Geography · Maps · Monarchies · Museums · Education · Paris

Edme Mentelle's 1788 globe for the Dauphin on display at the National Library of France

This colossal globe, 1.3 metres in diameter, was made by the renowned geographer Edme Mentelle in 1788 at the commission of Louis XVI for the education of the Dauphin. The outer sphere opens along the prime meridian, which at that time ran through the Canary Islands; on its reverse

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris

Mr Rodriguez and Princess Nefertiabet, 2590 BC, the Louvre

Observations · Society · Paris · Humour

YouTube channel on Freemasonry in the French judiciary and corruption in Europe

Aaaaaaaaaa!!! I have found a YouTube channel whose author explains that the French judicial system is enmeshed in the cobwebs of Freemasonry, and that judges belonging to one lodge or another decide cases according to Masonic interests rather than the letter of the law. What is more, unlike in Great

NB! · Faith · Art · Heritage · Paris

One of the Treasures of Notre-Dame de Paris, the Marvellous Madonna and Child, a Fourteenth-Century Sculpture, Safe and Sound

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

Relics, artworks, bells and rose windows of Notre-Dame during the fire

The fate of many of Notre-Dame's treasures remains unknown. A piece of the Holy Cross and the holy nails A fragment of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified, and one of the nails from the Crucifixion. A painting of Thomas Aquinas A canvas of the seventeenth

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Society · Paris

Yesterday afternoon the French Minister of Culture tweeted photographs of some of the valuable objects kept in the Cathedral being removed for the duration of the repairs

Yesterday afternoon the French Minister of Culture tweeted photographs of some of the valuable objects kept in the Cathedral being removed for the duration of the repairs. The tweet was posted at 14:41, five hours before the fire

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

So, what became of the treasures of Notre-Dame de Paris?

So, what became of the treasures of Notre-Dame de Paris? What has survived? The Holy Crown of Thorns It came to France as a gift to Louis IX in 1238. The Crown of Thorns, with several thorns removed (and dispatched to various corners of the world), is kept in

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Fire during repairs at Saint-Sulpice church in Paris damages doors and façade

Incidentally, exactly a month ago, on 18 March, another very significant church in Paris, Saint-Sulpice, caught fire, also during restoration work. Fortunately, the blaze was quickly put out; the doors, part of the façade and part of the interior decoration suffered, and the church is now being restored. What

Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

Six women restorers are restoring the face of Marianne on the Arc de Triomphe

Six independent women restorers are repairing a symbol of France: Marianne from the sculptural group La Marseillaise, which stands on the Arc de Triomphe. Marianne's face suffered badly during the Yellow Vests demonstration of 1 December 2018, and photographs of her with a smashed cheek went round the

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Paris · Nature

The holy-water stoup in the Baroque church of Saint-Sulpice, made from a giant tridacna shell: the largest mollusc of its kind weighed 333 kilograms and measured more than a metre in length

NB! · The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour

To gauge the level of early medieval Japanese sculpture, simply compare these wooden guardians with, say, the French statue of Adam from the 12th century in the Musée de Cluny

Art · Museums · Paris

Wenzel Jamnitzer’s Statuette of Daphne at the Château d’Écouen and the Image of Rebirth

The brilliant Wenzel Jamnitzer managed to discern not the gloomy side of Daphne's story, and his remarkable sculpture shows less the suicide of a despairing girl than a rebirth, a passage into another form of life, free of sin and suffering. This is one of two statuettes of