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  • Article

Fantastic beasts and unnatural history

Find out how a 17th-century compendium of the natural world came to present fantastical beasts –like dragons – as real, living creatures.

  • 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.

  • Article

Witches

Many of the women persecuted as witches in the 16th-century “witch craze” were over 50 and exhibited signs of menopause. Helen Foster suggests that the stigma of the wicked witch still affects older women and how they deal with menopause.

  • Article

Booze and bad behaviour

Our love of alcohol is like a party that’s lasted nine centuries. But there are signs that the demon drink is losing its appeal.

All stories (24)

Images

  • Collection des chirurgiens grecs avec dessins attribués au Primatrice.
  • Collection des chirurgiens grecs avec dessins attribués au Primatrice.
  • Die Handschrift des Schnitt- und Augenarztes Caspar Stromayr in Lindau im Bodensee : in der Lindauer Handschrift (P.1.46) vom 4. Juli 1559 / mit einer historischer Einführung und Wertung von Walter von Brunn.
  • Die Handschrift des Schnitt- und Augenarztes Caspar Stromayr in Lindau im Bodensee : in der Lindauer Handschrift (P.1.46) vom 4. Juli 1559 / mit einer historischer Einführung und Wertung von Walter von Brunn.
  • A red-faced sun rises above a city; stunted trees stand in the foreground; representing either the culmination of the alchemical work or the star of hope that inspires the alchemist through his tribulations. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • A red-faced sun rises above a city; stunted trees stand in the foreground; representing either the culmination of the alchemical work or the star of hope that inspires the alchemist through his tribulations. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • A red-faced sun rises above a city; stunted trees stand in the foreground; representing either the culmination of the alchemical work or the star of hope that inspires the alchemist through his tribulations. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • A female figure book keeping; representing arithmetic. Engraving by J. Sadeler after M. de Vos.
  • A black sun with a face descends behind the horizon of a marshy landscape; representing the state of putrefaction in alchemy. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • A black sun with a face descends behind the horizon of a marshy landscape; representing the state of putrefaction in alchemy. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
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