The Affair of the Sausages
On 9 March 1522 the Swiss Reformation began with an ‘ostentatious eating of sausages.’
Renaissance
‘The Great Siege of Malta’ by Marcus Bull review
The Great Siege of Malta by Marcus Bull upends the myth of the Knights of Malta and their last stand of 1565.
The Great German Peasants’ War
More than 100,000 people took up arms across the Holy Roman Empire in the spring of 1525. What drove them? And why were they ultimately crushed?
‘The Grammar of Angels’ by Edward Wilson-Lee review
The Grammar of Angels: A Search for the Magical Powers of Language by Edward Wilson-Lee finds in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola a case for the Rennaissance as a triumph not of individuality, but of universal experience.
Portugal, the Mamluks, and the Age of Discovery
For the Portuguese empire to rise, an old world had to give way. Rivals in Europe’s lucrative spice trade, how much did they know about the powerful Mamluk sultanate?
Hopes, Fears, and Early Modern Astrology
The concerns of daily life prompted early modern people to seek reassurance in fate, stars, and astrologers.
Habsburg Prague, Capital of the Renaissance
Prague, under the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, became the centre of the Renaissance world, where cultures mixed and learning flourished.
Paracelsus: Revolutionary or Mystic?
An enfant terrible shook up Renaissance medicine by denouncing experts and debunking accepted wisdom. Was Paracelsus as radical as he seemed?
‘Catherine de’ Medici’ by Mary Hollingsworth review
In Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen, Mary Hollingsworth helps the pragmatic queen escape her ‘black legend’.
An Ottoman Winter in Toulon
The unholy alliance between France and the Ottoman Empire in 1530 caused great concern but had little military success.