V.M. Braganza

V.M. Braganza

V.M. Braganza is a Ph.D. candidate in Renaissance literature at Harvard and a law student at Columbia Law School. She has written for Smithsonian and the LA Review of Books. When she isn’t writing a book on the literary history of cryptography, she’s part-time masseuse to a pampered green parrot named Rascal who is appallingly more popular on social media than she is. She has been known to sign emails as “Robert Langdon.”

Polonius from 'Hamlet' doling out some advice.

Did you realize how many idioms commonly used today have their origins in Renaissance literature and culture of the 16th and 17th centuries? These trendy turns of phrase are the best things since sliced bread—and nearly half a millennium older.

V.M. Braganza