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  • Article

Restoring disorder to ‘The Book of Disquiet’

Printer Tim Hopkins explains what making an extraordinary new edition of Fernando Pessoa’s book revealed about both the text and the mind.

  • Book extract

Winter blues and the story of SAD

In ‘Chasing the Sun‘ Linda Geddes reveals why for some people, winter is literally depressing, showing how we first came to recognise seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

  • Book extract

Eating their own kind

In his grisly history of cannibalism, zoologist Bill Schutt asks what drives an animal to feast on its own flesh and blood.

  • Article

Mapping the body

These intricate anatomical drawings show how Ayurveda practitioners have explored the human body and how it works.

All stories (26)

Images

  • A selection of text from the Adi Granth. This example was probably transcribed by a Kashmiri scribe in gurmukhi script and used as a prayer book for personal devotions.
  • European priest carrying a book and holding a rosary. At the top of the page is written Faranswa-e Pariz (Francois, the Parisian). Under the minature is writen Hakim Murtaza Husayn, probably the priests Persian name. The front of a double-sided qit'a, a piece or selection or fragment of poetry or prose mounted and given as gifts or used as wall decorations
  • Selection of books from the Royal Dutch Collection.
  • The historical antiquities of Hertfordshire. With the original of counties, hundreds or wapentakes and hamlets; the foundation and origin of monasteries, churches, and vicarages; the several honors, mannors, and parks of the nobility and gentry; and the succession of the lords each. Faithfully collected from public records, ancient manuscripts and other select authorities / Together with an exact transcript of Domesday-book, so far as concerns this shire, and the translation thereof in English. To which are added, the epitaphs and memorable inscriptions in all the parishes.
  • The historical antiquities of Hertfordshire. With the original of counties, hundreds or wapentakes and hamlets; the foundation and origin of monasteries, churches, and vicarages; the several honors, mannors, and parks of the nobility and gentry; and the succession of the lords each. Faithfully collected from public records, ancient manuscripts and other select authorities / Together with an exact transcript of Domesday-book, so far as concerns this shire, and the translation thereof in English. To which are added, the epitaphs and memorable inscriptions in all the parishes.
  • The historical antiquities of Hertfordshire. With the original of counties, hundreds or wapentakes and hamlets; the foundation and origin of monasteries, churches, and vicarages; the several honors, mannors, and parks of the nobility and gentry; and the succession of the lords each. Faithfully collected from public records, ancient manuscripts and other select authorities / Together with an exact transcript of Domesday-book, so far as concerns this shire, and the translation thereof in English. To which are added, the epitaphs and memorable inscriptions in all the parishes.
  • Fuchsia magellanica Lam. Onagraceae. Hardy fuchsia. Semi-hardy shrub. Distribution: Mountainous regions of Chile and Argentina where they are called 'Chilco' by the indigenous people, the Mapuche. The genus was discovered by Charles Plumier in Hispaniola in 1696/7, and named by him for Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), German Professor of Medicine, whose illustrated herbal, De Historia Stirpium (1542) attempted the identification of the plants in the Classical herbals. It also contained the first accounts of maize, Zea mays, and chilli peppers, Capsicum annuum, then recently introduced from Latin America. He was also the first person to publish an account and woodcuts of foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea and D. lutea. The book contains 500 descriptions and woodcuts of medicinal plants, arranged in alphabetical order, and relied heavily on the De Materia Medica (c. AD 70) of Dioscorides. He was a powerful influence on the herbals of Dodoens, and thence to Gerard, L’Escluse and Henry Lyte. A small quarto edition appeared in 1551, and a two volume facsimile of the 1542 edition with commentary and selected translations from the Latin was published by Stanford Press in 1999. The original woodcuts were passed from printer to printer and continued in use for 232 years (Schinz, 1774). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Appliancesrom from 'Mechanical Substitute for The Arms',
  • Appliancesrom from 'Mechanical Substitute for The Arms',
  • Evolution of household articles, animals etc. according to Darwin's doctrine. Colour lithographs by Fr. Schmidt, ca. 187-(?).
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  • Discussion

Untapped: Water and health, 1350-1550

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