Enlightenment

Titlepage to Athanasius Kircher’s China illustrata, 1667. Public Domain.

Written in the Stars: How Old is China?

Chinese astronomers and the European Jesuits who worked alongside them found evidence of China’s antiquity in the heavens. Others were sceptical: how old was China really?

‘View of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye’, 18th-century engraving. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

God’s Machines: Descartes and Nature

How should we see the natural world? For Descartes it was a mechanism, but a wondrous one.

Frontispiece from Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, 1686. New York Public Library. Public Domain.

Aliens and the Enlightenment

In the 18th century the existence of extraterrestrial life went from debatable hypothesis to fundamental tenet of Enlightenment thought.

‘Washington's Birthday’, by Charles Baugniet, c. 1878. Indianapolis Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘A Revolutionary Friendship’ by Francis D. Cogliano review

A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic by Francis D. Cogliano explores a relationship more complex than that of comrades turned rivals.

Illustration of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, from the Augsburgische Sammlung, by J.M. Roth, 1756. North Wind Pictures/Bridgeman Images.

How the Lisbon Earthquake Shook the Enlightenment

The earthquake that hit Lisbon in 1755 toppled buildings and shook the foundations of the Enlightenment. Was God punishing humanity, or was the disaster man-made?

Pierre Maupertuis, by Jean Daullé, 1741. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Measuring the Shape of the Earth

Was the Earth flatter around the poles or the Equator? In 1735 two expeditions set out to settle a matter of national pride.

A lecture on the nervous system, by C. Bethmont, c.1860. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

A History of Phantom Pain

For centuries, scientists and philosophers used phantom limbs to unravel the secrets of the human mind. While we know phantom pain exists, we still don’t know why.

‘A Contest between Oppression and Reason, On the Best Way of Settleing Debates’ by William O'Keefe, c. 1795. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

‘The End of Enlightenment’ by Richard Whatmore review

Richard Whatmore’s The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis takes the ideals of the 18th century on their terms.

The eruption of Vesuvius depicted in Giovanni Pacini’s opera, L’ultimo giorno di Pompei, 1827. The Getty Research Institute, via Wikipedia.

Volcanoes on Tour: Recreating Vesuvius

In the age of enlightenment, the public developed a taste for sheer spectacle. Suitably awe-inspiring, dazzling versions of the world’s most famous volcano, Vesuvius, could soon be found across Europe and North America.