Faith · Museums · Observations · Humour

A unique artefact, of course, and the most astonishing thing is that for its own time this mask of an eminent preacher of the Covenanter movement was a far more ordinary phenomenon than it is for us

A unique artefact, of course, and the most astonishing thing is that for its own time this mask of an eminent preacher of the Covenanter movement was a far more ordinary phenomenon than it is for us. Alexander Peden wore this mask not as some manifesto but, as historians write,

Faith · Museums · Society · People

Mask of preacher Alexander Peden made of hair, skin and teeth, and his opposition to Charles II

The mask of Alexander Peden, the seventeenth-century Scottish preacher, is made of human hair, animal skin and even human teeth! Today this wandering prophet would be called an oppositionist. He spoke out sharply against the Crown and every decision of Charles II, for which he was declared an outlaw

NB! · Archive · Science · Humour

It is hard to believe this invention did not become the most popular in history

It is hard to believe this invention did not become the most popular in history. A contrivance for descending from the upper floors without a staircase! GE-NI-AL!

Museums · Paris · People

The chair in which Molière played Argan on 17 February 1673 is kept at the Comédie-Française

On 17 February 1673, seated in this very chair, the dying Molière played the part of Argan, the "imaginary invalid" who is forever convinced that something ails him. In the play, Argan resolves to feign death in order to see how those around him will behave once he

Archive · Moscow · Observations · Mores

A week of balls in Moscow in January 1815, as described by Sofya Volkova

The Moscow winter seasons of 1814-15 were brighter and richer than the pre-war seasons of 1810-11. This is understandable: people were exhausted by the hardships of war, by ruin, universal gloom and interminable mourning, and when the time came, they returned to life with fresh and even

Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores · People

A Moscow grandee, poet and celebrated writer, Yury Alexandrovich Neledinsky-Meletsky, found a touching and ingenious way to calm the anxieties of his ailing wife over the fate of their only son Sergei, who served in the years of the Patriotic War…

Ekaterina Khovanskaya, like many mothers, suffered terribly when no news came from her son, especially during the main and bloodiest battles, which only aggravated her already extremely frail condition. The son was a noted carouser and simply forgot to write home, for which his father devised a stratagem: he asked

NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Art

The Stoibadeion: a phallus on a pedestal adorned with a relief of a cock with a penis for a head

The Stoibadeion, a phallus on a pedestal adorned with a relief of a cock with a penis for a head. One of two sculptures beside the sanctuary of Dionysus on the island of Delos. He was patron not only of parties but also of fertility, and was associated with phallic

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome

Cupid and Psyche, 4th century AD, Ostia Antica

Monarchies · Science · People

Scientists at Southern Methodist University in the United States link the difficulties Henry VIII's wives had in carrying children to the presence in the king's blood of a particular antigen, belonging to that group of peptides on red blood cells which, w

Scientists at Southern Methodist University in the United States link the difficulties Henry VIII's wives had in carrying children to the presence in the king's blood of a particular antigen, belonging to that group of peptides on red blood cells which, when present in a man&

London · Monarchies · Science · People

Heredity and syphilis as possible causes of the mental disorders of Henry VIII

Could Syphilis Have Been the Cause of Henry VIII's Foul Temper? By the age of fifty Henry VIII was almost immobile, though legends were still told of his former prowess and might. Standing 186 centimetres tall, by the end of his life the king weighed 180 kilograms and

NB! · The East · Art · Museums · Observations

Tutankhamun's child's chair, ebony, bronze, gold, ivory

Tutankhamun's child's chair, ebony, bronze, gold, ivory. The armrests are adorned with gold plates depicting antelopes and plants. How utterly charming

Moscow · Observations · Mores · Humour

The interior of Andropov's Moscow apartment and his well-known modesty

It is a matter of common knowledge that Andropov was a very modest man. Yet, looking at the interior of his Moscow flat, it is hard not to ask oneself: why not summon a decorator, from some theatre or other if need be, or any other artist, to help make

Alexandr Radayev