Browse Items (202 total)

Pictured in this engraving is Marie Angélique Arnauld, who served as abbess of the Abbey of Port-Royal near Paris. She was a leading proponent of Jansenism, a theological movement in seventeenth century France. It emphasized the reading of Scripture…

Though Europe in the 18th century was wracked by internal conflict between great powers and there was significant focus among European intellectuals on domestic matters such as economic or agricultural policy, the continent by no means withdrew or…

Menasseh ben Israel, a Sephardic Jewish rabbi from Amsterdam, embodies aspects of the religious environment of the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. Throughout the 17th century, Jewish communities from both Iberia (Sephardic) and Germany…

Completed in 1768 by J. June, this etching depicts licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians marching in protest at Warwick-Lane Castle in 1767. These “medical militants”, as the artist calls them, were expressing their grievances with the…

According to stories the first discovery of “Jesuit’s bark,” or cinchona bark, occurred in the 17th century. As the story goes a large storm passed through a village in Peru, knocking a number of the branches into a pool of standing water. It…

Here we have the frontispiece, or illustration facing the title page, of Thomas Hobbes’s De Cive, commonly translated as “On the citizen.” I have chosen this work as illustrative of the general trends in philosophical writings of the time that…

While a compiled work of Thomas Sydenham's has already been included in this exhibit, it is valuable to consider one of his work’s influence in English economic history and the history of opium as a whole. In his book discussing medical observations…

This is an engraving of the Gustavianum, the oldest standing building in Uppsala University. It owes both its name and construction to Gustavus Adolphus, a Swedish king who enacted many reforms in the country. Sweden was largely ignored by Europe,…

With this image of the Jesuit theater in the Collège de Clermont, we return to one of the oldest established places of education in Europe—the University of Paris. The Collège de Clermont was one of the earliest schools established by the Jesuits,…

This is the title page of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792. Wollstonecraft was a prolific English writer and powerful advocate for women’s rights, as the title of this book suggests. Chapter XII,…

In the 18th century a growing national interest in the health and safety of the poor and infirm led to the creation of a number of voluntary hospitals, charity hospitals set up by the upper class for the impoverished. One of the most famous was the…