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NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · People
One of the Handsomest Princes in Europe: Leopold, Scion of the Reigning Princes of Saxe-Coburg and an Officer of the Russian Army, Who Became King of the Belgians and Guardian of the Future Queen Victoria
Mores · Pop Culture · Society Pages
Timofey Andriyashenko proposed to Nicoletta Manni on the stage of the Arena di Verona
Timofei Andriyashenko and Nicoletta Manni are called the most beautiful couple in Italian ballet. He is a principal dancer of the La Scala ballet, she is a prima ballerina of La Scala. He proposed to her on the stage of the ancient Roman amphitheatre, the Arena di Verona, after a
Faith · Monarchies · Mores
Shaving in the Russian state before Peter I and the protests of Patriarchs Joachim and Adrian
Shortly before Peter I, that implacable foe of the beard, shaving was reckoned in the Russian state among the most pernicious of vices. The fashion for the razor was condemned by the clergy and restricted by the secular authorities. Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich forbade the shaving of beards outright, together with
NB! · Observations
Skeleton holding a scroll in an old engraving
Faith · Art · Books · Science · Nature
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Next! Comrades, let us not hold up the queue! Engraving by Jan Luyken from the frontispiece of Cornelis van Dyck's Osteology, 1680. A tortoise, a hedgehog, a rabbit, a dog, a horse and a camel are leaving the frame. It is no accident that the almost biblical scene
Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
A Lucky Day Is When You Find the Long-Lost Spine of Volume One Inside Volume Two
Once again I am persuaded that Luna Lovegood was right: what we lose will surely come back to us, though not always in the way we expect
Archive · Monarchies · Moscow · Society
Isaac Massa on the state of Muscovy in his 1614 letter to the States General
“I know of no state at present that stands in greater danger. ... All will go well only when the Tsar sits in blood up to his elbows.” The Dutch merchant Isaac Massa on the state of the Muscovite realm, in a letter to the States General written from Moscow in
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Faith · Art · Books
July in the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry, 15th century
NB! · Art
Giorgio de Chirico painted “Melancholy and Mystery of a Street” in 1914
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street. Giorgio de Chirico, 1914
NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture
It turns out that Camilla Parker Bowles has long been friends with Judi Dench, for many years, so they say
It turns out that Camilla Parker Bowles has long been friends with Judi Dench, for many years, so they say. But now that she has become queen, it is of course all the more striking. And so Dame Judi Dench's coolest friend is, after all, no longer Maggie
NB! · London · Monarchies · People