Vatican: A Private Visit to a Secret World
AssoulineAssouline
3.0

Vatican: A Private Visit to a Secret World

USD 1400.00

Description

More than just an enclave within the city of Rome, the Vatican is a complex city-state that for many people still conjures up notions of secrecy. The Vatican has always exercised powers of fascination and seduction over us, with its history stretching back nearly twenty centuries, its spirituality, its scandals and its enigmas. As a fantasy world, it has inspired cinematic visions from Federico Fellini’s Roma to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part III and Paolo Sorrentino’s The New Pope. But what is the real Vatican? With nearly three hundred popes and antipopes, not to mention a fictitious female pope, among these figures there are a few saints and many sinners. To borrow an ancient image, the Vatican is like Noah’s Ark, containing animals of all kinds, both pure and impure. From the Roman Catholic Church’s earliest developments under Emperor Constantine, to the notorious popes who nevertheless cultivated the artistic flowering of the Renaissance, to modern-day pontiffs who must navigate the media and issues of social and political sensitivity, the Vatican has endured through historical upheavals and religious schisms, acquiring an unprecedented level of prestige and carving out a presence for itself on the diplomatic stage. Illustrated with archival images and dramatic photography, this handcrafted Ultimate Collection volume features insightful texts by renowned journalist Caroline Pigozzi, a specialist in Vatican history, and historian Giovanni Maria Vian, former editor in chief of L’Osservatore Romano newspaper, revealing hidden stories that have unfolded within these labyrinthine corridors. Complimentary white gloves and a signature canvas tote bag are included with each purchase from Assouline's Ultimate Collection

Assouline discount code

You could save on Assouline Vatican: A Private Visit to a Secret World with a Assouline promo code:

    Assouline logo

    25% off

    7 uses
    high

    worked 6 months ago

    Take 25% off with coupon
View all Assouline coupons and promo codes

More Assouline Products

New York by New York

New York by New York

New York is a city whose DNA comes from all over the world, a fantastic and unique place belonging to America yet not completely American. Such a strong cultural personality deserves a book, and Martine Assouline introduces this grand new title as “a little tribute to the New York I love.” Travel through the most important periods of this great city and into all its boroughs, from Manhattan and Brooklyn to the Bronx and Queens to Staten Island with glimpses into its history and the development of its world- renown skyline. Discover stories from immigration in the early twentieth century to Prohibition in the 1920s to the youth revolution in the sixties. Remember the best moments in Broadway and the discos at Studio 54; dream with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, and Audrey Hepburn or Madonna and Jean- Michel Basquiat. This volume reveals New York through the expert eyes and iconic images of leading photographers from Edward Steichen to Peter Lindbergh, together with texts and quotes from top writers including E.B. White , Edith Wharton, Tom Wolfe and Jay Mcinerney. With a slipcase and typography created especially for the occasion, New York by New York provides ration and will be treasured by lovers of this great City for decades to come.

USD 250.00

Valentino: At the Emperor's Table

Valentino: At the Emperor's Table

As fashion editor and friend André Leon Talley writes in the introduction, “Valentino Garavani designs his luncheons and dinners, in all of his homes, the way he has created crescendos and allegros vivace throughout his forty-plus-year career as one of the greatest haute couture designers and high-fashion leaders in the world.” Beauty and entertaining have long been passions of Valentino. “I am in love with beauty,” he admits in the book’s opening. “I have always loved beautiful objects.” Though beyond the tangible objets d’art housed in each of his residences, Valentino’s excellence as a host is defined by the warmth and joy he creates for his guests. “When you enter his world, you enter the world of luxury; you enter a rare and opulent, yet warm space,” adds Talley. The atmosphere evokes the “joy of sharing, and the joy of delivering a magnificent dining experience in a setting of wonder and originality; sharing with family, friends and guests; sharing good conversation that is quite often animated; and sharing beautiful flowers, especially from Valentino’s own gardens,” he continues in his introduction. Photographed by renowned Italian photographer Oberto Gili, and organized by residence, this book invites the reader to enjoy various table settings and recipes specific to each home. A flan au chevre may be served on Portuguese porcelain at his ski chalet in Gstaad, while a visit to his home in London reveals a “decorating masterpiece”--says Talley in his text--with an orientalist dining room of blue and white china. The New York City pied-a-terre showcases “table decorations…limitless in their exquisiteness” including Russian dinner-service sets and ruby red Irish glass plates. On T.M. Blue One, guests are served Mediterranean-inspired cuisine atop custom, seafaring-themed dinner service sets. “I love sharing the things in my life with my friends,” Valentino says. Among all of these luxurious homes, the crown jewel of Valentino’s residential repertoire is the Chateau de Wideville, a historic chateau outside of Paris that is admittedly Valentino’s favorite. There, meals of Italian inspired home cooking, such as risotto Milanese, are presented amongst his collection of rare Meissen swans. “I love antique china sets, like Meissen, Russian, or from P.K. Selesia, a German company from the 1930s” he states. Though regardless of residence or number of guests, Valentino’s commitment to excellence does not waver. “I am very often alone and enjoying my houses,” Valentino says. “Entertaining thirty or one is the same; the food has to be on a beautiful plate. The dream came true.” Valentino Garavani, often known simply as Valentino, is a legendary fashion designer and master couturier. He founded his eponymous fashion house in Rome in the late 1950s and has since established an illustrious career designing for the world’s most glamorous women, from royalty to Hollywood icons, including Jackie O, Elizabeth Taylor and modern-day muses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Hathaway. From his start designing dresses, Valentino and long-time business partner Giancarlo Giammetti built the Valentino brand into an international empire, now one of the most iconic fashion brands in the world, often associated with his signature color, “Valentino Red”. Though Valentino retired from fashion in 2008, he continues to create and follow his passions.

USD 195.00

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc

Created in the spirit of family photo album, Cheval Blanc brings to life one of the world’s most exclusive and exceptional hospitality endeavors in intimate, poignant detail – a lasting souvenir to the brand’s properties. Always referred to as “Maisons” and designed as a family home, each hotel has its own identity with absolute privacy and bespoke service to create endless memories. Cheval Blanc’s journey began in 2006 with the opening of its first chalet in Courchevel, France. Since then, the brand has expanded its legacy across six destinations, with a seventh soon to follow in Sardinia, along the shores of Costa Smeralda. These distinctive establishments are beautifully captured in the Cheval Blanc volume, showcasing the brand’s properties in Courchevel, Randheli, St-Barth, St-Tropez, Paris, and the Seychelles. Like guests on arrival, readers are immediately immersed in Cheval Blanc’s hallmark “Art de Recevoir” (“the art of welcoming”) and unparalleled sense of detail. These are not just extraordinary destinations, they are sensorial experiences, every aspect choreographed to provide a symphony of ultra-luxury and bold modernity, local craftsmanship and timeless elegance, made-to-measure service and unexpected moments of marvel. To continue the sense of a private travel diary, handwritten notes can be found throughout the narrative, as if the discreet musings of a trusted friend or family member on their stays. These Maisons built by renowned architects such as Jean-Michel Gathy, Jacques Grange, Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Peter Marino, share differences born from their specific histories and location. A family chalet in Courchevel, a Provençal home in Saint-Tropez, a Parisian icon within the historic walls of La Samaritaine—each story is an opportunity to celebrate the soul of a place without altering it, with some signatures a common through- line in all six destinations. And, of course, there are the superlative manners and etiquette transmitted by rigorous training—gestures, eloquence, and an attitude that is neither formal nor familiar but rather full of concern. Above all, in these pages, as in these Maisons, the goal is to introduce readers to their new favorite destination, a place cherished as much or even more than their childhood home. “Our clients come here for a positive interlude, to shut the door, for just a moment, on a page of their daily lives and enter the joyous but very real world of Cheval Blanc,” says Arnaud Donckele, the three-starred chef of Cheval Blanc St-Tropez and Cheval Blanc Paris.

USD 120.00

Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage

Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage

Since the advent of Islam, Hajj has been one of the most remarkable religious gatherings in the world. A compulsory act for Muslims, if they are able, the annual observance of Hajj has always had a great impact on the Muslim world, and for centuries pilgrims and rulers alike have held a deep love for the Holy Sanctuaries of Mecca and Medina. Yet until recently this ritual has remained largely unfamiliar to the Western world. The Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage comprises some 5,000 objects covering all aspects of Hajj, from the eighth to the twenty-first centuries and geographically from China to India and around the globe to Morocco and the United Kingdom. It includes Qur’ans, illustrated manuscripts, rare books, scientific instruments, textiles, coins, paintings and prints, as well as unique archival documents and examples of the work of some of the earliest photographers of the Hajj. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of its kind. Featuring insightful chapters on the Islamic principles of Hajj, travel, rituals, sacred manuscripts, textiles, souvenirs and Western perspectives, this wonderfully illustrated volume narrates and reveals the broad spiritual, cultural and artistic aspects of the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Told exclusively through the Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage by Qaisra M. Khan, formerly at the British Museum and now a curator for the Khalili Collections, who for more than fifteen years has specialized in the Arts of Pilgrimage, this book will significantly enrich all people’s understanding of this important practice.

USD 250.00

You May Also Like