Faith · Observations · Rome

Jubilee Year 2025, indulgence conditions and the Roman pilgrimage tradition since 1300

Pope Francis has proclaimed 2025 a Jubilee Year. For Catholics, the notion of a Jubilee Year is tied to the opportunity of obtaining a plenary indulgence, for oneself or for the departed, by making a pilgrimage in that year. That is to say, for visiting certain churches one is granted

Archive · Books · Monarchies

A Rather Flowery Dedication to Empress Anna Ioannovna in the "Life and Deeds of Marcus Aurelius", Printed by the Academy of Sciences in 1740:

"To the gloriously warring heroine of all Russia, who makes triumphant peace, the most serene, most autocratic, great sovereign lady of ours, Empress Anna Ioannovna, Autocrat of All the Russias, most gracious sovereign lady, this most submissive offering"

Archive · The East · Science · Nature

Bulgarian pepper in Russia since the 16th century and theories behind its name

Bell peppers have been known in Russia since at least the 16th century: the crop reached us from Turkey and Iran. According to one version, the name, which in Russian means "Bulgarian pepper", comes from the fact that the peppers were brought by Bulgarian settlers; according to another,

Archaeology · Archive · Science · Education · People

Newton's alchemical laboratory in his Cambridge years stood in the garden of Trinity College, between the chapel and the college gate; its exact location is unknown, but the approximate site was established by excavations, in which were found…

Newton's alchemical laboratory in his Cambridge years stood in the garden of Trinity College, between the chapel and the college gate. Its exact location is unknown, but the approximate site was established by excavations, in which waste from chemical experiments was found. It is known that Newton devoted

Blurred black-and-white night photograph of a woman in dark clothing standing barefoot on grass and aiming a bow.

Archive · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

An actress on the set of “The Mongols” in 1960 shot a bow like a professional

Actress Anita Ekberg fires a bow at intrusive paparazzi after they refused to leave her in peace. 1960: the actress was filming "The Mongols", and the bow and arrows were her props. She was a professional markswoman.

Two-storey cottage with a thatched roof and a timber pergola behind a trimmed hedge and a slatted wooden gate, with dense trees in the background.

NB!

Thatched cottage behind a green hedge with a wooden gate

Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Paris

In 1782 Marie Antoinette commissioned a hamlet at Versailles inspired by Rousseau

Inspired by Rousseau's idyllic descriptions of country life, in 1782 Marie Antoinette asked for a little hamlet to be laid out for her right within the grounds of Versailles. In the course of a single winter an entire village of peasant cottages and farms was raised for the

Colour photograph of a girl in a pink dress walking on a path by a building with wooden galleries, a man and a woman talking nearby.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

A girl in court dress at Marie Antoinette's Hamlet in Versailles in 1966

Look at this delightful little girl in court dress in Marie Antoinette's hamlet at Versailles in 1966. From the photograph it is impossible to tell whether the gown is of the English or the French type, but be that as it may, what a touching gesture of reverence!

NB! · Archive · Faith · The East

The Promised Land, photographs from the early twentieth century

Books · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The Duke of Cambridge after the Battle of the Alma and Nicholas I's death in a children's book

Even as a child, reading this book, I was struck that after the Battle of the Alma the Duke of Cambridge says: "Another such victory, and England will have no army", and on the very next page the death of Nicholas I is reported. True, five and a

An open book with scorched dark patches on the endpaper and the facing page.

NB! · Books · Society · Humour

Microwaving library books against coronavirus risks igniting their labels

Please do not put library books in the microwave to kill coronavirus. The labels may catch fire. Amen

Archive · Books

Zhukovsky should be ashamed of himself; how am I worse than Princess Charlotte, that he should not write me a line in three years

Zhukovsky should be ashamed of himself; how am I worse than Princess Charlotte, that he should not write me a line in three years. Is it true that he is translating the Giaour? And I, at my leisure, am writing a new poem, Yevgeny Onegin, in which I am choking

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