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Cinema · Monarchies · Humour
Emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus?
Emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus? I hardly recognise you under the make-up Surprises of Ridley Scott's "Gladiator II"
Architecture · Faith · Heritage
Fire on scaffolding around spire of Rouen Cathedral extinguished
Firefighters have finished extinguishing the blaze at Rouen Cathedral. Repairs had been under way at the cathedral for the past several years, and its 151-metre spire was surrounded by scaffolding, where the fire broke out. Rouen Cathedral has burned more than once in its long history: in 841 a
Faith · Art · Books
The structure of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in Dante and the placement of souls by circle
Some Sample Schemes of the Layout of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise according to the Text of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" Hell: 9 circles. Purgatory: 6 circles and 3 circles of Ante-Purgatory. Paradise: 9 levels. In Hell there is pitch darkness, in Limbo, half-light. In
Art · Cinema · People · Rome
William Klein, Simone + Nina, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, 1960
William Klein's photograph "Simone + Nina, Piazza di Spagna, Rome", taken in 1960, is one of the finest examples of the innovative style of the American photographer William Klein. Klein was drawn to street photography and sought to take fashion photography out of the studio. Here he
Geography · Observations · Mores · Society · Nature
Lobster in America went from food of the poor to a popular product thanks to the railways
Originally, lobsters in America were a very cheap and plentiful food, so much so that they were associated with poverty. They were used as animal feed, and workers campaigned for a limit on the amount of lobster in their weekly rations. The product owed its popularity to the arrival of
Faith · People · Rome
Pope Leo XIII wrote a prayer to Saint Michael after a vision in 1884
In 1884, at the close of Mass, Pope Leo XIII froze for several moments, his gaze fixed on something. Emerging from this unusual state, the pontiff hastily left the church. Half an hour later he summoned the secretary of the congregation and handed him a freshly written text of a
NB! · Archive · In the Press · Society · Paris
Kladderadatsch cartoon of 1932 depicting what France would look like in 100 years
An illustration from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1932, foreseeing the image of France a hundred years on: "The last white Frenchmen, the chief attraction of the Paris Zoo". Eight years remain until 2032
Archive · Faith · Geography · Maps · Books
Excerpt from Yelena Shvarts's poem about the nun Lavinia and the abbess's lessons
The Abbess set me a task – To make her map of Paradise more precise. I told her – I am no Swedenborg. She said to me: be humbler and more meek. All night I toiled in vain and wilted, Until my Angel-Wolf flew in, He took pencils, paper, compasses And
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Monarchies · People
A reminder of what Cleopatra looked like, the last ruler of Ancient Egypt, a member of the Greco-Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty
Art · London · People
“I prefer to live in colour”
David Hockney turns 87!
Books · People
Nikolai Berdyaev on his rejection of family ties and kinship in the book “Self-Knowledge”
"I have never had any feeling of descent from a father and mother, I have never felt that I was born of parents. A dislike of everything ancestral is a characteristic trait of mine. I do not love the family and family life, and I am struck by the