Notes: Ancient & Early Modern

In "The Book of Books: What Literature Owes the Bible," NYT, 22 December, Marilynne Robinson takes up an issue close to her heart.

Michael Mewshaw reviews Robert Hughes's Rome : A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History for the Washington Post, 23 December. The review is more in the vein of Mary Beard's and Peter Stothard's than of Simon Schama's and others'.

David W. Dunlap, "Types With Plenty of Character," NYT, 23 December, reviews "Printing for Kingdom, Empire & Republic: Treasures From the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale," an exhibit at the Grolier Club in Manhattan.

Darrin M. McMahon, "The Enlightenment's True Radicals," NYT, 23 December, reviews Jonathan I. Israel's Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790.

Eugenia Zuckerman reviews Stuart Isacoff's A Natural History of the Piano : The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians — from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between for the Washington Post, 23 December. Colin Fleming reviews Michael Broyles's Beethoven in America for the Washington Post, 23 December.