Tag: religion

Taking inspiration from the recent papal election, we’ve decided to turn our attention to a work from the Wellcome Library that depicts not one, but two, Saints Francis. Pope Francis I has taken inspiration for his name from St Francis… Continue reading

Religion, sex, and royalty are supposed to be the perfect storm for creating a bestseller. Archives and Manuscripts have recently acquired some papers of Lord Dawson of Penn, physician to four monarchs (Edwards VII and VIII, Georges V and VI),… Continue reading

Multidisciplinary artist and independent scholar Joanna Ebenstein shares her discoveries from a recent research visit to the Wellcome Library. I had the great pleasure of spending many hours over the past few weeks exploring the Wellcome Library. I came away… Continue reading

Easter week celebrates the moment when, in Christian metaphysics, mortality is overcome by everlasting life. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ redeems mankind from the sinful state into which mankind fell through Adam’s disobedience to the will of God in the… Continue reading

Everyone who has heard the Nativity story will know that the newborn baby Jesus was given gold, frankincense and myrrh by the fabled Three Wise Men. But what do these substances look like, and do they have real medicinal properties?… Continue reading

Launched at an event at the Victoria and Albert Museum on the 18th of November was JAINpedia: a project to create an online, accessible resource devoted to the Jain religion. JAINpedia is the first such project to work with the… Continue reading

The date is disputed – some sources say it’s the 21st December – but other evidence points to the fact that today in 1503, Michel de Nostradame (or Nostradamus, to give the familiar Latinised version of his name) was born… Continue reading

SS. Constantine and Helena. Russian painting on wood. Wellcome Library no. 34400i Empresses are rarely encountered. However a small Russian painting in the Wellcome Library records a bond between two empresses who lived fifteen centuries apart. As will be seen,… Continue reading

We normally post about our own holdings, or something related to our own holdings, but when I saw the Guardian article and British Library news today on the Codex Sinaiticus project, I was so impressed, I had to share. The… Continue reading

Wellcome Library no. 45182i Faced with these striking figures for the first time, one could be forgiven for bemusement: who or what are these goggle-eyed black-and-white minstrels? This and eight related paintings were bought by Sir Henry Wellcome at Stevens’… Continue reading