Happy (belated) Halloween/Samhain/All Hallows/etc! I can’t top the biggest early modern European news of the last 2 weeks (Christopher Marlowe Officially Credited As Co-Author Of 3 Shakespeare Plays) but I’ll try:
- Renaissance Europe Was Horrified by Reports of a Sea Monster That Looked Like a Monk Wearing Fish Scales: Charles. G. M. Paxton, a statistical ecologist/marine biologist, thinks he’s successfully identified this creature of legend and a dozen Renaissance bestiaries. Paxton has addressed several other sea monsters as well – his prior publications intrigue.
- My Favorite Lecture – “Witches: Sex & Science in the 16th Century”: academic but humorous, with an emphasis on what people “knew” vs. what is factually true. New podcast but if this is representative it looks promising!
- Spiritualism, Science, and the Mysterious Madame Blavatsky: brief biography of the controversial nineteenth century occultist in conjunction with an academic paper about her contributions to the modern New Age. Mystic? Charlatan? Both? Never dull, at any rate.
