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

An open medieval book of hours with Latin text and ornamented blue and red initials, set against a dark blue background.

NB! · Archive · Faith · Books · Monarchies · Humour

Personal Book of Hours of Richard III, 15th Century, with His Own Notes

The personal Book of Hours of Richard III, with annotations and entries made in his own hand. Fifteenth century: no gentleman of breeding can imagine himself without a book, even if it be a devotional one. Well, this attachment is no worse than an iPhone

Archive · Books · Museums · Observations

I read this card with such delight!

I read this card with such delight! And afterwards I pestered a member of the museum staff, quizzing him about the details of the dinner depicted, about which room Napoleon-Jérôme (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and darling of the whole family) had stayed in, and whether any of his personal

NB! · Art · Books · Humour

Love is tending a beautiful unicorn and dressing him in a caparison of royal colours

Love is tending a beautiful unicorn and dressing him in a caparison of royal colours. At any rate, the Book of Hours of Engelbert of Nassau of 1470 says nothing of relations with a monkey

Books · Science · Society

The myth of Orestes and the Erinyes as a sign of declining blood feud and a stronger state

The myth of Orestes, Electra and Clytemnestra is regarded as an illustration of the weakening of the custom of blood vengeance. Responsibility for it lay with the goddesses known as the Erinyes, who unfailingly overtook anyone who had killed a blood relation. Hence the goddesses of vengeance, for example, did

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

The book deserves attention if only because its heroine, Madame de Maran, née Henriette Marie Françoise Edmée, with all due respect, bears a striking resemblance to Sergei Semyonovich

A gilded figure of a winged putto holding a lyre, wrapped in a transparent plastic bag.

NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Humour

Requests for loans in letters to Tolstoy and in messages to the author of the post

Many letters to Tolstoy began with the words: I have not read your books, but could you possibly lend me some money. I have been receiving much the same sort of message lately, but do go on writing all the same, it is rather entertaining

Pencil drawing of a barefoot boy in a shirt sitting on a chair at a table and writing.

NB! · Art · Books · People

Boris Pasternak in his father's portrait and the poet's first memory of Leo Tolstoy

A portrait of today's birthday boy, Boris Pasternak, drawn by his father. The poet's earliest childhood memory: waking at the age of four just as Leo Tolstoy was visiting his parents

Round medieval map with a green ring of ocean and the labels Asia, Europa and Africa inside.

NB! · Geography · Maps · Books · Observations

Medieval world diagram with three continents and no America

Fine! It is simply a very detailed map of the world, as it would look had there been no America on earth. The map wanders through many medieval treatises and invites one to consider whether books are to be trusted.

Books · London · Mores · Society

"The Pleasures of Coition" are notable also because their publisher was convicted in England on a charge of filthy libel, and his case laid the foundation of the English law on obscene publications

"The Pleasures of Coition" are notable also because their publisher was convicted in England on a charge of filthy libel, and his case laid the foundation of the English law on obscene publications. And only in 1967 did this offence cease to be regarded as a serious crime

NB! · Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

A rare erotic edition of 1721, "The Pleasures of Coition", by a French poet named CELEBRATED BONEFONIUS

A rare erotic edition of 1721, "The Pleasures of Coition", by a French poet named CELEBRATED BONEFONIUS. And that is not a pseudonym! In 2003 the book was sold at auction for $420, and I regret that it was not I who bought it.

Books · Monarchies · Observations · People

I deliberately refrained from calling Yaroslav Vladimirovich "the Wise", so as to preserve the truth of the chronicles and sagas, in which nobody ever called him wise

I deliberately refrained from calling Yaroslav Vladimirovich "the Wise", so as to preserve the truth of the chronicles and sagas, in which nobody ever called him wise. The Wise would be invented centuries later by Karamzin. I should like to say how precious the sagas are to us,

Aristocracy · Archive · Books · Monarchies

Russo-Scandinavian marriages of the 11th and 12th centuries in the sagas and Yaroslav's daughters

The saga of the Norwegian kings from roughly 1025 to 1157 is called "Morkinskinna" ("Rotten Skin"). It mentions the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Yaroslav, Prince of Kyiv, to Harald Sigurdsson. It is believed that in reality the princess was called Olisava, and in the sagas