In the second of our short series of student posts, one of this year’s graduates reflects on a book she encountered in Special Collections. Mary Queen of Scots was a competent monarch who understood her Scottish…
Students on Dr Amy Blakeway’s Mary Queen of Scots, France, England and Ireland module (MO4807) this year have been encountering Mary Queen of Scots through books printed during her lifetime. In the first of a short…
Born in Salzburg on Christmas Eve 1773, Joseph Woelfl was an Austrian pianist and composer. As a chorister at Salzburg Cathedral between 1783 and 1786 he studied with both Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn. It was as…
[H]erein will be found mythology, necromancy, biography, topography, history, theology, phrenology, anatomy, legal ingenuity, conjugal correspondence, amatory epistles, poetry, theatrical representations, affecting…
We hope you have enjoyed our 2019 advent calendar! Here are all of the fantastic beasts for you to enjoy.
The myth of fairies has no single origin, but stories of fairy-like creatures are common throughout folklore. These magical creatures usually have a human appearance plus their most distinctive feature – wings. Andrew…
Two wonderfully weird illustrations from Conrad Gesner’s Historiae animalium (1551-1558), are the bishop fish and the monk fish. The bishop fish or sea bishop, with its mitred head (which is slightly obscured by his…
Werewolves are humans with the ability to change into wolves, voluntarily or not, most often on the night of a full moon. This illustration, by Henry J Ford, is from the The Red Romance Book (1905) edited by Andrew…
While salamanders are real creatures (lizards), within folklore they have been endowed with remarkable attributes, mainly their ability to withstand fire. The image of a salamander was often used within alchemy as a…
Known as the king of the serpents, the basilisk (from ‘basiliskos’ meaning little king) is a legendary reptile known to be able to kill with just a glance. The basilisk is referred to as the ‘king’ because of the crown…