Religion

Purgatory, miniature from the Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly/Bridgeman Images.

The 18th-Century Search for the Soul

Is the soul immortal, or does it die with the body? At the turn of the 18th century, amateur theologians like Henry Layton began to speculate, much to experts’ chagrin.

The martyrdom of English Carthusian monks in 1535, engraving, Rome, 1555. Trustees of the British Museum.

How the Carthusians Resisted the Reformation

The consequences of Carthusian defiance showed the brutality of the dissolution of the monasteries.

Fresco depicting the Donation of Constantine, Santo Quattro Coronati, Rome, 13th century. Heritage Images/TopFoto.

The Medieval Forgery at the Heart of the Church

An audacious forgery in the ninth century helped transform the papacy and the medieval Church. Its influence persists today.

The Sacrifice of Polyxena, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, c.17th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘On the Altar’ by Jonathan Sheehan review

On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular by Jonathan Sheehan places bloodletting at the heart of Western thought.

Shaikh San'an and the Christian Maiden, from Mantiq al-Tayr, Farid al-Din `Attar, c.1600. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

On the Spot: Nile Green

‘Why am I a historian of global Islam? I try to understand how different cultures do, and don’t, understand each other.’

Members of the Iranian armed forces commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, Persepolis, October 1971. Popperfoto/Getty Images.

‘The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution That Followed’ review

In The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution That Followed Robert Templer reveals the hubristic high point of the Pahlavi regime’s self-regard.

An Allegory of the Triumph over Heresy, with St. Domenic to the Fore, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, c.1650-60. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Cheese and the Worms’ by Carlo Ginzburg review

A new translation marks the 50th anniversary of Carlo Ginzburg’s pioneering microhistory The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.