Alex Keller tells the story of how an unlikely friendship between a Dutch doctor and a young Italian nobleman led to the establishment of the first scientific society, which lent crucial support to the radical ideas of Galileo Galilei.
Richard Hughes uncovers the patriotic efforts of the actor and playwright Noël Coward during the Second World War and argues that he should be remembered for more than merely entertaining the troops.
The return of religion and the West’s current obsession with decline make Roy Porter’s profile of Edward Gibbon, first published in History Today in 1986, curiously dated.
Constructing the Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the River Thames in London: an image analysed by Roger Hudson.
Jonathan Downs reports on the fire last December that caused extensive damage to one of Egypt’s most important collections of historical manuscripts.
