By Elaine Leong This week I have the honour of giving a talk at Lydiard House and Park near Swindon. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Lydiard House and Park was the country estate of the St. John family. Regular readers of this blog are, of course, already familiar with Johanna St. John and … Continue reading Just who is this Johanna St. John?!?→
By Laurence Totelin Recently, I started experimenting with Greek, Roman and Byzantine recipes for pharmacological and cosmetic concoctions. My most adventurous attempt so far was recreating the ‘soap used by the Patrician Pelagia’, a recipe preserved in the writings of Aetius of Amida (sixth century CE): Soap the Patrician [i.e. noble] Pelagia used to make her … Continue reading Because she is worth it→
By Thony Christie The British Museum has a new exhibition on Pompeii and Cambridge classicist and current media star Mary Beard has been doing the rounds of the English press writing entertaining glosses on it. In her piece for The Sun (yes really that Sun!) she mentioned amongst other things that the Romans ate dormice. … Continue reading Wot’s fer dinna luv? Yer favrit, stuffed dormouse!→
Thousands of pharmacological and cosmetic recipes have come down to us from the Greek and Roman world. On the other hand, archaeological discoveries of ancient remedies are few and far between, and findings that can be analysed chemically and botanically are even rarer. Recently, ancient medicine made the news with the publication by a team … Continue reading Sticky eyes or weeping wounds: trying to interpret the Pozzino tablets→