Stories
- In pictures
The celebrity physician and the plague
The iconic “plague prevention costume” invented by a 17th-century French doctor secured his fame in royal circles. But other aspects of Charles de Lorme’s career made him a controversial figure.
- Article
Drawing the human animal
We might try to deny our animal instincts, but this series of extraordinary 17th-century drawings suggests they are only too apparent.
- Article
When monarchs healed the sick
Our current Queen fortunately doesn’t have to spend hours laying hands on the sick to cure them. But it was a different story for monarchs of the early modern era, whose touch was a sought-after treatment for scrofula.
- Article
History of condoms from animal to rubber
Come on a journey from the first recorded condoms in the 16th century to the modern female condoms in the 1990s – and everything in between.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
English Recipe Book, later 17th - early 18th century
Date: Late 17th century - 18th centuryReference: MS.7822- Pictures
- Online
The menhir of Saint-Uzec, in Pleumeur-Bodou, Brittany. Colour lithograph after A. de Mortillet.
Mortillet, Adrien de, 1853-1931.Date: 1897Reference: 31411i- Archives and manuscripts
Secreta Secretorum, France, 17th century
Date: 17th centuryReference: MS.7298- Books
Les sources de la démographie historique française dans les archives publiques (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) / par René Le Mée.
Le Mée, René.Date: 1967- Pictures
A woman giving birth in an elaborate room aided by a midwife and a nun and surrounded by her husband and family. Engraving by A. Bosse.
Bosse, Abraham, 1602-1676.Date: [between 1600 and 1699]Reference: 16882iPart of: Le mariage à la ville