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To view the images below in full-screen, click on them to open the gallery. And listen to this episode to learn more about Georg Joseph Kamel’s beautiful drawings of Philippine nature, and why they were not published during his lifetime.

Welcome to the seventh episode of the Global History Podcast, which is also the next installment in our series on ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World‘. 

This week, we’d like to welcome Dr. Sebestian Kroupa, who completed his PhD last year in the History of Science at the University of Cambridge. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Wellcome Trust project ‘Renaissance Skin‘ at King’s College, London. Dr. Kroupa is a historian of early modern science and medicine, interested in cross-cultural histories of science and medicine, global circulations of knowledge and objects, early modern natural history, and Jesuit knowledge-making. In addition to serving as lead editor on a special issue of the The British Journal for the History of Science on ‘Science and Islands in Indo-Pacific Worlds’, Dr. Kroupa’s academic articles have appeared in International History Review, Centaurus, and Evolutionary Anthropology.

This week, Chase spoke with Dr. Kroupa over skype about his research on the Bohemian Jesuit pharmacist Georg Joseph Kamel, who was stationed in the colonial Spanish Philippines at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. The conversation centered on how Kamel’s life, work, and correspondence can illuminate the ways knowledge was produced in cross-cultural, cross-imperial, and cross-oceanic settings in the early modern world.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at theglobalhistorypodcast@gmail.com, or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. And if you’d like to listen to more segments in this series on ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’, click here or listen to the playlist on Spotify.

IMAGE 1: ‘Carta hydrographica y chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas : dedicada al Rey Nuestro Señor por el Mariscal d. Campo D. Fernando Valdes Tamon Cavallo del Orden de Santiago de Govor. Y Capn’. Contributors: Pedro Murillo Velarde and Nicolás de la Cruz Bagay. Manila, 1734. Description: “Relief shown pictorially. Shows names of coastal towns and historical sailing routes. In lower portion of map: Le esculpio Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay … 1734. Includes text, descriptive notes, ancillary maps of Guam, cities of Manila, Cavite, and Zamboanga, and illustrations depicting episodes from the daily life of different peoples on the islands.” Call Number/Physical Location: G8060 1734 .M8. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 2: Detail of the city of Manila from the ‘Carta hydrographica’.

IMAGE 3: Part of the first page of Georg Joseph Kamel’s ‘Appendix’ to John Ray, Historia plantarum (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1704), Vol. III. Smithsonian Libraries, via archive.org.

IMAGE 4: A specimen of camellia, collected and pressed by Georg Joseph Kamel and sent to London. The Sir Hans Sloane Herbarium, Natural History Museum, London.

IMAGE 5: Georg Joseph Kamel, ‘Camellus. Drawings from the Philippine Islands’ Vol. I. Sloane MS 4080: 1686-1706, fol. 39r. Description of the manuscript’s contents: “Drawings and descriptions of plants from the Philippines by George Joseph Kamel. Volume 1 of 6. This volume contains 123 sheets of annotated drawings and 16 sheets containing descriptions of the plants. Many of the plants in this volume were described in an appendix to the third volume of John Ray’s Historia plantarum (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1704). References to each work (‘G.N.’ or ‘Ray’) have been added to the drawings, some in the hand of James Petiver.” Part of the Sloane Manuscripts (Sloane MS 1-4100: c. 1000-c. 1750). British Library.

IMAGE 6: Sloane MS 4080, fol. 67r.

IMAGE 7: Detail from Sloane MS 4080, fol. 67r.

IMAGE 8: Sloane MS 4080, fol. 73r.

IMAGE 9: Sloane MS 4080, fol. 77r.

IMAGE 10 and COVER IMAGE: Detail from Sloane MS 4080, fol. 77r.

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Click on the images below to open the gallery and see them full-size. For a brief commentary on the difficulties of sourcing images that depict the medical effects of the mid-fourteenth-century wave of plague firsthand, see this article in NPR, which quotes Dr. Green.

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Global History Podcast. This is the first segment of our new mini-series, ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’. We’ve decided that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it hopefully could be relevant and helpful to speak with several scholars about disease, health, and medicine in the past in a global perspective, as well as the potential relevance of these histories in the present. 

To start us off, we’re pleased to welcome Dr Monica H. Green, Independent Scholar and an elected Fellow of The Medieval Academy of America, whose research career has spanned from the histories of women’s medicine in medieval Europe to the global history of the Black Death and beyond.

Some of her key works include the inaugural volume of The Medieval Globe, called Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death,  which she edited, as well as her 2018 article ‘Putting Africa on the Black Death Map: Narratives from Genetics and History‘. Coming up, she’ll be publishing an article in Centaurus called ‘Emerging Diseases, Re-emerging Histories’. She’ll also be speaking in a public webinar of the Medieval Academy of America this Friday, the 15th of May, at 1-3 PM Eastern Daylight Time, called “The Mother of All Pandemics: The State of Black Death Research in the Era of Covid-19”. You can join the session via zoom, and if you aren’t able to listen live, it will also be recorded and posted online. In the longer term, Dr. Green is working on a book project about the global history of the Black Death.

This week, Chase spoke with Dr. Green over skype about the global history of disease. The conversation focused on the global black death, but also addressed ways in which historians and scientists can collaborate in writing global histories of disease, queried at what point a disease can be called global, and discussed the role of colonization and trade in spreading disease. While the Black Death of the mid-fourteenth-century is chronologically located in the medieval period, its effects were long-lasting, and many of the points Dr. Green makes about the global history of disease more broadly can be applied to many time periods, including the early modern.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at theglobalhistorypodcast@gmail.com, or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. And if you’d like to listen to more segments in this series on ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’, click here or listen to the playlist on Spotify.

IMAGE 1 and COVER IMAGE: Piérart dou Tielt (miniaturist), Gilles li Muisis (author), Antiquitates Flandriae (tome 2), fol. 24 v, Peste à Tournai, en 1349. 1349-1352. Materials: Parchment, ink, paint. Dimensions: 273 mm x 205 mm. Bibliothèque royale de Belgique. © KIK-IRPA, Brussels. Downloaded from Belgian Art Links and Tools.

IMAGE 2: ‘Maximum-likelihood tree of modern and ancient genomes of Y. pestis‘, adapted by Monica H. Green, in Zhemin Zhou et al, ‘The EnteroBase user’s guide, with case studies on Salmonella transmissions, Yersinia pestis phylogeny, and Escherichia core genomic diversity‘, Genome Research 30 (2020), pp. 138-152. Open Access Article.

IMAGE 3: Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken. Creator: Josse Lieferinxe (French, active 1493-1505). Period: 1497-1499 (Renaissance). Medium: oil painting on wood. Accession Number: 37.1995. Dimensions: height: 32 3/16. Width: 21 13/16 in. (81.8 x 55.4 cm). Place of Origin: Provence, France. “St. Sebastian was a Roman military officer martyred about AD 300 by being shot full of arrows and then clubbed to death. He was prayed to for protection against the plague. This painting depicts one instance of his intercession. According to legend, this event occurred long after the saint’s death, during an outbreak of the plague in 7th-century Pavia, Italy. Here, just as a victim is to be buried, a grave attendant is struck by the disease. The plague-or Black Death-devastated Europe for centuries, and the painting’s viewers would have known its horrors. St. Sebastian, pierced with arrows, kneels before God to plead on behalf of humanity, while an angel and a demon battle in the sky. The artist was never in Italy and based the appearance of Pavia on that of Avignon. In 1497, Lieferinxe contracted with the Confraternity of St. Sebastian to paint an altarpiece dedicated to their patron saint in the church of Notre-Dame-des-Accoules (now destroyed) in Marseille, France. Six other panels from this altarpiece are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Johnson Collection), the Museo di Palazo Venezia in Rome, and the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. For more information, see the article by Melissa R. Katz, ‘Preventative Medicine: Josse Lieferinxe’s Retable Altar of St. Sebastian as a Defense Against Plague in 15th Century Provence.’ Interfaces 26 (2006-7): 59-82.” The Walters Art Museum. Creative Commons License.

IMAGE 4: The Doctor (or Physician), from The Dance of Death. Artist: Designed by Hans Holbein the Younger (German, Augsburg 1497/98–1543 London). Printmaker: Hans Lützelburger (German, died Basel, before 1526). Date: ca. 1526, published 1538. Medium: Woodcut. Dimensions: sheet: 2 5/8 x 1 15/16 in. (6.6 x 4.9 cm). Accession Number: 19.57.26. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

IMAGE 5: The port of Marseille during the plague of 1720. Etching by J. Rigaud (1681-1754) after M. Serre (1658-1733). Lettering: “Vüe de l’hostel de ville de Marseille et d’une partie du port dessiné sur le lieu pandant la peste arrivee en 1720. J. Rigaud inv. sculpsit.” Print: etching; platemark 24 x 48 cm. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 6: The plague of Florence in 1348, as described in Boccaccio’s Decameron. Etching by L. Sabatelli (1772-1850), after himself. Print: etching; platemark. 65.7 x 86.5 cm. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 7: Robert Koch and Richard Pfeiffer working in a laboratory, investigating the plague in Bombay. Photograph attributed to Captain C. Moss, 1897. In Captain C. Moss, fl. ca. 1897, ‘Plague Visitation, Bombay, 1896-97‘ (The Bombay plague epidemic of 1896-1897: work of the Bombay Plague Committee), fol. 9. Lettering: “Foreign scientists. Professors Koch and Pfeiffer.” Photograph: photoprint, albumen; Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.6 cm. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 8: A group comprising doctors, health and public officials gathered on a street in Bombay about to begin the day’s work, during an outbreak of plague. Photograph, 1896/1897. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 9: A twentieth-century artist’s depiction of a physician wearing a plague preventive costume in Marseille in 1720. Lettering: “Costume worn by doctors during an outbreak of plague Marseilles, 1720.” Watercolour, 20th century. Dimensions: 58.9 x 21.9 cm. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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To view the images below in full-screen, please click on them to open the gallery.

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’ll be hearing from Bronwen Everill, 1973 Lecturer in History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Dr. Everill is broadly interested, as she phrases it, “in the place of Africa and the role of Africans in the shaping of ideas about humanitarianism, empire, and commerce in the modern period.”

Her key works include the monograph Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and the edited collection The History and Practice of Humanitarian Intervention and Aid in Africa, co-edited with Josiah Kaplan. She’ll also have a new book out this year, titled Not Made By Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition. 

Last spring, when Chase was visiting the UK, he and Dr. Everill had a discussion about abolition and empire in West Africa in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. And on this segment, we’ll be sharing that conversation with you. 

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at theglobalhistorypodcast@gmail.com, or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram.

GALLERY IMAGE 1: “John Leighton Wilson or an uncredited artist employed or licensed by him”, in Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and Prospects, by John Leighton Wilson (London; New York, 1856), opposite p. 419, downloaded from Wikipedia.

GALLERY IMAGE 2: “Unidentified Liberian man in suit with watch fob and papers and pencil in his breast pocket”, between 1853 and 1890. Photograph: approximate sixth-plate tintype, hand-colored; 9 x 6.5 cm (plate). AMB/TIN no. 1032 [P&P] LOT 8554, no. 1 (former call number). American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 3: “Unidentified Liberian man in suit and bowtie”, between 1853 and 1890. Photograph: approximate sixth-plate tintype, hand-colored ; 9 x 6.5 cm (plate). AMB/TIN no. 1033 [P&P] LOT 8554, no. 2 (former call number). American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 4: “Philip Coker [Chaplain of the Senate of Liberia], three-quarter length portrait, full face, seated, wearing spectacles”, between 1856 and 1860. Photograph: sixth plate daguerreotype. DAG no. 1010. American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 5: “Captain Paul Cuffee 1812 / engraved for Abrm. L. Pennock by Mason & Maas.” “Print shows a silhouette head-and-shoulders portrait of Paul Cuffe, a prosperous businessman and sea captain, above a ship docked in a tropical region, possibly Sierra Leone”. Print: engraving. PGA – Mason & Maas–Captain Paul Cuffee 1812 (AA size) [P&P]. Popular Graphic Art Print Filing Series, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 6: “Mrs. James Cheeseman, wife of the president of Liberia, full-length portrait, standing, facing left”. “A souvenir photograph produced by the Liberian Art Publishing Co. for distribution at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Ill.” 1893. Photographic print. LOT 8546 [item] [P&P]. American Colonization Society Collection, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 7: “Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the colony of Liberia”. Philad[elphi]a [Pa.] : A. Finley, 1830. Contributors: Jehudi Ashmun, James Hamilton Young, Anthony Finley. Hand colored; 21 x 28 cm. G8882.C6 1830 .A8. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 8: “Map of Liberia”. Insert: “Vicinity of Monrovia / surveyed by J. Ashmun, 1825.” Baltimore [Md.] : Lith. by E. Weber & Co., 1845. Contributors: Randolph Coyle, William M’Lain, Jehudi Ashmun, Edward Weber & Co. “Relief shown by hachures.” 45 x 62 cm. Gift from the American Colonization Society in 1968. G8880 1845 .C6. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 9: “H. W. Erskine / T. M. Schleier, photographer, Nashville & Knoxville, Tenn.”, November 1866. “Photograph shows portrait of Liberian man in suit and bowtie.” Photographer: Theodore M. Schleier. photograph : approximate sixteenth-plate tintype; 10 x 6 cm (mat). AMB/TIN no. 1031 [P&P]. American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 10: Liberian College, Monrovia. “Photograph shows male students posed on the balconies of Liberian College, Monrovia, Liberia.” Philadelphia: Liberian Art Publishing Co., 1893. Photographic print: albumen. “Printed on back of mount: Exhibit, World’s Fair, Chicago, Ill., U.S.A., 1893.” LOT 8546 [item] [P&P]. American Colonization Society Collection, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 11: “James Skivring Smith, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters view, seated at desk”, between 1856 and 1850. “Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Arrived in Liberia in 1833. Secretary of State of Liberia, 1856-1860. Senator, Grand Bassa County, 1868-1869. Vice president under Edward Roye, 1870-1871. Superintendent Grand Bassa County, 1874-1884.” “Written on back plate: Doctor J. S. Smith, Senator from Bassa Co.” Photograph: sixth plate daguerreotype. DAG no. 1002. American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 12: A. J. Cross, between 1853 and 1900. “Photograph shows portrait of Liberian man in suit and tie with hat.” Photograph: approximate sixth-plate tintype, hand-colored; 9 x 6 cm (plate). AMB/TIN no. 1030 [P&P] LOT 8554, no. 3 (former call number). American Colonization Society Records, 1792-1964, Library of Congress.

GALLERY IMAGE 13 and COVER IMAGE: Liberated Slaves Arriving in Sierra Leone, from Samuel Griswold Goodrich, A System of School Geography Chiefly Derived from Malte-Brun, 20th ed. (New York, 1839), p. 194, accessed via archive.org.

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For examples of Sri Lankan palm leaf manuscripts, a type of source material discussed in the interview, click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Global History Podcast. In this segment, we hear from Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow and College Lecturer in History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

Professor Sivasundaram has published widely on the histories of the Pacific and Indian Oceans during the 18th and 19th centuries. His previous works include Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850 and Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony. He’ll also have a new book out this summer, titled Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire. 

Last spring, when Chase visited Cambridge, he and Professor Sivasundaram had a discussion about the importance of islands in global history, with a particular focus on Sri Lanka, and on this segment, we’ll be sharing that conversation with you.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at theglobalhistorypodcast@gmail.com, or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram.

COVER IMAGE CREDIT: Carte plate qui comprend l’Isle de Ceylan, et une partie des Côtes de Malabar et de Cormandel, engraved by De La Haye for Jean-Baptiste d’Après de Mannevillette’s Neptune Oriental (Paris; Brest, 1775). 27 in (68.5 cm) x 20 in (50.8 cm). Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE GALLERY CREDITS: All palm leaf manuscript images were downloaded from the Royal Danish Library.

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To refer to some of the maps, places, and documents discussed in the episode, click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the third episode of the Global History Podcast. Today we’d like to extend a warm welcome to Barbara E. Mundy, Professor of Art History at Fordham University. 

Professor Mundy teaches on art history in Latin America, with a particular interest in indigenous sixteenth-century art and cartography. Her publications include The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geográficas, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City, and the co-edited volume Painting a Map of Sixteenth-Century Mexico City: Land, Writing and Native Rule. She is also the co-creator of the digital art history project, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, co-authored with Dana Leibsohn. 

On this episode, we’ll be diving into the complex world of colonial Mexico. So, what are the maps of the relaciones geográficas of New Spain, and why are they so fascinating? Why is it essential to study indigenous sources for the post-conquest world of Mexico, rather than just European ones? And why are images so important in our investigation of the past? Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at theglobalhistorypodcast@gmail.com, or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram.

IMAGE 1 and COVER PHOTO: Map of Tenochtitlán from the first Latin edition of the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés to Emperor Charles V, 1524. The Newberry Library, Chicago. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 2: Map of Cholula, Mexico, 1581. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. 31 x 44 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 3: The Oztoticpac Lands Map, c. 1540. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 76 x 84 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 4: First Page of the Relaciones Geográficas questionaire, 1577. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. Image downloaded from the University of Texas at Austin here.

IMAGE 5: Facade of San Gabriel de Cholula, Mexico. Photograph taken by Alexandro G. Alonso S. on June 27, 2013. Image downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 6: Map of Culhuacán, Mexico, January 17, 1580. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. 70 x 54 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 7: Map of Cempoala, Mexico, November 1, 1580. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. 83 x 66 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 8: Map of Muchitlan, Mexico, March 7, 1582. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. 56.5 x 76 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

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