Museums · Mores · Ethnography
The woollen caps of Dutch whalers of the 17th and 18th centuries look much alike, yet each has a colourway all its own. An original pattern was a practical necessity for identifying the sailors. Otherwise men wrapped up entirely against the cold simply could not be told apart. The Rijksmuseum
Mores · Society · People
On 24 February 1655 Cromwell banned horse racing for six months. This is generally put down to the Puritan course of the Lord Protector's government as a whole, though he himself feared that royalist agents were using race meetings as cover for their assemblies. But the ban remained
Art · London · Moscow · Observations · Saint Petersburg
A whole cartload of letters about the Moon in various public places arrived over the weekend. Here, for instance, is a colossal Moon at the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Gorky Park in Moscow. In Milan it was a public swimming pool. The seven-metre sphere also shone in
NB! · Observations · Saint Petersburg · Humour
But shocking models of the Moon can be found not only in Rochester Cathedral. Here a subscriber has sent a photograph of the Moon taken some years ago on the Obvodny Canal, when the new Planetarium was being opened in Saint Petersburg and the luminary was floated down the river.
NB!
Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations
These are not stills from a science-fiction film or a dystopia. Rochester Cathedral is simply inviting visitors to the Museum of the Moon beneath its vaults. The art project of the British artist Luke Jerram, who travels the world with a giant inflatable model of the moon, its surface
Faith · Art · Observations · Humour
My favourite pig in the history of world culture, apart from Babe the piglet, of course, is the charming porker of Anthony of Egypt in a late seventeenth-century sculpture in Segovia Cathedral. Just look at this sweet pig with the little spot on its snout! ❤️🐽 Saint Anthony has been
Art · Observations · Society Pages
At a lecture by the publisher Natalia Semenova at Club 418 I learnt that Vermeer's "Allegory of Faith" was bought as a painting of dubious attribution, or at any rate with a forged signature on it. It found its way into the collection of Dmitry Ivanovich
NB! · Observations · Mores · Pop Culture
I see no scandal whatsoever in coloured socks on men, whoever the wearer may be. Bush Senior, for one, constantly sported cheerful little socks, and was particularly fond of pink ones.
NB! · Faith · Pop Culture · Humour
Faith · Pop Culture · Rome · Humour
On Friday a bishop in mischievous socks bearing the image of a kissing, waving Pope was spotted at Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica. The Catholic community is seething like holy water in films about exorcism: the jaunty bishop, whose name remains a mystery to many, is called an
Faith · Museums · Science · Rome
The Mother of All Churches, the Lateran Basilica in Rome, where the Pope celebrates Mass and sits enthroned, keeps a veritable collection of Christian relics. In a small museum, tucked away between the chapels, lies this fragment of the tunic of Saint Francis of Assisi, which is tied to one