Name: Poblamiento del Continente Americano
ISBN: 978-9929-687-90-5

Archive · Art · Books · Mores · People

Wikipedia quotes a very vivid recollection of the People's Artist Isaak Brodsky by Korney Chukovsky, who met him in 1926 to talk about his teacher Ilya Repin: “…Ah, how sumptuously he lives — and how tediously! Already in the hall hang portraits and littl

Wikipedia quotes a very vivid recollection of the People's Artist Isaak Brodsky by Korney Chukovsky, who met him in 1926 to talk about his teacher Ilya Repin: “…Ah, how sumptuously he lives — and how tediously! Already in the hall hang portraits and little portraits of Lenin, fabricated by

Archive · Books · Mores · Society · People

There is a recollection by Vyacheslav Molotov of how, and how much, he was paid in the years of his political activity

There is a recollection by Vyacheslav Molotov of how, and how much, he was paid in the years of his political activity. The account was taken down in the 1970s, when Molotov was already past eighty, from his own words by the Soviet writer Feliks Chuev, and published in the

NB! · Books · Observations

Bubnovalyetovtsy or Bubnovalyetsy: how to name members of the Jack of Diamonds

If we go by usage in literary fiction, it is the Bubnovalletovtsy after all. From the standpoint of word formation, too, this is the better justified form

Art · Books · Nature

Black hellebore in a painting by Charles Cope titled after a line by Coleridge

This picture by the Victorian artist Charles Cope takes its title from a line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poetry, which might be rendered as "Hopes and fears that kindle hope". It is a fairly typical Victorian subject, a pining young woman, in which the details are

Aristocracy · Cinema · Books · Observations

I do not care for round-ups as a format, but this time Buro has put together an excellent list of 7 books of aristocratic character, from Julian Fellowes's "Snobs", the very same Fellowes who shamelessly cribbed details of the private life of the Earls of

I do not care for round-ups as a format, but this time Buro has put together an excellent list of 7 books of aristocratic character, from "Snobs" by Julian Fellowes, the very same Fellowes who shamelessly cribbed details of the private life of the Earls of Carnarvon

Page of a handwritten register with an illegible entry and the line John Russell, Monzie.

NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Humour

Illegible handwriting of a visitor to Innerpeffray Library in 1878

When some self-important reception-desk outfit presses too insistently for my passport details, I deliberately write in the same hand as this charming visitor to the Innerpeffray Library in 1878. Kindred spirits find one another even across the centuries

Art · Books · Observations

In Robertson Davies’s novel, an expert spots a fake Hubert van Eyck by its monkey

"In the novel What's Bred in the Bone by the celebrated Canadian writer Robertson Davies, there is a scene in which international experts meet in The Hague in the second half of the 1930s. Art-historian connoisseurs who have come from the USA, France, Belgium and Germany,

NB! · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Can it be that the Duchess of Cornwall photographs books for her blog against a box of Matchesfashion? I do the same when I don't want my house to be the backdrop

Books · Observations

Audiobook of “Parnassian Mockingbird” read by Igor Knyazev runs for nine hours

My year has begun with some very pleasant news, and I hope it will please you too. The Parnassian Mockingbird has come out as an audiobook, already available on all the specialist platforms, for example on Litres, Ozon, Google Play and LiveLib. Nine hours of captivating narration from one of

Books · Science · Ethnography

Birth with teeth in Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” and in European folklore

When you were born, the owl screamed, Foretelling ill times, the horned owl wept, Dogs howled, a hurricane tore down the trees, An ominous raven settled on the chimney, And a chorus of magpies chattered out of tune. And your mother, though she suffered more Than other mothers do, bore

Books · London · Monarchies · People · Pop Culture

Old Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has opened a book club on Instagram

Old Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has opened a book club on Instagram. The page already has more than 25,000 followers. The Reading Room of Her Royal Highness, consort of Prince Charles, will be a place for book recommendations to Camilla's taste, talk of literature, meetings with authors

The East · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The legend of Fath Ali Shah and the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

There is a legend that Fath Ali, Shah of Iran (1772-1834), having received in 1797 the 18-volume edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, read it from cover to cover and added to his royal title the words "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopaedia Britannica". It