Six centuries of secularism
When the first ‘how-to’ books began to explain the way the world worked, they paved the way for science and secularism
by William Eamon
Secularism at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/21793
old_manuscripts
How Close Did We Come to Losing Beowulf Forever?
Robert Bartlett on a Vital Work of the Western Canon That Barely Survived Multiple Disasters
Beowulf at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=Beowulf
![The first folio of the heroic epic poem Beowulf, written primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Part of the Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript currently located within the British Library. This is a digital photographic copy of the folio. Text shown according to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version:
WE GARDE na in geardagum, þeodcyninga, [129] þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Then the feast was found, he asked for it, grew under the clouds, the gods, until each of those sitting around him heard the sound of the horn, gomban gyldan. That was a good king. After that, he was remembered, walking in the fields, the good one sent to the king; the fire on the king who had long been dead. His life, the ruler of the people, the lord of the world, was taken away; Beowulf was quick to spring forth, Scyld's son, into the lands of the dead. Thus shall men go forth to good deeds, from pious gifts to their fathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf#/media/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg](/proxy/post_attachment/877668/0a09586373.jpg "The first folio of the heroic epic poem Beowulf, written primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Part of the Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript currently located within the British Library. This is a digital photographic copy of the folio. Text shown according to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version:
WE GARDE na in geardagum, þeodcyninga, [129] þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Then the feast was found, he asked for it, grew under the clouds, the gods, until each of those sitting around him heard the sound of the horn, gomban gyldan. That was a good king. After that, he was remembered, walking in the fields, the good one sent to the king; the fire on the king who had long been dead. His life, the ruler of the people, the lord of the world, was taken away; Beowulf was quick to spring forth, Scyld's son, into the lands of the dead. Thus shall men go forth to good deeds, from pious gifts to their fathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf#/media/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg")
New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic
Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are Pictish
By Dalya Alberge
Tutivillus Is Watching You
For medieval scribes, mistakes couldn’t be easily shrugged off, as Tutivillus, the stickler demon, was always looking over their shoulders.
By: Amelia Soth
https://daily.jstor.org/tutivillus-is-watching-you/
Medieval manuscripts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=medieval+manuscripts
Break out the calculators: November 23 is Fibonacci Sequence Day
The cornerstone of modern math wouldn’t be possible without the Hindu-Arabic numerical system.
by Andrew Paul
https://www.popsci.com/science/fibonacci-sequence-day-2025/
Fibonacci at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=fibonacci
Scientists found the key to accurate Maya eclipse tables
Eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex were based on lunar tables and adjusted for slippage over time.
by Jennifer Ouellette
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/study-how-the-maya-created-such-accurate-eclipse-tables/
Original article:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt9039
