Friday, 6 November 2026

Alexandr Radayev

Archaeology · Observations · Science

There are two views on the origin of syphilis: that Columbus's sailors brought it from the New World, and that Europeans had known the disease since ancient times

Each version has its evidence: the first epidemic of syphilis did indeed break out after the American expedition, yet diseases resembling syphilis are described by Cornelius Celsus, Claudius Galen and Avicenna, and besides there have been finds of afflicted Neolithic bones. Be that as it may, similar diseases were treated

By Alexandr Radayev
I look at this little commode from the Château de Chambord and cannot see how such exhibits square with the myth that at Versailles, for instance, courtiers relieved themselves behind curtains in the corridors

NB! · Museums · Observations · Mores · Humour

I look at this little commode from the Château de Chambord and cannot see how such exhibits square with the myth that at Versailles, for instance, courtiers relieved themselves behind curtains in the corridors

I look at this little commode from the Château de Chambord and cannot see how such exhibits square with the myth that at Versailles, for instance, courtiers relieved themselves behind curtains in the corridors. The eternal story of the lift versus the lavatory

By Alexandr Radayev

Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

A representative delegation arrived from Russia for the wedding of Princess Victoria and Prince Ernst, headed by the Tsarevich Nicholas, with his uncles Paul, Sergei and Vladimir and their Grand Duchesses, the royal family's confessor Father John and even

A representative delegation arrived from Russia for the wedding of Princess Victoria and Prince Ernst, headed by the Tsarevich Nicholas, with his uncles Paul, Sergei and Vladimir and their Grand Duchesses, the royal family's confessor Father John and even a domestic teacher of Russian. Why all this? Most

By Alexandr Radayev
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