Res Obscura

Most-linked posts?

1. Seven Weeks to Venice: History Through Isochronic Maps
   3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-26
2. On the Women’s Petition Against Coffee of 1674
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-04-08
3. Valentine's Day began as a Bronze Age rite celebrating wolves (2011)
   2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-02-15

What Hacker News says?

1. benbreen · 2025-01-27

   I agree, I probably should've gone into more detail on the actual case studies and implications. I may write this up as a more academic article at some point so I have space to do that. To your point about OCR: I think you'll find that the existing OCR tools will not know where to begin with the 18th century Mexican medical text in the second case study. If you can find one that is able to transcribe that lettering,…

   Comment linking /2013/07/why-does-s-look-like-f-how-to-read.html

   on “Using generative AI as part of historical research: three case studies”
2. benbreen · 2017-05-04

   Submitted Why Are There So Many 17th Century Paintings of Monkeys Getting Drunk? as a story · 186 points

   HN discussion
3. benbreen · 2018-05-21

   I agree, I love thinking about the journeys that these objects made, like the Roman coins that ended up in a 12th century Japanese castle. [1] There were a handful of individuals who made similar trips though - aside from the famous ones like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, there's also a few envoys sent on behalf of the Franco-Mongol alliance.[2] Or the Spaniards who went to the court of Timur: “Timour Beg turned to th…

   Comment linking /2012/10/a-spaniard-in-samarkand-1404.html

   on “Medieval trade networks”
4. benbreen · 2017-04-08

   Submitted On the Women’s Petition Against Coffee of 1674 as a story · 137 points

   HN discussion
5. benbreen · 2017-04-06

   I do think it reflects some new archeological findings, and possibly also a new interest in globalization among historians due to the events of the last couple decades, which then causes them to revisit old evidence. I teach my students a combination of the two models that you mention. In other words, the premodern world was indeed a place where most people didn't venture beyond their own village. However, among eli…

   Comment linking /2012/10/a-spaniard-in-samarkand-1404.html

   on “A very long way from home: early Byzantine finds at the far ends of the world”
6. benbreen · 2019-03-29

   Submitted The Most Wonderful Map in the World: Urbano Monte's Planisphere of 1587 as a story · 122 points

   HN discussion
7. benbreen · 2018-08-20

   I see how that's true on a legal level, but if we're just talking about social and public health impacts, I don't see why the distinction between prescription and illegal use matters here. A three-fold increase in a category of drugs with major health impacts seems newsworthy to me. After all, the boundaries between legal and illegal use are far from fixed. Methamphetamine was once widely prescribed by physicians fo…

   Comment linking /2012/06/from-quacks-to-quaaludes-three.html

   on “Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Problem”
8. benbreen · 2019-11-24

   Submitted Early Chinese World Maps (2010) as a story · 112 points

   HN discussion
9. MadcapJake · 2021-08-03

   There is an analogous line of thinking for ghosts https://resobscura.blogspot.com/2019/10/enlightenment-era-gh...

   Comment linking /2019/10/enlightenment-era-ghosts-and-history-of.html?m=1

   on “Alien Dreams: The long history of speculation about extraterrestrials”
10. benbreen · 2014-12-21

    Submitted A Spaniard in Samarkand, 1404 (2012) as a story · 112 points

    HN discussion
11. benbreen · 2019-11-24

    From the article: the first deliberate cultivation of the poppy, as opposed to its casual collection, seems to have happened in Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago, organized by the local Sumerians, who called their crop hul gil, which translates as “the joy plant”. At the risk of being pedantic, I wrote an entire post about how this is completely wrong, tracing the origins of the error back to a confused Victorian wri…

    Comment linking /2018/08/opium-or-cucumber-debunking-myth-about.html

    on “How to make a hero: Opium and etymology”
12. benbreen · 2018-07-15

    Submitted When California Was the Bear Republic as a story · 79 points

    HN discussion
13. benbreen · 2016-05-31

    By the way, anyone looking for more pictures of Schwarz's Klaidungsbüchlein (Book of Clothes) will find a bunch here: http://resobscura.blogspot.com/2011/07/renaissance-merchants...

    Comment linking /2011/07/renaissance-merchants-life-in-clothing.html

    on “Dedicated followers of fashion”
14. benbreen · 2019-12-13

    Submitted 1950s Smart Homes and the Longevity of Design as a story · 78 points

    HN discussion
15. benbreen · 2018-10-26

    Submitted Seven Weeks to Venice: History Through Isochronic Maps as a story · 72 points

    HN discussion
16. benbreen · 2017-11-12

    Submitted What Did 17th Century Food Taste Like? as a story · 71 points

    HN discussion
17. benbreen · 2018-08-23

    Submitted Opium or Cucumber? Debunking a Myth About Sumerian Drugs as a story · 63 points

    HN discussion
18. prismatic · 2018-06-18

    Submitted The Art of Fooling the Eye (2011) as a story · 56 points

    HN discussion
19. mr_tyzic · 2015-02-15

    Submitted Valentine's Day began as a Bronze Age rite celebrating wolves (2011) as a story · 48 points

    HN discussion
20. benbreen · 2016-02-03

    Submitted How to Write the History of Science? as a story · 40 points

    HN discussion
21. wormold · 2014-06-04

    Submitted The Art of Fooling the Eye (2011) as a story · 38 points

    HN discussion
22. benbreen · 2021-12-23

    Submitted The Alchemy of Madness: Understanding a Seventeenth-Century “Brain Scan” (2015) as a story · 30 points

    HN discussion
23. benbreen · 2017-06-30

    Submitted Urine, Phosphorus, and the Philosopher's Stone as a story · 29 points

    HN discussion
24. benbreen · 2019-12-05

    Submitted From Quacks to Quaaludes: Three Centuries of Drug Advertising (2012) as a story · 28 points

    HN discussion
25. benbreen · 2015-12-10

    Submitted The Domestic Life of Alchemists (2011) as a story · 26 points

    HN discussion
26. benbreen · 2019-10-22

    Submitted Seventeenth-century Europeans ate mummies (2015) as a story · 25 points

    HN discussion
27. magda_wang · 2015-12-05

    Submitted Why Did Seventeenth-Century Europeans Eat Mummies? as a story · 25 points

    HN discussion
28. benbreen · 2019-11-26

    Submitted Early Modern Drugs and Medicinal Cannibalism (2012) as a story · 22 points

    HN discussion
29. benbreen · 2019-10-30

    Submitted Enlightenment-Era Ghosts and the History of Technology as a story · 17 points

    HN discussion
30. benbreen · 2018-05-23

    Submitted A Medieval Emperor's Natural Language Experiment as a story · 16 points

    HN discussion

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