DAVID J. ROXBURGH, Prefacing the Image: The Writing of Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran, Studies and Sources in Islamic Art and Architecture, vol. 9 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001). Pp. 289. $59.00 cloth.

Extract

The title and publication series of Prefacing the Image initially suggest that it treats a topic of interest only to specialists in art history—a dozen or so rhetorically ornate prefaces composed for bound albums of calligraphies, drawings, and paintings (muraqqaע) during the 16th century. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the scope of this study extends far beyond such disciplinary boundaries. “The primary objective of this book is to study the preface through a variety of approaches—historical, cultural, social, and intellectual” (p. 17). By integrating the album preface into a broad network of social practices and literary discourses, Roxburgh's well-researched and probing study should be of interest not only to art historians but also to any reader with an interest in the cultural and intellectual life of the later Persianate world.