London · Monarchies · People
In 1554 Mary the Bloody sent the twenty-year-old Princess Elizabeth to the Tower on a charge of crimes against the queen. The prisoner's fate was long in the balance, and the partisans of Charles V insisted on an execution. Fortunately, Mary decided otherwise. Two months later
Books · Observations · Humour
It has become clear. It was a misapprehension. Azor is the name of the monster in André Grétry's comic opera "Zémire et Azor", which predates our own tale of "Beauty and the Beast". I might have known so simple a thing. Azor is an
NB! · Books · Observations · Humour
Wanted to share a French comic with Azor the dog. How this name, taken from Fet's palindrome, came to spread all over the world is a mystery to me, but it really is known in many countries
NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Observations · Rome
A fine Roman tumbler. I would not say no to a whole service of them
NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour
Wikipedia reports that a Moscow law of 1997 (in force until 2002) prohibited the distribution and display of images of fasces as Nazi symbolism. But on the coat of arms of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, the fasces look rather well
NB! · Books · Observations · Society
What do a seventeenth-century illustration from a book on executions and the emblem of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service have in common? The depiction of fasces: since antiquity, bundles of rods with an axe or hatchet have been a symbol of authority, including the power to execute and
Observations · Science · Education · Humour
You cannot simply glance into a microscope and cry "Eureka!" Most people will see nothing there but a colourless smudge. Recall how you gazed in vain at onion vacuoles in the school laboratory, slyly reporting that of course you had seen everything
NB! · Observations · Science
NB! · Art · Observations · Humour
The allegory is that the mind can see what is hidden. But why does the devil have his face between his legs?
Monarchies · Mores · People
It has been calculated that over his whole life Napoleon was served by some six thousand horses, including those harnessed to the carriages that accompanied him and those ridden by his retinue. Every day he had at his disposal more than a hundred horses, divided into ten brigades, and on
NB! · Art · People · Nature
In Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait, Napoleon astride Marengo at the Great St Bernard Pass. The horse would outlive his master by 10 years
NB! · Monarchies · Museums · People · Nature
The horse Marengo, on which Napoleon fought at Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram. Napoleon fled Waterloo, leaving behind Marengo, wounded in the leg; the horse was seized and carried off to England as a trophy