Ushaw Historic House library open to public for one day
As part of the day's events, the library will display its copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle illustrated encyclopaedia from 1493.The book is an account of Christian history from Creation to the early 1490s.Only about a thousand copies exist in the world today, said Mr Gidda.
In addition to the 1493 edition, the library also holds a pirated copy of the book printed four years later, which was smaller and cheaper to make and of which just a few hundred still survive.Ushaw is also home to a first edition copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, said Mr Gidda, as well as dozens of books printed during the earliest days of the printing press in Europe, known as incunabula.
Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Aether review – dazzling lecture about a medium, a magician and a mathematician
There are known knowns, there are known unknowns and there is Emma Howlett's play, a smart feminist take on the mysteries of the physical universe and the eternal limits of science. If that sounds too weighty a theme for a night out at the fringe, well, Howlett, who also directs, has planned ahead and built a fluid, ever-shifting production that spins her ideas with a dazzling lightness of touch. This is pure ensemble theatre: you cannot put a match between Sophie Kean, Abby McCann, Anna Marks Pryce and Gemma Barnett as they weave five historical stories as a tight unit, breathing as one. Supported by a residency by the Hugo Burge Foundation and written with Summerhall's Anatomy lecture theatre in mind, Howlett's production for TheatreGoose exploits the academic setting by turning the audience into students (pens and whiteboards in hand) and the actors into public speakers, using an overhead projector to put them in the spotlight (neat lighting design by Ed Saunders). Two of the stories are unexpected; not the one about Hypatia, the ancient Egyptian mathematician and astronomer who was murdered by angry Christians; nor the one about Vera Rubin finding evidence of dark matter in the 20th century; and not the modern-day tale about Sophie, a PhD student drawing on data from Cern in the hope of breaking new ground, while her obsessiveness drives her girlfriend away. More surprising are those of Adelaide Herrmann, famed for performing the bullet-catch magic trick in her vaudeville show; and of Florence Cook, a 15-year-old medium, hoodwinking a credulous scientific establishment with her messages from beyond. Howlett is intrigued by fiction as well as fact. Juxtaposed and intercutting, these stories form a collage of truth and illusion, one that embraces the existential fear of always having more to learn about an evasive universe. As concerns go, it is on the esoteric side, but Aether is never less than accomplished. At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 25 August All our Edinburgh festival reviews
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
Aether review – dazzling lecture about a medium, a magician and a mathematician
There are known knowns, there are known unknowns and there is Emma Howlett's play, a smart feminist take on the mysteries of the physical universe and the eternal limits of science. If that sounds too weighty a theme for a night out at the fringe, well, Howlett, who also directs, has planned ahead and built a fluid, ever-shifting production that spins her ideas with a dazzling lightness of touch. This is pure ensemble theatre: you cannot put a match between Sophie Kean, Abby McCann, Anna Marks Pryce and Gemma Barnett as they weave five historical stories as a tight unit, breathing as one. Supported by a residency by the Hugo Burge Foundation and written with Summerhall's Anatomy lecture theatre in mind, Howlett's production for TheatreGoose exploits the academic setting by turning the audience into students (pens and whiteboards in hand) and the actors into public speakers, using an overhead projector to put them in the spotlight (neat lighting design by Ed Saunders). Two of the stories are unexpected; not the one about Hypatia, the ancient Egyptian mathematician and astronomer who was murdered by angry Christians; nor the one about Vera Rubin finding evidence of dark matter in the 20th century; and not the modern-day tale about Sophie, a PhD student drawing on data from Cern in the hope of breaking new ground, while her obsessiveness drives her girlfriend away. More surprising are those of Adelaide Herrmann, famed for performing the bullet-catch magic trick in her vaudeville show; and of Florence Cook, a 15-year-old medium, hoodwinking a credulous scientific establishment with her messages from beyond. Howlett is intrigued by fiction as well as fact. Juxtaposed and intercutting, these stories form a collage of truth and illusion, one that embraces the existential fear of always having more to learn about an evasive universe. As concerns go, it is on the esoteric side, but Aether is never less than accomplished. At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 25 August All our Edinburgh festival reviews
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
The woman who says you can spot a psychopath at three years old
There is little Prof Viding, 50, hasn't seen in the 25 years she has been researching psychopathy and young people's mental health, and she spent two years conducting studies on inmates at Wormwood Scrubs prison and Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital. 'It struck me that when you read prisoners' case histories, there were warning signs that had been there long before they committed their crimes,' she recalls. Ted Bundy, the notorious American serial killer, was a prime example of this: as a child he liked to dig holes in the ground, laced with spikes, for passers-by to fall in and hurt themselves. He also used to buy mice at the pet shop and pull them apart. Over the years, there have been even more alarming reports: babies who repeatedly bite their mother's breasts; toddlers who pretend to hug their parents and headbutt them instead. One of Prof Viding's studies looked at the genetic predisposition to psychopathy in seven-year-old twins, finding that CU traits have a 'strong genetic influence'. In other words, some children are born more likely to develop personality features that could be red flags. 'No one is born a psychopath' 'You see families where there are concentrations of these traits,' Prof Viding explains. 'No one is born a psychopath and the genes are not a blueprint, but there are people whose genetic makeup means that they are at higher risk than others.' Our genes and our early social environment shape how the brain processes emotional and social information – and the brains of children at risk of developing psychopathy are different from those of other children, showing little response to emotional stimuli that would normally induce fear. They also tend to have a low resting heart rate, typically associated with stress resilience. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in 2021 found that children whose hearts beat faster at the age of eight were at lower risk of developing adult psychopathy, despite having adverse childhood experiences. 'Children with conduct problems and CU traits, and adults with psychopathy, are poor at feeling what others are feeling, known as emotional empathy,' Prof Viding adds. 'On a conceptual level, they understand it, but that is not the same as feeling it. 'They are better at cognitive empathy, so they can work out what makes someone tick, but they don't care if they make others distressed. This combination makes for a powerful tool for manipulation.' The latter will chime with most parents – my three-year-old certainly has me wrapped around his little finger – but, if anything, my kids feel too many big emotions, not too few. 'Interventions can work' It's not all bad news, however, even if a child displays these traits from a young age. Several studies around adoption show that children at risk of developing worrying behaviours because of their biological family history, if they go on to be adopted by warm, loving parents, are less likely to see those behaviours worsen as they get older. Treatment, Prof Viding says, is effective, such as adapting parenting styles, learning how to help a child regulate their differing reactions, and seeking ongoing professional help in which a therapist works with both child and parents. 'With any behaviour, the more rooted it gets, the more difficult it becomes to intervene. But we know that interventions in adolescents and adults can also work, so the message should not be that if you don't get there in the first five years, it's useless.' Unfortunately, she adds, getting help to the children who need it is easier said than done, as those who exhibit these tendencies often come from families where their parents have complex issues of their own (such as addiction, mental-health difficulties or problems with the law). 'It is harder to elicit sympathy for children who don't play by the rules and behave in ways that can be unpleasant or downright dangerous,' she says. 'It is an uphill battle to get funding to help these children, even though it would be in society's interest.' A mother herself, to two teenagers aged 15 and 17, Prof Viding understands only too well the parenting rollercoaster – and how difficult dealing with an unruly child, let alone one showing worryingly abnormal personality traits, can be. 'I get emails on a weekly basis from parents who are concerned and don't know where to turn,' she admits. 'It's heartbreaking. 'At the moment in the UK, the health service is incredibly reluctant to diagnose conduct disorder, so the parents often have to wait until things are so bad they can no longer cope or their child is in trouble with the law.' But, she insists, no child is beyond reprieve – nor is anyone's little darling 'destined' to become a psychopath. Cue a collective parental sigh of relief.
