Renaissance

The leaning tower of Pisa

Q&A Why does the Tower of Pisa lean to one side?

Lucrezia Borgia with her father Pope Alexander VI

Lucrezia Borgia: is her bad reputation deserved?

The Sultanahmet district in Istanbul, Turkey, which is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. (Photo by DOZIER Marc via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A new civilisation rises

Podcast-Website-large-Mary-Hollingsworth-b994ca9

The Medici

Verona skyline with river Adige, bridges, Santa Anastasia Church and Torre dei Lamberti or Lamberti Tower at dawn view from Castel San Pietro, Italy. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Verona, Italy

Giuseppe Garibaldi in Naples, Italy, 1861. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

God, gangs and Garibaldi

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First World War

Verdun and the Renaissance

Ruth Goodman.

Ruth Goodman

Textiles. Shoes/pumps. Silk taffeta, bound with ribbon; floss silk embroidery in French knots, long and short, satin and split stitches; tied with ribbon. Ground covered by a pattern of trailing and scrolling stems with leaves and flowers, carnation, rose, etc., so arranged that there is a carnation on each toe and a rose on each heel with a five petalled blue flower above it. The left shoe has a rose, the right a carnation at each side of the seam. Silk, length, whole, 7 in, height, back, 5.25 in, height, heel, 3 in, circa 1700-circa 1749. English.

In pictures: Treasured Possessions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Marco Ricci, A View of the Cascade, Bushy Park Water Gardens, c.1715.

Royal Collection Trust / copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2014

Single use only in relation to the exhibition 'Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden' at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Photographs must not be archived or sold on.

In pictures: The Art of the Garden

A triptych by Netherlandish artist, Hieronymus Bosch, depicting religious scenery.

16th-century fantasy, evil and human desire

An illustration from the Book of Miracles

The Book of Miracles

Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in the centre of Florence (Getty)

A big day in history: Florence’s bonfire of the vanities

Detail from the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, showing hawking. Made in Tournai in the 15th century. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Library The medieval huntress