The Corrupting Sea

The tusk shell - scaphopod - from Pliocene of Sicily measures 9.7 cm in length.

The island of Sicily first came under Muslim rule in AD 827. In the tenth century it came under the sway of the North African Aghlabid dynasty, and th...

Syracuse was a Greek colony founded by Corinth, and between about 500 and 200 BC it became the most prosperous city on the island of Sicily. In 474 BC...

A badly bombed street in Sicily.

Husband of Mary I; miniature; oil on panel; Mary married Philip II of Spain in 1554 against the wishes of Parliament. He was the son of the Emperor Charles V and a deeply religious man. These small portraits may have been produced the year after the marriage to commemorate the couple's union. They derive from existing portrait types.; Miniatures; Royalty and Society

The uncharacteristic mountainous coastline probably indicates a Mediterranean location. On the right a Dutch ship, seen from the stern, fires a salute, while a small English armed merchant ship sails alongside her to the right. A small coasting merchant ship of French design is anchored in the left foreground, while a barge, flying a blue ensign with a gold device, is rowed ashore. Stylistically the picture appears to date from the later years of Van de Velde’s Dutch period, c.1670, and the harbour is possibly based on engravings. It appears to be the only known Mediterranean view by the artist painted before his visit to the region with the English fleet under the command of Admiral Russell in 1694-5.

Five players take the parts of The Travellers, who are from different nations, Austria, Sweden, Russia, Prussia and England. They must make their way to their respective capital cities each starting from a different city in Africa, or on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. They play with a teetotum or spinner with four sides marked N,S,E,W representing the directions they must move in. The game was first published in 1842 and the rules booklet that goes with this game is dated 1849, making it earlier than the game itself.

from Wey, Guildford Sketchbook [Finberg XCVIII], A Mediterranean Harbour Seen through Trees, with Dido and Aeneas in the ForegroundJoseph Mallord William Turner1805support: 182 x 117 mmAccepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Percussion Sporting Gun Mediterranean type Sporting Gun. Spanish or Italian, .

print; hand-coloured etching; 'The plumb-pudding in danger' is probably Gillray's most famous print. It achieves its impact through the simplicity of its design and the brilliant economy with which Gillray captures the political situation. Napoleon Bonaparte and William Pitt face each other across a steaming 'plum-pudding' globe, both intent on carving themselves a substantial portion of the world. Pitt appears calm, meticulous and confident, spearing the pudding with a trident indicative of British naval supremacy. He lays claim to the oceans and the West Indies. In contrast Napoleon Bonaparte reaches from his chair with covetous, twitching eyes fixed on the prize of Europe and cuts away France, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and the Mediterranean. ; James Gillray etchings (1801-1805); Gillray in Focus, Napoleon, Peace with France, Pitt & Fox, War with France; Politics, Government and Political Movements; British Prime Ministers, Foreign leaders, Regency Tories, The Peninsular Wars and Waterloo portraits, The Raj and the Indian sub-continent

Ratings attend a class on the deck of an Indian naval vessel in the Mediterranean.

About 80 BC, a small craft sank off the south-west coast of Greece near Antikythera. It was probably on its way from the eastern Mediterranean to Ital...

In this scanning electron micrograph, the transition of a life-cycle stage in Calcidiscus is shown from the outer cover to the inner layer. Specimen taken from W. Mediterranean.