If you were to visit a bookshop in the ancient world, what would it be like? You don’t just have to imagine it. The ancient Roman writer Aulus Gellius, who lived in the 2nd century CE, gives us a ...

“Two thousand years ago, an aristocratic Roman matron named Vistalia faced a trial for adultery. Vistalia was notorious for conducting multiple extramarital affairs, but her husband, Titidius Labeo, ...

THE KEYS OF ST. PETER (380 pp.)—Roger Peyrefitte—Criterion Books ($4.50). Truly scandalous books are rare these days, particularly books about religion. This novel is truly scandalous. It has already ...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. There’s an often-stated, invented fact that men think about sex ...

Times New Roman is one of the most widely used fonts in the modern world, appearing in books, newspapers, academic papers, and digital documents across the globe. But how “Roman” is it really? This ...

Chapel Hille The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Pp. xii, 145. Illus., maps, tables, chron., gloss., append., notes, biblio. $30.00 paper. ISBN:1469664135 ...

Igiaba Scego, an author born in Rome to Somali parents, recommends books that draw readers through the rich layers that make up her hometown. By Igiaba Scego Read Your Way Around the World is a series ...