Moscow · Observations · Mores · Society Pages
The gallery of photographs of distinguished guests at Pirosmani, the oldest Georgian restaurant in Moscow, has a new addition: Inna Churikova and Gleb Panfilov among friends. Every new reality, after all, has its own aesthetic hallmarks by which future generations will easily recognise its milestones, rather as in: “Dear friends,
Faith · The East · Mores · Ethnography
The custom of burning wives after the death of their husbands existed among many Indo-European peoples; its most recent manifestation is the tradition of wives' self-immolation, which survived in India until the mid-nineteenth century. Sati was officially banned in 1829, but cases of widow self-immolation
Mores · Society · Nature
Until the 16th century, black henbane was added to beer in Germany, which induces hallucinations and euphoria and, should the dose be increased, death. In 1516, on account of the large number of fatal intoxications, the Purity Law was adopted, which strictly regulated the recipe for beer and forbade the
NB! · Art · Mores · People
Faith · Observations · Mores
Cardinal Franz Rode in cappa magna. This is not merely a mantle borne aloft by several attendants; it is a kind of embodiment of the splendour of the world and the might of Christian values. Having donned the great mantle, the priest then divests himself of it in public, appearing
Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour
One of the most conservative bishops in the United States, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, in the traditional sumptuous episcopal vestment, the cappa magna. Most people have seen such attire on Catholic bishops and cardinals only in photographs on the internet. Given the rarity of the moment (this sort of choir
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
That very wedding banquet of Joseph and Isabella, open to the widest public, was held in the Hofburg, the winter palace of the Austrian Habsburgs. At the centre of a table that looks modest beside the expanse of the colossal hall sat the imperial couple, Francis I Stephen and Maria
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Mores
Most of the festivities in honour of the wedding of Archduke Joseph and Infanta Isabella of Parma, naturally, took place in Vienna. One of Van Meytens's paintings captures the entry into the city of a ceremonial procession of 90 carriages. However, in those years Vienna had no square
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Mores
When the heir of the Austrian Habsburgs, Archduke Joseph, married the Spanish Infanta Isabella of the Italian cadet branch of the French Bourbons, his formidable mother, Empress Maria Theresa, commissioned a series of paintings, a sort of reportage from the magnificent wedding festivities, from the court painter Martin van Meytens.
Books · Mores · People
The English vet James Herriot, who became famous for his touching and instructive writings about livestock, farm life and the treatment of animals, has a story about a loathsome fat man who beat his wife. When the domestic tyrant happened to injure himself, and Herriot drove him to the doctor
Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People
The role of Queen Fabiola on screen could quite well have been played by Dame Angela Lansbury, who, incidentally, is three years older than Fabiola and is alive and well even now, at 95. As for how Fabiola and Baudouin met, there are three most popular versions of their encounter.
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People
Sweet Fabiola was, perhaps, the most colourful member of the Belgian royal family. And this had nothing to do with her formal status: from her youth, when she was not yet especially titled, despite her closeness to the court of Alfonso XIII, the Spanish aristocrat Fabiola de Mora y Aragón