Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what

animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the black country got its name?

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The History Hit Misscellanie.

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It's a glorious September morning, and I'm heading to the Viennese University Archives

to meet Nina Kneeling.

To get there from my flat, I crossed the Shvidenboko, from which I can see the bars beginning

to set out their sun loungers along the Danube canals.

I dodge the trams, picking up passengers on the Shvidenplatz.

I pass the sausage stand serving the early lunch crowd, and head up the hill along the

cobbles of Postgasa.

Just as stones throw from the Gothic glory of Saint Stephen's Cathedral, the archives

are in a huge, baroque building, the colour of orange sherbert.

Before these buildings were ever dreamed of in the 14th century, while Prague was the

capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Charles IV, Vienna was becoming an urban powerhouse

in its own right.

And central to that was the creation of a university to rival all others.

The university archives hold a treasure trove of documents about the university's founding

in 1365, and I've come to see them for myself.

...