The British Museum kept a locked cupboard of forbidden books for over a century

historyWikipedia1830s–1960s · London, England

The British Museum kept a locked cupboard of forbidden books for over a century

the gist

For well over a century, the British Museum kept its erotica and pornography in a locked cupboard known as the Private Case. The collection grew from about the 1830s to 1870, fed by books arriving through legal deposit, by bequests from collectors and by items police seized as obscene. Henry Spencer Ashbee left 1,379 volumes in 1900, and later gifts included 246 works from Charles Reginald Dawes in 1964. The catalogue was kept from ordinary readers. From 1964 the library began moving titles into the general catalogue, finishing in 1983, and the collection moved to the British Library in 1973. Nothing has been added since 1990, and what remains is no longer barred, apart from the fragile condition of some items.

so what

The Private Case shows how a national library once decided which knowledge the public could be trusted with. Its shrinking, as social attitudes loosened, is a neat record of changing ideas about obscenity and censorship in Britain.

fun fact

Henry Spencer Ashbee, whose bequest swelled the collection, catalogued erotic books under the pseudonym Pisanus Fraxi.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗