A re-run of a BBC Horizon documentary on genetic imprinting on Belgian television reminded me of an early modern theory of conception and imagination. The documentary announced that scientists have discovered that our genes have a memory:
The lives of your grandparents – the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they [...]

Today, on the second Tuesday after Easter, women in early modern England stopped men on the roads, binding them with ropes and asking a penny for their release — money that was donated to the parish church. They were taking their revenge for the events of the day before, when the men would take women [...]

The new history carnival is up at Jeremy Bogg’s wonderfully designed blog Clioweb! Hours’ worth of reading await you!