Narrow results:

Place

Time

Topic

Additional Subjects

Type of Item

Language

Institution

71 results
The Book of Kings
Shahnameh Baysonqori is a copy of Shahnameh (Book of kings) composed by the highly revered Iranian poet Abū al-Qāsim Firdawsī (940–1020). The importance of Shahnameh in the Persian-speaking world is comparable that of Homer’s epics in the West. The book recounts in verse the mythological history of ancient Persia and tales of the famous heroes and personalities of Iranian history, from legendary times to the 7th-century reign of Yazdgerd III, the last king of the Sassanid dynasty. The tales are based on earlier historical works, but are mixed ...
Contributed by
National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex. Book VIII: Kings and Lords
Historia general de las cosas de nueva España (General history of the things of New Spain) is an encyclopedic work about the people and culture of central Mexico compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590), a Franciscan missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, eight years after completion of the Spanish conquest by Hernan Cortés. Commonly referred to as the Florentine Codex, the manuscript consists of 12 books devoted to different topics. Book VIII is concerned with kings and nobles, forms of government, elections of rulers, and the customs ...
Contributed by
Medicea Laurenziana Library, Florence
History of Byzantium
This Greek manuscript on parchment dating from the 12th to the 13th centuries is one of the most valuable codices in the National Library of Spain, treasured for the richness of its illumination. The work, by Ioannes Scylitza (flourished 1081), is a history of the Byzantine emperors from 811 to 1057, covering events from the proclamation of Michael I Rangabe in 811 to the reign of Michael VI in 1056–57. The manuscript contains 577 miniatures by different artists. Most of the scenes are accompanied by a caption that explains ...
Contributed by
National Library of Spain
Codicil of Queen Isabel the Catholic, Executed at Medina del Campo, on November 23, 1504
On November 23, 1504, three days before her death, Queen Isabella of Spain signed, in Medina del Campo, a codicil before the same notary, Gaspar de Gricio, and five of the seven witnesses who had been present on October 12 for the signing of her last will and testament. In the testament, the queen addressed the fundamental aspects of government by the Catholic monarchs. In the codicil, besides reaffirming what she had stipulated in the testament, she addressed questions directly affecting peninsular government and showed her concern for Spanish policy ...
Contributed by
National Library of Spain
Ismāʻīl, the Persian Ambassador of Ṭahmāsp, King of Persia
Melchior Lorck, or Lorichs (1527–circa 1590), was the most brilliant graphic artist in 16th-century Denmark. He was born in Flensburg of distinguished parents; the Danish kings took up residence in the Lorck house when visiting the city. In 1549 King Christian III gave Lorck financial support to go on an educational journey. Lorck’s wanderlust led him throughout Europe and in the end to Vienna, where he gained employment with Emperor Charles V. From 1555 to 1559 Lorck was one of three ambassadors sent by the emperor to Constantinople ...
Contributed by
Royal Library (The), Denmark
Trevelyon Miscellany, 1608
Thomas Trevilian, or Trevelyon, a London craftsman of whom little is known, created his miscellany in 1608 when he was about the age of 60. The bulky manuscript of 290 double-sided folios contains texts and images appropriated from books, woodcuts, and engravings of his day. Part one of the manuscript (leaves 3–36) consists of historical and practical information: a time line; an illustrated calendar; moralizing proverbs; a series of computational tables and astronomical diagrams; lists of families linked to William the Conqueror; distances between London and cities around the ...
Contributed by
Folger Shakespeare Library
Minas and Rio Railway, Brazil: Mantiqueira Tunnel: Visits from Your Majesties on the 25th of June, 1882
The Minas and Rio Railway, also known as the Rio Verde Railway, was opened for traffic on July 14th, 1884, in the presence of Emperor Pedro II (1825–91), his daughter Princess Isabel, and her husband, Prince Gastão de Orléans, conde d’Eu. The British-owned and constructed line ran from Cruzeiro in the interior of the state of São Paulo, across the Mantiqueira Mountains, and through cities and towns in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais as far as Três Corações do Rio Verde. The line played ...
Contributed by
National Library of Brazil
World Chronicle with the Descent of the Kings of England from Adam and Eve to Richard III
This manuscript, produced in London around 1500, traces the genealogy of the kings of England from Adam and Eve to Richard III. The manuscript was made in the manner of William Caxton (circa 1422–92), the first English printer. Written in English, on vellum, the volume still has its original brown calf binding. Illustrations are mostly large compositions in pen and ink and include images of the Last Judgment and the fall of the rebel angels, the Creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, and Noah’s ark. Also included ...
Contributed by
Irish College in Paris
Emir of Bukhara. Bukhara
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Tortuguero Box
This object, called the Tortuguero box because its inscriptions are comparable to those found in Tortuguero, Mexico, is a diminutive offering box, one of very few surviving Mayan personal objects made of wood. The full-length portrait of a Mayan lord on the cover of the box and the 44 hieroglyphic signs tell a story that yields important insights into the Mayan social system. The narrative begins with the image of the box’s owner, Aj K'ax B'ahlam, the holder of an important position under the patronage of the ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Monumental Jaguar Sculpture
This painted buff ceramic sculpture was made in southern Veracruz, Mexico, in 600-900 AD, or the Late Classic Period of Mesoamerican civilization. Scholars traditionally have defined Mesoamerica as a cultural region comprising the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador. Its history is divided into an Archaic Period (circa 12,000-1500 BC), a Preclassic or Formative Period (circa 1500 BC-200 AD), a Classic Period (circa 200-900 AD), and a Postclassic Period (circa 900-1500 AD). The tropical jaguar was a major sacred creature in much of Mesoamerica ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Franc à cheval, John II
The franc à cheval was ordered issued on December 5, 1360 to finance the ransom of King John II (born 1319; reigned, 1350–64), who had been taken prisoner by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, during the Hundred Years’ War. The ransom totaled a vast 3 million écus, and the fact that the coin was used to secure the release of the king gave rise to the name by which it was known: franc, meaning free. The value of the coin was set at one livre ...
Contributed by
National Library of France
The Bunyoro Agreement 1955
This document, from the National Archives of Uganda, is the original of the Bunyoro Agreement of 1955 between Great Britain and the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara, one of the traditional kingdoms of Uganda. The agreement, in both English and Lunyoro, was signed on September 3 by Sir Andrew Cohen (1909–68), governor of the Uganda Protectorate, on behalf of the British government in London and the government of the protectorate, and the Omukama (king), Sir Tito Gafabusa Winyi IV (1883–1971), on behalf of himself and his successors, the Rukurato (the ...
Contributed by
National Library of Uganda
Book of Kings or a Bulgarian History, Which Teaches from Whence Came the Bulgarians, How They Became Rulers, How They Reigned and How Their Kingdom Perished and Fell under the Yoke
This book is the first published edition of Paisii Khilendarski’s 1762 Slaveno-Bulgarian History, which is considered the founding document of the Bulgarian National Revival. Paisii’s history encouraged the Bulgarians, who had been under Ottoman rule for centuries, to discover their national consciousness and to embrace the Bulgarian language. The work was so influential that it was copied by hand and excerpted many times, without Paisii being identified as the author or his name associated with the work. This 1844 edition, compiled and revised by Khristaki Pavlovich, also fails ...
Contributed by
Central Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Apotheosis of Peter's Military Glory
“Apotheosis of Peter's Military Glory” exalts Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) as a wise ruler and military leader. The print shows Peter standing on a pedestal depicting battle scenes, surrounded by portraits of the 33 tsars and grand dukes who ruled Russia from the ninth century to the beginning of Peter’s reign in 1682. Labels beneath the portraits provide brief information about each ruler. Behind Peter stretches a chain of maps of the fortresses that he seized in battle. The work was commissioned by the Russian state ...
Contributed by
Yeltsin Presidential Library
King of Uganda and Royal Drummer with His Ears Cut off by Order of Former King, Africa
This photograph of a scene in Uganda is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and film negatives ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Denier
Charlemagne (742–814) was crowned emperor of the Romans in 800. Yet coins bearing his imperial title are so rare that it is believed that he had them minted only after 812, when he received recognition as emperor of the West by the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. This denier silver coin is typical of those produced during the Carolingian Renaissance, a period in which art, culture, and religion flourished under the influence of Charlemagne. Such coins include a classical imperial bust and a reverse side often inspired by ...
Contributed by
National Library of France
Royal Coin, Francis I. Sample Teston
This gold sample teston (16th-century French silver coin) representing the King Francis I (1494–1547; reigned, 1515–47) of France is one of the most characteristic monetary expressions of the Renaissance. The realistic portrait, classical inspiration, significant relief, and weight of the piece are all features that represent a break from the money of medieval times. The 19th-century numismatist, Henri de La Tour, showed that this 1529 coin was the work of Matteo del Nassaro (circa 1490–1547), an Italian artist from Verona who first entered the service of Francis ...
Contributed by
National Library of France
Royal Coin, Louis XIII. Ten Louis d'Or
The mechanization of the minting of coins from precious metals in France made possible the creation, in 1640, of the louis d'or, named after King Louis XIII (1601–43; reigned, 1610–43), who first introduced the coins. This series of gold pieces was part of a reform that changed the minting method from hammered coinage to a more precisely milled and weighed coinage. These coins included three types: the louis, the double louis, and the quadruple louis. It has been customary since the 17th century (incorrectly) to call the ...
Contributed by
National Library of France
Emir of Bukhara
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Throne of Dagobert
This cast and chiseled bronze and partially gilded throne from the art collections of the National Library of France belonged to Dagobert I (circa 603–39), king of the Franks 629–34, considered the last powerful Merovingian king. Four protomes of panthers form the feet and legs; the armrests consist of two carved and perforated panels, decorated with rosettes (bottom) and plant motifs (upper register). The back, triangular in shape, is decorated with three rings and foliage. The seat, originally folding, is a work of the seventh century, or a ...
Contributed by
National Library of France