Nature Hub

  David Carpenter  | Published in  History Today   Volume 73 Issue 7 July 2023 Edited by - Amal Udawatta Visionary: Henry III and the facade of Westminster Abbey, from the Chronicle of England, by Peter Langtoft, 1307-27. incamerastock/Alamy Stock Photo Westminster Abbey was the focus of the world during the recent coronation. How and why was it built?   W e owe Westminster Abbey to one of the lesser-known kings of England, Henry III. Henry, the son of King John, was nine when he came to the throne in 1216. He reigned for 56 years, dying in 1272. While contemporaries were often critical of Henry’s rule, they also regarded him as a ‘most Christian king’, a ‘ rex Christianissimus ’. One aspect of Henry’s piety, admired then by his Christian subjects, abhorrent now, was his persecution of the Jews. Another, the most central, was his devotion to his patron saint and predecessor, Edward the Confessor. This brings us to Westminster Abbey. Edward the Confessor, the las...

 From History today By - Alexander Lee Edited by Amal Udawatta One of the alleged Sponsian coins featuring a bust of the emperor Sponsian, depicted wearing a radiate crown, c.260-70 © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. Could a pair of ancient looking coins reveal the existence of a previously unknown Roman emperor? Carl Gustav Heraeus was not the sort of man who got excited easily. A stiff Swedish-born scholar, he had risen from humble beginnings to become Inspector of Medals for the imperial collection in Vienna, and was known for his careful, even pedantic, attention to detail. Yet when, in March 1713, a set of eight gold and silver coins landed on his desk, even he cannot have suppressed a gasp. According to his notes, they had recently been discovered in Transylvania. Exactly where, Heraeus could not say, but they had been purchased from the court councillor, Johann David von Palm, and seem to have belonged to a larger hoard which had since been dispersed. Most of Herae...

  Alexander Lee  | Published in  History Today   Volume 68 Issue 12 December 2018 Edited by Amal Udawatta, Rich enough to appeal to lords and dukes, the success of panettone is down to its festive, egalitarian simplicity. A child carrying a panettone in Milan, 20 December 1958. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve always loved Christmas stories. I can’t count how many times I have read Charles Dickens’  A Christmas Carol  and Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl’. I’m also fond of Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’. But my favourite has to be Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s ‘La gioia e la legge’ (‘Joy and the Law’).Set in Milan in the early 1950s, this unsung classic of Italian literature is the tale of Girolamo, a downtrodden clerk at the Big-Name Production Company. All through December, he has been dreading Christmas. He is behind with the bills and, even with his bonus, he knows he won’t be able to buy hi...

  Did Tudor beds have footboards? The conundrum illustrates the challenges of early modern history. From History Today, Peter Lindfield  , Edited by - Vinuri Randhula Silva, The nightmare of Henry I in 1130, from the Worcester Chronicle, c.1130-40. Courtesy of British Museum Images. History is the ‘shipwreck of time’. Innumerable examples of domestic furniture from early modern England have been lost because of natural wastage, changing fashions and the destruction of the Civil War. Unless preserved in ecclesiastical contexts, ancient domestic furniture typically exists in fragments; the headboard from Henry VIII’s marriage bed, now in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, is an example. On occasion, these fragments have been cobbled together with modern woodwork to create ‘cut and shut’ antiques. Despite this, pieces of medieval furniture do survive and occasionally materialise. The challenge is to try to ascertain their authenticity. A little over a decade ago, a four-poster...

Edited by - Amal Udawatta, The  Raja Anka  or the heraldic Emblems of rulers of the Brihadhartha dynasty of Maghadha  was the Bull mentioned in the Mahabaratha. But the Bull symbol is a universal symbols used by other nations on the coins and  art.Most   states of India too had their own Royal emblems that signifies the Royal authority of the King when placed on official documents and on coins. In fact in the text book Arthasastra of the Maghdan Empire ,the Master of the Mint was called Laksanaadhayasaka, Laksana in this name apparantly  refers to the Emblem of the King and State stamped on the coin. Closer home, the independent states of the Southern India the Pandayan’s had the stylised fish, the Chola’s the tiger[ This Animal looks very much like a Lion, than a Tiger] , Cera’s the Bow etc. These heraldic marks was also placed on seals on copper grants etc. After about the 2 Cent AD, most  of these nations stopped using their ...