Browse Items (202 total)

Printed in Westminster in 1497, this papal indulgence was issued for the pilgrim shrine of St. James, Compostela in Spain. Throughout the late medieval age, indulgences such as this would have been paid through the Church as part of a process of…

William I of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who was also known as William the Silent, was an important figure in the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire. The Dutch Revolt had its roots in the spread of Calvinism to the region and the subsequent…

Westminster Abbey is certainly not a structure built during the Protestant Reformation, nor the English Reformations, but its history is inextricably entangled with Protestantism and Anglicanism, so it has earned its spot in this era. The original…

Sofonisba Anguissola was a prominent court painter for Phillip II of Spain, crafting several notable portraits in her time. Her parents encouraged her to receive a humanist education in the arts and sciences and be tutored in painting by prominent…

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…

During the 18th century, another example of the phenomenon of chinoiserie, the European interpretation or imitation of Chinese art or other traditions from East Asia, was this vase. The Yuan dynasty experienced technological developments in the…

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia is one of the most astounding, influential, and unique works of political satire and inquiry in early modern Europe. More, through the use of fictional prose, imagines an island, Utopia, where society has evolved…

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…

The Uffizi complex, while not as ornate or grandiose as many other hallmark examples of Renaissance architecture, encompasses many of the more subtle and social aspects of Renaissance art. It was commissioned by Cosimo de Medici to accommodate the…

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…

In John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government,” he breaks-down and refutes the argument of rival political philosopher Robert Filmer and establishes the framework for contract theory in civil society and the government. Specifically, in his second…