Enfilade

From Oxford UP:

Emily Sneff, When the Declaration of Independence Was News (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0197816691, $30.

Tracing the moments after its creation, this groundbreaking book follows how news of the Declaration of Independence spread to people throughout the thirteen United States and the Atlantic world.

In 1776 people could hear the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in public squares and could read it in the pages of their local newspapers. Stories of the Declaration typically recount the work that took place inside the Continental Congress, focusing on the men tasked with drafting the text. Although Congress declared independence, the work of spreading the news involved printers, post riders, ship captains, civic leaders, soldiers, clerks, orators, preachers, diplomats, and translators.

When the Declaration of Independence Was News reveals the stories behind how the Declaration was communicated in the United States and around the Atlantic. Tracing the travels of the founding document of the United States from Philadelphia to New York, Boston, Charleston, London, Leiden, Paris, and beyond, Emily Sneff shows how people both celebrated the Declaration and critiqued it. In the weeks after the document was penned, it was printed in the columns of newspapers, translated into German and French, and shared with Native American allies. The document induced some people to make public their privately held beliefs about whether they wanted the United States to be independent or to reconcile with King George III. The Declaration was met with unique circumstances everywhere it went, and people modified the text along the way. The questions of who experienced the news of independence, when, and how reveal an expansive and complex history of a critical moment in the American Revolution.

Published for the 250th anniversary of American independence, When the Declaration of Independence Was News returns to a time before the legacy of these words and the outcome of the war against Great Britain were known to reconsider what the founding of the United States meant to the people who were living through it.

Emily Sneff is a historian of the founding era of the United States and a leading expert on the Declaration of Independence. With a PhD in history from William and Mary, she is a consulting curator for museum exhibitions for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration.

c o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments

1  Introduction: The News of Independence
2  When the Declaration of Independence was News
3  Short of Independence: The May 15 Resolution
4  Postponed: The Continental Congress Debates Independence
5  Publish and Declare: The People Learn the News
6  Melted Majesty: Statues Fall and Tensions Rise in New York
7  The Reigning Subject: Inoculation and Independence in Massachusetts
8  Words and Wampum: Native Americans Acknowledge Independence
9  Embarrassment: Clergymen Close Churches and Change Prayers
10  Intercepted: Broadsides in British Hands
11  Pretended Acts: London Changes the Declaration
12  An Old Storey: Silas Deane Waits for the Declaration
13  Conclusion: A Lasting Testimony

Appendix: Transcription of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence

Notes
Bibliography
Index

From Yale UP:

Holly E.J. Black, The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300274080, $35.

A vivid history of the evolution of printmaking as a means of creative expression, from prehistory to the present day

The significance of printmaking within the history of art is often underplayed, obscured or misunderstood. This book tells the story of artist prints from across the globe in a manner that is accessible and engaging. It demystifies how prints are made—from woodblock to etching—and explores how, throughout history, printmaking has defied easy categorisation, straddling ‘fine’ art practices and commercially minded production. In fact, it has been employed as much for creative experimentation as it has for disseminating information.

Beginning in ancient East Asia and travelling through Renaissance Europe, revolutionary Mexico, and post-Apartheid South Africa, these ten chapters celebrate the interconnected nature of the printed image and its multiple histories, while illuminating the lesser-known players who have been deliberately or erroneously overlooked. Whether formed by slicing linoleum or plunging plates into acid, then distributed via bound books or pasted posters, the print has not just replicated the world, it has shaped it.

Holly E. J. Black is a London-based journalist and contributing arts editor at The World of Interiors. Her writing has appeared in titles including The Art Newspaper, Art Review, Financial Times, House & Garden, and Wallpaper. She is the author of Artists on Art.

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

Published by the PMC  and distributed by Yale UP:

Meredith Gamer, City of the Gallows: Art and Execution in Eighteenth-Century London (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 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.

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Note (added 5 June 2026) — The original posting mistakenly listed Yale UP as the publisher. In fact, the Paul Mellon Centre is the publisher.

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.