Faith · Heritage · Rome

Statue of the Infant Jesus from Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome, stolen in 1984

One of the shrines of Rome is the miraculous statue of the Infant Jesus in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, which tradition holds to have been carved 600 years ago from the trunk of an olive tree from the Garden of Gethsemane, and which was said to be

Sepia photograph of an infant figure wearing a crown with a cross, swaddled in cloth covered with jewels, standing on a cushion before a draped backdrop.

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Santo Bambino of Aracoeli: figure of the Christ Child in crown and jewels

A crowned figure in blue and gold robes stands under an arch inscribed Ecclesia, with a group of people under a smaller arch on each side.

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

Ecclesia with the clergy and the laity in a miniature beneath the image of Mother Nature

Right beneath the image of Mother Nature is Mother Church, Ecclesia, with the clergy on her right hand and the laity on her left. What more is there to say? Mother Nature and Mother Church are always side by side.

Archive · Faith · Art

Image of the goddess Tellus Mater in an 11th-century scroll of Easter chants

An eleventh-century scroll of Easter chants contains an image of the ancient Italic earth goddess Tellus Mater. In the Exultet manuscript she appears as Mother Nature, suckling a calf and a serpent at her breasts. The goddess was regarded not only as the creator of all that exists but

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A Drawing from an Eleventh-Century Scroll Containing the Paschal Chant Exultet iam angelica turba coelorum

Archive · Science · Society · People

A paradoxical and terrible story of how, during the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile at Baikonur, between 78 and 126 people died, among them the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Rocket Forces, Chief Marshal…

Nedelin is known for his keen interest in technology and rockets, and for often attending launches and tests in person: he flew out to watch the explosions of hydrogen and atomic bombs and visited the landing sites of spacecraft. News of his death was released almost at once, but with

NB! · The East · Books · Humour

Lenin Sounds Proud in Arabic

NB! · Observations

An Idea for a Start-Up

NB! · Cinema · People

This Monster: Jean Marais in 1946

A deep rectangular stone-lined pool among the ruins of an ancient city, with shrub branches hanging over it.

NB! · Archaeology · Observations

Ancient fish fermentation pools and the export of fish sauce from Chersonesos

Many ancient port cities have rows of such deep basins. They were used to produce a paste of fermented fish. From here, from Chersonesos, fish sauce was shipped to many countries

Archive · Museums · Heritage · Society

Looting of Yasnaya Polyana in 1941 and the rescue of Tolstoy's house from arson

During the Great Patriotic War, Yasnaya Polyana Was Occupied by the Nazis for a Month and a Half. Tolstoy's house was turned into barracks and storerooms; a cobbler's workshop was installed in it, and in the "room under the vaults", where War and Peace

NB! · Art · Observations

Alexandr Radayev