From the outset of the Revolution, contemporaries wondered about its links with the intellectual evolution of the century that preceded it. The Revolution, daughter of the Enlightenment? Apparently, yes. The work of the Constituent Assembly often seems to echo the writings of philosophers:emphasis o
The system of water falling from a perforated tank was invented at the end of the 18th century • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In 18th Europe century, the wealthy classes are increasingly concerned about hygiene, both that of cities and that of people. The bath becomes a habitual practice, for the sake of c
Detail of the vault of the collapsed transept crossing, with charred pieces of the spire frame, April 26, 2019 • INRAP/SERVICE DE PRESSE It has been more than a year since a fire destroyed part of Notre-Dame de Paris on April 15, 2019. As of July 30, an exceptional law entrusted Inrap (National
To approach the history of women in the Middle Ages is to play hide and seek with shadows, silhouettes without faces or bodies. Almost dreamed of, these ladies of yesteryear? No, of course. Like a curtain-raiser after a long wait, portraits, startling in their embodied precision, will appear at the
Taken from the Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, this miniature illustrates the month of June. The work is done by both men and women. XIV century. Condé Museum, Chantilly • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS An English ballad from the end of the 15thth century depicts a couple of peasants arguing over who w
The polychrome tufa recumbent statue of Eleanor of Aquitaine (with Henry II in the background) at Fontevraud Abbey (Maine-et-Loire) • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS A fascinating figure of the Middle Ages, Eleanor of Aquitaine had the most extravagant adventures. Through her extraordinary life and the critic
Catherine was born in 1347 in Siena, Tuscany, where her father was a dyer. Last child of a large family, she says she had a vision around the age of 6:to Christ who appeared to her, she gave herself as a wife. The literature of the Middle Ages written by men, most often monks, proposes three states
Only four women have been recognized as Doctors of the Church:the Italian Catherine of Siena, the Spaniard Thérèse of Ávila, the French Thérèse of Lisieux and, since 2012, the German Hildegarde de Bingen. Born into a noble family in 1098, Hildegard shared the cell of a recluse from the age of 8. The
Born in 1477 in Nantes in the castle of her parents, Anne of Brittany received an exceptional education, because she was, despite her sex, the only legitimate heiress of the Duke of Brittany. His father, François II, decides to arm him intellectually to face the political charges that will fall to h
Courtly love is a notion invented in 1883 by the philologist Gaston Paris to describe the feelings between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere in the author Chrétien de Troyes. It can be defined as an extramarital affair between a married lady and a lover who goes above and beyond to obtain the favors of h
In the Middle Ages, prostitution was a socially tolerated activity, even sometimes institutionalized, to allow boys who married later than girls to be patient, to limit adultery and to avoid the rise of male violence. Western city governments control or build public brothels themselves (prostibulum
Born in Italy in 1364, Christine de Pisan arrives in France with her father, Tommaso Pizzano, a doctor and astrologer who entered the service of Charles V. Married and mother of three children, she was widowed at the age of 25. From 1395 to 1405, she wrote texts testifying to her talent for writing
The term witch, feminine of sorcerer, derives from the Vulgar Latin sortiarius , the “spell-teller”. In the collective imagination, witchcraft is associated with the Middle Ages, women and the pact with the devil, which should be strongly qualified. If the witch hunt does indeed begin in the 15thth
At the crepe maker, in Quimper (undated postcard) • BRITTANY MUSEUM RENNES PUBLIC DOMAIN / PRESS DEPARTMENT Its not a legend:the Bretons were already making pancakes in the 13thth century. It is not known if they were good, but the monks appreciated them. In the 15thth century, only a few texts
This is the story of a successful integration. That of dreaded looters who, after having set fire and blood to Western Europe for a century, made peace with the Franks (treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911), mingled with the population and founded the Duchy of Normandy. If they left few archaeologi
The time of Al-Andalus, this part of Spain conquered by the Arabs and Berbers from 711 and became Muslim, was it a golden age, a period of tolerance where Jews, Christians and Muslims have been able to coexist harmoniously? Historical reality partly contradicts this idyllic vision. Equality between
The city of Granada from the Alhambra Palace, residence of the Nasrid kings from the 13th to the 15th century • ISTOCK We owe to Ibn Khaldûn, Arab thinker of the XIVth century, an original theory on empires. According to him, the only way to create wealth is to accumulate it by raising taxes. An
A Viking ship in Sognefjord, Norway • GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO The Duchy of Normandy was not born, as tradition would have it, in 911, the date of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. Its foundation is the result of a long and complex process, known thanks to Dudon, a canon of Saint-Quentin who c
Church dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator, evangelizer of Armenia, in Ani (today in Turkey), forgotten capital of medieval Armenia • ISTOCKPHOTO The medieval chronicles of the Near East called it, because of its size, the city of the thousand and one churches or of the forty doors. His fame re
The Law of the Lord, by Vassili Polenov (1874). A young bride is led by her family before the lord to spend her wedding night with him. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Regularly, an article, a novel, a film or a series agitates social networks because it evokes the droit de seigneu
The arquebus is a firearm with a limited effective range (less than 50 meters), quite heavy and bulky, but the latest versions of it could be supported. “Arquebuse” comes from the German Hakenbüchse. The matchlock arquebus, which appeared around 1450, weighs 5 to 9 kilograms and requires support on
A meeting of the All India Muslim League was convened on 9-10 June 1947 at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi to consider the Mountbatten Plan. Four hundred delegates from all over the country participated in it. The league accepted the plan with a large majority. 400 members were present in the meeting, o
Army of India was the armed force of the British Raj. Between 1903 and 1947, the Indian Army comprised two distinct entities: the Indian Army made up of native regiments; the British Army in India made up of British regiments stationed in India. Origin After the sepoy revolt in 1858, India was p
At the height of the revolt, up to 300,000 peasants would have been involved. In Württemberg, for example, about 70% of the men capable of bearing arms joined the rebellion, which ignited from Alsace in the west to Salzburg in the east, through the Tyrol, and from the Swiss Alps in the south to hear