Rome’s Capitoline Museums are offering the chance for scholars to view formerly secret and historic Vatican documents never before seen outside of the Holy See. The exhibition runs February - September 2012.

The Higgins Viking Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts goes a Viking this spring with the exhibit Real Vikings: Valiant warriors or ruthless raiders? which opens March 31, 2012.

The Freeport Historical Society in Freeport, Maine invites knitters to participate in a series of afternoon knitting circles focusing on historic knitting. The program will run Saturdays from March 17 through May 26, 2012.

Go behind the scenes at the Tower of London. Learn about the "Oldest Ceremony in the World"; read about the "bribe" ships pay to traverse the Thames; see photos of the graffiti carved into the very stones of the cells of the Tower!

The Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. are hosting the exhibit "Feast Your Eyes" on Ancient Iranian Luxury Metalwork beginning February 4, 2012. The exhibit "explores the beauty, role and function of luxury metalwork in ancient Iran."

Victorian excavations at the site of the Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, England led to some surprises, including a 35m (115ft) long Roman mosaic floor, "one of the longest in-situ corridor mosaics in the country." Soon the mosaic will be displayed for the public. (photo)

The popularity of "extreme jousting" programs such as the History Channel's Full Metal Jousting have prompted comment from a number of organizations such as the SCA. Jeffrey Forgeng of the Valley Advocate (Springfield, Massachusetts) offers his take.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is currently hosting the exhibition The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy, one of the masterpieces of late medieval sculpture in Europe. The exhibit will run January 21, 2012 through April 15, 2012.

Visitors to New York City with an interest in Byzantine or Early Christian art may want to pay a visit to the Onassis Cultural Center in Midtown Manhattan to view Transition to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd – 7th Century AD, a display of 170 pieces of art from museums in Greece and Cyprus.

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra will play host to the "first ever exhibition in Australia dedicated to Renaissance paintings." Artdaily.org has a review. Renaissance – 15th & 16th Century Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo will be open December 9, 2011 - April 9, 2012.

For eight years, the vast collections of Islamic art at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has been unavailable to the public, but now visitors can enjoy the collection as never before. Holland Cotter of the New York Times has a review.

Those interested in Renaissance portraiture and costuming may want to visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini December 21, 2011–March 18, 2012.

In 2007, metal detectorists David and Andrew Whelan hit the jackpot when they discovered a huge hoard of Viking treasure in a field north of Harrogate, England. Now the Vale of York Viking Hoard will return to Harrogate for an exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery.

The International Museum of the Horse is opening a new exhibit, aptly named 'The Horse", that looks at the relationship mankind has had with horses for the past 19,000 years.

"When we selected the manuscripts to go on display, we tried to pick those which were visually very strong and had a very strong art element," Kathleen Doyle, curator of illuminated manuscripts at the British Library, said about the exhibition, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination.

The world's largest collection of beautifully-illuminated British royal manuscripts from the 9th through 16th centuries will be on display this winter at the British Museum.

The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College will host "Making History: Antiquaries in Britain," September 4 through December 11, 2011, tracing "milestones in the discovery, recording, preservation, interpretation, and communication of Britain's history."

Visitors to the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will have the opportunity to view 16th century woodcuts, engravings, and etchings relating to the study of science when the museum presents Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe.

You've read about it. You've seen the photos. Now you have the chance to see the wonders in person when one hundred artifacts from the Staffordshire Hoard go on display at National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C.

A new exhibit at the Louvre in Paris explores "a largely ignored aspect of painting in the Middle Ages: the fun in medieval manuscripts." The exhibition, Enluminures: Moyen Âge et Renaissance, will be on view until October 10, 2011.

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C. has announced that it has received a collection of Tibetan Buddhist art from collector Alice S. Kandell. Objects in the collection date from the 12th through 20th centuries CE.

Gary Schlosstein of Alma, Wisconsin recently achieved his dream: to have a showcase for his extensive collection of medieval memorabilia. The Castlerock Arms and Armor Museum opened July 9, 2011. Adam Voge of the Winona Daily News has the story.

For the first time, many residents of the United States will be able to view Ukrainian treasures spanning 6,000 years. The exhibition will be hosted by the Houston (Texas) Museum of Natural Science from May 27 to Sept 5, 2011.

As she walked to the scaffold to be executed, Mary Queen of Scots carried an ornate crucifix and a Book of Hours. Now both artifacts, thought to have been carried by Mary, were reunited for a day at Loretto School in Musselburgh, East Lothian. (photo)

Visitors to Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon ship burial site in eastern England, can now experience the royal burial in a new way, complete with "smells and sounds to create an authentic atmosphere." (slideshow)

A display of 9th century Chinese pottery, discovered in 1998 in the wreck of an Arabic ship near Indonesia, has sparked controvery in the archaeological community. Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, was scheduled to be exhibited at Washington's Smithsonian Institution.

In celebration of Passover, Edward Rothstein of the New York Times discusses the reading of the Haggadah represented by the Washington Haggadah, a manuscript from 1478 on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through June 26, 2011. (slide show)

Visitors to New York City this winter will have a rare opportunity outside of the United Kingdom to view an exhibit featuring the Lewis Chessmen.

"The enigma of the Lewis Chessmen has intrigued and puzzled those who have viewed these inscrutable faces in the last 200 years or so," said Alex MacDonald, convener of Western Isles Council in Scotland about an exhibit of more than 30 of the game pieces.

In Pulp Fashion:  The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave, the Belgian artist re-creates exquisite life-size historic costumes using paper. The exhibit is currently at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor until June 5, 2011. (photos)