Built by Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1481, the Sistine Chapel is a sacred place within the papal state, featuring the papal conclave for pope selection. Michelangelo spent 4 years painting the ceiling’s frescoes.

15th century Italy witnessed an explosion in art, literature, science, and especially the humanities, known as the Italian Renaissance. Great thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo were supported by a patronage system but detested by the Catholic church.

The history of the harmonica dates back to an 1100 BC Chinese instrument called a Sheng, until the modern mouth organ debuted in 1820, rapidly spreading across Europe and the US. Beloved by vaudevillians, Hollywood westerns, blues musicians, and more.

A popular icon of witchcraft, the witches’ broomstick has roots in pagan fertility rituals, broomstick dances, and accounts of witches using brooms to fly up and out their chimneys.

Disfigured female orphans who sang like angels and played a wide variety of musical instruments, the Figlie del coro worked with composer Vivaldi to create masterful symphonies.

The richest and most famous female artist of 19th century France, Marie-Rosalie (Rosa) Bonheur spent the last forty years of her life entrenched in her small chateau above the Seine River town of Thomery.

A sounding board for the wisdom of its colonial author, Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Alamanack was in print uninterrupted from 1732 to 1758.