Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
247 results
  • King Henry VIII granting a Royal Charter to the Barber-Surgeons company. Coloured engraving by W.P. Sherlock, 1817, after H. Holbein, 1542.
  • King Henry VII, holding a sceptre and an orb; below, Elizabeth of York and two putti holding roses. Engraving by J. Hulett, ca. 1750.
  • Jane Shore (mistress of King Edward IV), Henry Hastings (Dorset landowner and sportsman), Jedediah Buxton (mental calculator), and Mary Davis (with horns). Etching, 1808.
  • King Henry II of France on his deathbed, with members of the royal family and the royal household in attendance. Process print after a woodcut.
  • Prince Arthur, the grandson of King Henry II of England, clings to his guardian Hubert de Burgh, who is reluctant to allow the prince to be blinded and mutilated as ordered by King John. Mezzotint by T. Lupton after J. Northcote.
  • King Henry II of France on his deathbed, with members of the royal family and the royal household in attendance. Woodcut by J. Perrissin, ca. 1570.
  • Three hearts under one crown, representing the three princes of Great Britain: Prince Henry, Prince Charles (the later King Charles I) and Princess Elizabeth). Engraving by L. Gaultier, 1612.
  • The monument of King Henry II and Richard I with sculptures representing other members of the families at Font Evraud in Anjou. Engraving with etching by J. Goldar after H. Gravelot, 1813.
  • The exhumed corpse of the French King Henry IV standing bandaged and upright in a coffin in the vaults of the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Line engraving with etching by E. Bovinet, A. Chataigner and T.B. de Jolimont after E.H. Langlois.
  • A man with the head of a fox (Henry Fox) is pulling the king's sedan chair, and calls for help from George Bubb Dodington, who is drinking in an inn. Etching, 1757.
  • An episode in King Henry VI, part II: Margerie Jourdayne with others conjure up a diabolical spirit in the hope of revealing to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester the results of competing claims to the English crown. Etching by J. Goldar, 1791, after E. Dayes.
  • Queen Gunhilda, consort of King Henry III of Germany, receives from her page the severed head of the man who had accused her of adultery, after he had been defeated by the page in combat, but Gunhilda renounces her victory. Engraving by S.F. Ravenet after A. Casali.
  • An episode in King Henry VI, part II: Margerie Jourdayne with others conjure up a diabolical spirit in the hope of revealing to Humfrey Duke of Gloucester the results of competing claims to the English crown. Colour stipple print by C.G. Playter and R. Thew after J. Opie, 1796.
  • Henri of Navarre, King of France shown in four imaginary poses. Drawing, c. 1789.
  • Henri of Navarre, King of France shown in four imaginary poses. Drawing, c. 1789.
  • Asphodeline lutea Rchb. Yellow asphodel, King's spear, Hastula regia. Hardy rhizomatous perennial. Distribution Mediterranean and Caucasus. It is the flower of the dead, as Homer writes that it carpets an area in the gloomy darkness of the underworld (Hades), in Greek mythology where the souls of the dead are found. However this may be a misinterpretation of the Greek where 'Asphodel' has been read instead of 'ash-filled'. In the etymology of flower names, it is suggested that the yellow 'daffodil' is a corruption of French or Flemish 'de asphodel' (both ex Steve Reece, 2007). An Aristotelian epigram, refers to it growing on tombs: 'On my back I hold mallow and many-rooted asphodel ...' The asphodel was sacred to Persephone, goddess of the underworld, who was seized and wed by Hades, god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom. Her disappearance brings the winter, and her reappearance each year, the spring. The only reliable source of information about its early medical uses is, probably, Dioscorides although the plant in his De Materia Medica may be A. ramosus or A. albus. He gives its properties as diuretic, induces menses, good for coughs and convulsions, an antidote to snake bite, applied as a poultice for sores of all sorts, and in compounds for eye, ear and tooth pains, and to cure alopecia and vitiligo, but induces diarrhoea and vomiting and is an anti-aphrodisiac. Fuchs (1542), as Ruel’s commentaries (1543) note, makes a big mistake as he has Lilium martagon as his concept of A. luteus. Ruel only illustrates its leaves and roots, calling it Hastula regia (Latin for King’s spear) but Matthiolus's Commentaries (1569 edition) has a reasonable woodcut also as Hastula regia (1569). Dodoen's Cruydeboeck (1556) does not mention or illustrate Asphodelus luteus. L'Escluse's French translation Histoire des Plantes (1557) follows the Cruydeboeck. Dodoen's Latin translation Stirpium Historia Pemptades Sex (1583) adds A. luteus with text and woodcut, with no uses. Henry Lyte's (1578) translation illustrates Asphodelus luteus as Asphodeli tertia species and 'Yellow affodyl' (vide etymology of 'daffodil') and also does not describe any uses for it. Gerard's translation The Herbal (1597 and 1633) continues the muddle and does not give any uses for this plant. Parkinson's comments (1640) on the lack of medicinal properties of asphodels, refer to quite different plants coming from wet areas in Lancashire, Scotland and Norway . He calls them pseudoasphodelus major and minor which he writes are called Asphodelus luteus palustris by Dodoens, and not 'King's Spear' which he illustrates with a good woodcut of A. luteus and calls it Asphodelus luteus minor. Once herbals started to be written in northern Europe, the knowledge of the arid loving, Asphodelus luteus of south east Europe was lost. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Henri IV of France touching the head of a kneeling man for the king's evil (scrofula). Line engraving.
  • The church of San Lorenzo, Florence, with funerary decorations to mark the death of King Henri IV of France. Etching, 1610.
  • Caesar Nostradamus reveals to Marie de' Medici a vision of King Henri IV as her future husband. Etching by N. Ransonnette, 1782.
  • King Henri IV and Queen Marie de' Medici are submerged in the Seine in an accident when crossing the river in carriages. Etching.
  • Henri Duc de Guise has his hand trapped in a split tree trunk when the two parts of the tree are brought together, contrary to Nature; the tree representing the family tree of the kings of France, which diverges into a Valois branch and a Bourbon (Navarre) branch. Etching.
  • Scrotum of an Australian Aborigine who has undergone ceremonial penile subincision
  • Australian Aborigine with ceremonial scarrification of the torso and arms
  • The standard of weights and measures in the Exchequer : Anno 12o. Henrici Septimi / From the original table formerly in the Treasury of the Kings Exchequer at Westminster, and preserved in the M.S. Library of the late Earl of Oxford.
  • Historia regni Henrici Septimi, Angliae Regis. Opus vere politicum / [Francis Bacon].
  • An historical account of the origin, progress, and present state of Bethlem Hospital. Founded by Henry the eighth, for the cure of lunatics, and enlarged ... for the reception and maintenance of incurables / [Thomas Bowen].
  • The history of creation, or, The development of the earth and its inhabitants by the action of natural causes : a popular exposition of the doctrine of evolution in general, and of that of Darwin, Goethe and Lamarck in particular / from the German of Ernst Haeckel ; the translation revised by Professor E. Ray Lankester.
  • The history of creation, or, The development of the earth and its inhabitants by the action of natural causes : a popular exposition of the doctrine of evolution in general, and of that of Darwin, Goethe and Lamarck in particular / from the German of Ernst Haeckel ; the translation revised by Professor E. Ray Lankester.
  • A Scottish soldier stands holding his rifle. Colour process print after C.T. Howard, ca. 1915.
  • A Scottish soldier stands holding his rifle. Colour process print after C.T. Howard, ca. 1915.