No work has challenged its readers like Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”—by turns iconoclastic, bizarre, and unprecedented—have been employed as the slogans of stude
From diesel to gerrymandering, the English language is rich with eponyms—words that are named after an individual. The many histories behind these words are often mesmerizing—a word named,
Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” is one of the most important documents in legal history. Originating in 1215 as a peace treaty between King John and a group of rebellious barons at Runnymede, it put
Most of us are aware that the words for some of our most important concepts stem from ancient Greek roots—words such as geometry, democracy, technology, and aesthetics. But lesser known is the w
The much-loved tales from The Thousand and One Nights first appeared in English translation in the early nineteenth century, based on French translations of versions of the stories found in Syrian and
A royal physician and fellow of the Royal Society, Martin Lister was an extraordinarily prolific natural historian with an expertise in shells and mollusks. Disappointed with the work of established a
This rare, first-hand account by a staunch defender of slavery provides insight into the mind of one of its chief beneficiaries. Crow emerges as a complex, larger-than-life, self-assured, but deeply
For a zitty face: take urine eight days old and heat it over the fire; wash your face with it morning and night. In late medieval England, ordinary people, apothecaries, and physicians gathered up pra
While Jeu de paume has been played in France for hundreds of years and was associated with the French and English medieval and renaissance courts, the modern game of tennis dates from 1874, when the
The range of J. R. R. Tolkien’s talents is remarkable. Not only was he an accomplished linguist and philologist, as well as a scholar of Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature and Norse folklore, b
Designer Bookbinders is one of the foremost bookbinding societies and its International Bookbinding Competition in association with Mark Getty and the Bodleian Library continues to attract top binders
Early manuscripts in the English language included religious works, plays, romances, poetry, and songs, as well as charms, notebooks, and scientific documents. Given this vast array, how did scribes c
From Arthur Conan Doyle to Charles Dickens, Colin Dexter to Kenneth Grahame, writers and artists have often taken inspiration from the River Thames. Gathering poetry, artwork, and short excerpts from
Since its founding, the Bodleian Library has become home to treasures from throughout history and every corner of the globe. From among this remarkable and historically rich collection, David Vaisey h
Ambrose Bierce, journalist and former soldier for the Union army in the Civil War, began writing satirical definitions for the San Francisco Wasp in 1881, and later for the San Francisco Examiner, lau
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815–52), daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron and the highly educated Anne Isabella, is sometimes called the world’s first computer programmer, and she has
A niece of Jane Austen and a novelist herself, Catherine Hubback was fifty-two years old when she left England for America. She travelled to California on the Transcontinental Railroad and settled in
The Bodleian Library is home to one of the world’s largest and oldest collections of maps, with atlases, maps, and books on cartography dating back to the fourteenth century, including many that are a
Between 1945 and 1961, an estimated 2.5 million people fled East Germany in search of the political and economic freedom offered by West Germany. To thwart this tide of defections, on the morning of
Where would Winston Churchill be without his bow-tie and V-for-victory sign, Yasser Arafat without his kefiyah, Charles de Gaulle without his kepi and cigarette, Ho Chi Minh without his long straggly
Veronica is your average hippopotamus with a big dream: she wants to become famous. But with so many hippopotamuses wallowing in the cool mud and swimming and splashing in the clear water along the ri
Anthony Wood (1632–95) was an English historian and antiquary best known for his books on the history and antiquities of the University of Oxford as well as Athenae Oxonienses: an Exact History of all
Where have all the royals gone? The royal houses of Europe, Africa, and Asia once ruled continents and the dominions beyond the seas. Today, only a few monarchs still reign in Europe, their powers si
When World War II drew to a close, British servicemen were sent to France to assist in the liberation and recovery of their war-ravaged ally, and a small but indispensable guidebook was packed into t
The (very) hungry goat has a big appetite that gets him into all kinds of adventures. He’ll eat anything, from pig swill to flies, bugs, and bees; from frying pans to barbed wire and the bark of
The sun is round and hot and glowing. An orange is round on the tree where it’s growing. Many things in the natural world are round—the sun, the moon, a bird’s nest with three
In 1942, the United States War Department distributed a handbook to American servicemen that advised them on the peculiarities of the "British, their country, and their ways." Over sixty years later,
