NB! · Observations · Humour
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Humour
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
No sooner had I got rid of my collection of porcelain with monarchical symbols than I began eyeing plates with Masonic ones
No sooner had I got rid of my collection of porcelain with monarchical symbols than I began eyeing plates with Masonic ones. Somebody hold me back
NB! · Art · Mores · Nature · Humour
The Rhinoceros Clara in a Painting by Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1751
Clara is 13, weighs 3 tons, has been touring all over Europe since the age of 3 in a coach drawn by 8 horses, and her urine is sold as medicine. The year is 1751. The Grimani Family and the Rhinoceros (and a heap of dung), Pietro Longhi, Venice
Monarchies · Observations · Heritage · Mores · Humour
Everyone loves to recall the story of Peter I scooping up the seven-year-old Louis XV in his arms; the event even has a monument at Peterhof, the original of which was stolen during the war and may well now stand in some private park…
Speaking of parks, when I think of Louis XV, what comes to my mind is his boarding house of harlots, which was called the Parc-aux-Cerfs (the Deer Park), after its location, not far from Versailles. Louis was altogether a dreadful whoremonger and was constantly unfaithful to his wife,
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
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
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
NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · Society · Humour
In Eighteenth-Century Britain, a Black Boy Serving at the Tea Table Was a Mark of a Household of Particularly High Standing
In eighteenth-century Britain, a mark of a household's particularly high standing was a Black boy waiting on the tea table. As for the preposterous headgear of noble ladies, in every age it has been the sign of a face best not looked at too closely
NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Rome · Humour
Third-Century Roman Child's Bust Found to Depict a Girl, Not a Boy
For a long time the child immortalised in a 3rd-century Roman sculpture was thought to be a boy, because of the short haircut. It has recently emerged that this type of toga was worn by girls. So much for assuming a gender identity
NB! · Observations · Science · Nature · Humour
The celebrated evolutionary biomechanist Hutchinson with an elephant
The celebrated evolutionary biomechanist Hutchinson with an elephant. But all I can see are the black socks
NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour
A medieval recipe for a pie made up of three parts, two lower and one upper, is described in a manuscript from the Vatican Library
A medieval recipe for a pie made up of three parts, two lower and one upper, is described in a manuscript from the Vatican Library. The pie is served by a one-armed, one-legged grotesque
NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature · Humour
Remains of a Bulbasaur Found in South Africa Date from the Permian Period
Remains of a Bulbasaur have been found in South Africa and date from the Permian period. For more on the find and its classification, see the discoverers' article: https://peerj.com/articles/2913/