The Jesuits and the Arts 1540-1773

The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540–1773 is the first survey ever published of the Jesuits’ global artistic enterprise in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, from the foundation of the Society of Jesus in 1540 to its suppression in 1773. Here the Jesuits’ extraordinary commitment to the arts—the subject of a groundswell of recent scholarly work—comes spectacularly alive, with 476 full color, high resolution images of Jesuit buildings, paintings, sculpture, theatrical sets, and music from around the globe, many of them published here for the first time.

Philadelphia’s Jesuit University: 150 Years

David R. Contosta

In telling the story of Saint Joseph’s, David R. Contosta examines five intertwined and shifting forces that have shaped the university since its founding in the mid-nineteenth century. These are the fortunes of Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Roman Catholic Church, the overall development of American higher education, and a welter of external events during 15 decades of national and world history.

 

 

A Man to Heal Differences:
Essays and Talks on St. Francis de Sales
Elisabeth C. Stopp

No scholar has done more than the late Elisabeth C. Stopp to make St. Francis de Sales known, understood, and appreciated in the English-speaking world in the 20th century. This volume collects ten talks and essays by Dr. Stopp delivered or published over the past thirty years. These pieces focus on De Sales' education at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont in Paris, attitudes to friendship, literary art, ecumenism, reception in Anglican England, and links with other major figures of the Christian tradition.

Just Man, Husband of Mary, Guardian of Christ:
An Anthology of Readings from Jerónimo Gracián's Summary of the Excellencies of St. Joseph (1597)

After St. Teresa of Ávila had been cured of a crippling illness through the intercession of St. Joseph, she labored tirelessly to spread devotion to this saint. The Discalced Carmelite friar Jerónimo Gracián (1545-1614) made a major contribution to the realization of this dimension of the Teresian apostolate by publishing his Summary of the Excellencies of St. Joseph (1597), which became the most important and popular treatise on St. Joseph of the early modern period.

 

Mexican Devotional Retablos
From The Peters Collection

The Peters Collection is a permanent exhibition of forty-four Mexican devotional retablos (oil paintings on tin), two 19th-century Mexican oil-on-canvas paintings, and two Philippine bultos (statues). In 1993, this remarkable collection was presented to Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia by Joseph and Ruth Peters, longtime retablo collectors and connoisseurs.

Patron Saint of the New World:
Spanish American Colonial Images of St. Joseph

A catalogue of an exhibition held at Saint Joseph's University in spring 1992, this volume contains essays on the contribution of St. Teresa of Ávila and of St. Francis de Sales to the development of devotion to St. Joseph and on Joseph's iconography in Golden-Age and Colonial Spanish art. It also includes photographs of each of the works exhibited, as well as a preface by the renowned Spanish art historian Santiago Sebastián, biobibliographical notes, and suggestions for further reading.

Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction, 2nd Edition
Office of the City Controller, City of Philadelphia
Jonathan Saidel
Foreword by Edward G. Rendell

Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction poses the question: What must city government do to make the City of Philadelphia a preferred place to live, work, and play into the next century? Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction, Second Edition builds upon the impressive work of the initial publication and presents an update of Philadelphia’s economic, budgetary, and social condition.