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Humans 1, Foxes 0: from our Sports Correspondent
Huntsmen in their red jackets, steam rising from huge horses on a frosty morning, the clamour of hounds: for many years this scene, immortalised on a thousand sporting prints or table mats, was a fixture in the British countryside and… Continue reading
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Researching medicine in recipe books
Researcher Katherine Allen is using recipe manuscripts to study domestic medicine in the 18th century. I first came upon the topic of recipe books as sources for the history of medicine during my master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan.… Continue reading
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A dissertation by any other name…
The Wellcome Library possesses a rare collection of early medical student dissertations, acquired from the Medical Society of London in 1984. Access was by handwritten card catalogue for many years, but we are now adding records to the online catalogues.… Continue reading
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A Nineteenth Century Investigation of Race and Sex
The story of Saartjie (Sara) Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’ is relatively well-known and has been extensively discussed by scholars for what the discussion and exhibition in Europe of this Khoisan woman from southern Africa (whose original name is not even known) tells us… Continue reading
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Spotlight: General Gordon’s Tree of Life
Welcome to Spotlight, a regular series of blog posts that shine a light on some of the treasures in the Wellcome Library. You’ll be able to explore our ever-growing range of digitised materials, hear more about our new acquisitions and… Continue reading
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The enigma of the medieval almanac
A remarkable fifteenth-century folding almanac in a green and pink silk binding was recently acquired by the Wellcome Library. It stands out because of its exquisite textile binding, and the high artistic standard of its illustrative features, particularly the Zodiac… Continue reading
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Heavenly bodies: astrological medicine in Wellcome manuscript MS.40
Before beginning my dissertation research at the Wellcome Library my understanding of astrology was, like most people’s, limited to my star sign (Taurus) and reading the occasional horoscope in the paper. As a medieval art historian, I had some sense… Continue reading
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The Deir al-Surian Manuscripts
Deir al-Surian, the famous Monastery of the Mother of God, later renamed the Monastery of the Syrians, is located approximately 1.5 hour’s drive northwest of Cairo, Egypt in the Wadi el Natrun region of the ‘western desert’. The Coptic monastery… Continue reading
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The Red, White and Green of ….Germany?
When we talk about our archives and manuscripts, our focus is usually on their content. People order archive items in order to read them, by and large, and our catalogues tend to focus upon the words on the page, and… Continue reading
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A book fit for a queen
In the winter of 1559/60 Pierre Boaistuau, a French popular writer, set off for England bearing a book that he hoped to lay before the young Queen Elizabeth, newly installed on the throne of England. This book, later entitled Histoires… Continue reading