Cultural

Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland celebrates its 400th anniversary in 1992. John McGurk discusses the history of the college, set up for the cultivation of virtue and religion.

Peter Burke looks at how images and the image-makers made the Sun King appear as the larger-than-life 'top ruler' of 17th-century Europe.

Kenneth Asch on Prague's memento to the great composer

Richard Cavendish looks at all things Stuart in the month when Charles I lost his head.

Akbar Ahmed looks at the legacy of a Moorish past for the present Spain.

David Lowenthal looks at how landscape has shaped and reflects the English view of themselves.

New insights in Celtic history in Europe

Business with pleasure - Steven Gunn shows how the spectacle of the joust oiled the wheels of service and diplomacy as well as building up the court's image, not just for Henry VIII but for his dynasty-founding father as well.

William Sessions on the connections of the charismatic courtier-poet who in a short and ill-fated life bridged the aristocratic Renaissance cultures of the Continent and the lifestyle of Henry VIII's court.

Akbar Ahmed offers the most timely review of how history and stereotype have often combined to make Western Orientalism a hindrance rather than a help in mutual understanding between two cultures.