About Historia Minuta

Dear Reader,

History leaves traces everywhere. Most of them are small, and that’s exactly what interests me.

The minor episodes rarely make it into the history books. Look at them with a little patience and they tell you a great deal about their time, and the people who lived it.

I always start from one concrete, material detail and follow the thread until a bigger picture appears. Real sources, not recycled anecdotes. I don’t publish on a fixed schedule: I do it when a story is ready.

If you’re new here, three pieces show you what I mean. Each one starts from something you could hold in your hand.

An object. Michelangelo left a shopping list. What it says about the man, and his world, is not what you’d expect. → Michelangelo: The Agony, The Ecstasy, and His Taste

A word. Why is an umbrella called an umbrella? The trail runs from a Roman “little shade” to the thing you leave on the train. → Why is an umbrella called an umbrella?

A record. In 1428 a woman stood trial in Todi. The court papers survive, and they read like nothing you were taught about witches. → The Witch of Todi

Between one piece and the next, I post shorter things on Notes: a painting, a photograph, one verified fact underneath. That’s where most of you found me.

Thank you for being here.

Historia Minuta

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