St Thomas and the Meretrix April 12, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : MedievalThis is one of the great scenes from Catholic hagiography. St Thomas of Aquinas has just been kidnapped by his own family and locked up in a room with a naked woman. OK, yes, yes, we can backpedal a moment…. Thomas was born to a noble Campanian clan and as a younger son, the youngest […]
Daily History Picture: Neighing Horse April 11, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesThe Lie of the Second Sons April 11, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : MedievalWhen Beach wrote his university entrance exams, many decades ago, he waxed unlyrical about Europe’s second sons who went on crusade because there was nothing for them at home. There might have been some genuine pent up passion about killing Moors or walking where He walked, but it was really all about filthy lucre. The […]
New History Books: Interviews with History and Power April 10, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksNew edition of a simply fabulous book, the great Oriana Fallaci interviews the famous of the world: Interviews with History and Power.
Huge Erratic Boulders: the Westmorland Thunderstones April 10, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernThunderstones are a well known European and, indeed, international phenomenon, flint arrowheads or stone axes which were believed, by our early modern ancestors, to have descended from the sky in lightning storms. The typical praxis was that a sheep would be killed by a bolt of lightning and the family would discover, near the animal, […]
New History Books: Routledge History Witchcraft April 9, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksBeach is witch mad and the lack of a cover makes things even more exciting: though the price dampens that enthusiasm somewhat… Johannes Dillinger, The Routledge History of Witchcraft.
Review: Nanny Says April 9, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ContemporaryDiana, Lady Avebury (ed) Nanny Says (London: Dobson, 1972) The Nanny was an institution of upper middle class and aristocratic families in Victorian, Edwardian and inter-war Britain. She was the efficient and often frightening family child carer. She stepped in at a couple of weeks after birth taking over from the harassed mother (who would be allowed […]
Daily History Picture: Vinyl Listening Booths April 8, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesPerugian Witch, 1908 April 8, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernPerugia is a marvelous medieval city in Umbria, about half way between Rome and Florence. The following account of early twentieth-century witchcraft there was not, in itself, remarkable, but Perugia has a special place in Beach’s heart and so he hoped vainly perhaps, that someone could fill in the blanks. The great problem with Italian […]
Daily History Picture: Deposition April 7, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesGhirlandaio Vespucci image from Borgo Ognissanti (Florence). There may be Amerigo in the background…
The Real Romeo and Juliet April 7, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernIt is always pleasant in history to look back to the moment when something began; when the unwinding shoot starts to fracture the seed shell. It is the evening of 26 February 1511 and Antonio Savorgnan and his men are enjoying a ball at his sister Maria Savorgnan’s house in Udine (Italy), Piazza Venerio. The evening is tense. […]
Daily History Picture: Hare Killing April 6, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesThe Spaw Monster April 6, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernThis is a ghost account from 1839. It starts simply enough, but it has some remarkable features. One of those singular cases commonly classed amongst the supernatural, has produced a considerable sensation amongst the inhabitant of the district of Middleton and the surrounding villages. The following are a few of the particulars. In a small […]