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16th Century

16th Century, 17th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

Spanish Golden Age Nobility Documents

Two-page spread of an open book. On the right is a full-page illumination depicting a plumed helmet above a crest on a shield. The shield is split into four parts. Clockwise from the upper left: an armed knight on top of a tower, leaves surrounding a green rectangle crossed by a diagonal orange line, five black pots within a square surrounded by black Xs on a gold background, and a pattern of gray, black, and orange and gold checkered horizontal lines. The image is bracketed on both vertical side by a floral border. The image on the left also has vertical floral borders. These bracket two illuminations stacked vertically. The upper illumination shows Jesus (white) floating in a halo above a gold tomb. Three white men wearing armor cower away from him. The lower illumination shows a white man on a rearing white horse with sword raised. A figure wearing orange lays under the horse's feet.

Elizabeth A. Neary
April 13, 2023

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

Movable Mayhem: Pop-Up Books through the Ages

Sheets of paper layered one behind the other to create a 3D scene of buildings as if they rise up a hill. At the bottom is a body of water with fountains and a decorative balustrade running along its edge. Above this is a large neo-Romanesque house. Above this is an even larger rectangular building with grand entrances on each side, domes on the corners, and many flags. Above this is a cathedral-like building with tall windows filled with light and many domed towers. A US flag flies from its central, largest dome. The buildings are surrounded by lush plants.

Dr. Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Newberry Library
March 3, 2023

16th Century, Collection Essays

The World According to Comenius: Seen and Unseen in the Orbis Sensualium Pictus

Single page an early printed book. Text is in English and Latin in black in an 17th-century font (some "s"s written as "f"s). On the left-hand page is a circular woodblock print image showing the land with people (numbered 9), animals (8), fields (7), hills (5), and trees (8); the sea with fish (4) in it, the sky with birds (3) and a band of clouds (2); above the clouds is darker sky with stars (1). Abov the image is the title "Mundus" and below it the title "The World."

Evan Dutmer, Ph.D., Culver Academies
April 20, 2022

14th Century, 15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century

Learning from Premodern Plagues

Stephanie Reitzig
October 13, 2021

14th Century, 15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century

Renaissance Humanism

Dr. Alexandra Thomas
October 4, 2021

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Sugar and Power in the Early Modern World

Etching of white men participating in the sugar refinement process, including chopping up sugar cane, melting it in vats, and removing finished sugar from drying containers.

Dr. Sarah Peters Kernan, Independent Scholar
March 18, 2021

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s Nova Reperta

Lia Markey, Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Stephanie Reitzig
June 3, 2020

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

The Making of the Bible, 400-1700

Dr. Christopher Fletcher, Newberry Library
May 27, 2020

16th Century, 17th Century, Collection Essays

Religious Wars in Early Modern Europe

Christopher Fletcher, The Newberry
August 31, 2018

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

The Inquisition

Drawing of stage in a city square surrounded by a crowd. Members of the Inquisition are on the stage surrounded by victims they will punish, who sit in tiered seats around the edges of the stage. Members of the crowd carry pikes or spears.

Christopher Fletcher
June 14, 2018

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Searching for Ophelia in the Archive

What does the archive offer for the exploration of Shakespeare in the digital age?

Paul Hecht
May 17, 2018

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

The Discovery of Chocolate

Sarah Peters Kernan
April 13, 2018