Black-and-white photo of a young woman in a tiara with long dark hair, earrings and rings, resting her hands on a stone bust of an Egyptian pharaoh.

Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Loren, aged 19, played Cleopatra in the 1953 film “Two Nights with Cleopatra”

Sophia Loren as Cleopatra. Yes, Loren did play Cleopatra, in the witty and naive 1953 film Two Nights with Cleopatra. In the photographs the actress is 19

NB! · Archive · In the Press

Italian Front Pages on Russia

Three oval paintings in gilded frames on a wood-paneled wall. In the centre, a nude young man with a bow, a centaur and a small child stand before a colonnaded hall.

NB!

Oval paintings in carved frames: a mythological scene with a centaur

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Art · Monarchies

Palazzo Vecchio, the apartments of Francesco I de' Medici (1541-1587), Grand Duke of Tuscany, Florence

Palazzo Vecchio, the apartments of Francesco I de' Medici (1541-1587), Grand Duke of Tuscany, Florence. Allegory of fire in the ceiling paintings and the instruction of the centaur Chiron by Apollo, god of Light

NB! · Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

In My Opinion, This Is Very Sad

In my opinion, this is very sad. An enormous heap of rubbish lies literally in front of the entrance to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the 7 pilgrimage churches of Rome and, without exaggeration, one of the most sacred churches in the city. I do not know what Francis

Bronze plaque with two haloed saints, one holding a scroll, the other a book, with a Slavic inscription below. Other memorial plaques hang nearby on an old brick wall.

NB!

Bronze relief of Saints Cyril and Methodius from the Russian people

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Rome

In the Basilica of San Clemente one can see the tomb of St Cyril, Equal to the Apostles, the burial place of the relics of St Clement, brought from Crimea to Rome by the brothers Cyril and Methodius, and numerous dedications to the saints from Slavic…

The marble disc of the Mouth of Truth, carved with a bearded face, in a corner of a portico with pink walls and a brick floor.

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Rome

The Mouth of Truth in Rome stands very close to the Cloaca Maxima

Incredibly, the Mouth of Truth stands hard by the Great Drain. Amazing Rome

Architecture · Monarchies · Mores · Paris

Louis XIV, who nearly drowned in the Palais Royal fountain, gave the palace to his brother

As a child, Louis XIV nearly drowned in a fountain of the Palais-Royal, then known as the Palais-Cardinal, where Anne of Austria moved from the Louvre with her two sons after the death of Cardinal Richelieu. Broadly speaking, this unpleasant incident, together with the thoroughly distasteful impression left

Manuscript page with Latin verse. Two winged putti hold a laurel wreath around a shield with eagles; at left, a round red Bibliotheca Regia stamp.

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Manuscript page with a coat of arms in a laurel wreath held by two winged putti

Coming Up · Art · Books · Museums · Paris

Until June the Richelieu Library in Paris is hosting the exhibition "Inventing the Renaissances", which leads visitors from a scholar's study buried in manuscripts to the magnificent royal bookshelves

Until June the Richelieu Library in Paris is hosting the exhibition "Inventing the Renaissances", which leads visitors from a scholar's study buried in manuscripts to the magnificent royal bookshelves. The display consists of manuscripts, codices, printed books and a great many works of art, showing the

Faith · Books · Society

Apostle Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians on those who refuse to work

Article 12 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution contains a direct quotation from the Bible. He who does not work, neither shall he eat. These are the words of the Apostle Paul from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, literally: For even when we were with you, this we commanded you:

Alexandr Radayev