amazon of the North’ or the ‘Gothic Amazon’, sits alongside equestrian portraits of illustrious women from the court of Louis XIV, reunited for the first time in almost 350 years. Portraits of La Grande Mademoiselle riding sidesaddle, of Marie Leszczynska in front of the Château de Fontainebleau, and, from the 19th century, drawings by Degas and Constantin Guys, all face the clothing of the Amazons of their time. Among these portraits, some depict one of the most famous Amazons of her era: the Empress of the French, Eugénie.

The exhibition includes loans from iconic national institutions. Among the Parisian institutions are the Petit Palais, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée Condé, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Carnavalet, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, as well as the Musée National de la Renaissance in Écouen, the châteaux of Compiègne and Cadillac, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orléans, Pau, Le Mans, Sceaux, and Libourne, and the Mucem and the Muséon Arlaten. Several British museums have also contributed, including the Fashion Museum of Bath, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, the Glove Collection Trust, Herfordshire Museum, and Norwich Museum. Equestrian practices play a vital role in British culture. Pieces from Swedish museums with significant collections complete the exhibition.

Amazones! Cavalières et icônes de mode (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2026), 160 pages, ISBN: 978-8836664689, €30.

From Yale UP:

Meghan Kobza, The Masquerade: A History of Extravagance and Intrigue (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 368 pages, ISBN: 978-0300276213, $35.

The first full history of an extraordinary eighteenth-century British entertainment

Glittering masquerades, held at the most fashionable London venues, dominated the calendars of the Georgian elite. A thrilling opportunity to gather, flirt, and consume, hosts such as ‘Empress of Pleasure’ Teresa Cornelys welcomed the great and the good in elaborate costumes—including bear suits, harlequin outfits, or, in the case of Elizabeth Chudleigh, very little at all. The masquerade was a place of make-believe and revelry, and a party like no other. Meghan Kobza invites us into these dazzling gatherings, and shows how they became a wider cultural obsession. Organised by wealthy impresarios, the masquerade allowed the aristocracy to flaunt their status and enjoy themselves behind the closed doors of opulent ballrooms, theatres, and gardens, dressed by an industry of ever more inventive habit makers. For the rest of society, the masquerade was notorious for mischief and misbehaviour, and a focus for voracious gossip.

Meghan Kobza is a historian of leisure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and particularly Georgian costume, fancy dress, and material culture. She is the author of The Domino and the Eighteenth-Century London Masquerade.

From Arthena press:

Benjamin Salama, Gabriel François Doyen (1726–1806): Un Peintre d’Histoire dans l’Europe des Lumières, (Paris: Arthena, 2026), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-2903239770, €85.

Figure pionnière et pourtant méconnue du mouvement de régénération de la peinture d’Histoire dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, Gabriel François Doyen s’imposa à Paris dès son retour de l’Académie de France à Rome avec La Mort de Virginie exposé au Salon de 1759. La critique vit en lui l’un des espoirs du renouveau de la peinture française au point qu’à la mort de son maître Carle Vanloo, il fut jugé digne d’achever son célèbre Cycle de saint Grégoire à l’église des Invalides. Sa gloire culmina avec Le Miracle des Ardents peint pour l’église Saint-Roch à Paris, chef-d’œuvre qui influença jusqu’à Géricault.

Sous la Révolution, délaissé au profit des peintres de la génération de David, il remplit d’importantes fonctions au sein de la Commission des monuments et œuvra pour la préservation du patrimoine français aux côtés de son ancien élève Alexandre Lenoir. En 1792, il choisit de partir pour la Russie où il enseigna à l’Académie impériale des beaux-arts de Saint-Pétersbourg, et peignit de grands décors pour l’impératrice Catherine II puis pour son fils Paul Ier. Des sources inédites et un catalogue renouvelé permettent de redécouvrir l’ambition tumultueuse de son œuvre.

Diplômé de l’École du Louvre et de Sorbonne-Université, Benjamin Salama est docteur en histoire de l’art. Il a été chargé d’enseignement à l’École du Louvre, à Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne et à Sorbonne-Université de 2008 à 2021. Il est actuellement collaborateur scientifique au château de Versailles. Ses recherches portent essentiellement sur la peinture française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.

Another title now 50% off at the Princeton UP sale:

Itohan Osayimwese, Africa’s Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025), 296 pages, ISBN: 978-0691251431, £30 / $35.

A groundbreaking history of Africa’s looted architectural heritage—and a bold proposal for the repatriation of the continent’s stolen cultural artifacts

Between the nineteenth century and today, colonial officials, collectors, and anthropologists dismembered African buildings and dispersed their parts to museums in Europe and the United States. Most of these artifacts were cataloged as ornamental art objects, which erased their intended functions, and the removal of these objects often had catastrophic consequences for the original structures. Africa’s Buildings traces the history of the collection and distribution of African architectural fragments, documenting the brutality of the colonial regimes that looted Africa’s buildings and addressing the ethical questions surrounding the display of these objects.

Itohan Osayimwese ranges across the whole of Africa, from Egypt in the north to Zimbabwe in the south, and spanning the western, central, and eastern regions of the continent. She describes how collectors employed violent means to remove elements such as columns and door panels from buildings, and how these methods differentiated architectural collecting from conventional collecting. She shows how Western collectors mischaracterized building components as ornament, erasing their architectural character and concealing the evidence of their theft. Osayimwese discusses how the very act of displacing building parts like floor tiles and woven screen walls has resulted in a loss of knowledge about their original function and argues that because of these removals, scholars have yet to fully grasp the variety and character of African architecture.

Richly illustrated, Africa’s Buildings uncovers the vast scale of cultural displacement perpetrated by the West and proposes a new role for museums in this history, one in which they champion the repatriation of Africa’s architectural heritage and restitution for African communities.

Itohan I. Osayimwese is professor of the history of art and architecture and urban studies at Brown University, where she is an affiliate faculty in Africana studies and at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is the author of Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the editor of German Colonialism in Africa and Its Legacies.

Recently released in paperback from Princeton UP, where many books are now 50% off with code SPRING50 (until June 9) . . .

Tristan Brown, Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023), 356 pages, ISBN: 978-0691246734 (hardback), £38 / $45 / ISBN: 978-0691247175 (paperback), £25 / $30.

Today the term fengshui, which literally means “wind and water,” is recognized around the world. Yet few know exactly what it means, let alone its fascinating history. In Laws of the Land, Tristan Brown tells the story of the important roles—especially legal ones—played by fengshui in Chinese society during China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing (1644–1912).

Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty. Facing a growing population, dwindling natural resources, and an overburdened rural government, judicial administrators across China grappled with disputes and petitions about fengshui in their efforts to sustain forestry, farming, mining, and city planning. Laws of the Land offers a radically new interpretation of these legal arrangements: they worked. An intelligent, considered, and sustained engagement with fengshui on the ground helped the imperial state keep the peace and maintain its legitimacy, especially during the increasingly turbulent decades of the nineteenth century. As the century came to an end, contentious debates over industrialization swept across the bureaucracy, with fengshui invoked by officials and scholars opposed to the establishment of railways, telegraphs, and foreign-owned mines. Demonstrating that the only way to understand those debates and their profound stakes is to grasp fengshui’s longstanding roles in Chinese public life, Laws of the Land rethinks key issues in the history of Chinese law, politics, science, religion, and economics.

Winner of the John K. Fairbank Prize, American Historical Association
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
Winner of the Biannual Book Prize, International Society of Chinese Law and History

Tristan G. Brown is S.C. Fang Chinese Language and Culture Career Development Professor in History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.