History Today

Portrait of St Matthew from a gospel book, Gunda Gunde monastery, northeast Ethiopia, early 16th century. Walters Art Museum.

The Ethiopians Who Changed Rome

A community of Ethiopian monk-scholars in Renaissance Rome brought their learning, language and liturgy into the heart of the Roman Church.

Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1872. Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images.

Verlaine Shoots Rimbaud

On 10 July 1873, decadent duo Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud’s poetic frenzy ended with a gunshot.

Portrait of Juliette Récamier, by François Gérard, c. 1802-5. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. Public Domain.

‘Liberty, Equality, Fashion’ by Anne Higonnet review

In Liberty, Equality, Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution, Anne Higonnet brings three dedicated followers of fashion to the fore.

Map of London from Civitates orbis terrarum, by Braun & Hogenberg, 1600-23. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

The Mystery of Thomas More’s Birthplace

Was Sir Thomas More born on Milk Street – and does it matter?

A minister presents Japan’s first constitution to the Meiji emperor, by Adachi Ginkō, 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Are Constitutions Necessary?

Does a state need a book of rules by which to operate? And who are those rules for, anyway?

Illustration of the constellation of the Dog Star Sirius, c.820-840. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

The Dog Days of Medieval Summer

For those learned in medieval medicine and astronomy, the dog days of July heralded dangerous times.

A painter at work on the 4,000-building Edison – City of Light diorama at the New York World’s Fair, 1940. New York Public Library. Public Domain.

‘Liberty’s Grid’ by Amir Alexander review

Liberty’s Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping of America by Amir Alexander explains how the grid system put the United States on the map.

Michael Ventris, 10 June 1954. Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Image.

Decoding Linear B

In a BBC interview on 1 July 1952, self-taught linguist Michael Ventris announced that he had deciphered the Linear B script of Minoan Crete.

Italy’s fascist martyrs illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

Italy’s Cult of Fascist Martyrs

Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, public ceremonies honouring the eternal life of Italy’s far-right dead have grown larger.

‘Typus Arithmeticae’, showing Arithmetica, between Boethius writing Arabic numerals and Pythagorus using a counting board, from Margarita philosophica, by Gregor Reisch, 1503. Houghton Library, Harvard University.

A Brief History of English Numeracy

The people of late medieval and early modern England were almost universally numerate. Is our ability to count the thing that makes us human?