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A Bookmark in an Eighteenth-Century Suetonius, Salisbury Cathedral Library
A bookmark in an eighteenth-century Suetonius, Salisbury Cathedral Library. You get the idea.
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· 1794 stories
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Books · Observations · Mores · Society
Charles Dickens on Entertainment and Newspapers in “American Notes” of 1843
Is there no amusement here? Why, yes. Over the way, there is the lecture-room, from which shafts of light pour out, and then, three times a week or more, there are evening services for the ladies. For the young gentlemen there are the counting-house, the store and the
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
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,
NB! · Architecture · Art · Books · Heritage
The archivolt of the north portal of Modena Cathedral may contain the earliest depiction of a scene from the life of King Arthur, dating to 1120–1130
Books · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage · Paris
In one of the tales in Alexandre Dumas's "A Thousand and One Ghosts" we meet a certain Monsieur Ledru, keeper of an entire collection of royal relics, which he acquired by attending the despoiling of the burial vaults in the Basilica of Saint-Denis and ta
In one of the tales in Alexandre Dumas's "A Thousand and One Ghosts" we meet a certain Monsieur Ledru, keeper of an entire collection of royal relics, which he acquired by attending the despoiling of the burial vaults in the Basilica of Saint-Denis and taking
Archive · Books · Mores · People
Turgenev described the life of Louise Héritte, eldest daughter of Pauline Viardot
Turgenev described in some detail the madness of Pauline Viardot's eldest daughter Louise Héritte, who, instead of marrying the Frenchman with whom she was involved, married, against all persuasion, a certain Héritte and very soon came to hate him. Allegedly for his narrowness of mind. She bore a
Books · Monarchies · Mores · Humour
Small stature of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry and the myth of a slender beauty on the throne
Alexei Tolstoy has lines about the pretender (False Dmitry) climbing onto the throne with his bride (Marina Mniszech) and dangling his legs beside her. The first crowned Russian tsarina, Marina Mniszech, and her husband were indeed of very slight stature. And while of Tsar Dmitry it was merely said "
Books · Observations · Science
Mechnikov in “Essays on Optimism” on Europeans having a long old age, not a long life
Academician Mechnikov wrote in "The Nature of Man" that Europeans do not have long lives, only long old ages. When you are no longer fit for anything, but are somehow still alive
Books · Observations · Humour
Taras Bulba's weight of 20 puds and his horse named Chyort
Taras Bulba weighed 20 poods, or about 326 kilograms. What is one to do with such a weight? How is one to manage? Probably only die. But Taras Bulba still contrived to ride on horseback. Then again, if one remembers that his horse was called Chort (Devil), everything falls into
Books · Observations · Mores · Humour
A cloak, a britzka and a girl in Gogol's works and the thousandfold fall in the rouble's value
To feel the real fall of the rouble that everyone talks about, it is enough to imagine it a thousand times cheaper than in Gogol's day. A good lady's cloak cost 80 roubles ("Nevsky Prospekt"), a good britzka 4,000 roubles ("The Carriage&
Books · Monarchies · Observations · Science · Humour
James IV's experiment with two infants on a desert island in Walter Scott's “History of Scotland”
Walter Scott, in his "History of Scotland", describes an experiment of James IV, who sent two infants to an uninhabited island with a deaf-mute nurse, to find out which language is innate to man, and whether there is one at all. Besides the settlers, the island was