Next to the opening of his Fifth Symphony, Für Elise is one of Beethoven’s best-known melodies, a mainstay of piano lessons for generations and a ringtone on millions of mobile phones.

The identity of Elise, however, has eluded scholars down the years, hampered as they were by the loss of the original manuscript.

Now Klaus Martin Kopitz, a German musicologist and Beethoven expert, believes he has identified the woman of the title as Elisabeth Röckel.

If right he will have put to rest a number of previous theories, including that the title of the lost manuscript had been misread and originally referred to Theresa Malfatti, a woman Ludwig van Beethoven had pursued.

Miss Röckel was a German soprano and sister of Joseph August Röckel, a tenor who was conducted by the composer in Fidelio in 1806.

Sir Christopher Wren's final designs for St Paul's cathedral have gone on display for the first time, demostrating how his practices created a benchmark for modern architects.

The sketches show how he introduced mathematical concepts into architecture and turned the design of buildings from being classed as being simply a part of the building trade to a profession in its own right.

In July 1917, a young officer covered two pages with minute handwriting in a small, black leather-bound notebook. It could have cost him his life.

The original of Siegfried Sassoon's Soldier's Declaration – a roar of defiance from the Western Front, which caused uproar when it was read aloud in parliament – is part of an extraordinary archive of one the most famous and best loved of the first world war soldier poets. Yesterday, Cambridge University launched a £1.25m appeal in order to be able to acquire the archive from his descendants.

Sassoon's Declaration, which he called "an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it", claimed the government's objectives had secretly changed from defence to conquest, and that peace could have been achieved by negotiation. In the summer of 1917 Sassoon escaped court martial for his outbrust, in part because he had...

As an historian, I tend to link events to their analogues in past times to draw meaning.

So, the sudden passing of Michael Jackson at 50, when he was the most famous person in the world, recalls the similar tragic success of Bert Williams a century earlier.

Bert Williams, whom I’ve been researching as part of Volume 2 of Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, 1900-1950; and in the current context statement study of African-American historic and cultural landmarks in San Francisco,  was also the most famous entertainer in the world at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.    He was the first African-American to make a record; the first to perform on Broadway, the first to join the Ziegfeld Follies and made command performances before the Queen of England.

There are several surface similarities to Jackson.  Despite his fame, he literally had to go...

After a year in which we have been vigorously celebrating the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the English throne, today (June 24 2009) marks the actual anniversary of the event and it coincides with news that would have pleased the famously cantankerous Monarch.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have given the final go-ahead for a £21 million grant to the Mary Rose Trust to complete the conservation of Henry’s favourite warship, the Mary Rose, and to build a permanent museum for the ship and the artefacts in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

"This is indeed great news. The Mary Rose has been described by historian Dr David Starkey as this country's Pompeii, painting the finest picture of the world of sixteenth century life,” said John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust.

The new musuem will reunite the ship with its numerous treasures.

“The HLF has today demonstrated their real commitment to the nation's...

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York Chapter has announced that "A Space Within: The National September 11 Memorial & Museum," a public showcase of the 8-acre memorial and museum taking shape at the heart of the World Trade Center site, will open to the public today, June 25th, at 6pm.

The exhibition, curated by Thomas Mellins, contains new details of the memorial and museum plans. The exhibition will display scale models, construction photographs, drawings and videos, and host a series of public programs. "A Space Within" will remain on view at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, from June 26-September 14, 2009. The exhibition was organized by AIA New York in partnership with the Center for Architecture Foundation and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

In the aftermath of the events of September 11th, 2001, the evident need emerged to build a tribute to those who had been killed. An...

Eighty-one-year old Thomas Selldorff, who fled Austria with his family before it was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, hopes an upcoming international conference will bolster efforts to return Nazi-looted art.

The Nazis seized over 200 artworks owned by his grandfather, an avid art collector, as part of a policy of seizing Jewish property. So far, Selldorff has been able to retrieve only two of the lost paintings.

"I want to be able to pass these things on to my family. . . I want them to have the link and an appreciation for some of the things my grandfather was involved with," said Selldorff, who lives in the United States and wants to exhibit the altar pieces by Austrian baroque artist Kremser Schmidt in a museum.

Some 65 years after World War 2, experts say thousands of artworks confiscated by the Nazis, including masterpieces by art nouveau master Gustav Klimt and expressionist Egon Schiele, still need to be restituted to their rightful owners.

Archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of ancient Roman treasures, including a marble head of the Roman emperor Titus, during an excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples.

The long-term digging effort in Rione Terra, a cliff in the port town of Pozzuoli, has yielded remains of 12 ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Roman history.

Among the most striking finds was the marble head of Emperor Titus, who ruled at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and who was celebrated throughout antiquity for providing generous financial assistance to survivors of the eruption. Bearing a crown of laurel leaves, the emperor's head was found in an ancient water tunnel.

A £1.5 million painting by Camille Pissarro which was looted by the Nazis has been withdrawn from auction at the last minute because of infighting between the descendants of its original Jewish owners.

Le Quai Malaquais et l'Institut, which features a view of the Seine from the French impressionist's hotel room on the third floor of the Hotel du Quai Voltaire, was due to be auctioned by Christie's in London on Tuesday.

But lawyers representing various scions of the Fischer family, which founded the German publishing house Fischer Verlag, were unable to reach an agreement about the painting's rightful owner and it was withdrawn from sale, according to The Times.