NB! · Geography · Art · Books · Nature

And here is a touching drawing of a bird discovered by that same scandalous seafarer William Dampier, from his 1703 book on the voyage to the shores of New Holland

Books · Observations · People

A version holds that William Dampier, not Stradling, marooned Selkirk

What, in fact, were these two stories told for. There was once a captain who made three voyages round the world, the author of several books, a pirate and simply an entertaining scoundrel, William Dampier. King William III received him into the academy, and then Dampier was tried for cruelty

Interviews · Books · People

Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and the disputed question of the author’s acquaintance with Selkirk

It is said that Defoe did not find a publisher for his sea novel at once. By the time he came to write "Robinson...", the sixty-year-old De Foe, as he styled himself, was already a well-known journalist and writer in England. And, as John Winterich

Books · London · Mores

William Taylor, publisher of “Robinson Crusoe”, left his widow a fortune in 1724

William Taylor Was the Owner of a Shop in Paternoster Row with the Promising Name "The Ship" By the end of his life the successful businessman had managed to put by between 40 and 50 thousand pounds. By the standards of the eighteenth century that is an enormous

NB! · Archive · Books · Humour

Medieval Bestiaries Have Answered the Question of How to Receive Many Gifts on 8 March

White sculpted bust of a child with short fringe hair, wearing draped clothing, on a round base.

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Humour

Bust of a Roman child with worn paint on the eyes and a comparison to Minister Oreshkin

The Roman child looks like Minister Oreshkin. Pay no attention to the alarming eyes, the paint has simply worn away

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

I am very fond of beautiful tableware, but I still do not know what considerations ought to guide one in placing a Medici garden vase in the kitchen, even if it is eighteenth-century and by Philippe Mombert

NB! · Humour

Servants Can Be So Inept

NB! · Observations · Humour

Not Quite Sure: Is That a Fish She's Holding?

Ancient fresco of two nude figures on a couch beneath a drapery, set in a black border.

NB! · Archaeology

Erotic fresco from Pompeii created in the 1st century AD

Pompeii, 1st century AD. Apparatus

NB! · Archaeology · Observations

How Little We Know About Pompeii

NB! · Faith · Observations

To mark the first day of spring, I shall launch a regular Wednesday feature on little-known saints

To mark the first day of spring, I shall launch a regular Wednesday feature on little-known saints. The medieval calendar reminds us of the days of veneration in March: the 1st, for example, belongs to Saint Albinus

Alexandr Radayev