In the little Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in the left aisle of the church, a reliquary is kept containing the skull of the Christian priest Valentine, who may be that very saint glorified in 496

There were several Christian figures of roughly the same period bearing the name Valentine, and alas, there is no way of establishing precisely which of the surviving remains are those of a saint. But the skull from Santa Maria in Cosmedin is venerated by many

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

In the little Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in the left aisle of the church, a reliquary is kept containing the skull of the Christian priest Valentine, who may be that very saint glorified in 496

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s