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Documents…

Unicorns on Pierre Desceliers’ Mappemonde (1546)

11 Jan 2019January 11, 2019
In an earlier post, I discussed why a unicorn appeared on the mappemonde created by Pierre Desceliers. Since then, I reexamined a digital copy of the map and found another…
Primary Sources…

The Horn of Windsor

16 Nov 2018November 19, 2018
The Horn of Windsor was a unicorn horn (alicorn) owned by Elizabeth I. The corpus of material surrounding both the Martin Frobisher voyages and unicorns links the Horn of Windsor…
Ancient World…

Pliny the Elder on the Unicorn

10 Oct 2018October 10, 2018
Pliny the Elder described the unicorn in his Natural History (77-79 CE). Pliny collected knowledge from the ancient world, covering diverse topics across science, math, and art. Pliny called the unicorn…
Ancient World…

The Unicorn in Liber Animalium (1595)

9 Oct 2018
This wonderful pen-and-ink drawing of a unicorn appeared in the Liber Animalium, a handwritten book containing 245 drawings and descriptions of animals and mythical creatures. An unknown person completed the work around 1595.…
Material Culture…

Unicorn Horns at St. Mary’s Church, Utrecht

4 Oct 2018
Religious authorities displayed what they believed were unicorn horns on the high altar in St. Mary’s church (consecrated 1099 CE) in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Priests used them as candlesticks to represent…
Civil Rights…

Pictures from a few hours after Silent Sam was torn down

29 Sep 2018September 29, 2018
Shortly after midnight, I visited the site where just hours before protesters toppled the Silent Sam statue on August 20th, 2018. I gathered with a small crowd and we watched…
Sound…

What Unicorns Sound Like

10 Jul 2018September 29, 2018
We now know what unicorns sound like. Narwhal tusks were often viewed as being unicorn horns (alicorn) during the medieval and early modern periods, in part because they are long…
Documents…

James Madison and Gun Control

7 Jun 2018September 29, 2018
The issue of gun control has been part of American politics before the nation was founded. Debates centered around hunting, military defense, and the question if slaves and freedmen were…
Bioprospecting…

What is Guaiacum and how was it connected to Syphilis?

1 May 2018September 29, 2018
In a previous post, I discussed how syphilis got its name from a poem written in 1530. The shepherd Syphilis was struck down with the venereal disease for overturning the altars dedicated…
Easter…

Just in Time for Easter – Eating Rabbits to Win WWII!

1 Apr 2018September 29, 2018
In 1943, the Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of the Department of the Interior, published a cookbook entitled Recipes for Cooking Domestic Rabbit Meat. The introduction remarked that "the growing…
Documents…

How Syphilis got its Name

9 Mar 2018September 29, 2018
Compared to today, syphilis was a different disease in early-modern Europe. It was more ferocious, fast acting, and destructive.  Symptoms included painful and often deadly rashes and ulcers on the…
Documents…

“The Man who did not Believe in Unicorns”

14 Nov 2017September 29, 2018
In previous posts I discussed the belief in the existence of unicorns and the medicinal virtues of their horns, however, there were some people in the early-modern period who did…
Civil Rights…

Confederate Memorials Should be Moved to Statue Parks

15 Aug 2017September 29, 2018
Knowing that folks will only read the first 50 words of an internet article before moving on, let me be clear: Confederate monuments should be removed from public grounds like…
Documents…

Unicorns in Java

27 Jul 2017September 29, 2018
In 1613, Samuel Purchas published Purchas his pilgrimage. Or Relations of the vvorld and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered, from the Creation vnto this present In…
Documents…

Monardes and Gerard

18 Jul 2017September 29, 2018
In a previous post, I described how Nicolas Monardes’ description of sassafras laid the foundation for future authors to understand the physical and medicinal properties of the sassafras and its…
Documents…

How were the English Introduced to Sassafras?

11 Jul 2017October 2, 2018
The introduction of sassafras to the English imagination took a circuitous route.  Printed knowledge of the tree probably first appeared in English through the publishing of Joyfull Newes out of…
Documents…

The day I faked being an “ink expert” to see The Declaration of Independence

4 Jul 2017September 29, 2018
I spent the early months of 2013 in London, England doing research for my doctoral dissertation. The bulk of my time was at the National Archives in Kew plowing through…
Documents…

Indentures and Indentured Servants

13 May 2017September 30, 2018
Why were indentured servants called indentured servants? Before the term "indenture" came about, medieval Europeans used legal documents called chirographs. Sometime before the year 1000, legal transactions involving multiple parties…
Greenland…

More questions about Vikings in Greenland, the Bishop of Gardar’s Crosier,and Unicorn Horns.

20 Mar 2017September 30, 2018
A recent Smithsonian Magazine article explores the decline and disappearance of Viking settlements on Greenland. Previous scholarship argued that the Viking disappearance was caused by a combination of factors including…
Art…

The Unicorn in Raleigh, NC

21 Feb 2017October 2, 2018
The North Carolina Museum of Art houses The Triumph of Chastity (ca. 1450-1460), a painting produced by the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso. The painting was probably presented…
Art…

The Virgin Bride and the Unicorn

11 Jan 2017October 4, 2018
Around 1494, to celebrate either the engagement or marriage of Matteo di Sebastiano di Bernardino Goazzadini to Ginevra d'Antonio Lupari Goazzadini, artist Maestro delle Storie del Pane  painted the portraits of…
Documents…

Five Questions about the First Thanksgiving

23 Nov 2016September 29, 2018
How do we know about the first Thanksgiving? The first known written description of the Pilgrims’ first “Thanksgiving” is a letter written by Edward Winslow months after the event. The…
Indians…

Indian uses of Sassafrass

17 Nov 2016September 29, 2018
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a small deciduous tree native to eastern North America with green apetalous flowers and dimorphous leaves.  It grows to roughly 20 feet tall and its wood…
Documents…

The Unicorn in Fabyn’s Cronycle

11 Nov 2016October 2, 2018
Robert Fabyan (1455? – 1512) was a draper, sheriff, and author of Fabyans cronycle. The Cronycle recounted English and French history covering the time period from the legendary first king…
Documents…

Unicorns in Shakespeare

20 Oct 2016September 29, 2018
William Shakespeare mentioned unicorns three times in his plays: Julius Caesar (1599), Timon of Athens (1605), and The Tempest (1610). In Julius Caesar, Decius described how a unicorn could be caught by a…
Uncategorized

The Savages say there be Unicorns – How a Unicorn appeared on a French Map from 1546

23 Sep 2016September 23, 2016
On a map created by Frenchman Pierre Desceliers in 1546, a solitary white unicorn appeared situated between Penobscot Bay and Cape Cod. How did it get there?      …
Uncategorized

Unicorns and the Northwest Passage

2 Sep 2016September 29, 2018
In 1576, Humphry Gilbert published A discourse of a discouerie for a new passage to Cataia to drum up the political and economic support he needed to raise a venture…
Uncategorized

Doubting Unicorns and their Horns

27 Aug 2016September 21, 2016
Thomas Browne was an English physician and author. In 1646, he wrote a book entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica which he subtitled Inquiries in Vulgar and Common Errors where he tackled topics ranging…
Uncategorized

A surgeon’s advice for what to do when you have a patient to treat but you’re fresh out of unicorn horn.

26 Aug 2016August 26, 2016
John Woodall was a surgeon who held a variety of jobs including stocking the medical chests of the ships bound in the service of the East India Company, the army,…
Uncategorized

Of the Unicorns of the Temple of Mecca

2 Aug 2016September 21, 2016
  This account arrived to me through a circuitous route -  and it may be best to trace to the path of the account's publication to contextualize the relation of…

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