Images

An early 17th-century illustration by Felipe Guáman Poma de Ayala showing the coronation of the new Inca ruler, Manco Inca Yupanqui on 16 November 1533. Manco Inca was a puppet ruler of the conquistadors but he rose up in rebellion and led...

The Lezoux plate, a ceramic plate found in 1970 at Lezoux, Puy-de-Dôme, France. The engraved text is one of the longest ones in the Gaulish language, in a Gallo-Latin cursive script. Prefectural Museum of Ceramics, Lezoux

Fragments of the Larzac Tablet, a lead curse tablet dated to c. 100 CE. Musée de Millau, France.

Title page of the Index of Prohibited Books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum), published in Rome, 1711. National Library of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

The voyage of Aeneas, the Trojan prince and hero of The Aeneid, belongs to Rome’s foundational myth-making rather than historical record. Composed by Virgil between 29–19 BCE, during the reign of Augustus (reign 27 BCE–14 CE), the epic reimagines...

Map of East Frisia by the Dutch Johannes Florianus (1522-1585) for the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, one of the first accurate modern atlas, 1595.

Seal of the Upstalsboom, the place where envoys from all Frisian areas met. The seal dates from 1324 and resembles St. Mary as the protector of Frisia. The Latin text translates: "Through this sign, the whole of Friesland, to which the Virgin...

Friso, the legendary king of Frisia, holding a sword in the city of Stavoren, Frisia. Print by Pieter Feddes van Harlingen, 1618-1620. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Pope Pius IV promulgates the bull Benedictus Deus, ratifying the Canons of the Council of Trent in 1564. Fresco by Pasquale Cati, 1588. Altemps Chapel, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

This map illustrates the dramatic rise and gradual decline of Spain as a global imperial power between the late 15th and late 17th centuries. Emerging from a union of northern Iberian kingdoms, Spain reached its zenith under Habsburg rule...