M.J. Rose

Beautiful!

Vatican Library Making 4,000 Ancient Manuscripts Available Online For Free

By Mary-Ann Russon

“The Vatican Apostolic Library is now digitising its valuable ancient religious manuscripts and putting them online via its website, available for the public to view for free, as well as turning to crowdfunding to help it complete its work.

The Vatican Library was founded in 1451 AD and holds over 80,000 manuscripts, prints, drawings, plates and incunabula (books printed prior to 1500 AD) written throughout history by people of different faiths from across the world…”

For the rest (and GORGEOUS images!), click here.

Behold, the story behind the first fully realized vampire story in English, John William Polidori’s 1819 story, “The Vampyre.”

(P.S. Lord Byron’s infamy knows no end!)

The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire

(The Public Domain Review)

“From that famed night of ghost-stories in a Lake Geneva villa in 1816, as well as Frankenstein’s monster, there arose that other great figure of 19th-century gothic fiction – the vampire – a creation of Lord Byron’s personal physician John Polidori. Andrew McConnell Stott explores how a fractious relationship between Polidori and his poet employer lies behind the tale, with Byron himself providing a model for the blood-sucking aristocratic figure of the legend we are familiar with today…”

For the complete (and irresistible) piece, click here.

The Emerald Tablet. Have you heard of it? This enigmatic object has many presumed sources – one of which is the the city of Atlantis itself. Other possible associations include the Ark of the Covenant, the tomb of Hermes, and the Medieval and Renaissance era alchemical texts…

The Legendary Emerald Tablet

(Ancient Origins)

“The origins of Western alchemy can be traced back to Hellenistic Egypt, in particular to the city of Alexandria. One of the most important characters in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the Thrice-Great). The name of this figure is derived from the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth and his Greek counterpart, Hermes. The Hermetica, which is said to be written by Hermes Trismegistus, is generally regarded as the basis of Western alchemical philosophy and practice. In addition, Hermes Trismegistus is also believed to be the author of the Emerald Tablet.

The Emerald Tablet is said to be a tablet of emerald or green stone inscribed with the secrets of the universe. The source of the original Emerald Tablet is unclear, hence it is surrounded by legends. The most common legend claims that the tablet was found in a caved tomb under the statue of Hermes in Tyana, clutched in the hands of the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus himself. Another legend suggests that it was the third son of Adam and Eve, Seth, who originally wrote it. Others believed that the tablet was once held within the Ark of the Covenant”…

See the rest here.