Stories
- Article
Would you like to buy a dinosaur?
Two remarkable letters and a drawing of a plesiosaur by Mary Anning offer a tantalising portal into the exciting world of fossil hunting and discovery of the 1800s.
- Article
Would you like to buy a unicorn?
The story behind why somebody tried to sell Henry Wellcome a unicorn head in 1928.
- Long read
Primodos, paternalism and the fight to be heard
Journalist Florence Wildblood examines the case of Primodos – a conveniently quick but risky hormone pregnancy test that was prescribed in the 1960s and ’70s – and profiles two women at the story’s shocking heart.
- Article
How tuberculosis became a test case for eugenic theory
A 19th-century collaboration that failed to prove how facial features could indicate the diseases people were most likely to suffer from became a significant stepping stone in the new ‘science’ of eugenics.
Catalogue
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Averroeana : being a transcript of several letters from Averroes an Arabian philosopher at Corduba in Spain, to Metrodorus a young Grecian nobleman, student at Athens in the years 1149 and 1150 : also several letters from Pythagoras to the King of India, together with his reception at the Indian court, and an account of his discourse with the King, and his gymnosophists, and his rules and precepts : his account of the power and efficacy of numbers, and magical uses thereof : to which is prefixt, a Latin letter by Monsieur Grinau, one of the Messieurs du Port Royal in France, to the ingenius Monsieur Gramont, merchant at Amsterdam, concerning the subject of these papers, and how they came to his hands : the whole containing matters highly philosophical, physiological, Pythagorical and medicinal, the work having been long conceal'd is now put into English for the benefit of mankind, and the rectification of learned mistakes.
Averroës, 1126-1198Date: 1695- Books
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A discourse of the nature, offices, and measures of friendship : with rules of conducting it : in a letter to M.K.P. : to which are added Two letters to persons changed in religion : also Three letters to a gentleman that was tempted to the communion of the Romish Church / written by Jer. Taylor.
Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667Date: 1671- Books
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Wits interpreter: the English Parnassus. Or, A sure guide to those admirable accomplishments that compleat our English gentry, in the most acceptable qualifications of discourse or writing : In which briefly the whole mystery of those pleasing witchcrafts of eloquence and love, are made easie in the following subjects: viz. 1. Theatre of courtship, accurate complements. 2. The labyrinth of fancies, new experiments and inventions. 3. Apollo and Orpheus, several love-songs, epigrams, drollerys, and other verses. 4. Cyprian goddess, description of beauty. 5. The muses Elizium, severall poetical fictions. 6. The perfect inditer, letters a la mode. 7. Games and sports now us'd at this day among the gentry of England, &c. 8. Cardinal Richeleiu's key to his manner of writing of letters by cyphers. As also an alphabetical table of the first devisers of sciences and other curiosities; all which are collected with industry and care, for the benefit and delight of those that love ingenious enterprises. The 3d edition with many new additions, by J.C.
Cotgrave, John, active 1655Date: MDCLXXI. [1671]- Books
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Mercurius coelestis : being an almanack for the year of the worlds redemption, 1681. And of its creation according to the best of history, 5630. It being the first after bissextile, or leap-year in which is comprized variety of matter fit for such a subject, - as the aspects of the planets, eclipses, sun rising and setting, monthly observations in verse and prose. With other things. [bracket] Astronomically and astrologically [bracket] considered. Calculated for the meridian of London. / By John Partridge.
Partridge, John, 1644-1715Date: 1681- Books
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Mercurius coelestis : being an almanack for the year of the worlds redemption, 1681. And of its creation according to the best of history, 5630. It being the first after bissextile, or leap-year in which is comprized variety of matter fit for such a subject, - as the aspects of the planets, eclipses, sun rising and setting, monthly observations in verse and prose. With other things. [bracket] Astronomically and astrologically [bracket] considered. Calculated for the meridian of London. / By John Partridge.
Partridge, John, 1644-1715Date: 1681