benighted — The New Atlantis

When I read this introductory paragraph to a story by John Noble Wilford — In the thousand years between the decline of Rome and the springtime of the Renaissance, science and other branches of learning took a holiday throughout Europe. It was a benighted time in the history most of us raced through in school, skipping lightly through Charlemagne and Richard the Lion-Hearted, the Norman Conquest and the Crusades, and arriving none too soon at the time of Leonardo and Michelangelo, Columbus and da Gama, Erasmus and Luther. — I thought it was the set-up to a joke. No informed...

Related

Other articles with overlapping topics.

National Geographic

Inside the secret operation to move the Bayeux Tapestry

After more than 900 years in France, the Bayeux Tapestry—one of medieval Europe’s most fragile, priceless treasures—slipped back into England in a controversial overnight operation. Here’s what transporting a 225-foot-long masterwork actually takes.

19 min read

A

Aeon

Lore of the rings

Trees contain an archive – tales of planetary shifts, cosmic events, historical pivots – that we’re only just unlocking- by Valerie TrouetRead on Aeon

Valerie Trouet·Jul 10, 2026

A

Artforum

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch Defends Institution Against White House Criticism

In an email to his staff, American educator, historian, and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III pushed back against a recent White House Domestic Policy Council report which accused the Smithsonian National Museum of American History of veering towards a mission rooted in “extreme political activism.” Bunch’s email, which was published by the Washington Post […]

Mika Lee·Jul 10, 2026

T

The Public Domain Review

“Worthless Idiot, Donkey Head”: Parodies of Pedantry on the Renaissance Stage

Pompous know-it-alls were once a mainstay of mockery on the Italian stage. Arnoud Visser investigates this stock character of the pedant and his association with individual superiority, social distinction, and sexual transgression, finding a form of satire that took aim at the Renaissance humanist’s erudition and lofty ideals.

Jul 8, 2026

Hyperallergic

John Constable’s Four Seasons

Art historian Susan Owens's exquisitely illustrated new book narrates the painter’s story through his relationship to weather, place, and time.

Lauren Moya Ford·Jul 7, 2026

A

Artforum

Detroit Institute of Arts Director Attributes 17th-Century Portrait To Diego Velázquez

Spanish-American art historian Salvador Salort-Pons has announced the discovery of a previously unattributed portrait by Spanish Baroque painter Diego Velázquez. In an article for ARS Magazine, published by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Salort-Pons, who is the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts revealed a methodology combining archival research and X-ray imaging to […]

Theo Belci·Jul 7, 2026