The Journal
Stories behind the books
The people, places and arguments inside the old texts we publish, with the pictures and the quotations to match.
Loudun, 1632 to 1665
Jeanne des Anges: the Loudun nun, in her own words
Urbain Grandier burned in 1634, but the prioress at the heart of the Loudun possessions wrote her own account. It is not what you would expect.
Paris 1653, London 1658
The physician who tried to prove palmistry
In 1653 a French court physician asked whether palmistry had any basis in medicine. His answer, printed in English in 1658, ends in a remarkable admission.