Founded in 1956, Penn State University Press publishes rigorously reviewed, high-quality works of scholarship and books of regional and contemporary interest, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. The publishing arm of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries, the Press promotes the advance of scholarship by disseminating knowledge—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—widely in books, journals, and digital publications.
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European blockbooks-heavily illustrated books printed from woodblocks that contained both text and image-represent a brief but crucial experiment in book production, emerging alongside early typographic printing. Although short lived as a book medium, blockbooks illuminate the expanding demand for books and the experimental practices that shaped ......
Deceit and Ambition in Catholic Reformation Lisbon
No Saints tells a story of the Catholic Reformation from an unexpected vantage point. Instead of saints, it follows frauds, abusers, and opportunists whose lives-preserved in trial records and Inquisition casefiles-offer a different view of religious reform in the late sixteenth century. Set in Lisbon, one of the largest and most dynamic cities ......
Medieval monuments and memorials are never simply remnants of the past. Across the world, they are continually destroyed, restored, reinvented, and mobilized in the service of contemporary politics. Inventing Heritage stages a debate about medievalism and Byzantinism as global political phenomena, examining how cultural heritage becomes a site of ......
Louise Bourgeois is best known for her monumental sculptures, installations, drawings, and paintings-but those familiar with her work know that words permeate her visual art. Louise Bourgeois: The Artist as Writer offers an important new portrait of the French-born New York artist, arguing that her extensive oeuvre can be read as a work of ......
Louise Bourgeois is best known for her monumental sculptures, installations, drawings, and paintings-but those familiar with her work know that words permeate her visual art. Louise Bourgeois: The Artist as Writer offers an important new portrait of the French-born New York artist, arguing that her extensive oeuvre can be read as a work of ......
The Quest for Episcopal Authority in Medieval Iberia
As Western Christendom expanded dramatically along its frontiers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Church leaders debated how to organize and administer newly captured diocesan lands. These questions were especially pressing in the Iberian Peninsula, where conquests ushered in piecemeal, multidimensional processes of consolidation and ......
During the height of France's colonial period, museums served as key sites for teaching the public how to see themselves and others through the lens of race and sexuality. This museal gaze continues to haunt representations of Blackness in contemporary France, especially amid intensified debate over the country's colonial legacy and racial ......
During the height of France's colonial period, museums served as key sites for teaching the public how to see themselves and others through the lens of race and sexuality. This museal gaze continues to haunt representations of Blackness in contemporary France, especially amid intensified debate over the country's colonial legacy and racial ......
Spectacle, Dress, and Appearance in Ancient Christian Martyr Texts
In the second and third centuries, Christian martyr narratives were written to evoke spectacle. In Dying in Style, James Petitfils demonstrates how these accounts transform scenes of suffering into displays that assert the dignity and ethical distinction of Christians during a time of widespread belittlement and persecution. Attending to ......
