This painting from 1494 is possibly a depiction of the famed Lucrezia Borgia appearing as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The oxymoronic nature of such a depiction is obvious if we have heard of the many legends (incest, poisonings, etc) of this _femme fatale_. Of course, many of the tales are completely unproven, and probably can […]
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Kite flying was first recorded in Ancient China. Among the earliest accounts includes a story of the famed general Han Xin (d. 196 BCE), one of the most important leaders to establish China’s influential and long-lasting Han Dynasty. Desiring to tunnel under a city wall he was trying to conquer, Han Xin figured out the
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Western History has no corner in the market for crazy leaders, as the example of Gao Yang (aka the Emperor Wenxuan) shows. Ruling for only nine years (r. 550-559 CE) in the tumultuous and short-spanned Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang would have given Nero a run for his money. Known for his narcissistic, unpredidictable, and
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Death by hanging was practiced in the UK until the abolition of the death penalty in 1964/5. Those who befell this execution did not all die easily, sometimes gasping for breath for a quarter of an hour before their lives mercifully ended. This is why the contraption invented by a man from Early Modern England,
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In 1863, only four and a half months after the tide had turned for the Union armies in the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln gave the iconic “Gettsyburg Address” speech close to where this photo was taken. In just 271 words, he artfully articulated the goal of the United States government as one that
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When Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon fifty years ago, one of their ritualistic actions was to place memorabilia on the surface that honored both American and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in their pursuit of forwarding humanity’s quest for discovery in outer space. One of the cosmonauts was Vladimir Komarov, pictured
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Maybe if you just ate you should skip on past this post, and don’t squint too hard at the image along the way . . . On the other hand (no pun intended), if you’ve decided to keep reading, then you might notice that the bright red figure on the bed is actually having his
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Displayed here are the “Amanita Phalloides,” the “Death Cap” mushrooms responsible for 90% of fatalities caused by mushroom poisonings in the world today, and favored by assassins historically. The fungi are said to be delicious, and their toxicity lasts regardless of cooking, freezing, or drying. But the Death Caps’ common looks and tasty flavor belie
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This late 15th-c illustration shows a man preparing a mixture called “Theriac,” which for over a millennia was perhaps the most valued curative substance (or so it was advertised) across Eurasia. You can see the snakes unfurling under the man’s feet: they’re there representing the serpentine venom the ancient recipe demanded. Another crucial ingredient was
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Five thousand years ago, ancient Middle Eastern Mesopotamian civilizations developed the written word, and this invention galvanized other areas of culture such as literature and the visual arts. And so we see seals — such as the one here made of shell from the Akkadian period (2334-2154 BCE) — which often showcased religious and political
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The smallpox vaccination has been one of the greatest contributions science has made to better the human condition. Although Edward Jenner has justly earned credit for his development of the vaccine, an 18th-century British aristocratic woman named Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) also deserves recognition. Montagu was a “Turkophile,” and published many writings critiquing the confining
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Original printing of _Leviathan_, published in 1651 and written by the English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (d. 1679). This classic pronouncement of human nature as basically selfish, competitive, and violent emerged during a period of civil war and corresponding endemic violence in Hobbes’ homeland. For him, humanity was doomed to a life that was “nasty,
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Ching Shih might have been the most powerful and successful pirate in history. Born in 1775, she was brought up as a prostitute in the wanning years of the Qing Dynasty. As the ability of the central government to provide stability dissolved, ad-hoc mafia-esque alliances among profiteers arose, and piracy proved to be one of
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Empress Catherine the Great of Russia (r. 1729-1796) is part of history’s extremely small club of super talented and successful female political leaders. She considered herself both a fan of the Enlightenment and an autocrat – like other women in her situation, she was aware her position would constantly be threatened because of her gender,
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The interpretation of art highly depends on context. This figurine from the late Classical Maya world (600-900CE), for instance, might appear to modern viewers as a seated woman with a pained expression: indeed, the figure has a hunched back. The statue might even evoke pity in us — but these impressions and sentiments were probably
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Leaders in the European Middle Ages issued coins as a kind of aspirational statement of stable power. After all, currency is only as successful as a community’s faith in its worth. But what happens when a leader goes out of favor, or dies? This is a photo of coins issued by two English kings, one
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“The Priestess of Delphi,” by John Collier (1891). This haunting painting of one of the famous oracles from Ancient Greece – known as the Sibyls – is reflective of the lack of certainty modern scholars have about what specific prophecies the oracles pronounced. We know that the Romans truly believed that one of the Sibyls
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During the nearly half a millenia that the Ottoman Sultans governed their Empire, leaders’ talents of course varied, and predicting what sort of ruler the next Sultan might be could be guesswork. Two phenomena that developed at the top levels of state governance, however, tended to throw the odds in the negative direction. The first
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Suicide has been met with approbation, criticism, horror, or distain, depending on the culture and circumstance of the act. In the Ancient Mediterranean world, elite people who were condemned to death by the state – or facing eminent death by political opponents – thought of suicide as a more honorable path. Pictured here is “Sofonisba
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Magic isn’t real, but people have believed it to be, and that makes quite a difference. For instance, at the seventeenth-century French court of Louis XIV, social anxiety among aristocrats jockying for power led to a tense and violent use of magic, fortune-telling, Black Masses, and secetive murders. Over 400 people were implicated in “L’affaire
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