Art · Books · Mores
Ever heard of candaulism? It is a psychopathological syndrome manifesting itself in the desire to show strangers the nakedness of one's partner. In our own day, this pathology is not infrequently encountered on Instagram. Yet as early as 1646 one could learn of such a deviation from the
Archive · New York · People
The light has gone out of my life: a diary entry by Theodore Roosevelt. On 14 February 1884 the future American president Theodore Roosevelt lost his mother, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 48, and his wife, aged 22, who died of acute kidney failure after giving
Aristocracy · Architecture · Cinema · Books
The interiors of Highclere Castle in Hampshire, ancestral seat of the Earls of Carnarvon, built in the early seventeenth century and rebuilt in 1838–1878, may be seen not only in the series "Downton Abbey", which made the castle famous, but also in the comedy film "King
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Society Pages
After the wedding ceremony on 14 May 1962, the Greek princess Sophia and the Spanish prince Juan Carlos (the future King and Queen of Spain) set off for the royal palace in Athens in a carriage drawn by six horses. The carriage is a far from ordinary one: it was
Archaeology · Faith · Mores · Ethnography
To cure an ailment, take a little water and mix it with plain... ...grave dust. Bede the Venerable writes of Saint Chad, Chad of Mercia, a bishop who lived in the seventh century and was canonised soon after his death, that dust from his grave was held to be miraculous
Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People
On 24 April 1671 the outstanding French maître d'hôtel, restaurateur, impresario and founder of catering, François Vatel, brought his life's journey to an end. Vatel's name has become a byword for restaurateurs and chefs the world over: the man was so devoted to his
Archive · Books · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
On the history of the Warsaw Library in Russia, there are interesting documents left by one of the first employees of the Imperial Library, Mikhail Ivanovich Antonovsky. A writer, historian and translator, M.I. served the state in posts ranging from the Admiralty and the fleet to diplomatic errands. In
Books · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
After Suvorov's capture of Warsaw in 1794, among the other trophies that fell to Russia was one of the richest libraries in Europe, known as the Warsaw Library and by the name of the Załuski Library, assembled in the eighteenth century by the eminent Polish patrons of learning,
Archive · Books · Paris · People · Humour
Turgenev was terribly afraid of cholera and often remarked on fresh outbreaks in his letters, describing in detail the situation in Paris and other European cities, asking after affairs in Russia, noting that people were dying like flies, reflecting how fortunate it was that nightingales do not catch cholera and
NB!
Art · Cinema · Humour
Works by the Swiss artist Emile François Chambon on modern lovers and stills from the film by the Soviet director Leonid Gaidai "Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures". Both date from the 1960s. Evidently this charming aesthetic of naive romanticism, of the builders of a new
NB! · Geography · Maps · Pop Culture · Humour
Reddit has produced a rather splendid and, oddly enough, fairly accurate map of France in the style of Super Mario. True, part of Lake Geneva has nonetheless been ceded to the Confederation