Human Interest

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest libraries. We hold over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents and 3 million sound recordings. Open to everyone, the Library also offers exhibitions, events and a Treasures Gallery that displays over 200 items, including The Lindisfarne Gospel, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, Shakespeare’s First Folio, lyrics by The Beatles and the world’s earliest dated printed book, Diamond Sutra.

The most prominent publisher of books for children in the 18th century was John Newbery, who was based at ‘the sign of the Bible and Sun’ in St Paul’s Church-Yard, London. A Little Pretty POCKET-BOOK, Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy, and Pretty Miss Polly, first published in 1744, is generally considered to be the first book specifically directed at children.

Numerous documents from antiquity tell of monstrous people living at the edge of the known world. In the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder described extraordinary races of humans living in India and Ethiopia: these included mouthless hairy creatures called Astomi, who had no need of food or drink; men with dog's heads; and one-legged creatures who could hop at incredible speed and use their giant feet as umbrellas to protect them from the sun. 

It is possible to detect an element of black humour in some aspects of medieval death culture. For example, one 15th century poem recounts a debate between a corpse and the worms who are eating her; the dead woman shouts for her knights to defend her but the worms remind her that she is beyond help.

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renessanssi

The German composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) composed Messiah in 1741 and it remains his best-known work, with its famous 'Hallelujah Chorus' performed by choirs the world over.

It is, however, dangerous to generalise about the status and experience of medieval women, whose lives were shaped by as many different considerations as they are today. Interpretations of women's place in medieval society have to strike a balance between exceptional individuals, who by dint of their wealth, status and achievements are often relatively well documented, and the experience of ordinary women, whose lives tended to leave few traces on the historical record.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest libraries. We hold over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents and 3 million sound recordings. Open to everyone, the Library also offers exhibitions, events and a Treasures Gallery that displays over 200 items, including The Lindisfarne Gospel, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, Shakespeare’s First Folio, lyrics by The Beatles and the world’s earliest dated printed book, Diamond Sutra.