16th Century

'Strange Shaped Beasts & Glorious Feathered Birds': The Tudor and Stuart Craze for American Animals

From Anne Boleyn's South American monkey to jaguar claws and parrots, Lauren Working explains how the Early Modern England sought to import the treasures of America.

Gabriele Tadino Goes to Rhodes

Edoardo Albert pinpoints a critical moment in the contest between the Venetians, the Knights Hospitaller and the Ottomans

Shakespeare’s Lost Years

Tinker? Tailor? Soldier? Spy? Howard Linskey looks back at the most mysterious phase of Shakespeare's life

Before the Tourists: The Unseen History of the Venice Ghetto

Harry Freedman on a 'dark and unhappy' chapter in Venetian history

A Thousand Golden Cities

Justin Marozzi introduces us to a ‘Description of Kabul’ from the Bāburnāma, the memoirs of Bābur