Founders of British obstetrics were murderers

Founders of British obstetrics were murderers
According to the latest research by the historian Don Shelton, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the 18th-century pioneers of obstetrics and gynaecology, William Hunter and William Smellie, killed between 35 and 40 pregnant women in order to dissect their bodies for research. Denis Campbell reports in The Guardian.
In Childbirth in the Middle Ages Peter Biller charts the hazards of pregnancy in the Middle Ages.
In Mother and Child in the Greek World Robert Garland explores attitudes towards women and childbearing in the male-orientated world of ancient Greece.
For further information on the History of Medicine, visit our focus page.

A Byzantine response to the west’s problems in Afghanistan
The Byzantine Empire survived for eight centuries – longer than any other in history. The Byzantines also wrote official guidebooks on statecraft, foreign relations and espionage. In an article published on the website of Prospect, Edward Luttwak argues that the Byzantine art of war and diplomacy may provide a solution to the west’s involvement in Afghanistan today.
In Byzantium: The Emperor's New Clothes? Alexander Kazhdan considers the influence of totalitarianism and meritocracy in the Byzantine empire.

World’s oldest Christian monastery restored
Saint Anthony’s monastery in Suez City near the Red Sea coast is believed to be 1,600 years old and the world’s oldest Christian monastery. Following an eight-year project carried out by the Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the newly restored monastery was officially opened at the end of last week.
Read the article published by the Associated Press.

How the astronomical alignment of Greek temples reflects cultural and ethnic identities

by Kathryn Hadley

Historians and archaeologists have long sought to establish links between the positions of classical temples and cultural and religious practices. Many have speculated that classical temples may have been aligned with respect to sunrise and argued that temples could be dated from their astronomical alignment. There is no consensus, however.

Dr Alun Salt, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, explained the controversy:

‘There are quite a few temples in Greece which don't face sunrise. So a few
archaeologists have suggested that there is nothing significant about the number
that face east. The problem is that no one has ever said what a 'significant
number' would be.’

Salt has recently conducted a survey of archaic and classical Greek temples in Sicily and Greece. Through a comparison of the alignment patterns of temples in the two countries, he sought to determine the extent to which Greek culture differed in Sicily and Greece. His study was published last week, on November 19th, on the website PLoS ONE in the article ‘The Astronomical Orientation of Ancient Greek Temples’.

Do the alignments of Ancient Greek temples in Sicily and Greece reflect astronomical intentions? How do they reveal different pressures in the expressions of ethnic identity? How far are they evidence of a degree of cultural continuity across the Mediterranean?

Applying mathematical principles of probability to his survey, Salt discovered that many classical temples in Sicily were built to face the rising sun. Indeed, of a total of 41 temples surveyed in Sicily, only one faced west. He explained how in Greece, however, the situation is ‘quite complicated’.

‘It would be like spinning a roulette wheel and finding that half the time the
ball bounces out of the wheel. But when it does land, 90% of the time it'll be
on red. That looks odd to me.’

According to Dr Salt, the results may imply that there is an ‘astronomical fingerprint’ for Greek settlers in the Mediterranean. If all the temples founded by Greek settlers were built following similar alignment patters this may help to distinguish between the sites settled by people following the Greek religion and natives who adopted Greek style through trade, but kept their own culture.

There remain a number of unanswered questions, however. Salt explained:

‘What’s really interesting are the temples which don't fit. The temple of
Hekate, a lunar goddess, at Selinous faces west. If every other temple in Sicily
faces east, then what is special about that one?’

In Greek Archaeology from Schliemann to Surveys Graham Shipley considers how new archaeological discoveries and techniques are progressively refining our views of Classical Greece.

The fight to subdue the Scots and for children's rights

20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed in 1989 and has since been ratified by 193 countries. Only the United States and Somalia have yet to adhere to the convention.
The Convention was the first legally binding international convention to affirm human rights for all children. It spells out the basic human rights that children have everywhere in the world in 54 articles and 2 optional protocols including the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation, and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The Convention adheres to four core principles: non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child.
An official commemorative ceremony will be held in New York today to mark the event.
In an article of the website of UNICEF Dan Seymour, Chief of the Gender and Rights Unit of UNICEF’s Policy and Practice Division, assesses the achievements of the Convention and the remaining challenges.
In Paris, a photographic exhibition entitled ‘Sale gosse!’ is on display at the headquarters of UNESCO (Salle Miro, 7 Place de Fontenoy) until December 10th. A slideshow of some of the photographs is available on the website of Le Figaro.

More Roman military camps in Scotland than in any other European country
There exist at least 225 Roman military camps in Scotland against an estimated 150 in England. The Scotsman reports on the announcement of a new comprehensive survey of Roman remains in Scotland to be carried out by archaeologists from Historic Scotland. It is believed that the survey will uncover previously undiscovered Roman sites boosting the total of officially recognised sites and giving them increased legal protection.

Restoration of Crux Vaticana
The Crux Vaticana was unveiled by the Vatican, yesterday, after a two-year restoration project. The jewel encrusted golden cross is a foot-high and contains what is revered as fragments of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. It was given to the people of Rome sometime between 565 and 578 by the Byzantine emperor Justin II. Nicole Winfield reports on the website of The Scotsman.

Photo:
By Francois Perri, from the exhibition 'sale gosse' held at UNESCO in Paris

The world’s oldest bible reunited online

by Kathryn Hadley

Following a four-year project, over 800 pages and fragments from the Codex Sinaiticus, the world’s oldest surviving Christian bible, have been successfully virtually reunited and are now available online at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/. For the first time, it is possible to view high resolution digital images of all the extant pages of the fourth-century book and to research in depth the Greek text, which is fully transcribed and cross-referenced.

The digitalisation of the text is the result of a partnership between the British Library, Leipzig University Library, St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, Egypt, and the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, each of which hold different parts of the physical manuscript. The Codex Sinaiticus Project was launched in 2005 in an attempt to reunite the surviving pages of the document which have been kept in different locations for over 150 years and to encourage the publication of new research into the history of the Codex.

In the words of Dr Scot McKendrick, Head of Western Manuscripts at the British Library:

‘The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world’s greatest written treasures… This
1600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early
Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the bible was
transmitted from generation to generation. The project has uncovered evidence
that a fourth scribe – along with the three already recognised – worked on the
text; the availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around
the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have
been possible just a few years ago.’

The online transcription also includes previously unseen pages of the manuscript. Professor David Parker from the University of Birmingham’s Department of Theology directed the team that worked on the electronic transcription. He explained how:

‘The transcription includes pages of the Codex which were found in a blocked-off
room at the Monastery of St Catherine in 1975, some of which were in poor
condition. This is the first time that they have been published.’

The Codex Sinaiticus was written by hand in uncial letters on vellum parchment in the mid-fourth century around the time of Constantine the Great. Although it originally contained the whole of the Old and New Testaments, half of the Old Testament has since been lost. It is believed that the Codex would have originally contained around 1,460 pages. The surviving manuscript concludes with two early Christian texts, an epistle ascribed to the Apostle Barnabas and ‘The Shepherd’ by Hermas, which were subsequently dropped from both Catholic and Protestant bibles. Codex Sinaiticus is named after the Monastery of St Catherine at the foot of Mount Moses in Sinai built between 527 and 565 by the order of the Emperor Justinian to house the remains of the Christian martyr St Catherine.

The Codex is also particularly significant because it is believed to be one of the oldest bound books. Dr McKendrick described the Codex Sinaiticus as:

‘a landmark in the history of the book, as it is arguably the oldest large bound
book to have survived. For one volume to contain all the Christian scriptures
book manufacture had to make a great technological leap forward – an advance
comparable to the introduction of movable type or the availability of word
processing. The Codex was huge in length – originally over 1460 pages – and
large in page size, with each page measuring 16 inches tall by 14 inches wide.
Critically, it marks the definite triumph of bound codices over scrolls – a key
watershed in how the Christian bible was regarded as a sacred text.’

To celebrate the online reunification of the Codex, ‘From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of Codex Sinaiticus’ opened on Monday July 6th at the British Library. The exhibition presents the newly reunified Codex Sinaiticus and the associated project through a display of historic items, interactive representations of the manuscript and other relevant artefacts and events, such as historical news footage, blown up details of Codex Sinaiticus pages, and digital reconstructions of the textual development of certain pages. For the very first time, the two volumes of the Codex Sinaiticus held at the British Library will also be on display in the Treasures Gallery.

For further information on the history of the Codex Sinaiticus, read our article

Our Oldest Bible: The Codex Sinaiticus

From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of Codex Sinaiticus
Until September 7th
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
http://www.bl.uk/

Pictures:

- Codex Sinaiticus detail from the Book of Psalms (British Library)

- Codex Sinaiticus open at John chapter 5 (British Library)

- Codex Sinaiticus detail showing a skeletal parchment feature on Quire 41 (British Library)

Calvin 500th Anniversary

by Kathryn Hadley

John Calvin was born in Noyon in the Picardie region of France on July 10th, 1509. Commemorative events are being organised worldwide this year to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the life of the French humanist and supporter of the protestant reformation. The influence of Calvin’s teachings spread across the world and during his lifetime Calvin also travelled throughout Europe. Between 1525 and 1532, he studied in both the universities of Grenoble and Bourges in France. He returned to Paris in October 1533. Calvin then fled to Basel in Switzerland in January 1535. He subsequently worked on reorganising the church in Geneva with William Farel. Following disputes with the city’s council, however, he left for Strasbourg, in 1938. Geneva city council eventually called him back, in September 1541, where he remained until his death in May 1564.

Here is a selection of some of the exhibitions organised across Europe over the summer to mark his quincentenary.

Les lecteurs de Calvin
Until June 28th
Musée Calvin
Place Aristide Briand
60400 Noyon
Telephone: 00 33 3 44 44 03 59
http://www.ville-noyon.fr/
This exhibition explores the history of the book from the perspective of those who read and use books, showcasing, for the first time, a collection of printed works by Calvin that bear manuscript annotations by readers spanning four centuries, from the 16th to the 20th century. It includes the famous copy of the Institutes of the Christian Religion annotated by Sully, which has recently been acquired by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Calvinism. The Reformed Protestants in Germany and Europe
Until July 19th
Deutsches Historisches Museum
I. M. Pei Building
Unter den Linden
10117 Berlin
Telephone: 00 49 30 20 30 47 50
http://www.dhm.de/
This exhibition places the work of John Calvin in the context of the political and religious tendencies of the time, presenting it as an integral part of the social and cultural history of Europe and exploring Calvin’s enduring and wider influence on science, art, politics and the human frame of mind.

Post tenebras liber
Until September 30th
Geneva Library, Espace Ami Lullin
Promenade des Bastions 1 CH-1211 Genève 4
Telephone : 00 41 22 418 28 00
www.ville-ge.ch/bge
The exhibition illustrates the contribution of the Calvinist Reformation in four areas of the production of the Geneva presses in the 16th century: teaching material for instruction at the College and the Academy, a first Protestant historiography which illuminates the unrest of the century, polemical writings (disputations between confessions or churches, satires and polemics against the church of Rome, political pamphlets) and Bible exegeses (lectures and commentaries by Calvin).

A Day in the Life of John Calvin
Until November 1st
International Museum of the Reformation
4 rue du Cloitre
CH-1204 Geneva
Telephone: 00 41 22 310 24 31
http://www.musee-reforme.ch/
This animated exhibition, featuring a display of 16th-century artefacts including engravings and books, and in which Calvin appears animated and speaking, charts a typical day in Calvin’s life.

They had Calvin in their luggage – Calvin and the Huguenots
July 11th – October 31st
German Huguenot Museum
Hafenplatz 9 a
34385 Bad Karlshafen
Telephone: 00 49 5672 1410
http://www.hugenottenmuseum.de/
An exhibition devoted to Calvin and the Huguenots in France and Germany.

A series of lectures and conferences will also be held from June until the end of year. Again, here is a small selection…

June
Calvin and Capitalism
June 11th, 6.30pm
Swiss Embassy
16-18 Montagu Place
London W1H 2BQ
Telephone: 020 7836 1418
http://www.swisschurchlondon.org.uk/
Rev Dr Frank Jehle will both discuss Calvin’s works and address some more contemporary issues, in particular the possible relations between Calvinism and Capitalism, a thesis first put forward by Max Weber in 1904.

International Calvin Conference, Mainz
"Calvin and Calvinism - European Perspectives"
June 25th – 28th
Erbacher Hof
Akademie & Tagungszentrum Bistum
Mainz
Telephone: 00 49 6131 39 393 59
This international conference, in German, will focus on the European dimension of the Calvinist Reformation addressing three main topics: ‘Calvin's impact in Western and Eastern Europe’, ‘Expulsion – exile – rebuilding’ and ‘Spirituality and the media - the spiritual power of Calvinism’.

July
Conference: "Calvin500"
July 5th – 9th
St. Pierre Cathedral auditorium
Geneva
An international, interdenominational, and interdisciplinary commemoration of the life and work of John Calvin during which esteemed leaders, scholars, and ministers will discuss Calvin, his city, and the cultural, religious, political, and economic impact of his teachings.
A complete program of the Lectures and Sermons that will be given from July 5th - 9th in Geneva is available at http://calvin500blog.org/speakers-2/

September
John Calvin and the Reformation in Italy
September 4th – 6th
Centro Culturale Valdese
Via Beckwith 3
Torre Pellice
Turin
Telephone: 00 39 12 193 27 65
http://www.studivaldesi.org/
An international historical symposium, in Italian, organised by the Waldensian Studies Society that will consider and evaluate current studies on the relationship between Calvin and Italy, which Calvin is believed to have visited for the first time in 1536.

The Dutch Church of London will also host two lectures in September.
Calvin on creation and redemption
September 27th, 12.45pm
Light and shadow of the reformation
September 28th, 7pm
Dutch Church of London
7 Austin Friars
London EC2N 2HA
http://www.dutchchurch.org.uk/

October
Calvin’s significance for today
October 6th, 7pm
Crown Court Church
Russell Street
Covent Garden
London WC2B 5EZ
Telephone: 020 7836 5643
http://www.crowncourtchurch.org.uk/

Modernité de Calvin
October 8th, 7pm
Institut Français
17 Queensberry Place
London SW7 2DT
Telephone: 020 70731350
http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/
A lecture by Jean-Paul Willaime, Max Engammare and Gilles Petel.

November
University colloquium in Orléans
November 12th – 13th
University of Orléans, Department of Law, Economics and Management
Rue de Blois
45067 Orleans
Telephone: 00 33 2 38 41 70 31
This colloquium, in French, will examine different aspects of the contributions of Jean Calvin and the Protestant Reformation in various spheres of spiritual, social, economic, literary and political life, through history and at the present day.

December
Calvin & Hobbes
December 14th – 17th
Institut Protestant de Théologie
83, Boulevard Arago
75014 Paris
Telephone: 00 33 1 47 07 56 45
http://www.iptheologie.fr/
A colloquium, in French, organised by the Institute of Protestant Theology and the International College of Philosophy.

For a full list of the events organised throughout the year to mark the Calvin09 festival, visit http://www.calvin09.org/

Evidence of Early Contact with Islam

by Derry Nairn

Antiquity, an Archaeology quarterly, reports in its December issue on the often under-reported historical incidences of contact between Britain & Ireland and Islamic cultures. In a fascinating article, Andrew Petersen documents the different types of archaeological finds which suggest interaction through the centuries.

Pottery, glass and ceramics originating in the Middle East, Moorish Spain, or merely bearing the influence of Islamic art have been found in sites throughout both Ireland and Britain. These can date from as early as the ninth century. Arab dinars are among the coins that have been found in Scandanavia, a relic of Viking raids on these shores.

However, perhaps the most surprising element of the brief review to the non-specialist reader is the indirect but strong influences which Islam held over early modern British and European architecture as a whole. The author traces a line from seventh-century Palestine (the Gothic arch) and ninth-century Iraq (the Tudor four-centre pointed arch) through to prominent Mughal-influenced British buildings such as Brighton's Royal Pavillion.

Petersen quotes no less an authority than Christopher Wren as saying:

'what we now vulgarly call the Gothick, ought properly and truly be named Saracenick Architecture refined by the Christians'

(Wren, C. 1750. Parentalia: or memoirs of the family of Wrens, taken from Sweetman, J. 1991. The Oriental obsession: Islamic inspiration in British and American art and architecture, 1500-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press)

The content of the article is all the more interesting given the prevailing interests expressed in the media on relations between resident Islamic communities and European society as a whole. Also of note, next year, 2009, marks the 120th anniversary of Britain's first purpose-built mosque: the Shah Jahan mosque in Woking, Surrey.

Read these free articles from our archive :


Friends or Foes? The Islamic East and the West
Christopher J. Walker asks whether the two religions that frequently appear locked in an inevitable clash of civilizations in fact share more than has often been thought.


Veiled Politics
Zephie Begolo discusses the symbolic power of the veil in Iranian politics, and its consequences for women, before and during the Islamic Revolution.