Thursday's Notes

Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth,"Cruel windfall: How wars, plagues, and urban disease propelled Europe's rise to riches," vox, 29 July, presents the argument of two economists that war, disease, and urban death enriched pre-modern Europe.

Jonathan Jones,"The Virgin of the Rocks: Da Vinci decoded," Guardian, 13 July, follows discussions arising from the restoration of the altarpiece at the National Gallery. See also: Jones,"Leonardo Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks – more to Mary than meets the eye?" On Art, 14 July.

Joseph Phelan,"Edgy Elizabeth Barrett Browning," TLS, 14 July, reviews Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Brownings' Correspondence XVII, February 1851–January 1852, Philip Kelly, et al., eds.; and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 5 vols., Sandra Donaldson, et al., eds.

Adam Kirsch,"The Prose and the Passion," TNR, 13 July, reviews Wendy Moffat's A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster and Frank Kermode's Concerning E.M. Forster.

David Wheatley,"Louis MacNeice and friends," TLS, 14 July, reviews Jonathan Allison, ed., Letters of Louis MacNeice.