Archive - Res Obscura

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Historical maps probably helped cause World War I

On cartography as historical argument

Sep 19 •

Simulating History with ChatGPT

The Case for LLMs as Hallucination Engines

Sep 12 •

August 2023

Experiencing scientific revolutions: the 1660s and the 2020s

Lessons from Boyle's scientific desiderata and the Midgley Effect

Aug 9 •

Why Early Modern Books Are So Beautiful

Aug 3 •

July 2023

Why did it take psychedelics so long to become popular?

Some lessons from history and archaeology

Jul 25 •

Wilfrid Voynich: Bookseller, Revolutionary, Amateur Cryptologist... Suspected Spy?

The first in a series on the extraordinary lives of the Voyniches

Jul 18 •

Do painters subconsciously paint themselves into their work?

The Renaissance history of automimesis, and a proposal for research

Jul 11 •

April 2023

Res Obscura is now on Substack

Three years late, but historians are always late

Apr 13 •

December 2019

Res Obscura Newsletter: December, 2019

Note: this was exported from Mailchimp. That's a 1909 painting called "Altar." It's by someone I learned about just this month: the Lithuanian composer…

Dec 5, 2019 •

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