A wondrous illuminated manuscript, which gathers and illustrates the marvels of the world and beyond. Source link

For a modern-day reader, the language remains rich and succulent: she prescribes Eel Soop for those that “have a Stew-hole”; dishes are given names like “pigeons transmogrified”; the cookbook genre’s…

Particularly famous for his skill at depicting horses, Zhao believed that he had the ability to capture animals’ inner essence with his brush. The practice of evaluating steeds like this…

It’s curious, for a book purportedly about walking, how much Hessel enjoys whizzing around the city in fast cars and on public transport. During the book’s centrepiece, a longer section…

Illustrations of Javanese wayang kulit puppets with vivid colour and gilding. Source link

Perhaps most surprising, however, especially given Gilman’s own romantic entanglements with women, is that before the men arrive, Herland is entirely sexless. There is no hint of lesbianism here: the…

In the series of exaggeration postcards collected below, it is California that takes center stage. Produced by the prolific San Francisco–based publisher Edward H. Mitchell, each card features a single…

Three centuries later, Foucault argued that Descartes hadn’t just excluded the glass man from his rationality — he had employed him. “The man who imagines he is made of glass…

Moneymaking caricatures by a teenage Monet, before he turned to Impressionism. Source link