NB! · Faith · Art · Mores · Humour

A Nun of Diminished Social Responsibility Captured in Two Paintings, "Nun on Her Knees", by the Eighteenth-Century Austrian Court Painter Martin van Meytens

NB! · Coming Up · Museums · Observations · Palaeontology

Tomorrow at 11.00 the Ulyanovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore will present a 120-million-year-old ichthyosaur skull with four nostrils

Tomorrow at 11.00 the Ulyanovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore will present a 120-million-year-old ichthyosaur skull with four nostrils. I would happily go myself. Those of you in Ulyanovsk, do not miss your chance

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores

Queen Victoria, Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsarevich Nicholas with his bride-to-be Alix of Hesse, and others, at Coburg on 21 April 1894, at the wedding of Princess Victoria Melita and Ernest of Hesse

NB! · Archive · Humour

Just a trifle, merely a Mozart autograph

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations

I have prepared a note on the Château de Chambord, whose compositional centre is the famous staircase after Leonardo's sketches

I have prepared a note on the Château de Chambord, whose compositional centre is the famous staircase after Leonardo's sketches. The staircase is so contrived that those ascending by its two separate flights will never cross paths, yet will meet at the top

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Francis I's Salamander at Blois, the Valois Family Château

Stone coffered vault of a gallery with reliefs of salamanders and the letter F, with a balustraded staircase visible below.

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Coffered Ceiling of a Gallery at Château de Chambord with Salamanders and the Monogram of Francis I

The gallery at the Château de Chambord, founded by Francis I. The gallery ceiling is adorned with bas-reliefs of the royal salamander and the monogram F

Drawing room of the Château de Saché with painted drapery walls, a mirror above the fireplace, armchairs, a card table and a floral carpet.

NB! · Architecture · Books · Museums · People

Balzac's Drawing Room and Bedroom at the Château de Saché, Where He Lived for Seven Years

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"

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

An open manuscript with printed proofs, heavy handwritten corrections and inserted slips of paper on a white stand.

NB! · Archive · Books · Mores · People

Proofs of “The Lily of the Valley” with Balzac’s Corrections and the Women Behind Its Heroines

"The Lily of the Valley" with Balzac's corrections before printing. In this novel he portrayed the ladies he loved: Laure de Berny as Madame de Mortsauf and Countess Sara Guidoboni-Visconti as Lady Arabella Dudley

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Observations · Heritage

The contents of the newspaper have not yet been recovered, and it is unclear whether it mentions the defence of Sevastopol, but at least it is clear that the new owner, Amédée Guénée, began the repairs two years after buying the château

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Château de Dordon, bought for Marie de' Medici by Louis XIII, is currently under renovation

The Château de Dordon, bought for Marie de' Medici by Louis XIII, is currently under renovation. In one of the rooms, beneath the plaster, workmen found nineteenth-century fabric wallpaper, and beneath it a copy of Le constitutionnel dated 13 September 1855