Cultural

Lionel Kochan traces the development of chess, from its origins to the end of the fifteenth century.

Michael Grant describes how the Greeks borrowed from other civilizations, and how they transformed their borrowing.

J.I. Whalley describes the development of handwriting in the early modern period.

Six Mughal Emperors between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries bequeathed an alien glory to the Indian scene.

Jack M. Sasson reads the letters of Shamsi-Adad and describes his humanity, patriarchal wisdom and easy sense of humour.

For 1,000 years before the invention of printing, writes J.J.N. McGurk, handwriting in its various European scripts was a fine art

J.J.N. McGurk describes how vanity and the ambitions of families and religious houses prompted the widespread invention of documents upon property and genealogy.

Kenneth Woodbridge describes the letters of Sir Richard Hoare, Banker, Goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London, to his sons.

Mollie Gillen describes how Queen Victoria’s father was a bibliophile as well as a military commander and a colonial governor.

Theodore Besterman describes everyday life for “the polymorphic chameleon, the omniscient polymath.”