Browse Items (202 total)

This is a longer essay which addresses the aims of my exhibit.

First published in Nuremberg in 1477, this woodcut portrait of Marco Polo describes the famous Venetian merchant as a “Great Traveller” and a discoverer of the “Great Wonders of the World”. Polo’s extensive travels to Asia in the late 13th century…

The thaler, a coin widely used throughout Europe since the 16th century, was considered by many to be a standard currency of the era. This particular silver coin, however, was minted in 1761 in northern Germany near the end of its popularity. The…

Passed in Parliament near the end of the 18th century, this act sought to expand programs for the lower classes within the city of Edinburgh. “Poor Laws” such as this can trace their origins in England and Scotland to the late medieval era. However,…

Minted five years after the marriage of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, this Spanish gold coin represents the increasingly unified economy of the Iberian peninsula. The marriage of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile was perhaps…

The bust (above) depicts Aristotle.
The student of Plato, Aristotle was another prominent philosopher of Ancient Greece. His works were also studied in the Renaissance, and many of his theories thus made their way into European intellectual…

The Andean city of Cusco, located in modern-day Peru, was the capital of the Incan empire from the 13th century until the Spanish arrival in 1533. Coricancha (literally "gold enclosure") was the Incan empire's most important temple complex,…

The painting uses oil paint applied on canvas.

Without a doubt the most famous Tsar in Russian history, Peter I, or Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725) epitomized the transition of Russia into a ‘Europeanized’ power during the early 18th century. He was determined that Russia should gain international…

In 1579 the French surgeon Ambroise Paré published a series of drawings considered by many to be the first true attempts at creating functional prosthetic limbs. While prosthetics in some forms had existed for centuries before Paré’s work, they were…