Art · Books · Observations

Origin of the word miniature from Latin minium, the red paint used in manuscript books

The notion of the miniature, oddly enough, has nothing to do with size, and the word derives not from minimum but from the Latin minium, the name of the red pigments often used in the decoration of manuscript books. In time the words miniature and miniature (as an adjective) came

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

The banker's wife Sophie Couteux du Molay with her children, a miniature of 1787 by Jacques-Antoine Lemoine called The Balcony

The banker's wife Sophie Couteux du Molay with her children, a miniature of 1787 by Jacques-Antoine Lemoine called The Balcony. It is in the collection of the Louvre. I am very fond of the slanting, carelessly fixed blinds, and of the boy holding the cord in his

NB! · Observations · Humour

I don't know about you, but I adore footnotes like this on Wikipedia

NB! · Observations · Society · People · Humour

If things in the States go badly wrong, one can take refuge in a cave like this one in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, where, as a matter of principle, the eminent Anglo-American abolitionist and political activist Benjamin Lay lived for many years in th

NB! · Archive · Observations · People

Abraham Lincoln at the beginning of his presidency, in 1861, and at the end, in 1865

Books · Observations · Education

Grammatical gender of the word biennale in spelling and foreign word dictionaries

In the Russian Academy of Sciences' Orthographic Dictionary of Russian, biennale and b'ennale are recorded as nouns of masculine or feminine gender. The dictionary of foreign words, however, makes biennale neuter. In practice, meanwhile, we find that biennale is most often used as a feminine word. Though

Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages

Moscow Biennale of Young Art held during the pandemic, a visitor's impressions

Went to the Moscow Biennale of Young Art yesterday and was at first disappointed, but after talking to some gallerist acquaintances, I have partly changed my mind. After all, one ought not to have compared this event from the outset with the major art occasions of not so long ago,

An elderly fair-haired woman in a pearl necklace and a dark dress with a golden pattern smiles at the camera.

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · People

What Princess Beatrix Looks Like at the Age of 82

Princess Beatrix is 82 now, and this is roughly how she looks. A beauty 🥰

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and Scarlett Johansson

Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and Scarlett Johansson. Although in other photos there is no such resemblance

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Observations · Humour

I suppose it is very silly that the sight of this dead boy on the lid of a 3rd-century AD sarcophagus brings to mind the warning not to lie on one's side, though in this particular case, of course, any wolf would break its teeth

I suppose it is very silly that the sight of this dead boy on the lid of a 3rd-century AD sarcophagus brings to mind the warning not to lie on one's side, though in this particular case, of course, any wolf would break its teeth. Maffei Lapidary

Archaeology · Observations · Heritage

A View over Taman Bay and Medieval Foundations from the Height of the Cultural Layer at the Hermonassa-Tmutarakan Site

A view over Taman Bay and medieval foundations from the height of the cultural layer at the Hermonassa-Tmutarakan site. At present work is under way on only a small part of the monument; in places it has been lost to landslips, elsewhere it has gone under water, and here

Books · Observations · Humour

An analysis of the phrase about the century's youth coinciding with Vladimir Ulyanov's youth

There are expressions that seem to mean nothing at all and to have no sense whatever, and yet seem to contain some beautiful, even winged, thought. Take, for example, “the youth of the century coincided with the youth of Vladimir Ulyanov”. What does this phrase actually tell us? That in