Mores · Pop Culture · Society Pages

Timofey Andriyashenko proposed to Nicoletta Manni on the stage of the Arena di Verona

Timofei Andriyashenko and Nicoletta Manni are called the most beautiful couple in Italian ballet. He is a principal dancer of the La Scala ballet, she is a prima ballerina of La Scala. He proposed to her on the stage of the ancient Roman amphitheatre, the Arena di Verona, after a

Faith · Monarchies · Mores

Shaving in the Russian state before Peter I and the protests of Patriarchs Joachim and Adrian

Shortly before Peter I, that implacable foe of the beard, shaving was reckoned in the Russian state among the most pernicious of vices. The fashion for the razor was condemned by the clergy and restricted by the secular authorities. Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich forbade the shaving of beards outright, together with

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores

Felix Yusupov and Irina Romanova

Monarchies · Mores · People

The appearance of Catherine of Aragon in contemporary accounts and Francis's remark about her

In 1519 the French king Francis remarked of Catherine of Aragon that Henry VIII had an old, shapeless wife, while he himself was young and handsome. Catherine of Aragon was 34 at the time, Henry 28, Francis 25. When Catherine was 30, the Venetian ambassador described her as rather ugly

NB! · Mores · Humour

Cupid of Men Unmarried by Thirty

Heritage · Mores · Society · Rome

Italian authorities to punish man who scratched his beloved's name on the Colosseum wall

Italian authorities will punish a man who scratched his sweetheart's name on the wall of the Colosseum. The Minister of Culture has already expressed his concern (and how could he not!). It is strange that the vandal was not detained at the scene of the crime, given the

Aristocracy · Art · Museums · Mores

The Meissen figure “Tailor Riding a Goat” by Kendler and Count von Brühl's tailor

The Tailor Astride a Goat by Johann Joachim Kändler is a rather popular subject in Meissen porcelain of the 18th and 19th centuries. The tailor comes in various versions: sometimes the shears hang from a horn, sometimes they rest on the goat's head, sometimes they are in the

London · Mores · Society

The scale of tea smuggling in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reached incredible proportions, almost equalling the country's official imports of tea, some 11,000 tonnes a year

The scale of tea smuggling in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reached incredible proportions, almost equalling the country's official imports of tea, some 11,000 tonnes a year. From the early 1700s demand for tea grew without pause. So did the customs duties. The

Archive · Books · Mores · People

Trial of 13-year-old Fyodor Reshetnikov over a lost packet containing a manifesto

How a Lost Piece of Post Brought a Future Writer before the Court. The biography of the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Reshetnikov (1841-1871) began in a most unusual fashion: with a long and complicated trial in which he stood as a mere child. Reshetnikov was brought before the court at

NB! · Books · Mores

Why does every man love his own opinion so ardently and beyond all measure?

NB! · Art · Mores · Pop Culture

Barbie's Life in a Communal Flat

Barbie's Life in a Communal Flat. Lara Vychuzhanina

Architecture · Museums · Mores · People

Dining table with a rotating central section at Repin's Penaty estate

Ilya Repin and his wife Natalia Nordman devised an unusual table for their house in the village of Kuokkala, which allowed everyone to sit down to dinner in comfort and required no servants at the feast. This remarkable table, far ahead of its time, had two parts: a moving one