Their capacity for flight is magical, almost animate, reflected in the names by which they are known around the world. In Greek, they are χαρταετοί, paper eagles, and the Germans…

Arguably the first work of fiction to feature a Tyrannosaurus rex, Louis Pope Gratacap’s The New Northland (1915) is at once kaleidoscopic, mischievous, fascinating — and exhausting. Richard Fallon explores…

While vedic astrology offers many tools for calculating the propitious days for all sorts of things, these charts and mnemonics for travelers turn out to be an even more complex…

In an age where a “Great Men of History” school was emerging, it’s no surprise Choice Notes focuses on the peculiarities of the reigns of British monarchs. Areas of interest…

“This magazine . . . does not represent a group. It represents, rather, a movement, a spirit” — or perhaps a “specter”? Whatever the preferred translation, the intention was clear:…

The pedant quickly became one of the most popular caricatures on the stage. By 1600, almost fifty new plays featured a pedant — some by authors who, like Bibbiena, were…