You are looking at a Colonial American recipe for abortion. Published in 1748, it was not the only at-home herbal abortifacient of the time, but it was one of the most well read. And given the publisher, that makes sense — it was Ben Franklin. Eager to adapt a British guidebook that had set out […]
A Colonial Recipe for Abortion Read More »
So, I was looking up some information about the 13th-century thinker Roger Bacon the other day (as one does), and I came across a popular legend associated with the scholar in the Early Modern Period. It was a story about a magical automaton made of brass in the shape of a man’s head that could
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I know a joke isn’t funny after you explain it, but at least after reading this you might find phlogiston humorous (and also, I just made a pun). Phlogiston isn’t real, but Early Modern scientists thought it was. They used it as a way to explain the ash or calx (for metals) residue after something
This marble bust of the French philosopher Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet 1694-1778) was crafted by the admiring artist Jean-Antoine Houdin, who rendered the famed thinker multiple times during his artistic career. This bust shows Voltaire vulnerable in his old age, yet with a wry expression of humor that speaks to his legendary intelligence and abrasive
“At one glanceI love youWith a thousand heartsLet the zealots thinkLoving is sinfulNever mindLet me burn in the hellfireOf that sin”This is just one snippet of a poem from an unusual source: Mihrî Hatun of the Ottoman Empire (1460-1515). In a place and time where most written voices were of men, the _meclis_ were intellectual
Mihri Hatun the Early Modern Ottoman Woman Poet Read More »
Yesterday, Shippensburg’s special collections librarian James Sterner gave a presentation about the history of book printing in Early Modern Europe. The university recently recieved a collection of rare books, including a 1609 copy of an English translation of Josephus’s _History of the Wars_.James Sterner used this copy to discuss the process of printing at this
Early Modern Book Printing Presentation Read More »
“Born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” is a common expression that means your family is rich. The origins of this saying go a long way back, and are connected to a tradition of giving silver spoons to infants getting baptized into the Christian faith. Wiktionary traces the first recorded statement to a 1721
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One of the most fascinating monsters in human cultures is the ghoul — here, you see a particularly nasty one about to be done in by the hero Shah Namah in a 10th-century Persian manuscript. The legends of ghouls extend back in time to the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula, but have persisted into modern times, much
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The effects of relentless (often religious-based) warfare in 16th-first half of 17th centuries brought horrifying new ways to suffer and die. Due to the widespread emergence of firearms and cannons, soldiers faced gunshot wounds, burns (often caused when the equipment blew up on the combatants intending to use their weapons), and loss of limbs. Although
Medical Advancements in Early Modern European Warfare Read More »
In the wake of the Protestant Reformation in Europe (c.a. 1500-1650), warfare changed dramatically. Shown by this illustration from 1535 with two men loading fieldguns (look how fancy these cannon-sized weapons are), firearms were a major feature. Cannons and handguns replaced pikes and plate-mail armored soldiers, resulting in combats that were less direct, but caused
Innovations in Early Modern Warfare Read More »
From the 1500s through the middle of the 1600s, near constant warfare beleagured Europe, taking on new horrifying expressions. This picture shows one moment where the fighting got so bad that people put aside their differences to ally themselves with one another in order to have a break from the violence — a brief episode
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My vote for the uttermost macabre U.S. state motto goes to Maryland. It comes from the original seal of the state dating to the early 1600s, which bears the words running across the horizontal banner below the two male figures, stating “FATTI MASCHII PAROLE FEMINE,” and we’re just gonna need a minute to process this.
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This painting is breathtaking — especially when you consider that an artist painted the original in about 1535 — this is a copy from the first part of the 1600s. Entitled “Vädersolstavlan,” the Swedish name translates into “The Sun-Dog Painting” and may be the first artistic rendering of this celestial phenomenon. Sun-dogs happen in the
Sun-dogs, Astrology, and Apocalyptic Thought in the Italian Renaissance Read More »
There is a very long history of apocalyptic thinking in the history of Christianity, and one particularly strident episode came in the wake of the Protestant Reformation — specifically with regards to Martin Luther, who truly believed the End Times were imminent. Interpreted through Luther’s lens of European religious trends in the early 16th century,
Martin Luther and Apocalyptic Thought in the Italian Renaissance Read More »
Here you see a modern artist’s rendition of a mythical Malaysian evil tiger spirit called “hantu belian,” which the Malay peoples believed would possess a person’s body and make them commit great violence while they were unconsious. This belief in hantu belian’s destructive powers was pervasive enough that they formed the origin story of the
Hantu Belian and Running Amok Read More »
One of the unique features of human nature is that we are often motivated to do extreme actions — both good and bad — because of ideas. This drawing illustrates one of the uprisings leading to the Haitian Revolution, when slaves revolted against their masters and eventually established a slave-free state. (1791-1804). The slaves —
The Hatian Revolution and Hegel Read More »
In the late 1600s, a young wealthy Englishwoman decided to lead a very different life than her aristocratic sisters: this was one Celia Finnes (1662-1741), who decided not to marry and instead to travel all over the countryside on horseback — for over two decades. Celia Finnes had a couple servants who joined her, but
This is the face of Queen Nanny of the Maroons, a hero so important to Jamaican history that she earned her visage on the $500 Jamaican bill. Living from indeterminate dates from the 1600s to 1700s, accounts of Queen Nanny largely come from oral histories and are difficult to pin down with certainty. She probably
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Stories from the French Revolution leave a physical mark even in the southern French countryside. Here are two episodes that reflect the violence of the counter-revolution and explain the reasons that the peasantry revolted in the first place. The last three images show an aristocratic mansion and fortress in the small mountainside village of Banne.
You are looking at the cover of one of the very first science-fiction novels. Written by the astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1608 (but published posthumously), _Somnium_ (“the dream”) tells the story of a youth named Duracotcus who undertakes a journey to study with the astronomer Tycho Brahe. When Duracotus returns home, his mother explains to
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