110
votes
Are there any important biographies of nobodies?
Louis-François Pinagot
He was an illiterate shoemaker in western France in the 19th century. French historian Alain Corbin picked Pinagot at random on a town registry, and wrote his biography as a way ...
- 5,876
66
votes
Were Egyptian Pharaohs literate?
First, a few general observations:
The time period covered here is more than 3,000 years and we know very little about many of the Pharaohs. Also, there were different scripts which evolved over time ...
- 108k
41
votes
Accepted
Did this "sledge rigged like a sloop" vehicle ever exist, or was it an invention of Jules Verne?
Yes, and this wikipedia article and this other one describe it. The first article talks about ice boats in America (invented in Poughkeepsie, etc), but the second makes it clear that the Dutch had ...
- 6,317
34
votes
Accepted
Are currently sold versions of "Mein Kampf" censored?
Mein Kampf was illegal in a lot of countries for a very long time.
As already noted in a comment, it was never illegal in Germany. You could sell and buy any existing copies. Reprinting it was not ...
- 4,689
30
votes
What is the oldest known work of fiction?
I remember being taught that the oldest known work of fiction was the Ancient Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers.
The story was one of those found on the Papyrus D'Orbiney, which has been dated to the ...
- 77.2k
30
votes
Are there any important biographies of nobodies?
The Merchant of Prato by Iris Origo (1957) is a biography of Francesco Datini a 14th-century merchant banker.
The only distinguishing factor of Datini is that by chance a huge stash of his written ...
- 783
26
votes
Accepted
What is the oldest known work of fiction?
If folktales count, then The Poor Man of Nippur (c. 1500 BCE) probably beats the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers by at least a few centuries. It's certainly not mythological in any modern sense, being ...
- 946
24
votes
Where can I find the earliest surviving versions of Herodotus's Histories?
For a critical discussion on how modern versions of Herodotus' Histories have been compiled from the surviving manuscript sources, you could do a lot worse worse than the 1983 essay On Editing ...
- 77.2k
23
votes
What kind of ink was used by medieval scribes in Iceland, given that there were no plant galls for iron-gall ink?
That's a really good question. As far as I know, there isn't yet a definitive answer, although I haven't kept fully up to date with the subject in recent years..
In Care and Conservation of ...
- 77.2k
23
votes
Are there any important biographies of nobodies?
Not a book, but there is a long-running documentary film series in the UK following the lives of ordinary people with a film every seven years from the first when they were seven years old. The latest,...
- 331
19
votes
Accepted
Why did Pausanias travel to Greece?
Short answer
Pausanias does not clearly outline his aims in his work Periegesis or, if he did, that part of text has been lost. Thus, historians have had to rely on clues in Pausanias' text and what ...
- 108k
17
votes
Accepted
Why didn't a noble family change their last name from a kind of duck to something more prestigious?
Actually, the answer is a bit confusing.
The name was apparently originally a 'normal' one before one of Nikolai's ancestors added the 'Gogol' bit.
A Reference Guide to Russian Literature tells us:
...
- 1,045
15
votes
Accepted
What was the primary motivation for a historical figure like Xenophon to create an extensive collection of written material?
Xenophon gave specific reasons for some of his works but for others he did not.
Xenophon (about 431 BC to 354 BC) produced a very wide range of work during his lifetime: historical, biographical, ...
- 108k
14
votes
Accepted
Did the medieval Europe have an active "lowbrow" culture?
Lowbrow culture have always existed in human society, they're just not necessarily that well preserved in the historical record, or in modern popular consciousness. Jokes about sex, farts, penises, ...
- 97.6k
14
votes
Why can't the gospel of Mark be as late as 110 CE?
The question needs a couple of frame challenges. Dating solutions for the gospel of Mark do range from ~40s–140s.
It is correct to say that the most common/popular/conventional dating would put Mark ...
- 80.8k
13
votes
Accepted
What are the tabs/spaces for in the Beowulf text
The spacing divides the 'half-lines' of the poem. This is fundamental to Old English metre, where each line of the poem consists of two half-lines, connected by alliteration.
If you are interested, ...
- 77.2k
13
votes
Accepted
What does this quote from the Roman imperial poet Rutilius mean?
Rutilius was referring to monks, whom he strongly disapproved of because of their ascetic lifestyle. At the time (late antiquity), the abandonment of wealth and family for an ascetic lifestyle was ...
- 108k
12
votes
Were the names in 'Les Miserables' ever common?
Fantine
I don't believe "Fantine" is a proper name, that is no mother ever names a child "Fantine" it's more of a nickname. It comes from the same root as "infant". It ...
12
votes
Accepted
Is the following claim concerning the loss of classical Latin literature substantiated?
It's hard to see how this claim could be substantiated given that we don't know how much existed in the first place.
In a 2013 article Lost writings of Latin literature, Peter Knox (Professor of ...
- 108k
12
votes
Are there any important biographies of nobodies?
One of my favorite historical accounts is The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg (an Italian historian).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cheese_and_the_Worms
It's an account of the life and ...
- 221
12
votes
Accepted
Are there any exemplars of the 'trope of the exiled poet' prior to CE 8?
Assuming that you are not restricting this to Roman poets, Alcaeus of Mytilene (circa 625–620 to circa 580 BC), a Greek lyric poet from Lesbos may be of help. He was certainly known to Ovid, who even ...
- 108k
12
votes
Was Mark Twain's book 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' banned in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany)?
No. It wasn't "banned".
And, well, yes. It was an examplary piece of world literature. Not to be ignored.
Indeed: Much well liked by the governmental censors. But the very word "censors&...
- 80.8k
11
votes
Accepted
What does this Rx glyph mean in what looks like Latin?
You're looking at a scribal abbreviation for "-rum". That is, the word is actually philosophorum, but with the last three letters replaced with ꝶ. Here is a screenshot of the enlarged character from ...
- 97.6k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the full text of the song about the failed battle of Kiska?
The song is titled "Tales of Kiska", it's full text is located in the book Aleutians, Gilberts & Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944.
You've heard the bloody tales of old
Of fearless knights and ...
- 462
10
votes
Accepted
Was Ezra Pound a descendent of Jews?
Your question reminds me of the persistent Soviet/Russian folk legends that Isaak Newton and Abraham Lincoln were Jews ;-)
There is no reason to think that Ezra Pound had any connection to Jews.
He ...
- 27k
10
votes
Did Lucian of Samosata make this joke on purpose?
The original text reads
Ὄρεξον, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, τὴν χεῖρα· οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ μικράν με ταύτην μηχανὴν ἀναβιβάζεις.
Órexon, ó Ermi, tin cheira: ou gár epi mikrán me táutin mechanin anabibázeis.
With the help of ...
- 7,125
9
votes
Who is the first person in the 17th century to describe themselves as a "white" person and who invented the term "white race"?
I'm afraid that this is yet another example of Wikipedia editors misreading source material. I went to the source of this specific assertion: Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did "White People" ...
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