Images

Title page of the Index of Prohibited Books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum), published in Rome, 1711. National Library of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

A map illustrating the epic journey of Aeneas, a Trojan hero (according to Virgil's poem The Aeneid) who, destined to found Rome, flees Troy after its fall and, much like Odysseus, spends years wandering the Mediterranean. He encounters the...

Map of East Frisia by the Dutch Johannes Florianus (1522-1585) for the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, one of the first accurate modern atlas, 1595.

Seal of the Upstalsboom, the place where envoys from all Frisian areas met. The seal dates from 1324 and resembles St. Mary as the protector of Frisia. The Latin text translates: "Through this sign, the whole of Friesland, to which the Virgin...

Friso, the legendary king of Frisia, holding a sword in the city of Stavoren, Frisia. Print by Pieter Feddes van Harlingen, 1618-1620. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Pope Pius IV promulgates the bull Benedictus Deus, ratifying the Canons of the Council of Trent in 1564. Fresco by Pasquale Cati, 1588. Altemps Chapel, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

A map illustrating one of the most significant processes of the early modern period - the rise and decline of Spain between the late fifteenth and the late seventeenth centuries. From a patchwork of kingdoms in the north of the Iberian peninsula...

A 17th-century illustration showing the massacre of the Spanish community at Cumaná on Hispaniola in 1515. The community was an attempt at a more peaceful rule over indigenous peoples.

A 19th-century painting by Felix Parra (1845-1919) of the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566) who sought to end the abuses of indigenous peoples going on in the New World.

Alfred Dreyfus on Devil's Island in 1898, stereoscopy by F. Hamel, Altona-Hamburg.