Sixteenth-century handwritten letter in brown ink on aged paper, written in an italic script and signed Elizabeth at the bottom.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Two letters in Elizabeth I's own hand and how her handwriting changed over ten years

Two letters written in the hand of Queen Elizabeth I of England. We shall not discuss their contents; the question is how this young lady's handwriting changed in just 10 years, growing airier with age, but less legible. My own handwriting is also forever changing, but, unlike Elizabeth&

Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

Since yesterday the Lord tried my patience with seventeen minutes of waiting for a waiter at Kofemania, I have resolved to give up restaurant food until the end of the year

Since yesterday the Lord tried my patience with seventeen minutes of waiting for a waiter at Kofemania, I have resolved to give up restaurant food until the end of the year. Happily, the Foreign Literature Library has put a selection of New Year recipes on its website. I have already

Geography · Books · Observations

"The doors of the Pullman car had not yet swung open, but the bandmaster was already flailing his arms ferociously, and the orchestra struck up the English national anthem with a lusty heave. Mamontov, steadying his sabre, hurried towards the carriage"

"The doors of the Pullman car had not yet swung open, but the bandmaster was already flailing his arms ferociously, and the orchestra struck up the English national anthem with a lusty heave. Mamontov, steadying his sabre, hurried towards the carriage." Pullman cars, which became a byword for

NB! · Observations

You'll Thank Me Later

Screenshot of a message advising on storing a costume horizontally, layered with rice paper or micalent.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

How to Store a Costume by Museum Rules: Paper, Micalent and Horizontal Boxes

If you think your clothes deserve museum storage, here is the recipe. Do not forget the large horizontal boxes of museum-grade, acid-free conservation board

NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

Everyone is curious about the far side of the moon, but what of the far side of the hedge?

Geography · Observations · Humour

The world's longest rail journey, from southern Portugal to Singapore

The world's longest railway journey will take about 21 days and cover 18,755 km by train: from southern Portugal to Singapore. Such a trip has become possible thanks to the opening of the high-speed railway line from Kunming in China to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Faith · Observations · Society

Pope Francis restricts use of the old Missal and the Tridentine Mass

Pope Francis has restored restrictions on the pre-reform Latin Mass, commonly known as the Tridentine. It is scarcely noticeable, but a drama of almost schismatic proportions is now unfolding in the Catholic world. What does this mean? No, the Pope has not yet forbidden priests to say Mass in

Archive · Art · Observations · People

Maryland Historical Society documents reveal the identity of portraitist Joshua Johnson

What do you make of these portraits? Little girls with improbably large butterflies. What is that, by the way, an Atlas moth? Such is the work of Joshua Johnson, the first successful Black American portraitist. Well, successful, and Black... Until the 1990s the identity of the author of at least

NB! · Coming Up · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Moscow · Observations

Happy, cheerful, playful: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor set us all a fine example that life should be taken more lightly, and all the more so as Slava Polunin's show is about to return to Moscow

NB! · Observations · Humour

Dear diary, today is day 55 of my diet

In the Press · Art · Observations · Paris · Humour

After the first Impressionist exhibition, a journalist from Le Figaro wrote that the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Sisley made him think of a monkey to whom the public ought to present a basket of flowers

Evidently, this was an allusion to Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps's painting "The Monkey Painter" of 1833. Nearly 150 years have passed since that exhibition, and with every private view new talented primates remain in the shadow of their many masterpieces. It must be said, though, that the