This stained-glass window from the Royal Society of London shows the Latin motto of one of the world’s most important science institutions: “NULLIUS IN VERBA,” which means “take nobody’s word for it.” This admonition is a central premise of the scientific method, stressing that knowledge should not be determined by unproven authority and confirmation bias. […]
The Royal Society of London Read More »
So this lady looks unusually serene, especially in light of the fact that she’s using the blood of her own severed foot (!!!!) to write a letter to her husband. This is the heroine Hypermnestra, and in the Roman poet Ovid’s rendition of her tale, she pleads with her husband to come save her from
Heroine Hypermnestra and Her Loyalty Read More »
Ghost stories have been an important part of China’s culture for centuries. As shown from this 14th-century Yuan Dynasty tomb, beliefs about ghosts can be seen in the visual arts, as well as in written sources. One of the most prominent types of undead spirits were the “Jiang Shi,” which were zombie-like reanimated beings. The
Jiang Shi Spirits from Chinese Culture Read More »
What drives us to learn? Are people with unusual intellectual capabilities also predisposed to want to use them? The case of Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) raises these questions, because she possessed a rarified mind in an era when women of her social class were expected to marry and attend to domestic affairs rather than academic
Maria Gaetana Agnesi and the Desire to Learn Read More »
Dude underwear in the Middle Ages is something we actually know about. Commonly made out of linen (from the flax plant – but that’s material (*groan*) for another day), men wore versions of undershirts and boxers that tended to be loose and long (knee-length), but tied or tucked as the situation warranted. The undergarments were
Men’s Underwear in Medieval Europe Read More »
In our current social climate, it can seem that confidence in the scientific method and trust in the expertise of professionals are being challenged for the first time. Is it good news or bad, then, to realize that this is not the case? Strap in, ladies and gents, as I introduce you to _The Cellular
Cyrus Tweed’s “The Earth a Concave Sphere” Read More »
Here you see an illustration of one of the most important medical textbooks in history: Avicenna’s _Canon of Medicine_. Written by 1025 CE, the _Canon_ represented a pinnacle of scientific progress in the Golden Age of Islam. Avicenna synthesized knowledge from the Ancient Greeks and Romans, Ancient and Medieval India, China, and Persian Muslim traditions
The Golden Age of Islam’s “Canon of Medicine” Read More »
The most important work on magic in Medieval Europe has a title that sounds like a Pokemon: _Picatrix_. Written in Arabic in the melting-pot culture of Islamic Spain, _Picatrix_ is a bewildering text that draws from Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Islamic, and other traditions. It is a hot mess organizationally, but three big emphases are the
Picatrix – The Melting Pot of Medieval Times Read More »
The scratchings you see on this picture are not my students’ writings, which makes me glad for two reasons. First, they are written in Ancient Romano-British Latin. Second, the lead tablet shown here records a ritualistic curse — it is a type of item found widespread in the Ancient world. 130 examples alone, dating from
Ancient Romano-British Ritualistic Curses Read More »
The “Ship of Theseus” is a philosophical thought experiment dating from the Ancient Greeks, and if you give it a minute, it might blow your mind. Writers such as the first-century essayist Plutarch construed the puzzle like this: imagine that the famed hero Theseus brought his ship home safely, and it was preserved for the
Ancient Greek “Ship of Theseus” Read More »
This is an ink portrait of the famed Chinese demon-hunter Zhong Kui. It was done by the Shunzhi Emperor Fulin in the mid 17th-century, and the fact that a Chinese ruler would find such a hero compelling enough to paint testifies to the importance of Zhong Kui’s legends. In myths stretching back as far as
Chinese Demon-Hunter Zhong Kui Read More »
So this is a post about a children’s nursery rhyme. The burning of Protestants by “Bloody” Queen Mary (d. 1588) made a mark on the English, and some of this legacy still lingers today in the children’s nursery rhyme “Three Blind Mice.” Many folklorists believe the tune’s reference to a wife was actually code for
Historical Story of Children’s Nursery Rhyme “Three Blind Mice” Read More »
Here is Charon, ferryman of the dead in Ancient mythology, as he steers his boat in the underworld along the river Styx. The Greeks and Romans who believed in this underworld also subscribed to a gloomy or frightening view of the afterlife, one which humans were subject to the whims of the Gods, who also
Charon – The Ferryman of the Dead Read More »
Over three thousand years ago, in the Fertile Crescent that stretched from the eastern Mediterranean seaboard to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, legends about horrific floods sent by the Gods to destroy humankind became prominent. For instance, in the literary works _Atrahasis_, the Bible, and _The Epic of Gilgamesh_, a single hero and his family
The Fertile Crescent and Attempts to Destroy Mankind Read More »
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, baptism for infants arose early in the Christian Middle Ages, and signaled to all witnesses that the child had been admitted into the grace of God. “Team God” was obviously the side everyone wanted to be on, but it raised a problem — when Christians opposed each other, whose
Emperor Constantine and His Nickname “Kopronymous” Read More »
In Early Medieval Europe, to have a book meant you were fantastically wealthy. But to commission a book such as the one featured here meant you were at the pinnacle of society. This manuscript is the _Codex Argenteus_, and it is among the most important human-made objects created in sixth-century Europe. Parchment was expensive and
The Codex Argenteus Read More »
We are approaching that holiday time of the year again: Saturnalia is almost upon us! The Ancient Romans celebrated this winter solstice festival for several days in late December. Although it was a religious festival, Romans thought of it as a fun, carnival time, when gifts were exchanged and lots of food consumed. The fifth-century
Ancient Roman Celebration of Saturnalia Read More »
Happy St. Lucy’s Day! Would you like to celebrate by meditating on gouged-out eyeballs? In a tradition stemming from the Middle Ages, saints who had been martyred were frequently shown in artwork with either the instrument of death (Lucy was also stabbed — see the knife?), or the body parts in their story recieving the
Saint Lucy and Her Traditional Celebrations Read More »
About two months ago, in my small town of south-central Pennsylvania, people gathered for a municipal board hearing to debate whether we should stop putting fluoride in our public water supply as a preventative measure against tooth decay. Loads of scientific evidence is easily available for the critical reader to make up her mind on
Struggles of Relieving Medieval Tooth Aches and Decay Read More »
It’s a common joke that the human genitalia have their own minds that act like second brains, but some Early Modern scientists evidently thought the opposite was also true. The seventeenth- and sixteenth century anatomists Thomas Willis, Matteo Realdo Columbo, Isbrand van Diemerbroeck, and Thomas Bartholin named different parts of the body’s seat of intelligence
The Sexual Naming of the Human Brain Read More »
