Browse Items (202 total)

This painting of a Dutch East Indiaman illustrates the prominence of the Dutch Republic in maritime trade throughout the 17th century. Dutch trade interests encompassed a large part of the globe during this time. In the European sphere, the Dutch…

Santa Maria Novella (New St. Mary) is a famous gothic church in Florence, Italy. The church's construction began around 1278 and was completed in 1350. The early Rennaisance-era façade of the church was completed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1470…

The Scientific Revolution, often described as lasting from the mid 16th century to the end of the 17th century, brought tremendous changes to Europe and redefined the way that they interacted with and understood the natural world. But, though this…

This manuscript was an anatomical manual drawn by Juan Valverde de Amusco, a Spaniard born in 1525. Very few of the images were Valverde’s originals, only 4 of 42, but all were corrected to create a more accurate image of the dissected human body…

Casta paintings were family portraits displaying different Spanish colonial couples and their children that were often crafted around the 1700s. The paintings are important for a number of reasons related to race and status. The first is how they…

Juan Luis Vives was a Spanish humanist who wrote about reforming the church and deepening spiritual life. One of his most prominent works was “Three Books on the Soul and Life,” a collection of writings about the soul and its relationship to the…

Spanish artist Juan de Mesa created this print in 1610, and it features three images from the life and death of Saint Ignatius of Loyola as part of a larger series on the life of Ignatius. Ignatius experienced a deeply spiritual conversion experience…

The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218, and is the oldest University in Spain. The university peaked in 1584, when it had nearly 7,000 students, before declining starting by the end of the 16th century until the early 19th century…

An item of crucial importance to the Protestant Reformation was the printing press. The Reformation was a popular movement, which meant that people had to know about it and be taught what the reformers stood for. Bringing this information to the…

This painting, by Josse Lieferinxe, was completed in 1497 and depicts a group of diseased and injured pilgrims visiting the tomb of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of soldiers and the plague-stricken. Lieferinxe was originally from the Southern…

This is a print from the original painting by Joseph Wright depicting a philosopher lecturing on the orrery, or mechanical model of the solar system, and intellectuals used them “as pedagogical devices used exclusively for demonstration” (Barker 31).…

Throughout human history, great discoveries have commonly been made by accident. Despite popular mythology, this principle applies to Christopher Columbus’ initial voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Although the notion that the Earth was round was not…