NB!
Latest
NB! · Archive · Art · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
A photograph from the Russian Museum archive: this is how large canvases were prepared for conservation and transport, rolled onto perfectly smooth plywood drums, interleaved with thick paper, with the edges of the canvases stitched together
Archive · Art · Museums · Humour
Repin centenary exhibition in Perm in 1944 from the evacuated works of the Russian Museum
The centenary of Ilya Repin's birth in 1944 was marked by a large exhibition at the Perm Regional Museum, assembled from the holdings of the Russian Museum, evacuated to the city in 1941. In all, some 200 works by Repin found themselves in evacuation: watercolours, paintings, drawings. The
The East · Mores · Humour
What Is It Like to Be a Victorian in 1898?
Rather tiring, as one must wear formal clothing in sombre shades at all times and drink champagne wistfully in ancient Egyptian temples
NB! · Aristocracy · Madrid · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
The Duke of Alba's Dinner in Honour of the Birth of the Prince of Asturias, 1707
The Duke of Alba's dinner in honour of the birth of the Prince of Asturias, 1707. I noticed an amusing detail: there is not a single glass on the table. Why? If any of the guests should deign to drink, the servants will bring him one at once
Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores
The Military Governor of Moscow, Yury Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, was a great friend of the eminent grandee Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin, formerly Military Governor of Smolensk and known above all for his lavish receptions at his house on…
According to the account of Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, Apraksin and Dolgorukov had made a rather peculiar compact: whichever of them died first was to give a sign to the other, who remained among the living, and to appear to him three times before his death, to announce that the hour
NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Science · Paris
Charles V installed the first city clock of Paris on a palace tower in 1370
The first public clock of Paris was installed at the will of Charles V in 1370. The clock tower was not merely a palace fortification: the clock the king set up showed that the control of time lay in his hands.
Archaeology · Art · Museums
Fragments of the marble copy of Lysippos's Granicus battle group commissioned by Lucullus
In the 1st century BC the Roman general Lucullus commissioned a marble copy of the bronze group by the celebrated sculptor Lysippos, which commemorated Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus. Of the marble statues there survive a couple of torsos, a
NB! · Archive · Books · Society · People
Stinking Democrats, Cunning Communists, Screeching Liberals, Idiots, Suicides and Thieves
Stinking Democrats, cunning Communists, screeching liberals, idiots, suicides and thieves. Inna Lisnyanskaya on the events of October 1993, in a letter to her daughter
Archaeology · The East · Monarchies · Museums · Science · Paris · Humour
In 1976 Egypt issued a passport to the mummy of Ramesses II for examination in Paris
In September 1976 Egypt issued a passport for the Pharaoh Ramesses II. The document certified that Ramesses II was indeed the Pharaoh of Egypt and had been born in 1303 BC. Egyptian scientists had noticed that the pharaoh's body had begun to decay rapidly, possibly owing to the
NB! · Faith · Art · Museums
Four-headed sculpture of the Virgin and Child from Provence, 14th century, in the Musée Pierre de Luxembourg
Virgin and Child: an enigmatic sculpture with four heads. Provence, second half of the 14th century. Musée Pierre de Luxembourg. It may have been set in a portal and divided down the middle by a screen
Aristocracy · Books · Mores
Princess Shcherbatskaya advised Levin's old nurse Agafya Mikhailovna on how to make jam properly, without adding water
Princess Shcherbatskaya advised Levin's old nurse Agafya Mikhailovna on how to make jam properly, without adding water. At the end, once the jam had been poured into jars, the princess's recipe prescribed covering it with a paper soaked in rum. "Do it my way, please,