NB! · Museums · Observations · Heritage
Wooden structure at the Vladimir and Suzdal Museum-Reserve
How enchanting Russia is! The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve
Alexandr Radayev
Archaeology · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
Povoynik of the late 16th century from the Pokrovsky Monastery burial vault in Suzdal
Remember the expression "to okrutit' someone" (literally, to wind someone round, and so to ensnare them into marriage)? It is tied to the custom of winding a bride's hair around her head in a particular way: on her wedding day a Russian girl acquired the
Art · Observations · Ethnography
Sarafan, shugay and lunnik kokoshnik in the women's costume of northern Rus
Consider this: the image of a townswoman of Suzdal at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Before us is a northern costume. The boundary between the Great Russian North and South is usually taken to be the present-day Moscow Region, so the northern lands are generally held
Art · Monarchies · People · Humour
Retirement of Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari, subject of Delacroix's 1855 painting
The Old Man Overstayed His Welcome. Eugène Delacroix, 1855. The painting shows the fifteenth-century Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari, who ruled longer than any other doge: 34 years. Foscari had a most interesting biography, but the choicest episode is this: by then he had become so thoroughly sick to death
Art · Observations · Science · Humour
A 1646 engraving of caution and boldness in pharmacy and surgery
An engraving of 1646 depicts Prudence (left) and Boldness (right). Besides the ideals of medical practice, the engraving conveys the two principal medical trades of its day: the apothecary's art, with a physician giving medicine to a patient in bed, and surgery, with a surgeon amputating the leg
Observations · Pop Culture · Ethnography
Speaking of fashion, historical costume deserves the serious attention of the modern industry
Here is a very enthusiastic young woman from the USA, Sara de Herrera, who made with her own hands a traditional feather mantle of the Choctaw people, who originally lived in the territories of the south-east of the United States. Choctaw women, among the most vivid representatives of the
Archaeology · Books · Mores · People
Archaeological finds on Kipling's land and the book “Puck of Pook's Hill”
In 1902 Rudyard Kipling bought, at a bargain price, an ancient house near the hamlet of Burwash in Sussex. The road to the house ran over a high hill, and to climb it a carriage needed a second horse harnessed on, which did little for the property's appeal
Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
Hidden boxes for mourners and the emperor's security in the Fontainebleau palace theatre
Have you ever noticed these latticed niches just beneath the dome of old theatres? In the royal theatre at the Palace of Fontainebleau, for instance, behind such mesh-covered oculi there lay small chambers with additional seats: the theatrical hierarchy reserved these hidden boxes for people in mourning and, of
Heritage · Mores · Society · Rome
In the last two years alone, 40 cases of vandalism at the Colosseum have been recorded in Rome
In the last two years alone, 40 cases of vandalism at the Colosseum have been recorded in Rome. And now, at last, the city authorities have updated the legislation governing public order in the capital, which has stood since 1946. The new rules cover both the assistance rendered by police
Books · London · Heritage · Education · Society
Oxford installs a plaque to Codrington's slaves while his statue stays in the library
Not long ago a plaque was put up in Oxford to commemorate those who worked in slave conditions on the Codrington plantations in the West Indies. It is the work of a group that seeks to publicise Oxford's colonial past. In 2017 its activists demanded that the statues
Faith · Art · Observations · Heritage
Double tomb of the 14th century in the village church of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire
It must be said that this is a very strange fourteenth-century tomb, in the village church of Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. And if it struck you that this double monument depicts a married couple, then why is the woman wearing a wimple? Were these people buried in one grave,
Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris · Humour
Edward VII's chair for lovemaking and its counterpart in a Prague museum
Edward VII (1841-1910) had a special chair for amorous pursuits. Renowned for his unbridled appetites and colourful sexual adventures, the king preferred a particular contraption for comfortable lovemaking with two partners at once. A similar couch is on display at the Sex Machines Museum in Prague, together with a