Books like Roma amor by Jean Marcadé

A series of spiritual exercises for leading a meaningful life, 2,000 years old and still relevant today.

A seminal 16th‑century Italian treatise, The Prince offers practical guidance for rulers, arguing that ends can justify morally dubious means to secure power and glory.

Kate Croy, a young American woman in London, schemes to secure a future with the amateur financier Merton Densher by courting the wealthy, ill Milly Theale; her plan highlights ambition, love, and tragedy.

Taking Positions is an exploration of the place of the erotic in Renaissance art and culture, focusing on a notorious set of images created by the young Italian master Giulio Romano. In the early 1520s, Giulio made sixteen drawings of couples in various sexual positions. Known as I modi (the positions), the drawings were first circulated privately and then made into engravings that were distributed publicly. Only then did authorities begin to consider I modi obscene and threatening, going so far as to jail the engraver. Modeled in part on classical sources, Giulio's drawings themselves became a model for erotica throughout the sixteenth century, first legitimized with a cover of ancient mythology, then later transformed into strange anatomical figures of the female body. The book is generously illustrated and includes full translations of the infamous sonnets that Pietro Aretino wrote to accompany I modi. Exploring such issues as censorship, religious teachings about sex, and the influence of antique culture, Taking Positions is a major contribution to our understanding of the erotic in Renaissance culture.

When Hoshino meets Negishi for the first time, he asks her out on a date. Negishi agrees to allow him to walk her home and, along the way, he explains why he is in love with her. Touched, Negishi begins to feel something for this strangely honest boy from her school.