Architecture · The East · Science · Rome
Time's up! The expression comes from the water clocks so popular in antiquity. Devices for measuring time, based on the properties of water and vessels, were much in vogue both in Ancient Rome and in the East. But in the Dark Ages the European art of building clepsydras
Archaeology · Museums · Rome · Humour
Roman artefacts are the Chanel of the antiques world. A plain stone from the ruins of Rome may turn out to be a fragment of sculpture from an ancient temple, a mosaic from a senator's house or a column from a sumptuous palace. In the 18th century a
Faith · Art · Observations · Rome · Humour
Tired, or simply out of sorts? Saint Jerome (in a crimson cassock) and John the Baptist (bareheaded). Masaccio, 15th century. I could not pass by a depiction of two Church Fathers with such eloquent glances. Curiously, Jerome holds a reliquary or a model of a church resembling the famous Santa
Faith · Science · Mores · Society · Rome
Pope Gregory XIII was an enterprising persecutor of the Jews. He came up with the idea of compelling Jews to attend Sabbath sermons in Catholic churches, where they were to be imbued with the bright ideas of Christianity. Many, it is true, stopped up their ears with wax. Gregory'
Archaeology · Science · People · Rome
The creators of the Leiden reconstruction do not insist that Caesar looked exactly like this. The appearance, however, corroborates the testimony of the literary sources that Caesar was literally torn from his mother's womb. Yet if the head of the Roman dictator was indeed so markedly deformed, it
NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Rome
A long-awaited reunion! A copy of the finger recently discovered in the Louvre is being fitted to the hand of the Emperor Constantine in the Capitoline Museums
Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Rome
In 1858 the Louvre acquired part of the collection of the bankrupt Marquis Giampietro Campana. His property was divided between the English, the Russians and the French, and enriched the national museums. Among other things, France came into possession of an enormous bronze finger, 38 centimetres long. As early as
NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Rome
This toy was found in 1889 in the sarcophagus of a 17-year-old Roman girl who died in the 2nd century AD. The beautifully preserved wooden doll has articulated limbs and a gold ring on the index finger of its left hand
NB! · Archaeology · Mores · Rome · Humour
This stick with a sponge is all you need to know about the Roman way of wiping oneself. And not a scrap of toilet paper
Faith · Observations · Rome · Humour
It is interesting that in 2019 a particularly venerated relic, the right forearm of Saint Francis Xavier, will set out from Rome on a grand tour of Canada. Servants of the Church explain that the arm, of course, will not fly in the hold or the hand luggage, but will
NB! · Faith · The East · People · Rome
With this hand Francis Xavier baptised between 100,000 and 700,000 people in Asia in the 16th century; at times he was too exhausted to lift a finger. The hand that brought so many souls to Rome has itself found rest here
Faith · Mores · People · Rome · Humour
Pope Pietro Barbo wished to take the name Formosus II, from formosus, "beautiful, handsome". On the advice of older friends, however, he chose the more neutral Paul II. Long before his papacy Pietro Barbo had earned the nickname Our Lady of Mercy (Maria Pietissima) for weeping when he