Volume 46 Issue 2 February 1996

Charlemagne in Italy

The celebrated King of the Franks may have become the first Holy Roman Emperor, but what other impact and legacies did he leave Dark Age Italy? Ross Balzaretti investigates.

Fenimore Cooper's America

Alan Taylor examines how the social concerns and ambitions of the new republic and those of the author of Last of the Mohicans intertwined - and how they gave him the canvas to become the United States' first great novelist.

Scottish Architects in Tsarist Russia

The role of British architects in 19th century Russia: Jeremy Howard and Sergei Kuznetsov reveal how the pleasantest sight that some of Dr Johnson's Scotsmen saw was not the high road to England but the sea passage to Russia, where they found fame and fortune making a key contribution to urban remodelling and architecture.