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World History

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

15th Century, Classroom Materials, Skills Lesson

Skills Lesson: Anatomy of a Manuscript Page

Page of an illuminated medieval manuscript. A border of leaves and flowers surrounds Latin text handwritten in black. There are two small images within the text. In the upper left the Virgin Mary holds Jesus inside of an illuminated "O." In the lower left, a person with a halo and a blue cloak holds a goblet.

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 12, 2022

15th Century, Classroom Materials, Skills Lesson

Skills Lesson: Reading Middle English in Manuscript

Detail of lines of Middle English text on vellum

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 12, 2022

15th Century, Classroom Materials, Full Lesson Plan

Contexts for the Book of Margery Kempe

Colored drawing of a nun (St. Bridget) writing at a writing desk. An angel whispers in her ear while a monk prays next to her. Above her head is a dove descending from a burst of light representing the Holy Spirit. On either side of the dove are depictions of Jesus Christ. On the left, God the father (an older man with a beard) holds him after he was taken down from the cross. On the right, the Virgin Mary holds him as a baby. All the figures are white.

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 5, 2022

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

18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Latin American Independence in the Age of Revolutions

Will Hansen
August 25, 2021

20th Century, Classroom Materials, Full Lesson Plan, Grades 6 and Up, Grades 8 and Up, Visual Literacy

All Together in World War I

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
July 7, 2021

Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Classroom Materials, Grades 6 and Up, Grades 8 and Up, Visual Literacy

Comparing Portraits

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
June 25, 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

13th Century, 14th Century, 15th Century, Collection Essays

Politics, Poetry, and Religious Life in Late-Medieval England after the Black Death

Woodcut image of three skeletons dancing with one another above a fourth, who is rising out of the grave to join them. On the far left of the image a fifth skeleton plays a pipe.

Dr. Sarah Wilson, Newberry Library
January 6, 2021