When Princess Elisabeth von Hessen-Kassel (1596–1625) was christened in 1596, the festivities lasted four days. There were fireworks displays, knightly tournaments (some of the last ever held in Europe), and…

Perhaps a more revealing aspect of the Manifesto was the claim that: “Before the Portuguese discovered Brazil, Brazil had discovered happiness.” This statement conferred a local imprimatur on a vision…

For Giambattista della Porta, polymath author of Natural Magic (1558), a book of natural philosophy and alchemy filled with magic tricks and scientific experiments, the camera obscura was a space…

A manuscript that pairs illustrations of cats with poetic descriptions and notes on what mystical benefits their owners might hope to accrue. Source link

For Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900), born in Feodosia, Crimea, to Armenian parents and often memorialized as one of the Russian Empire’s great marine painters, capturing the sea usually called for large…

A compilation of historical gifting traditions in England, with a focus on the peculiar. Source link

About the matter of her own deceitfulness, Mary concedes a surprising amount. She claims not to be lying about the big things. She is German and she is innocent —…

In Pliny’s time, Kora’s act of tracing may have been overshadowed, as it were, with the cluster of associations swirling around the word eidolon, which, according to Hagi Kenaan, “held…

The world was supposed to end yesterday, and didn’t. A viral TikTok anxiety trend (aka #rapturetok), this latest Rapture non-starter was predicted by Joshua Mhlakela of South Africa, who, in…