Asking for Help:

(Top) November 4, 1650: A letter, written on silk, from the Grand Empress Dowager Helena Wang - the ‘honorary mother’ of the Yongli Emperor - asks Pope Innocent X for help

(Bottom)’Letter of plea’: A visitor looks at a lengthy piece of correspondence written to Pope Paul III by Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus circa 1535

(Source: Daily Mail)