A 15th-century book on manners, newly digitized by The British Library, is filled with rules that wouldn't be out of place in a first-grade classroom today: Don't spit at the table, don't burp ...

Archaeologists in the U.K. have found part of a rare 15th-century religious manuscript as well as other items spanning the centuries under the floorboards of a historic country house.

Eight hundred years ago, tea traveled to Japan from China in simple, ceramic storage jars. These ancient jugs, now on display in Washington, D.C., helped launch Japan's tea culture.

In 15th-century Europe, the apocalypse weighed heavily on the minds of the people. Plagues were rampant. The once-great capital of the Roman empire, Constantinople, had fallen to the Turks.

Plague and war might have blighted the 14th century, but men's couture sparked a fashion revolution. Out went the baggy, amorphous robes that had been swathing people for centuries, and in came ...