Faith · Books · Observations · People
Interestingly, Salkinson was born in that same Shklov which gave the world so many famous Jews. By the age of 29 he was already living in England, had converted to Christianity and had even become a missionary. He is known for his translations of Milton's "Paradise Lost&
NB! · Art · Books
In 1878 Isaac Salkinson translated "Romeo and Juliet" into Hebrew as "Ram and Yael". Not long ago a copy of this edition, popular in the 19th century, was sold at a Jewish auction for $290, against a starting price of $100
Books · Observations · Humour
It has become clear. It was a misapprehension. Azor is the name of the monster in André Grétry's comic opera "Zémire et Azor", which predates our own tale of "Beauty and the Beast". I might have known so simple a thing. Azor is an
NB! · Books · Observations · Humour
Wanted to share a French comic with Azor the dog. How this name, taken from Fet's palindrome, came to spread all over the world is a mystery to me, but it really is known in many countries
NB! · Books · Observations · Society
What do a seventeenth-century illustration from a book on executions and the emblem of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service have in common? The depiction of fasces: since antiquity, bundles of rods with an axe or hatchet have been a symbol of authority, including the power to execute and
NB! · Archive · Books · London · Mores · Humour
The School of Venus: a sex manual for women of the seventeenth century, London, 1680. The words in this text still strike one as bawdy vocabulary today, though the comparison with cows' teats is simply odd
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Archive · Books · Paris · People
Charles-Henri Sanson kept diaries, though it is not known whether they formed the basis of the volumes published in the 1860s. There are grounds for thinking that these may have been a free interpretation of history in another's hand, and that Sanson's grandson may have
NB! · The East · Books · Education
It is held that on 17 January 1492 the first textbook of modern grammar was presented to Isabella I. Yet the first such textbook, though Arabic rather than Spanish, had been written as early as the 8th century by the Persian Sibawayh
Books · Mores · People · Humour
The notion that Balzac remained a virgin until the age of forty, and that he is forever being dragged into all manner of lists of celibates, deserves to be treated with suspicion. It is especially odd, of course, to imagine that he could have lost his virginity at forty: potbellied,
NB! · Architecture · Books · Museums · People
The modest drawing room of the small Château de Saché, where Balzac lived for seven years. His bedroom under the attic is far humbler still: a bed and a table in a cramped little room. But a fair number of the writer's personal belongings have survived here
NB! · Architecture · Books · People
The Château de Saché belonged to a friend of Balzac's father; the writer lived here for a time and wrote "Père Goriot" and "The Lily of the Valley". Balzac was perpetually short of money, and either borrowed from friends or begged a roof