#OTD in 1559 the Royal Library of Brussels was born after Philip II ordered to centralise the vast collection of books and manuscript into one location at the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels.

Otto von Bismarck drank wine with breakfast and every other meal, beer in between meals, and drank himself to sleep every single night. He was also a lifelong chainsmoker.

While dividing Africa at the Congress of Berlin, 'he ate pickled herrings with two hands.' Probably drunk.

Major General Georges P. Vanier on the day of his inauguration as Governor General of Canada (1959)

Tripoli Cathedral, before it was converted to a Mosque after Gaddafi’s take over of Libya 🇱🇾

Friends, the waiting is over; the full tragic tale of unfortunate Canon Babbitt is now online here: kieranwilsonwrites.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/cau…. Read, learn his fate, bewail it, and discover how to avoid it for yourself!

When gas lighting first appeared in India, it was of great excitement for common people. Every evening a man would come and manually light each lamp.

Street gas light being lit, Calcutta, 1930's.💡

Reminds me the story 'Panchlight', by Phanishwar Nath Renu. 📖

What did a Roman temple look like in the 4th century AD? The Virgil Vatican manuscript, dated from that century, preserves an illustration of the temple of Apollo that allows us to envision it. Note the splendid white marble and what looks like a golden statue at the entrance.

Mithreum de Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Italia (s.IIdC). Este templo mitraico acogió una de las religiones mistéricas más divulgadas en el Imperio Romano entre el s.IdC - IVdC. Descubierto de forma fortuita en 1922 es considerado uno de los mitreos más importantes del mundo.

Statue of Yasuke :

Yasuke a tall African man, arrived in Japan in 1579 CE, and made history as first foreign-born man to become a Samurai warrior.

Yasuke was originally a slave from Mozambique and was brought to Japan by Portuguese traders. Powerful Japanese warlord Oda…

Tables are from 'The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean' by Raoul McLaughlin

A restricted archaeological site turned into a Military Base :

The Unfinished Pyramid of Zawyet El-Aryan attracted attention in the mid-19th century when it was documented as 'Pyramid XIII.' Subsequent explorations in the early 20th century revealed the massive scale of the…

First edition of Thomas Aquinas' 'Golden Chain' by the first printers in Italy, Conrad Sweynheym & Arnold Pannartz: Catena Aurea super quattuor evangelistas, vol II (Rome, 7 Dec. 1470).

The Queen's College sel.a.200 #incunable

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As many of you know, all of our online resources are free and are in the public domain. That means they are released for free and can be copied, translated, sold, redistributed (and all that other jargon) to the world without infringing copyright laws or…

Egypte - Le Caire, 1852. Photo by Ernest Benecke (German, born England, 1817 - 1894)

Scholar friends, have you come across archaeological evidence for Moloch being a statue with bronze arms that were heated and children placed upon? I’ve heard this for most of my life but have yet to find any concrete evidence for the claim other than people simply repeating it.

Pair of altars depicting the death of Adonis. Place of origin: Possibly from Taras (Tarentum), Apulia, South Italy. Culture: Greek, 4th century B.C. Medium: Terracotta. Now on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

This made me feel an emotion I cannot even roughly name

hey Ge'ez/Ethiopia/Eritrea people, i made a thing on wiktionary that generates declension tables for Ge'ez nouns. if you know some Ge'ez, mind taking a look and telling me if it's working right?

Queen’s Parade, Bayshill. Would you ever guess that the right hand house, with its beautiful proportions, ironwork, columns and rustication, is a recent addition to bookend the terrace?

ወይን፡ ወማኅሌት፡ ያስተፌሥሑ፡ አልባበ፡
ወእምክልኤሆሙሰ፡ ነጊረ፡ ስብሓትኪ፡ ካዕበ፨

'Wine and song rejoice the heart,
but speaking of your praise (does so) twice as much!'
(from the Māḫleta Ṣǝge, 15th c.)

Ethiopia, 15th–16th c. #StMary #geez #africanart