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

Art · Books · Monarchies · Paris · People

David’s Sketch of Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Scaffold and Zweig’s Account of It

Marie Antoinette in the procession to the scaffold, 16 October 1793. The Revolution's first crime was the death of the king; its most terrible crime was the death of the queen Chateaubriand's famous phrase acquires its meaning once one truly reflects on the fate of this

Faith · Art · Books

Not with seven diamond seals is the eternal entrance to God's paradise locked, It does not beckon with glitter and temptations, And the people know nothing of it

It is a door in a wall long abandoned, Stones, moss and nothing more, Beside it a beggar, like an uninvited guest, And the keys hang at his belt. Knights and men-at-arms ride past, The howl of trumpets, the jangle of silver, And no one glances at the

Open book showing a double-page red-toned illustration of Dante’s “Paradiso”, the fourth heaven of the Sun, with Italian verse and caption.

Art · Books · Humour

Recent Italian edition of the “Divine Comedy” with illustrations for “Paradiso”

Dante descended into Hell once, but illustrators go down there every time they are asked to add a few more details. The design of this recent Italian edition of the Divine Comedy makes the book a collector's find at first glance

NB! · Archive · The East · Books · Nature

Fabulous Beasts from the Manuscript of the "Book of the Marvels of Marco Polo"

Archive · Books · New York · Humour

An unknown Kerouac manuscript found among the effects of a mafia boss

An unknown Kerouac manuscript has been found among the effects of a mafia boss. Evidently he, too, believed that real jazz is when they shoot off the beat. Jack Kerouac, author of the cult novel On the Road and symbol of the Beat Generation. A film adaptation of the same

An old icon of the face of Christ in a golden halo, set in a carved gilded iconostasis.

Faith · Books

Valentin Gaft's poem about the invisible fire of an icon

Fire has its own laws. The fire of war instils fear in people. It breathes peace in hearths and bonfires. But there is an invisible fire: the icon's. Oh, how blissfully your rays burn, Burn me, icon, I shall not flinch, I know you will burn away my

Art · Books · Heritage · Paris

A Passage from Diderot’s “Rameau’s Nephew” and the History of His Paris Monument

When I see a virtuous man perishing in poverty while a scoundrel bathes in luxury, I ask myself: what have we done with this world? We devised laws to curb crime, yet those very laws protect the criminal, provided he is rich. We extol the truth, yet chase after falsehood,

Books · Society · People

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The prize was conferred on him “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. In Russia, the author&

NB! · Art · Books · Observations

An outstanding cover, I consider, for the 1981 edition of the Zadonshchina, designed by Ilya Glazunov

Faith · Art · Books · Monarchies

Simon Marmion’s Miniatures for the “Visions of Tondal”, Made for Margaret of York around 1470

Miniatures from the "Visions of Tundale" (The Visions of the Knight Tondal), a fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript created by Simon Marmion around 1470 for Margaret of York, wife of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. This twelfth-century Irish text tells of a knight named Tondal (Tundale), who

NB! · Books · Observations

Wishing everyone a good week, and may nothing keep you from your reading

In a shop window a doll in a barred cot reads the comic “Obsessions bis”, with a stack of books beside it and the sign Le dilettante above.

NB! · Books · Paris · Humour

Doll Reading a Book in a Cot in a Le dilettante Shop Window

The most frightening bookshop window display imaginable. How Le dilettante imagine the portrait of their reader