Archive · Books · Heritage

The European Library project frozen in 2016, newspapers remain on Europeana Newspapers

On 31 December 2016 The European Library project, launched in 2004 at a conference of directors of national libraries, was frozen. The project's website published open materials from the libraries of CENL. The TEL portal has been frozen, yet a collection of 12 million digitised newspaper pages in

NB! · Science · Paris · People

And this is for you, in honour of the 270th anniversary of the birth of Louis-Abraham Breguet, who for many years worked in his stepfather's watchmaking workshop entirely for free: the man knew that in the end the boy would get his due

A fountain shaped like a sailing ship, its masts and rigging covered in ice and icicles, in front of a building and a brick wall.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Rome

The Galleon Fountain at the Casina of Pius IV in the Vatican is covered in ice

The frozen Galleon Fountain in the courtyard of the Casina of Pius IV in the Vatican usually fires water, "extinguishing the fire of war", in the phrase of Pope Urban VIII. But these days the galleon is sheathed in a crust of ice, which is more allegorical still

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

Of the Chapultepec aqueduct, which ran from Montezuma's residence to Tenochtitlan (3 km) and supplied the whole city with water, only 14 arches remain today

Of the Chapultepec aqueduct, which ran from Montezuma's residence to Tenochtitlan (3 km) and supplied the whole city with water, only 14 arches remain today. The Spaniards' seizure of the aqueduct proved decisive in the capture of the Aztec capital

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · People

The Last Artefact of the Day: An Authentic Manuscript of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, Brother of Louis XIII, Who Lived and Died in Blois

Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

There is much to tell about this château; it really is an interesting and very rich one

There is much to tell about this château; it really is an interesting and very rich one. During the reign of Louis XII, the palace-château of Blois was in effect the capital of France. But in the centuries that followed, a good deal of interest happened here too. Blois

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Everywhere at Blois are carved the crowned porcupine and the two royal monograms, of Louis and Anne

Everywhere at Blois are carved the crowned porcupine and the two royal monograms, of Louis and Anne. The porcupine is the emblem of the House of Orléans and the personal symbol of King Louis. The motto of the house: Cominus et eminus, At a distance and at close quarters

Façade of the Château de Blois with an equestrian statue of Louis XII in a Gothic niche above the entrance arch, walls of brick and stone.

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Château de Blois, residence of Louis XII and Francis I, where Anne of Brittany died

Built in the fifteenth century, the Château de Blois, ancestral seat of the Dukes of Orléans, was the residence of Louis XII and later of his son-in-law Francis I. Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, died here

NB! · Coming Up · Archaeology · Science · Education

Applications and abstracts for the 4th Youth School of Geoarchaeology, organised by the Institute of Mineralogy of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are accepted until 20 February

Applications and abstracts for the 4th Youth School of Geoarchaeology, organised by the Institute of Mineralogy of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are accepted until 20 February. The website, however, seems to have trouble with its encoding: https://clck.ru/AT6Mx

Archive · Faith · Museums · Heritage

After the Restoration the reliquary returned to Nantes, where it received little attention and was lost from view for many years, surfacing only in 1824, when it turned up in the hands of the porter of the town hall

After the Restoration the reliquary returned to Nantes, where it received little attention and was lost from view for many years, surfacing only in 1824, when it turned up in the hands of the porter of the town hall. Decades later, after long wanderings through museums and collections of jewels,

NB! · Faith · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage · Paris

The fate of the golden casket holding the heart of Anne of Brittany was a sorry one: after its desecration by vandals, the reliquary was sent to the melting pot

The fate of the golden casket holding the heart of Anne of Brittany was a sorry one: after its desecration by vandals, the reliquary was sent to the melting pot. By a miracle it ended up not as scrap gold but in the National Library in Paris

Aristocracy · Faith · Monarchies · Heritage · People

The heart of Anne of Brittany in its reliquary and its fate during the Revolution

Besides her political testament, Anne of Brittany left a worldly one: the Duchess asked that her heart be carried home to her native land and buried where her parents lay. The heart was placed in a golden reliquary measuring 15*12 cm, crowned with a coronet of clover leaves and

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