Architecture · Monarchies · Mores · Rome · Humour
At the entrance to the main building of the Villa Medici, which today houses the French Academy in Rome, stands a fountain of imposing size. The round basin was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who bought it in 1587 for 200 scudi from the monastery of San Salvatore
Books · People · Rome · Humour
His early childhood passed in Rome; he was brought up as is the custom among Roman grandees who are living out their days. His teacher, tutor, nursemaid and anything else you please was an abbé, a strict classicist, an admirer of the letters of Pietro Bembo, the writings of Giovanni
Books · Observations · Mores
“Drink to me alone with your eyes... and, please, do not spill the wine, but add water to it and, raising the cup to your lips, fill it with kisses and pass it to the thirsty” (XXXIII, 5-7). “I sent you a wreath of roses not to do you
NB! · Art · Observations
Temperantia. Remember the name. Strange as it may seem, the goddess of virtue is often depicted as a nude female figure pouring liquid into a glass.
Archive · Books · Humour
There is a tale that after his death the archive of the Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov was kept by another Russian philosopher, Pavel Florensky. True, Florensky stored Rozanov's papers in a shed, explaining that he could not abide the aroma of those manuscripts.
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Mores
The grand portrait of the Dauphins of France with the Marquise de Lansac. In 1638 Cardinal Richelieu filled every court office with his own creatures, and installed a relative of his as governess to the future king and the Duke of Orléans. The elderly woman beside the little boys is
NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies
Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Heritage
Perhaps one of the most extravagant monuments of the French Renaissance: the tomb of René de Chalon, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, who died in 1544. It is not entirely clear whether the 25-year-old René himself left instructions for a rotting tomb to be
NB! · Pop Culture · Humour
Architecture · Monarchies · Mores · Humour
If you too fell for the gossip that Louis-Philippe was a nasty piece of work and a scoundrel, perhaps this charming lift, which he devised and installed at the Château de Fontainebleau in 1840 for his elderly sister, will make you think again. Then again, even scoundrels love their
Geography · Maps · Monarchies · Museums · Education · Paris
This colossal globe, 1.3 metres in diameter, was made by the renowned geographer Edme Mentelle in 1788 at the commission of Louis XVI for the education of the Dauphin. The outer sphere opens along the prime meridian, which at that time ran through the Canary Islands; on its reverse
Aristocracy · Art · Museums · Mores · People
The international campaign opens with a day of women in world culture. I propose that we recall Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's favourite sister, whose famous sculptural portrait is considered one of the masterpieces of Antonio Canova. The aristocrat Camillo Borghese commissioned the work as a wedding gift for his