17th century

Topic description and stories

Page from Colloquia et dictionariolum octo linguarum (Amsterdam, 1631), a pocket-sized phrasebook containing material in eight languages.

Comm’portez vous? What phrase books tell us about our past encounters

06 Aug 2013

Will you be speaking Greek, Turkish or Spanish on holiday this summer – or will you rely on the locals having a workable grasp of English? In his...

Aristotle's compleat and experienc'd midwife

Much ado about babies

23 Jul 2013

The management of childbirth and care of newborns have always been hotly-debated topics. PhD candidate Leah Astbury looks at narratives of...

Image from Johann Amos Comenius, Orbis sensualium pictus quadrilinguis (Nuremberg, 1679), p. 374

How notes and jottings contribute to the history of science

12 Jul 2013

An examination of historic notebooks shows that physicians, and the families who called on their services, made consistent efforts to learn from...

Porträt des Eduard VI. als Kind by Hans Holbein the Younger (1498-1543), Denver Art Museum

Born to rule: two public talks look at royal births of the past

16 Jun 2013

The hype surrounding the birth of a royal baby is nothing new. Two public lectures (18 and 25 June) will explore the Tudor and Stuart obsession with...

Welsh Twitter: capturing language change in real time

29 May 2013

A database of Welsh tweets is being used to identify the characteristics of an evolving language.

Charles Towne, Hilly Landscape, Oil on canvas, 38.7cm x 51.1cm (detail), Credit: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Views of the landscape

17 May 2013

In a talk on Monday (20 May 2013) Dr Simon Nightingale will explore how painterly interpretations of the countryside were embedded into the...

Detail from "The ornithology of Francis Willughby .... (London, 1678)". , Credit: Trinity College Library (Q.13.16) by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge.

The world of Francis Willughby: the man who compiled the first ornithology

03 May 2013

In his short life Francis Willughby immersed himself in the study of natural history yet he has been overshadowed by more famous peers. In a talk on...

Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto) A View at the Entrance of the Grand Canal, Venice, c.1741 Oil on canvas, 59.3 cm x 94.9 cm (detail), Credit: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Lessons from history: how Europe did (and didn’t) grow rich

24 Mar 2013

The Industrial Revolution is seen as the spark that lit Europe’s economic prosperity. In her analysis of markets over many hundreds of years...

Crash, crisis, calamity: system shock in a globalised world

01 Oct 2012

Threats that cause supply chains and other networks to break down can cascade through today’s interconnected world of social, economic and financial...