NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

Wanted to share a French comic with Azor the dog

Wanted to share a French comic with Azor the dog. How this name, taken from Fet's palindrome, came to spread all over the world is a mystery to me, but it really is known in many countries

A transparent Roman glass cup with green openwork netting below and dark letters of an inscription around the rim.

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Observations · Rome

Roman glass cup with openwork netting and an inscription on the rim

A fine Roman tumbler. I would not say no to a whole service of them

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour

Wikipedia reports that a Moscow law of 1997

Wikipedia reports that a Moscow law of 1997 (in force until 2002) prohibited the distribution and display of images of fasces as Nazi symbolism. But on the coat of arms of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, the fasces look rather well

NB! · Books · Observations · Society

What do a seventeenth-century illustration from a book on executions and the emblem of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service have in common?

What do a seventeenth-century illustration from a book on executions and the emblem of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service have in common? The depiction of fasces: since antiquity, bundles of rods with an axe or hatchet have been a symbol of authority, including the power to execute and

Observations · Science · Education · Humour

Most people see only a colourless spot through a microscope, as in the school laboratory

You cannot simply glance into a microscope and cry "Eureka!" Most people will see nothing there but a colourless smudge. Recall how you gazed in vain at onion vacuoles in the school laboratory, slyly reporting that of course you had seen everything

NB! · Observations · Science

Expressions in the spirit of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" have a right to exist in science too: to make out anything meaningful even through a modern microscope, a certain "inner" preparation is required

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

The allegory is that the mind can see what is hidden

The allegory is that the mind can see what is hidden. But why does the devil have his face between his legs?

Monarchies · Mores · People

How Many Horses Served Napoleon in His Lifetime and on Campaign

It has been calculated that over his whole life Napoleon was served by some six thousand horses, including those harnessed to the carriages that accompanied him and those ridden by his retinue. Every day he had at his disposal more than a hundred horses, divided into ten brigades, and on

NB! · Art · People · Nature

In Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait, Napoleon astride Marengo at the Great St Bernard Pass

In Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait, Napoleon astride Marengo at the Great St Bernard Pass. The horse would outlive his master by 10 years

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · People · Nature

The horse Marengo, on which Napoleon fought at Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram

The horse Marengo, on which Napoleon fought at Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram. Napoleon fled Waterloo, leaving behind Marengo, wounded in the leg; the horse was seized and carried off to England as a trophy

NB! · Faith · Art

The Majolica Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden on the Floor of the Church of San Michele on Capri

NB! · Archive · Faith · Art

Scene of the burning of the martyr Eustace and his family in the belly of a brazen bull at the will of the Emperor Hadrian, from a thirteenth-century French manuscript of legends of the saints

Alexandr Radayev