History Mash – A Mish Mash of History

What Unicorns Sound Like

10 Jul 201810 Jul 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…

James Madison and Gun Control

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…

What is Guaiacum and how was it connected to Syphilis?

1 May 20182 May 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…

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

1 Apr 20181 Apr 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…

How Syphilis got its Name

9 Mar 20181 Apr 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…

“We ought to undeceive those who believe that what we now call the Unicorn’s Horn…is nothing else but the Horn of the Narwal”

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…

Confederate Memorials Should be Moved to Statue Parks

15 Aug 201724 Nov 2017

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…

Unicorns in Java

27 Jul 201727 Jul 2017

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…

Monardes and Gerard

18 Jul 201718 Jul 2017

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…

How were the English Introduced to Sassafras?

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…

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

4 Jul 201711 Jul 2017

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…

Indentures and Indentured Servants

13 May 201711 Jul 2017

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…

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

20 Mar 201720 Mar 2017

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…

The Unicorn in Raleigh, NC

21 Feb 201727 Feb 2017

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…

The Virgin Bride and the Unicorn

11 Jan 201711 Jan 2017

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…

Five Questions about the First Thanksgiving

23 Nov 201617 Nov 2017

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…

Indian uses of Sassafrass

17 Nov 20166 Mar 2017

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…

The Unicorn in Fabyn’s Cronycle

11 Nov 201611 Nov 2016

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…

Unicorns in Shakespeare

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…

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

23 Sep 201623 Sep 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? …

Unicorns and the Northwest Passage

2 Sep 201621 Sep 2016

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…

Doubting Unicorns and their Horns

27 Aug 201621 Sep 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…

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 201626 Aug 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,…

Of the Unicorns of the Temple of Mecca

2 Aug 201621 Sep 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…

The Unicorn in Laurence Andrew’s The Noble Lyfe / Hortus Sanitatis

1 Aug 20161 Aug 2016

Laurence Andrew (fl. 1510-1537) was a printer and translator active in Antwerp. Not much is known about him and many of the works he translated and/or printed have not survived…

The Unicorn in Clariodus

24 Jul 201625 Jul 2016

Clariodus: A Metrical Romance is a peculiar poem. The author is unknown and the poem was probably based on the French work entitled Cleriadus et Meliadice from c. 1440. The…

Stomp the Yard

17 Jul 201611 Jul 2017

Anon, A rich store-house or treasury for the diseased Wherein, are many approued medicines for diuers and sundry diseases, which haue been long hidden, and not come to light before…

Martin Luther and the Unicorn Horn

30 Jun 201611 Jul 2017

Melchior Adam, The Life and Death of Dr. Martin Luther (London, 1643), 109. Martin Luther, the leading figure of the Protestant Reformation, spent his last three days on earth working.…

Alicorn

20 Jun 201611 Jul 2017

Sea Unicorns from The History of Barados, St. Christophers, Mevis, St Vincents, Antego, Martinico, Monserrat, and the rest of the Caribby-Islands (London, 1666). One of the first pieces of Anglo-American…

The Unicorn in the Physiologus and Bestiaries

15 Jun 201611 Jul 2017

A unicorn being killed in the lap of a virgin. Harley MS 3244, Bestiary, Unicorn, 1236-1250. British Library. The medieval Physiologus also discussed the unicorn thereby contributing to the Christian…