A Curious Collection

Early Life and Education Voltaire, born François-Marie Arouet in Paris on November 21, 1694, was one of the most consequential writers of the European Enlightenment. He did not construct a comprehensive philosophical system. Instead, he wrote across drama, poetry, history, philosophical fiction, essays, pamphlets, scientific writing, dictionary articles, and correspondence. His characteristic method was to make abstract questions concrete through irony, satire, historical ex

Sandro Botticelli was one of the most distinctive painters of the Italian Renaissance. Born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi in Florence around 1445, he became famous for graceful figures, flowing contours, windblown drapery, and faces poised between earthly beauty and private melancholy. Primavera and The Birth of Venus are now among the most recognizable paintings in Western art, but his career also encompassed altarpieces, devotional images, portraits, frescoes, and

J.R.R. Tolkien — John Ronald Reuel Tolkien — was an English writer, philologist, and teacher whose fiction transformed modern fantasy. He was born in Bloemfontein, in the independent Orange Free State, now part of South Africa, on January 3, 1892. CHILDHOOD, FAITH, AND LANGUAGE Tolkien came to England with his mother and brother at three and remained after his father died the following year. His mother died when he was twelve, and the Catholic priest Francis Xavier Morgan bec

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was one of the defining artists of the Dutch Golden Age and one of Europe’s most influential painters and printmakers. Born in Leiden on July 15, 1606, he made light, gesture, texture, and expression carry exceptional narrative and emotional force. The son of a prosperous miller, Rembrandt briefly enrolled at Leiden University before choosing art. He trained with Jacob van Swanenburg in Leiden and then for about six months with the history paint

Confucius, conventionally dated 551–479 BCE, was a teacher and political thinker whose legacy became central to East Asian moral and intellectual history. His family name was Kong and his personal name Qiu; his courtesy name was Zhongni. Kongzi and Kong Fuzi mean “Master Kong.” “Confucius” is the Latinized form through which he became known in Europe. He is traditionally said to have been born in Zou, a district of Lu near present-day Qufu, Shandong, during China’s Spring and