Holy Roman Empire

Diaryblog

Pestle or dildo? Six-inch wooden implement may be a Roman sex toy, say academics

Artefact may “be the first known sex object from the Roman Empire” according to new research

Finding Nero: reputation of misunderstood Roman emperor is revisited for major London show

“Almost every single thing we think we know about him is wrong,” says the curator of a new exhibition at the British Museum

Booksreview

Master of the putti: instructive book explores Albrecht Dürer's obsession with the little cherubs

Survey including 91 illustrations shows how the artist used the winged gods prolifically in his work

How the Habsburgs conquered by having arms rather than using them

New book and exhibition shows that the arms and armour of the Emperor Maximilian I were the visible signs of his chivalry

Scholarly book on European coronation rituals supplies sound background to 11th-century art history

This book corrects the misleading impression given by historians that the High Middle Ages were a transition to secularisation of the royal state