Postscript Academic

28/05/2026

This illustration from a late eighteenth-century Sanskrit manuscript on the characteristics and care of horses is featured in one of our new arrivals for June: ‘The History of Veterinary Medicine and the Animal-Human Relationship’ – from ancient Chinese ‘horse priests’ to ‘snail gardens’ supplying modern French cuisine. Other subjects this month are, religion; history, including a study of the ‘Cold Rush’ to the Arctic; and literature, with a volume of essays on Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poetic legacy. The June catalogue is available now, by post or online at https://www.psbooks.co.uk/catalogue

24/04/2026

When the fourth-century basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls (of Rome) burned down in 1823, the survival of its Gothic ciborium was hailed as a miracle. Two years later Pope Leo XII ordered the church rebuilt as a replica of the old basilica, in which the ciborium now stands. The story of this remarkable – and very expensive – project is told in ‘Rebuilding St Paul’s Outside the Walls’, one of the selection of art and architecture books featured in Postscript’s May catalogue. Other subjects this month are travellers, medieval history and Cardinal Newman. The catalogue is out now, in the post or online: https://www.psbooks.co.uk/catalogue

24/03/2026

The centrepiece of this Soqotran house is the trunk of a zizyphus, an incredibly versatile tree that provides – among other things – the islands’ best timber and fuel, food for camels, climbing for goats and medicine for removing head lice. I didn’t know where Soqotra was or that such a tree existed before ‘Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago’ arrived last week: the book is among the new arrivals in Postscript Academic for April. Postscript’s latest catalogue is out now, in the post or online at: https://www.psbooks.co.uk/catalogue

25/02/2026

A richly detailed and illustrated account of the red-shroud portrait mummy of Herakleides – a young man from Roman Egypt – heads a whole page of archaeological titles in Postscript’s new Academic section for March. Other topics this month include trade and industrial history, music, architecture and, among several religious studies, an account of the ‘Forgotten Englishman’ Thomas Stephens, the only English Jesuit to serve in the seventeenth-century Mission to the East. The March Postscript catalogue is out now, in the post and online.

05/02/2026

These third-century tax collectors going about their business in Rome’s Germanic provinces are pictured on the cover of 'A Cultural History of Money in Antiquity', one of many new arrivals in Postscript’s February catalogue. Now the catalogue has eighty pages, we have a bigger selection of academic titles: this month there are sections of Medieval, Cultural and Chinese history, Film, West meets Middle East, and a page devoted to historical records societies, with local studies from Somerset, Oxford and Devon and Cornwall.

23/12/2025

Appearing in several statues, always wearing a crown and holding a serpent, the Genius of Palermo has been the official symbol of the city since 1489. In ‘Palermo: City of Kings’, Jeremy Dummett discusses this enigmatic figure as he traces the history of the city and describes its many monuments. The book is among the new arrivals in Postscript’s January catalogue, where you’ll find topics ranging from Owain Glyn Dŵr in medieval Wales to mass housing in 21st century China. The catalogue is out now, in the post or online at https://www.psbooks.co.uk/catalogue

26/11/2025

Eltroplectris roseo-alba is one of over 620 orchid species found in an endangered remnant of ancient Atlantic rain forest in Brazil. An important study in ecology and conservation, ‘The Organ Mountain Range’ uses the orchid as a touchstone for the state of the forest. The book is a new arrival in the December issue of Postscript and the orchids join our usual miscellany of subjects – this month including Victorian astronomers, Somerset churches and the London water industry. The new catalogue is out now, in the post or online at: https://www.psbooks.co.uk/catalogue

19/11/2025

A far cry from the usual chorus of disapproval, this study of the slabs and towers of mass housing offers an enthusiastic ‘historical narrative of epic proportions’ focusing on the architectural and state responses to housing requirement and encompassing subjects from urban planning and engineering to postcolonialism. It’s a new arrival in Postscript Academic, available online at https://www.psbooks.co.uk/mass-housing

28/07/2025

Describing everything from getting dressed in the morning to breaking lances in the lists, Antoine de La Sale’s ‘biography’ of Jean de Saintré, follows Jean’s education in love and chivalry under the guidance of the formidable Madame des Belles Cousines. This late medieval French masterpiece features in Postscript’s August catalogue along with studies ranging from classical Greek drama to nineteenth-century Albania. You’ll find them on the academic pages of the new catalogue or on our website: https://www.psbooks.co.uk

Inspiring readers since 1987 with brand new books and unusual titles in fiction, non-fiction, academic, history & children’s. Free UK delivery over £25.

30/06/2025

Among our new arrivals, ‘The Zodiac of Dendera’ caught my attention, mainly because I have been to Dendera but knew nothing of its zodiac. If I’d known where to look I’d have seen the rectangular one (pictured) in the temple ceiling, but the more famous circular zodiac has been in the Louvre in Paris since the 1820s. The book reveals the story of the ancient Egyptian carving and its impact on French intellectual life, from its discovery by the savants travelling with Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, through the cloak-and-dagger story of its removal and the ferocious debates over biblical chronology that it ignited, to the clues it offered Champollion as he strove to decipher hieroglyphics. – Ed.

The zodiac of Dendera was originally embedded in the ceiling of the ancient Egyptian temple and discovered during the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt. Some argued that the zodiac represented the night sky at the time it was carved, allowing astronomy to trac