Antique chamber pot in painted porcelain For about two centuries, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to perform the same profane but essential function of the current water, was the small seat, a small portable wooden crate with a vase inside. To make it more comfortable, the seat was
Piero de Medici known as the Gouty Piero de ’Medici (1416-1469), father of Giuliano (1453-1478) and the famous Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), has gone down in history with the unattractive name of the Gouty because of the disease that afflicted him for most of his life, gout pr
The faces of Leonardo and the Mona Lisa, one of his most famous works by him. The artist and scientist apparently had a taste for jokes and salacious jokes Imagine that unsurpassed genius of Leonardo da Vinci tell jokes, moreover, rather dirty ? Well, it seems that the great Renaissance ar
Isaac Newton meditates on the apple that has just fallen from the tree More or less everyone, starting from the first grade, knows the story of the apple who accidentally fell from a tree branch onto the head of the scholar Isaac Newton , would eventually inspire him with the theory of gravit
July 27, 1794:with the execution of Robespierre and his closest collaborators, the Terror ends It is called Regime of Terror or simply Terror the darkest and bloodiest period of the French Revolution, which began in July 1793 and ended in July 1794, precisely on the 27th, with the execution
A table set in the 1400s. In this post you will find a recipe for making zabaglione as indicated by Maestro Martino da Como How about trying for the Christmas holidays now a zabaglione is imminent fifteenth century? The recipe you can find it below, from a manuscript by Maestro Martino da
Sumptuous late Renaissance banquet. This recipe for rice with almond milk dates back to the 1400s Another recipe directly taken from a text by the great Renaissance cook Maestro Martino da Como. This almond milk rice at the time it was consumed mainly on fasting days, for example during Le
Cosimo de Medici, known as the Elder, portrayed by Pontormo The birth of Cosimo de Medici, known as the Elder , lord of Florence and grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent , she is in some respects shrouded in mystery. Not only and not so much for the date, whose year, 1389 , it seem
Louis XV and Madame Du Barry, his last favorite, portrayed in a nineteenth-century painting by Gyula Benczùr The French kings , except for the honest and sober Louis XVI , they always stood out for their libertine and brash behavior, but Louis XV , who was the grandfather of the unfortunate
The Arles tailors shop by Antoine Raspal (1760) What you see shown in the photo on the side is an oil painting on canvas by Antoine Raspal dating back to 1760:in practice this painting, known as The atelier of the seamstress of Arles , allows us to virtually enter a typical French mid 18t
Portrait of Pauline Nesle In the endless host of lovers entered the graces and royal bed of Louis XV three sisters, can also be counted which all became his favorites, in certain situations even at the same time. Im talking about the infamous Nesle sisters , who for many years, thanks to c
Laundry… some time ago In past centuries doing laundry it was neither obvious nor easy, since the lack of water in the houses forced one to go to public fountains, an inconvenience to which was added the high cost of soap, that less affluent families struggled to buy. This is why showing off
Louis Charles of Bourbon prisoner in the Temple When and how he died Louis Charles of Bourbon , son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette , legitimate heir to the throne of France? The fate of the prince, known as the child of the Temple “, Is one of the most great puzzles of the last tw
Marie Antoinette defends herself during her trial The process that the ex queen of France Marie Antoinette suffered in 1793 was a farce, like most of those that took place during the French Revolution, all, from the outset, with a predictable outcome, namely the death sentence of the accus
Renaissance banquet. The one following the Bentivoglio-d’Este wedding remained memorable Thanks to the testimony left by the writer Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, we know how what went down in history as the most sumptuous wedding of our Renaissance took place. The wedding in question is t
Louis XVI orders the blacksmith Francois Gamain to build the famous “iron wardrobe” Louis XVI (1754-1793) nurtured, as is well known, a great passion for iron working , in which he himself ventured, it seems with some success, whenever the institutional commitments allowed him. The king had
Initiation rite in Freemasonry Founded in France in the 1700s, Freemasonry it had an initiatory character and was based on profoundly and radically anti-absolutist and anticlerical principles. The use of symbols was inherent in its structure and the repetition of rituals, characteristics
Nineteenth-century view of Palazzo Pitti in Florence Cradle of civilization and an open-air masterpiece, Florence it became, between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the most important city in Europe. The culture gave it an unparalleled prestige and art that it was able to favor and
Lorenzo the Magnificent in a portrait It is not said “the Magnificent” not at all, Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492). Great politician, refined esthete, lover and lover of Art, writer, poet and patron, the most famous member of the most important Florentine family of the Renaissance era, he wa
Presumed portrait of the twenty-year-old Marquis De Sade The storming of the Bastille , which took place on 14 July 1789 in Paris, it is considered the event that officially started the French Revolution. When the rioters broke into the old fortress, long used as a prison, to free the pris
How did contemporaries describe the Mieszko family? It was definitely not Poland. Among the names of the tribes inhabiting the lands of later Poland, the lack of Polans is striking. When one looks in the sources for the names of tribes inhabiting the lands of later Poland, the striking thing is th
The Battle of Austerlitz took place on December 2, 1805 and pitted the troops of Emperor Napoleon I against the armies of the Russian (Alexander I) and Austrian (Francis II) emperors. Also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, this crushing French victory on the anniversary of the Emperors coro
Julius Caesar won 48 out of 50 battles fought, one of the highest scores attributed to historical commanders. How did he do it? About Gaius Julius Caesar, it can certainly be said that he was ambitious. Perhaps even a bit too much. At thirty-one years old, as described by Plutarch, he was to say
The girl with chocolate (from an 18th century painting). Marie Antoinette of Austria, shortly before being guillotined on October 16, 1793, asked for and received one last cup of hot chocolate Marie Antoinette of Austria , which in truth always showed rather sober tastes at the table, allowed it