Ancient history

• In Rennes, a seat in the flesh

  In Rennes, a tomb of soldiers buried in the Jacobin convent and identified as belonging to the royal army was discovered • INRAP / SERVICE DE PRESSE Traces of the last act of the war in Brittany were recently found with the identification of two mass graves in Rennes. They are located in the Jac

• Machiavelli sounds the death knell of the political Middle Ages

  Posthumous portrait of Nicolas Machiavelli, by Santi di Tito. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Nicolas Machiavelli was born in 1469, into a family of minor nobility with land ties to Montespertoli, the original stronghold. A whole lineage dedicated to public functions, to the servic

• Brunelleschi:the dawn of the Renaissance rises on the dome of the Duomo

  The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, also called Duomo, still dominates the rooftops of Florence. Brunelleschi definitively completed its construction during the 15th century, after 30 years of work. • LIST On January 20, 1817, Stendhal discovered Florence:“While descending the Apennines to a

• The Mona Lisa, an enigmatic masterpiece

  Portrait of Mona Lisa, known as the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci. Around 1503-1506. Louvre Museum, Paris • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo hangs – under very high surveillance – in room 711 of the Denon wing of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Bett

• Bougainville finds Eden at the end of the world

  Engraving depicting the arrival of Bougainville in Tahiti in April 1768 • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, youngest son of a notary from Châtelet in Paris, was already 27 years old when he boarded a long-distance ship for the first time. Indeed, he is making his first crossing of

• Voltaire in his castle

  The Château de Ferney, where Voltaire lived from 1759 until his death in 1778. • DIDIER PLOWY / CENTER DES MONUMENTS NATIONAUX / PRESS SERVICE Property of the Center des Monuments Nationaux, the Château de Voltaire is located in Ferney, in Ain, not far from Geneva. Here it is again accessible to

• Enlightenment conspiracy in Enlightenment Bavaria

  Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati (on the left:the owl of the goddess Minerva) • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS Until the age of 36, Adam Weishaupt led the life of a respectable 18th century German bourgeois. century. Born in 1748 in the town of Ingolstadt, which then belonged to the independ

• Alexander Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe

  In order not to go mad, Selkirk used to read aloud the Bible he had been able to keep • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS By anchoring his Duke ships and Duchess near the island of Más a Tierra, their captain Woodes Rogers had no idea that the next day he would see a man come out of the forest dressed in goatski

• Catherine Sforza, the lioness of the Renaissance

  The Lady with Jasmines (1485-1490) is the portrait of Catherine Sforza (1463-1509), Duchess of Milan, painted by Lorenzo di Credi. Musei San Domenico, Pinacoteca Civica, Forlí. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS At the end of 1499, a woman perched on the walls of the fortress of Ravaldino in Forlì, 300 km north

• William Harvey, the English doctor who understood the circuit of the blood

  Harvey presents the beating heart of a small animal to expound his theory of circulation before King Charles I, by Ernest Board (1877-1934). • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS In 1628, the English physician and anatomist William Harvey published in Frankfurt his Anatomical Exercise on the Movement of the Heart

• Anne of Austria, a great stateswoman

  There were not many women who governed France. Under the Ancien Régime, in fact, the rules of succession prohibited the female sex from acceding to the throne of France. The only times when they could play a role were those times of transition when the king was too young to exercise his personal pow

• Anne of Austria and Louis XIV, a queen mother in the service of her son

  Louis XIV child, by Philippe de Champaigne (copy after). • CC0 PARIS MUSEUMS / CARNAVALET MUSEUM For the people of France, the birth in 1638 of the Dauphin is a miracle. The wait for an heir has been so long:23 years. The parents were over 36, the kings health remained fragile, and Anne had suff

• Surcouf, the last great corsair

  The capture of the English ship Kent by Robert Surcouf in 1800 in the Bay of Bengal • THE HOLBARN ARCHIVE/ BRIDGEMAN IMAGES Pronouncing certain surnames such as Surcouf, Duguay-Trouin or Chateaubriand immediately brings to mind Saint-Malo, whose name alone evokes the memory of a corsair city. Th

• Barbary corsairs overshadow the Sun King

  19th century engraving showing the city of Algiers from the sea. • ISTOCK The janissaries and corsair captains who constituted the Invincible Militia, holders of the power of the regency of Algiers, knew perfectly the European political situation. During the minority of Louis XIV, from 1643 to 1

• 1613:The first divers appear

  Diagram of the diving bell, improved by Edmund Halley. Engraving by Louis Figuier. The Wonders of Science, 1867-1891 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Since ancient times, man has been looking for a way to move underwater free from the constraints imposed by breathing. In addition to snorkelers, there is evid

• Diane de Poitiers, the goddess of the Château d'Anet

  Diane dAnet, marble sculpture representing Diane de Poitiers accompanied by a majestic deer. 1550-1560, Louvre Museum, Paris. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS Of the sculptures of the Château dAnet built by Henri II for Diane de Poitiers, there remains only what Alexandre Lenoir was able to save in 1804 for h

• Venice:how to build a city on water

  View of one of the many canals serving as streets in Venice • ISTOCKPHOTO One of the major challenges of the Venetians consisted in building an urban ensemble on what was previously only a mosaic of islands and islets on often marshy ground. To do this, they developed a technique to lay the foun

• Eight crusades in two centuries

  Louis IX leaves for the seventh crusade. 14th century miniature taken from the Chronicles of Saint-Denis, circa 1332-1355. British Library, London • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS It was Pope Urban II who took the initiative to preach the First Crusade . The victories won by the crusaders between 1096 and 10

• Pasta, an Italian passion that comes from afar

  Neapolitans eating pasta, on an engraving from 1900 • NAPOLI MANGIAMACCHERONI Macaroni, spaghetti, ravioli, tortellini… With such a variety, there is no doubt that pasta is the Italian dish par excellence:there are some 200 types of pasta of all shapes (squares, tubes, sticks, spirals…), which a

• How sugar became irresistible

  The widespread use of sugar or honey gave a sweet and sour taste to many dishes of the Middle Ages. Miniature from the Book of King Modus and Queen Ratio, 14th century • WIKIPEDIA COMMONS In 1099, when the Crusaders who had arrived in Palestine to retake the Holy Land were approaching Jerusalem,