Noah’s Ark and the Slave Trade
After the Flood, Noah’s sons were repurposed to support a new worldview justifying racial hierarchy and slavery.
Renaissance
The Race to Write a History of Naples
The lifelong rivalry of two early modern Neapolitan printers was a battle of books, power, and, ultimately, fire.
‘The Great Exchange’ by Joad Raymond Wren review
The Great Exchange: Making the News in Early Modern Europe by Joad Raymond Wren looks to the 15th century for the birth of the press.
The Hunt for Martin Marprelate
Who was Martin Marprelate, seditious pamphleteer and enemy of the Elizabethan Church and state? And, more importantly, how could he be stopped?
Mental Health and the 17th-Century Ship’s Doctor
Life at sea was hard. An early modern ship’s surgeon had to treat not just broken bones but distress and trauma.
The Speed of Early Modern News
How did Western Europe learn of the fall of Constantinople, the loss of Negroponte, and the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto? In the early modern era all news was slow news.
Renaissance Florence’s Missing Bronzes
The controversial outcome of a sculpture competition between Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti changed the urban fabric of Renaissance Florence – or so the story goes.
The Black Chamber: Opening Europe’s Post
In the febrile political climate of early modern Europe, letters – and the information they contained – were dangerous. Notorious ‘black chambers’ turned postmasters into spies.
Martin Crusius’ Armchair Voyage
The greatest early modern authority on Ottoman Greece was Martin Cruisius – a man who had never left Germany.
Sex Workers and Salvation in the Renaissance
Renaissance Florence had a problem: it wanted female sex workers, but it also needed to offer them a way out. The solution was a new brothel district – and a nunnery for former prostitutes