Minerva Magazine - November/December 2017

In this issue

The myth of the Lionheart
Richard I is celebrated as a warrior-king and great hero, but he relied on Arthurian legend and the romanticised ballads of troubadors to embellish his image and enhance his reputation. Sabine Kaufmann

The Great Belzoni
The Italian strongman-turned-archaeologist was a larger-than-life figure who discovered Seti I’s tomb and brought his sarcophagus to London where he sold it to Sir John Soane. John H Taylor

Eastern promise
The Kuwaiti princess and art collector Sheikha Hussa Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah talks about the many stunning, lesser-known, pre-Islamic objects in the collection she founded with her husband. Dalu Jones
Depicting the Divine
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford brings together powerful images and sacred artefacts produced by the world’s major religions and shows how they have inspired both faith and fury. Caroline Bugler

The adventures of Asterix
The plucky little Gaul and his menhir-wielding friend, Obelix, who have led the resistance against the Romans for 60 years, are being celebrated in two exhibitions in Paris. Polly Chiapetta

What did the Romans ever do for Gaul?
The reality of the Roman occupation was no laughing matter, but the battling Gaulish tribesmen might have been wiser to drop their swords
– and magic potions – put on togas and learn Latin. Bijan Omrani

Codebreakers and Groundbreakers
Michael Ventris, who deciphered the Linear B script, and Alan Turing, who unlocked the Enigma code, are commemorated in an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Anastasia Christofilopoulou