Browse Items (202 total)

Saint Wilibrord’s Basilica was built in Hulst, Netherlands sometime around 1200, before gradually being renovated and improved upon over the years (Wikipedia). The Basilica was originally Roman Catholic, with architecture in the Romanesque fashion.…

This late 16th century German automaton mimics in miniature a masted galleon that would have sailed across the Atlantic to the New World. Designed to carry troops and guns, the actual galleon was specifically manufactured for a European navy with…

This painting by Han Holbein the Younger is titled "Noli me Tangere" and is an example of art from the Protestant Reformation period. The period was characterized by a change in art in both Catholic and Protestant regions, though the change in…

Glikl was a Jewish businesswoman who advised her husband on business matters while raising their twelve children. She took over the whole business at his death, rescued “her eldest son from repeated bankruptcies, and expanding into new markets”…

Rudolph II was a Hapsburg who served as Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 - 1612. While his reign is mostly remembered for his strange behavior and his lack of political competence, he was also one of the most important patrons to the arts and sciences in…

Considered by many to be the masterpiece of Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian poet, physician, astrologist and geologist, this manuscript was the first text to suggest the idea of germ theory. In it Fracastoro suggests the idea of disease-causing…

Spanish history has long been intertwined with the Catholic faith. Spain is famous for spreading and defending the religion wholeheartedly, and its Catholic tendencies are etched into its cultural identity. The devotion of King Philip II (reign…

The Peace of Westphalia, as represented in the above image of the ratification of the treaty of Münster, finally brought an end to the 30 years war in 1648. (Wiesner-Hanks 323). This peace had major impacts on all of Europe, but especially the…

The Ratification of the Treaty of Munster was a pivotal event in the Peace of Westphalia, which brought an end to the Thirty Years’ War in Europe. The treaty was signed in 1648, alongside the Treaty of Osnabruck, and they established two major…

The papacy of Clement IX lasted only thirty months, from the summer of 1667 to December 1669. His papacy is primarily remembered if at all for a truce of sorts in the Jansenist controversy, discussed later in this exhibit, but Clement IX was also…

This is an image of the cover page of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, usually translated as Starry Messenger. The book describes Galileo’s early discoveries with his telescope, foremost of which were the four moons of Jupiter. Galileo named these the…

Among the concessions made by Ferdinand of Aragon as part of his marriage to Isabella of Castile, which began the unification process of Spain, was a clause obligating the united kingdoms to wage war on the Muslim Moors in the south, who were…