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Centuries-old Asian and African manuscripts go on display for the first time 

A collection of French fashion engravings offers precious new insights into the life of Samuel Pepys years after his premature final diary entry. ̽��ֱ��prints show the tailor’s son remained fascinated by the power of fashion long after he had secured wealth and status. But they also expose Pepys’ internal conflict over French style.

Women’s working conditions increased the odds of them being suspected as witches, according to a new analysis of an English astrologer’s case files from the early 17th century.

A mouth-watering / stomach-churning new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum explores our complex relationship with food

A Cambridge literary scholar suggests that the handwriting on a Shakespeare First Folio in Philadelphia matches that of the Paradise Lost poet, John Milton.

Ostrich feathers are often associated with glamorous women but this wasn’t always the case. In the sixteenth century, it was Europe’s men who spearheaded this trend. Now experts in Cambridge and London have brought this forgotten moment in fashion history back to life by recreating a lavish headdress.

With our Postgraduate Open Day fast-approaching (3 November), we introduce five PhD candidates who are already making waves at Cambridge.

Beards are back in fashion. But today’s hipster styles convey rather different  messages to the hair men cultivated in the early modern period. Historian Dr Stefan Hanß investigates the ways in which daily ‘performances of hair’ for men and women reflected the profound religious and social changes sweeping through Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Historic recipe books and physicians’ manuals featuring home-made cures from the 17th century have gone on display to the public for the first time, as part of a new exhibition revealing the secrets of early modern household knowledge.

̽��ֱ��early modern period (1500-1800) saw a surge in the keeping of records. A conference later this week (9-10 April 2014) at the British Academy will look at the origins of the archives that shape our understanding of history. We asked ten of the speakers to tackle some fundamental questions.