Archive · Monarchies · Society · People

Abdication of Nicholas II in favour of Mikhail, signed in pencil and backdated

Speaking of disputed abdications in history, one of the most famous is surely that of Nicholas II, signed in plain pencil. As you can see, the document bears in its lower right corner the autograph signature of Emperor Nicholas II in plain pencil: “Nikolai”; in the lower left corner, a

Archive · Faith · Science · People

Newton, alchemy and a calculation from the Book of Daniel on a major event around 2060

For more than 30 years Isaac Newton devoted himself to alchemical research, little known in his lifetime and little studied afterwards. Only in recent decades have scholars begun to pay serious attention to the manuscripts from his alchemical laboratory. The study of Newton's writings on alchemy and the

NB! · People · Pop Culture

Sophia Loren and her younger sister Maria Scicolone, actress and singer

Sophia Loren and her younger sister Maria Scicolone, actress and singer. Sophia is now 89 years old, Maria 86

Aristocracy · People

Clotilde Forgeot d'Arc in the role of her famous kinswoman, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans, at a festival in her honour

Clotilde Forgeot d'Arc in the role of her famous kinswoman, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans, at a festival in her honour. Clotilde plays Joan of Arc in historical reconstructions of battles. The young woman descends from Joan of Arc's elder brother Pierre, who fought

NB! · People · Humour

Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov and the Case of “What Is Permitted to Jupiter Is Not Permitted to the Ox”

Black-and-white photo: two women in dresses with striped details stand on a zebra crossing as a man rides past on a Vespa. The heads of passersby show at the bottom.

Art · Cinema · People · Rome

William Klein, Simone + Nina, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, 1960

William Klein's photograph "Simone + Nina, Piazza di Spagna, Rome", taken in 1960, is one of the finest examples of the innovative style of the American photographer William Klein. Klein was drawn to street photography and sought to take fashion photography out of the studio. Here he

Faith · People · Rome

Pope Leo XIII wrote a prayer to Saint Michael after a vision in 1884

In 1884, at the close of Mass, Pope Leo XIII froze for several moments, his gaze fixed on something. Emerging from this unusual state, the pontiff hastily left the church. Half an hour later he summoned the secretary of the congregation and handed him a freshly written text of a

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Monarchies · People

A reminder of what Cleopatra looked like, the last ruler of Ancient Egypt, a member of the Greco-Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty

Art · London · People

“I prefer to live in colour”

David Hockney turns 87!

Books · People

Nikolai Berdyaev on his rejection of family ties and kinship in the book “Self-Knowledge”

"I have never had any feeling of descent from a father and mother, I have never felt that I was born of parents. A dislike of everything ancestral is a characteristic trait of mine. I do not love the family and family life, and I am struck by the

An elderly man in a white cassock with a pectoral cross sits in an optician's shop beside a smiling man in a suit and two laughing women.

NB! · Faith · People · Rome · Humour

Pope Francis visits his favourite optician's shop and poses for a photo with customers

Pope Francis has once again been spotted beyond the confines of the Vatican: this time the pontiff decided to call in at his favourite optician's. As you can see, the Pope did not refuse a joint snap with the fortunate lady customers

NB! · Architecture · Cinema · People

Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora Duncan was filmed at a temple in Paestum, not on the Acropolis

Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora Duncan, who danced in 1921 in the temples of the Acropolis. The scenes with Redgrave were filmed not on the Acropolis, as the Doric columns show, but in a Doric temple at Paestum, or Poseidonia, a Greek colony founded in the late seventh century BC in