Around 1560, Georg Bocskay, secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created the Model Book of Calligraphy to exhibit his skill and mastery of writing styles. Thirty years later, Joris Hoefnagel was commissioned to illuminate Bocskay's text.…
José de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit and naturalist, discusses the use of chili peppers in the West Indies. The chapter focuses on the varieties of chili peppers, their medicinal properties, and the ways in which indigenous peoples used them.
"Natural and Moral History of the Indies" subtitled "Intreating of the Remarkable Things of Heaven, of the Elements, Mettalls, Plants and Beasts which are proper to that Country: Together with the Manners, Ceremonies, Lawes, Governments, and Warres…
An image of chili peppers from the German translation of Leonhart Fuch's original De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes. The image was drawn by Albrecht Meyer and transferred to woodblocks by Heinrich Füllmaurer. The woodblocks were cut and…
An onion-seller hoists a pole over his right shoulder, from which hang four ropes of hard onions. This profession was common in London at the time this image was created.