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The Hunting Book
Gaston III (1331−91), count of Foix and viscount of Béarn, also known as Gaston Phoebus because of his shiny blond hair, wrote his book on hunting between 1387 and 1389 and dedicated it to Philip the...
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The Passions of the Soul
Les Passions de l'âme (The passions of the soul) is a treatise on moral philosophy, published in Paris in 1649, in which the philosopher René Descartes (1596−1650) theorizes on “the passions,” or what...
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Carrot Top
Poil de carotte (Carrot Top) is a collection of short scenes that recount the daily life of a young redheaded boy whose mother continually humiliates and teases him, to which his other family members...
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The Magic Skin
La Comédie humaine (The human comedy) is the promethean project, conceived by the great French writer Honoré de Balzac (1799−1850), which sought to represent contemporary society and man in their...
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Count d'Orgel’s Ball
“I was in a blazing hurry, like someone who is going to die young and thus works twice as hard.” This quote by one of Raymond Radiguet’s characters could easily be applied to the author himself. In...
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The Italian Poems of the Master Francesco Petrarcha
The Venetian printer and scholar Aldo Manuzio (1449 or 1450−1515) was the first printer to produce so-called libri portatiles (portable books), editions of texts without scholarly commentary in...
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Australia in 142 Photographic Illustrations after a Decade of Experiences
William Blandowski (1822−78) was a pioneer in many ways. Born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia (present-day Gliwice, Poland), he went to Australia in 1849 to compile "a natural history, a botanical...
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Funny Stories and Droll Pictures
Heinrich Hoffmann, a Frankfurt medical doctor and writer, published Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder (Funny stories and droll pictures) in 1845 using the pen name "Reimerich Kinderlieb." Later...
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Robinson the Younger. For the Pleasurable and Useful Entertainment of Children
In 1720, just a year after its original publication in London, the first German translation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was published. The work soon became widely popular. Only a few years...
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“Privilegio Rodado,” Confirming the Change of the Estate of Mejorada, in...
The privilegio rodado is a late-medieval Spanish court document that takes its name from the great wheel that appears in the document and affirms its validity. It is the only type of royal document...
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Arabic School Board
Shown here is a wooden tablet, of a kind familiar in Qurʼanic schools in many parts of the world, with text from the Qurʼan on both sides. The recto is framed with an ornate arc and spandrels, with...
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Thurneisser’s “Astrolabium”
The Archidoxa (1569), a collection of astrological ideas and predictions, is one of the most famous works of Leonhard Thurneisser (or Thurneysser, circa 1530−96), a scholar with broad scientific...
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The Italian Poems of the Master Francesco Petrarcha
The Venetian printer and scholar Aldo Manuzio (1449 or 1450−1515) was the first printer to produce so-called libri portatiles (portable books), editions of texts without scholarly commentary in...
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Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,...
The valuable collection of drawings at the National Library of Spain is noted for the high quality of its Italian drawings spanning the 16th century to 19th century. This architectural drawing, which...
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Grammar of the Castillan Language
Presented here is the first grammar of the Castilian language. This is also the first grammar of any vernacular language to be printed in Europe. The book was published in 1492, at a time when...
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Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, Enacted in Cádiz on March 19, 1812
On March 19, 1812, during the Spanish War of Independence (1808−14), the Cortes of Cádiz promulgated the Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, affectionately known as “La Pepa” for having been enacted...
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Drawing of an Architectural Detail of a Vault Attributed to Claudio Coello
Claudio Coello (1642–1693) was one of the last great painters of the baroque school of Madrid in the 17th century, a period coinciding with the reign of King Charles II of Spain. The son of a...
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British New Guinea (Papua)
In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background...
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British Honduras
In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background...
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British Guiana
In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background...
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