Archive · People
Yuri Gagarin signing autographs at an evening reception in Stockholm Town Hall, 1964
Photo by Valentin Cheredintsev
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· 1930 stories
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Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores
Yakov Ulfeld describes Ivan the Terrible and his play with the orb at an embassy reception
Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure. Ivan the Terrible he characterises as an arrogant, swaggering, vain and abrupt man, surrounded by dull-witted boyars and streltsy. The prince, moreover, was wholly inattentive and simply did not listen as the embassy's letters and addresses
NB! · Archive · Art · Books
The Wheel of Fortune in a 15th-century edition of Boccaccio's “Lives of Famous Men and Women”
The Wheel of Fortune in a 15th-century edition of Giovanni Boccaccio's "On the Fates of Illustrious Men and Women" is shown as a carousel, with a king seated at the very top while courtiers go flying off the rickety side seats
![This book was picked up in the street during the ruin of Moscow by Napoleon in 1812, and presented by Ivan Kulikov - [father of Orlova, the famous actress]](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_16875@13-06-2025_18-48-17.jpg)
Archive · Books · Moscow · Museums
This book was picked up in the street during the ruin of Moscow by Napoleon in 1812, and presented by Ivan Kulikov - [father of Orlova, the famous actress]
Nikolai [Rogozhin] From the exhibition in the Rare Books Department of the Historical Library
Archive · Books · Moscow · Museums
The Hexameron Compiled by John the Exarch of Bulgaria, Pierced by a Bullet in the Library of the Historical Museum during the Revolutionary Fighting of October 1917
“The bullet exited through the lower board of the binding and lodged in the book. The bullet was removed and carried off by the piece-rate dusters in 1938.” Held in the Historical Library; the book can currently be seen at the exhibition in the Department of Rare Books
Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums
The Museum of the Defence of Moscow holds a Group Portrait of the Descendants of A.S. Pushkin Who Took Part in the Great Patriotic War, 1957, by the artist Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Vladimir Pereyaslavets
The Museum of the Defence of Moscow holds a Group Portrait of the Descendants of A.S. Pushkin Who Took Part in the Great Patriotic War, 1957, by the artist Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Vladimir Pereyaslavets. The portrait does not gather all of Pushkin's descendants who served in the
Archive · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour
When you feel like a happy walrus
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, 1962
NB! · Archive · London · Monarchies
The Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953, 72 Years Ago
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Paris · People
Marie Antoinette on her ceremonial entry into Paris, in a letter to her mother of 14 June 1770
My dear mama, on Tuesday there was a festival I shall never forget. We made our solemn entry into Paris. As for honours, we received all the honours that can be imagined, but it was not these that touched me most. What truly impressed me were the poor, who expressed
NB! · Archive · Science · People
Einstein outside a hut near Cromer in Norfolk, England, where Oliver Locker-Lampson gave him refuge from the Nazis in 1933
Archive · Books · Heritage · Rome
Library digitises over 18,000 of its 82,000 manuscripts, available on DigiVatLib
The Vatican Apostolic Library Embarks on a Large-Scale Project to Restore and Digitise More Than 80,000 Ancient Manuscripts. The library's collection comprises more than 82,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books, among them more than 8,000 incunabula, books printed before 1501. Its holdings
NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · People