Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

Napoleon's illegitimate sons Charles Denuelle and Alexandre Walewski and the Bonaparte name

Napoleon's illegitimate sons: Charles Denuelle, called the infernal bastard, Count Léon (1806-1881), and Alexandre, Count Colonna-Walewski (1810-1868). Each left numerous descendants, but none of the offspring of Napoleon's illegitimate sons had the right to bear the surname Bonaparte, although Count Léon pressed the

Art

The Lemon

Édouard Manet, 1880

NB! · Books

On Fear Without Cause: "NOTHING WILL COME OF NOTHING, and from the empty there must needs be the hollow"

NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Humour

Artist Elena Sheidlina Reimagines Horace Slughorn's Attempt to Hide from the Death Eaters

The artist Elena Sheidlina has reimagined Horace Slughorn's attempt to hide from the Death Eaters. On this occasion, no dragon's blood was needed to discover the hiding place.

Observations · Society

Forced coin exchange at unfavourable rates in Europe from the Middle Ages to the 18th century

The right to issue currency has in every age been a source of colossal revenue for those who held it and of incredible injustice for everyone else. In medieval Europe there existed the practice of withdrawing coins from circulation. It happened constantly, sometimes twice a year. People were obliged to

Science · Nature

Mecklenburg stork with an African spear and the study of bird migration in the 19th century

Until the nineteenth century, science did not know for certain what happens to many birds in winter: where do they vanish to? As late as the end of the eighteenth century it was suggested that birds fall into hibernation and sleep beneath the snow or on the beds of lakes

Faith · London · Mores · Society

The General Synod of the Church of England Discussed Prayers for the Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

The subject is not new to the Church of England, but until now matters had never gone as far as publishing a proposed collection of prayers and Bible readings connected with same-sex services. The Archbishop of Canterbury, however, chose to abstain in the vote on the prayers, explaining that

A child in a pink dress with silver patterns and a white cap holds a spear, with a dog standing on its hind legs beside.

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies

Giuseppe Duprà painted a portrait of a child with a spear and a dog in 1766

Prince Maurizio Giuseppe of Savoy at the Age of 4. Portrait with a spear. Italian artist Giuseppe Duprà, 1766

NB! · Books · Education · Humour

“It seems to me as if I had not eaten for three days”, “when I do not have supper, I cannot sleep” and other important phrases for not dying of hunger, in French, shed light on the origins of the education of Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, known as Kis

Page 317 of an old book with a question and answer on why stout people are less healthy than thin ones.

Books · Science · Humour

An old Russian book explains why stout people are less healthy than thin ones

Why are stout people not so healthy as lean ones? Because in a stout body the pores (passages) are all stopped up by the coldness of the phlegmatic spirits, and the excess of fatty humours, unable to escape from the body through the pores, is forced to return back into

NB! · Art · Observations

The Floating Diana from the Fresco in the Painter's House at Pompeii and Marc and Bella Flying over the Sky of Vitebsk in Marc Chagall's "Over the Town"

NB!

Alexandr Radayev