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The Procurator of Judea
Anatole France, born Jacques Anatole François Thibault (1844−1924), was one of the most famous writers of his time. A journalist, prolific author, and member of the Académie Française from 1896, he...
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Short Stories from Geneva
Rodolphe Töpffer (1799−1846) gained world renown for his stories that for the first time mixed written narration with illustrations, earning him the unofficial title of “father of the comic strip”...
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Captain Fracasse
Capitaine Fracasse (Captain Fracasse) is a novel by Théophile Gautier (1811−72), the title character of which is a brash, loudmouthed swaggerer. The novel recounts the adventures of the baron of...
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Paul and Virginia
In 1788, Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737−1814) published a rather short novel, Paul et Virginie (Paul and Virginia), which recounts the youth of two children, who are raised as brother...
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Henry Simons. Wagon and United States National Coach Works, Philadelphia
This advertising print from around 1865 for the Henry Simons Wagon and U.S. National Coach Works in Philadelphia features an ornate border containing a series of vignettes displaying several types of...
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Der Freischütz
Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freyschütz (1820, now called Der Freischütz, literally, “The freeshooter” or “The marksman”) is in many respects the prototypical German romantic opera. It was...
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Letter by Ludwig van Beethoven to his "Immortal Beloved"
This letter is one of the most famous documents in the legacy of the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Written in pencil, it is addressed to an unknown woman with whom Beethoven...
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Thus Saith God: This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I Am Well Pleased; Hear ye Him
This hand-colored woodcut with texts by the noted Protestant theologian Erasmus Alber (also seen as Alberus) was printed in Magdeburg around 1550. It shows the resurrected Christ defeating the enemies...
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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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