Columbus… Christopher Columbus Encountered Mermaids 11 Oct 2019 Christopher Columbus encountered three mermaids on January 8, 1493 somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Unfortunately, Columbus' Log, his daily account of his seven-month first voyage to the New World, is…
Art… The Mermaid of St. John’s Bay, Newfoundland 7 Oct 2019October 7, 2019 In 1610, Richard Whitbourne saw a mermaid swimming in St. John's Bay, Newfoundland. The mermaid's face, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, ears, neck, and forehead resembled that of a woman, coupled…
Documents… Spices, textiles, and medicine included in Cargo from Jakarta and Surat to England, October 1625. 24 Sep 2019September 24, 2019 In October 1625, the English ships Moon, Discovery, Ruby, Blessings, and William arrived in England after long voyages to and from the Indian Ocean. The ships stopped in Jakarta (a Dutch…
Maps… The First Map of Roanoke Island 17 Mar 2019March 25, 2019 John White produced the first English map of Roanoke Island as a rough sketch entitled "a description of the land of Virginia." It was the first English map of America…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Documents… Martin Luther and the Unicorn Horn 30 Jun 2016October 4, 2018 Martin Luther, the leading figure of the Protestant Reformation, spent his last three days on earth working. He delivered a sermon that in part encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity…
Documents… Alicorn 20 Jun 2016September 29, 2018 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…
Ancient World… The Unicorn in the Physiologus and Bestiaries 15 Jun 2016October 4, 2018 Medieval Christian scholars across Europe read the Physiologus making the book's circulation second only to that of the Bible.” The Physiologus was based on Indian, Hebrew, and Egyptian legends that later…
Bible… Unicorns in the Bible 13 Jun 2016October 4, 2018 Numbers 23:22-23 from the Geneva Bible (1560) The unicorn existed in the ancient world as well as appeared in the unchallengeable Christian text, the Bible. Various editions of the English…
Ancient World… Ancient Authorities on the Unicorn 13 Jun 2016September 29, 2018 Many early-modern Europeans believed in the existence of unicorns, in part, due to the writings of ancient authorities. Ctesias (ca. 400 BCE), the Greek physician who served the Persian…
