Bien sûr, à Santorin, on peut faire les belles photos traditionnelles des moulins et des clochers blancs et bleus. Je les ai faites. Mais ce qui frappe, c'est la construction débridée. On ne paraît protéger que la vue de loin, de la mer. Sur le chemin de Fira à Ia, les belles perspectives sont cassées par des constructions nouvelles particulièrement mal placées. A qui profite le crime ? J'aurais dû y aller il y a trente ans...

Exemple : Akrotiri, non loin du site archéologique de premier ordre - toujours fermé - développe ses nouveaux quartiers de villas, pour qui ? Peut-être pour les anciens de Fira qui ne peuvent bien sûr plus payer les loyers exorbitants.

A little bit of selective.

Taken at the Gardens Open event at Portrack House near Dumfries (the "Garden of Cosmic Speculation" by Charles Jencks).

Charles Jencks' Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Portrack House, Scotland

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

A diptych illustration of the tower with main features and data points, and a speculation of the attachment of solar energy leaves to the framework.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree

"...Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー Tōkyō Sukaitsurī?) is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010[2] and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower,[3][4] and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m/2,722 ft).[5]

The tower is the primary television and radio broadcast site for the Kantō region; the older Tokyo Tower no longer gives complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage because it is surrounded by high-rise buildings. Skytree was completed on 29 February 2012, with the tower opening to the public on 22 May 2012.[6] The tower is the centrepiece of a large commercial development funded by Tobu Railway and a group of six terrestrial broadcasters headed by NHK. Trains stop at the adjacent Tokyo Skytree Station and nearby Oshiage Station, and the complex is only 7 km (4.3 mi) north-east of Tokyo Station..."

On the day of a key European parliamentary vote on food speculation, campaigners from Campact, Friends of the Earth Europe, SOS-Faim and the World Development Movement lay out 925 pots and pans outside the European parliament. 925 represents the number of people hungry in the world today. Campaigners also present a petition with 100k signatories to key Euro MPs.

An Irminsul (Old Saxon, probably "great/mighty pillar" or "arising pillar") was a sacral pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxon people. The oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air. The purpose of the Irminsuls and the implications thereof have been the subject of considerable scholarly discourse and speculation for hundreds of years.

A Germanic god Irmin, inferred from the name Irminsul and the tribal name Irminones, is sometimes presumed to have been the national god or demi-god of the Saxons. It has been suggested that Irmin was more probably an aspect or epithet of some other deity – most likely Wodan (Odin). Irmin might also have been an epithet of the god Ziu (Tyr) in early Germanic times, only later transferred to Odin, as certain scholars subscribe to the idea that Odin replaced Tyr as the chief Germanic deity at the onset of the Migration Period. This was the favored view of early 20th century Nordicist writers, but it is not generally considered likely in modern times.

The Old Norse form of Irmin is Jörmunr, which just like Yggr was one of the names of Odin. Yggdrasil ("Yggr's horse") was the yew or ash tree from which Odin sacrificed himself, and which connected the nine worlds. Jakob Grimm connects the name Irmin with Old Norse terms like iörmungrund ("great ground", i.e. the Earth) or iörmungandr ("great snake", i.e. the Midgard serpent).

According to the Royal Frankish Annals (772AD), during the Saxon wars, Charlemagne is repeatedly described as ordering the destruction of the chief seat of their religion, an Irminsul. The Irminsul is described as not being far from Heresburg (now Obermarsberg), Germany. Jacob Grimm states that "strong reasons" point to the actual location of the Irminsul as being approximately 15 miles (24 km) away, in the Teutoburg Forest and states that the original name for the region "Osning" may have meant "Holy Wood."

The Benedictine monk Rudolf of Fulda (AD 865) provides a description of an Irminsul in chapter 3 of his Latin work De miraculis sancti Alexandri. Rudolf's description states that the Irminsul was a great wooden pillar erected and worshipped beneath the open sky and that its name, Irminsul, signifies universal all-sustaining pillar.

Under Louis the Pious in the 9th century, a stone column was dug up at Obermarsberg in Westphalia, Germany and relocated to the Hildesheim cathedral in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. The column was reportedly then used as a candelabrum until at least the late 19th century. In the 13th century, the destruction of the Irminsul by Charlemagne was recorded as having still been commemorated at Hildesheim on the Saturday after Laetare Sunday.

The commemoration was reportedly done by planting two poles six feet high, each surmounted by a wooden object one foot in height shaped like a pyramid or a cone on the cathedral square. The youth then used sticks and stones in an attempt to knock over the object. This custom is described as existing elsewhere in Germany, particularly in Halberstadt where it was enacted on the day of Laetare Sunday by the Canons themselves.

Awareness of the significance of the concept seems to have persisted well into Christian times. For example, in the twelfth-century Kaiserchronik an Irminsul is mentioned in three instances:

Concerning the origin of the Wednesday:

ûf ainer irmensiule / stuont ain abgot ungehiure, / daz hiezen si ir choufman.

"On an Irminsul / stands an enormous idol / which they call their merchant"

Concerning Julius Caesar:

Rômâre in ungetrûwelîche sluogen / sîn gebaine si ûf ain irmensûl begruoben

"The Romans slew him treacherously / and buried his bones on an Irminsul"

Concerning Nero:

ûf ain irmensûl er staich / daz lantfolch im allez naich.

"He climbed upon an Irminsul / the peasants all bowed before him"

Hypotheses - A number of theories surround the subject of the Irminsul.

Germania

In Tacitus' Germania, the author mentions rumors of what he describes as "Pillars of Hercules" in land inhabited by the Frisii that had yet to be explored. Tacitus adds that these pillars exist either because Hercules actually did go there or because the Romans have agreed to ascribe all marvels anywhere to Hercules' credit. Tacitus states that while Drusus Germanicus was daring in his campaigns against the Germanic tribes, he was unable to reach this region, and that subsequently no one had yet made the attempt. Connections have been proposed between these "Pillars of Hercules" and later accounts of the Irminsuls. Hercules was probably frequently identified with Thor by the Romans due to the practice of interpretatio romana.

Externsteine relief and site

On the Externsteine Descent from the Cross relief, the bent structure in the right centre is popularly identified as Irminsul.

Though this may be correct, it is not supported by any contemporary sources.

According to one particularly well-known suggestion, an Irminsul was situated at or near the Externsteine, a famous rock formation near Detmold, Germany. A Christian relief on the Externsteine (see photo above) depicts what has been described as a bent tree-like design at the feet of Nicodemus. This artwork, variously dated to the early ninth to early twelfth century AD, is popularly believed to represent the bent or fallen Irminsul beneath a triumphant Christianity.

While both the artwork and the Irminsul were known to scholars for centuries - Goethe for example discussed the relief in detail -, they were not connected until the 1929 interpretation of lay archaeologist Wilhelm Teudt. In 1934 to 1935, the Ahnenerbe undertook extensive fieldwork in an attempt to uncover material evidence of the use of the Externsteine as a place of Germanic paganism worship, yet no such evidence was found.

Few modern scholars consider it anything but an outright invention of Teudt, who did not provide evidence to back his claims.

Today it is generally accepted by historians that there is no historic attestation connecting the Externsteine to the Irminsul. Certainly, the Eresburg was only about 45 kilometers (c.28 miles) from the Externsteine, and there indeed was an Irminsul "near the Externsteine", but extensive archaeological studies of the Externsteine have failed to yield any material evidence for their use as a sacred site between Mesolithic and pre-Christian times. Thermoluminescence dating of firesites suggests that the site was occasionally used as a rock shelter in Saxon times, but apparently not to the extent one would expect from a major place of worship.

Jupiter Columns

Comparisons have been made between the Irminsul and the Jupiter Columns that were erected along the Rhine in Germania around CE 2 and 3. Scholarly comparisons were once made between the Irminsul and the Jupiter Columns; however, Rudolf Simek states that the columns were of Gallo-Roman religious monuments, and that the reported location of the Irminsul in Eresburg does not fall within the area of the Jupiter Column archaeological finds (Wikipedia).

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

The Eldorado, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between 90th and 91st Streets, is the northernmost of the four twin-towered apartment houses that give Central Park West its distinctive skyline silhouette. The Eldorado was designed in 1929 by the architectural firm of Margon & Holder with the renowned early 20th-century New York City architect Emery Roth as consultant. These architects created one of the finest and most dramatically massed Art Deco style residential buildings in New York City.

The Eldorado is one of the most distinguished buildings erected as part of the early 20th-century redevelopment of Central Park West. Central Park West, a continuation of Eighth Avenue, runs along the western edge of Central Park. Development along this prime avenue occurred very slowly, lagging substantially behind the general development of the Upper West Side. When Frederick Law Olmsted laid out Central Park he saw that the presence of the park would raise the value of land immediately adjacent to it.

Olmsted expected these areas to develop as prime residential streets. Land speculation did indeed occur on Central Park West. However, the west side of the park never attracted the extremely wealthy people who could afford the inflated prices of land bordering on the park.

Thus, while the side streets of the Upper West Side were built up with rows of speculative houses, Central Park West remained largely undeveloped. A survey of Central Park West published in February 1893 shows that of the three blocks between 60th and 96th Streets nineteen were either totally vacant or contained old shanties and frame houses. Other blocks were partially vacant.

The earliest residential improvement on Central Park West, and one of its great architectural monuments, was the Dakota, a designated New York City Landmark, at 72nd Street. Built in 1880-84, this eight-story building established Central Park West's character as a street of multiple dwellings. In 1890, by which time the Dakota had been joined by two apartment hotels, the St. Remo on 75th Street and the Beresford on 81st Street, as well as several flat houses, real estate broker F.R. Houghton noted that:

Central Park West seems to have only one future— it is destined to become an avenue of grand apartment houses and hotels. Everything tends that way. It is too public a thoroughfare to become a private residential avenue.

However, it wasn't until several years later that Central Park West experienced the construction boom that Houghton had predicted.

The first concentrated building boom on Central Park West occurred at the turn of the century when a significant number of elegant residential and institutional buildings were erected south of 96th Street. These include some of the finest apartment houses in New York, such as the Prasada at 65th Street, the Langham at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth at 75th Street, and the St. Urban at 89th Street, as well as such institutional structures as the Ethical Culture Society School and Meeting House at 63rd and 64th Streets, Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at 65th Street, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist at 68th Street, the Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue at 70th Street, the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity at 76th Street, and the Progress Club at 88th Street.

The presence of these fine apartment buildings and institutions on Central Park West reflects the coming of age of the Upper West Side. The Upper West Side had developed in the final decades of the 19th century as an enclave of upper middle-class life. Affluent middle-class families were attracted to the area by the quality of its housing, the presence of Riverside Park and Central Park, and by the accessibility of the neighborhood.

As the Upper West Side became more and more desirable, developers began to build on the more expensive sites bordering the parks, and Central Park West began to be transformed into an elegant avenue of tall buildings that contrasted dramatically in scale to low rise residential Fifth Avenue.

During World War I construction on Central Park West slowed, but between 1920 and 1931 the area was transformed as the vacant sites were filled and many of the early apartment hotels and flats were replaced by new apartment houses. This final phase of Central Park West's development culminated in 1929-31 with the construction of the four twin-towered buildings that give Central Park West its characteristic skyline.

The distinctive form of the Century at 62nd-63rd Streets, the Majestic at 71st-72nd Streets, the San Remo at 74th-75th Streets and the Eldorado at 90th-91st Streets has come to symbolize the high quality of residential design on New York's Upper West Side.

The Eldorado Apartments is not the first building of that name at this location. The present building replaces the Eldorado flats which consisted of two eight-story structures designed in 1901 by Neville & Bagge, "which for more than a generation have been among the best of the fine houses on Central Park West."

In addition to the old Eldorado, the new apartment building replaced five row houses on West 90th Street and three tenements and a row house on West 91st Street. This site was assembled in 1929 and sold to realtor Frederick Brown who retained ownership for several weeks before transferring the property to the Elkay Building Corporation, Louis Kloak, president. The architects commissioned to design the new Eldorado were the firm of Margon & Holder.

Irving Margon and Adolph M. Holder are architects about whom little is known. One of the few buildings known to have been designed by Margon is an Art Deco apartment house at 2805 Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

Although Margon & Holder were the chief architects for the new building, they do not appear to have had the experience to design such a large structure. Emery Roth, one of the most talented residential architects in New York during the early decades of this century was hired as a consultant.

Among Roth's finest apartment buildings are three important Upper West Side structures designed just prior to the Eldorado—the Oliver Cromwell at 12 West 72nd Street, the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, and the Beresford at 211 Central Park West. It was undoubtedly Roth's experience with designing these large-scale residential buildings that prompted the builders of the Eldorado to hire him as a consultant. It is believed that Roth was responsible for the massing and plan of the building and that Margon & Holder designed the facade.

The form of the Eldorado, with its massive base and twin towers set at the Central Park West corners, closely resembles the massing of the San Remo on which Roth was working at the time he received the Eldorado commission. In addition, the apartment layouts of the two buildings are similar. The twin towered form of the San Remo and Eldorado resulted from the multiple dwelling law passed by the New York State Legislature in 1929.

This law mandated an increase in yard and court area, but allowed residential buildings to rise higher than before, legalizing setbacks and towers in this building type for the first time. The bill limited the height of street walls to times the width of the street, but, on plots of over 25,000 square feet, allowed towers that could rise up to three times the width of the street. The San Remo and Eldorado were the first two buildings on Central Park West to be affected by this new law.

The few drawings that Roth produced for the Eldorado have classical details, creating a design that resembles the style of the San Remo. They do not exhibit the Art Deco forms of the building as constructed. Art Deco style ornament appeared on apartment buildings as early as 1928 on Raymond Hood's 3 East 84th Street and on Horace Ginsberg and Marvin Fine's Park Plaza in the Bronx.

Margon & Holder were probably aware of the Art Deco forms in use on those apartment houses and they adapted these forms for their Central Park West building. Among the finest Art Deco motifs on the Eldorado is the tripartite Central Park West entrance. The three entrance portals take on the faceted crystalline form that Rosemarie Bletter has traced to German Expressionist architecture.

Above these bronze entrance surrounds are bronze panels with the clashing angular geometric forms and soft curving foliate forms that give the finest Art Deco ornamentation its special tension. The best known Art Deco features of the Eldorado are the futuristic rocket-like pinnacles which crown each tower.

Other notable Art Deco motifs include an angular frieze that runs above the third floor, stylized brick spandrel panels below many of the windows, and angular balconies with zigzag panels.

Unfortunately, construction of the Eldorado coincided with the stock market crash of 1929. The crash led to the collapse of the real estate market; cooperatives failed, rental apartments remained vacant, and foreclosure actions were brought against many buildings.

Financial and labor troubles delayed the completion of the Eldorado, but on November 26, 1930, it was announced that the building was to be completed.

Although the Eldorado was finished, it experienced rental problems and the owners finally defaulted on loan payments.

On November 5, 1931, the building was auctioned. In more recent years, the Eldorado has attracted many people of note, particularly people associated with the arts. Among the Eldorado's residents have been Milton Avery, Martin Balsam, Richard Dreyfuss, Faye Dunaway, Carrie Fisher, Tuesday Weld, Pinchas Zuckerman, Richard Estes, Sybil Burton, Phil Donahue, Mario Thomas, Edie Adams, Ernie Kovaks, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowell, and Marilyn Monroe.

Description

The Eldorado is a symmetrical building set on a three-story yellow cast stone base and faced with tan brick trimmed with light brown brick and yellow terra-cotta above. The building extends along the entire Central Park West frontage between West 90th Street and West 91st Street, 200 feet along West 90th Street, and 194 feet along West 91st Street. In the center of the ground floor of the Central Park West frontage is the main entrance consisting of three faceted portals with bronze frames. Above each entrance are a pair of highly ornamental plaques embossed with Art Deco style geometric and floral forms. In the spandrels between the faceted entry arches and the plaques are panels with birds. Separating each pair of panels, as well as the windows above, are stepped piers with geometric incising. Above these piers are projecting skeletal cast stone motifs. A frieze of Art Deco chevrons and arches crowns the cast stone base of the building.

On the ground floor, to each side of the entrance are windows and metal doors with Art Deco grilles and handrails, all of which belong to professional apartments.

On Central Park West, the windows of the main bulk of the building are massed in a symmetrical pattern of 2-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-2-3-2 All of the windows were originally metal-paned casements with thin metal mullions. Each original window is divided into two movable casements of eight panes, each with a single transom of six panes. The small window panes add a sense of texture to the facade and prevent the window openings from becoming voids in the design.

The first and third window groups from either end project slightly, while the other groups are separated by projecting piers. The second and fifth groups from either end are framed with light brown brick that gives a vertical thrust to the facade. This vertical thrust is strengthened by the use of raised brick bands below the windows and by the addition of tan brick piers between the windows of the second group from each corner.

The patterned brickwork, also appears in the central two bays at the thirteenth and fourteenth floors . Projecting from the two central thirteenth floor windows are three-sided stone balconies each supported by a single corbeled bracket and ornamented with a vertical chevron panel.

The five central window groups step back above the fourteenth and sixteenth floors to form balconies, while the three end groups on either side rise up two additional floors before setting back at the sixteenth floor and again at the seventeenth floor. All of the balconies have Art Deco railings. Patterned brickwork and pairs of terra-cotta balconies also appear on the fifteenth and sixteenth floors of the end sections and on the sixteenth floor of the central section.

The brown brick bays are ornamented at their summits by terra-cotta panels adorned with chevron, diaper, and other geometric patterns.

The towers rise free of the base for twelve stories. Each tower is six bays wide on Central Park West and faced with tan brick highlighted by brown brick panels at the four central windows. Terra-cotta balconies appear at the twenty-sixth floor and terra-cotta panels at the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors.

The side elevations have similar detailing. There are corner penthouses at the twenty-ninth floor, as each tower steps back to the crowning pinnacle with its fin-like projections. It is these stepped pinnacles that give the Eldorado its distinctive silhouette and make the building immediately identifiable from as far away as Fifth Avenue.

On the side streets the Eldorado is seventeen stories tall with the three-story cast stone base continuing for the first seven bays before it drops down to a one-story base. Only near the Central Park West corners are there window bays articulated with the vertical brown brick bays used on the front elevation.

The side facades have penthouses with railings, the balconies and terra-cotta ornament described on the front, as well as professional office doors and secondary residential entrances with Art Deco carvings To the rear of the building are cast stone arches with Art Deco metal gates .

Alterations to the original design are limited to the replacement of some of the original multi-paned windows with plate glass windows. The most serious alteration has occurred on the eighteenth floor of the south tower where brickwork has been removed for the enlargement of several windows.

The Eldorado's futuristic crowning pinnacles, visible from up and down Central Park West and from as far east as Fifth Avenue, are true architectural landmarks. The Eldorado is the northernmost of the four twin-towered buildings that identify Central Park West as one of New York City's great residential boulevards and the building stands as one of the most important Art Deco apartment buildings in the city.

- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

A desolate, craggy surface bathed not by a nearby sun, but by the brilliant curl of a galaxy that seems almost within reach – it’s an image to stir the imagination. Could it be the surface of a rogue planet that is not attached to any sun at all?

Absolutely. A rogue planet – or interstellar planet – is a legitimate scientific possibility. These planets drift freely through space, not bound by the gravity of any star. They may have been ejected from their original solar systems or formed in isolation, born directly from collapsing gas clouds and never bound to a star. Galaxies can pass close to one another or even collide, bringing them startingly close to planets in other galaxies.

Research from NASA and Osaka University suggests rogue planets may be more common than planets in stellar systems. Some estimates propose there could be billions of them in the Milky Way alone. If a planet’s only illumination comes from the collective glow of billions of distant suns, can intelligent life evolve in such darkness? Bonestell’s art doesn’t just depict astronomy—it conjures mythology and invites speculation on a stellar scale.

[Sources: “Getting to Know Rogue Planets” (2023) by Marc Kaufman at Astrobiology.NASA.gov; “Hunting Rogue Planets: Orphan Worlds Adrift in Space” (2025) by Muhammad Tubin at ScienceNewsToday.org; and “How Hubble and Einstein Team Up to Spot a Rogue Planet Discovery Wandering Alone” (2025) at NASASpaceNews.com]

The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

A little speculation... but wouldn't a flip chart sized super iPad be neater than paper and colored markers, or doing a powerpoint? What about dual iCharts at your next conference?

A Speculation of Lexus' high performace sedan to compete with the M5, E63 AMG, and Audi S6. The GS-F is delayed until 2010-2012

Not the Enough Food for Everyone... IF rally but a joint Manchester Jubilee Debt Campaign/ World Development Movement stall at Didsbury Festival at Didsbury Park on Sat. 8th. June 2013 where we continued to collect Bankers Anonymous campaign cards and petitions to MPs asking them to take up the issue of food speculation with George Osborne who appears minded to scupper MEP agreed proposals for transparency and regulation in food commodity markets. We also found people were very happy to support calls for debt cancellation, tax justice, and lender-accountability for debts that are crippling developing countries.

Chris with Alan Newton who had just bought a spade at the Tools for Self Reliance Stall- taking Food Sovereignty seriously! The "Price List" led to several people engaging in conversation.

Photo COPYRIGHT 2009/2010 Django Malone

With widespread speculation that the IC&E SD40-2's will be sent back when their lease is up at the end of the month, it may be a good idea to get them now...

Two such models lead what I believe was the 470 train on a daylight schedule into Davis Junction, IL, on 6-22-13.

There was some Internet speculation that the Kindle Fire was simply a rebranded Blackberry Playbook. No, they're obviously two completely different devices.

www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/8816567-452/review-ki...

On the day of a key European parliamentary vote on food speculation, campaigners from Campact, Friends of the Earth Europe, SOS-Faim and the World Development Movement lay out 925 pots and pans outside the European parliament. 925 represents the number of people hungry in the world today. Campaigners also present a petition with 100k signatories to key Euro MPs.

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

The Eldorado, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between 90th and 91st Streets, is the northernmost of the four twin-towered apartment houses that give Central Park West its distinctive skyline silhouette. The Eldorado was designed in 1929 by the architectural firm of Margon & Holder with the renowned early 20th-century New York City architect Emery Roth as consultant. These architects created one of the finest and most dramatically massed Art Deco style residential buildings in New York City.

The Eldorado is one of the most distinguished buildings erected as part of the early 20th-century redevelopment of Central Park West. Central Park West, a continuation of Eighth Avenue, runs along the western edge of Central Park. Development along this prime avenue occurred very slowly, lagging substantially behind the general development of the Upper West Side. When Frederick Law Olmsted laid out Central Park he saw that the presence of the park would raise the value of land immediately adjacent to it.

Olmsted expected these areas to develop as prime residential streets. Land speculation did indeed occur on Central Park West. However, the west side of the park never attracted the extremely wealthy people who could afford the inflated prices of land bordering on the park.

Thus, while the side streets of the Upper West Side were built up with rows of speculative houses, Central Park West remained largely undeveloped. A survey of Central Park West published in February 1893 shows that of the three blocks between 60th and 96th Streets nineteen were either totally vacant or contained old shanties and frame houses. Other blocks were partially vacant.

The earliest residential improvement on Central Park West, and one of its great architectural monuments, was the Dakota, a designated New York City Landmark, at 72nd Street. Built in 1880-84, this eight-story building established Central Park West's character as a street of multiple dwellings. In 1890, by which time the Dakota had been joined by two apartment hotels, the St. Remo on 75th Street and the Beresford on 81st Street, as well as several flat houses, real estate broker F.R. Houghton noted that:

Central Park West seems to have only one future— it is destined to become an avenue of grand apartment houses and hotels. Everything tends that way. It is too public a thoroughfare to become a private residential avenue.

However, it wasn't until several years later that Central Park West experienced the construction boom that Houghton had predicted.

The first concentrated building boom on Central Park West occurred at the turn of the century when a significant number of elegant residential and institutional buildings were erected south of 96th Street. These include some of the finest apartment houses in New York, such as the Prasada at 65th Street, the Langham at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth at 75th Street, and the St. Urban at 89th Street, as well as such institutional structures as the Ethical Culture Society School and Meeting House at 63rd and 64th Streets, Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at 65th Street, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist at 68th Street, the Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue at 70th Street, the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity at 76th Street, and the Progress Club at 88th Street.

The presence of these fine apartment buildings and institutions on Central Park West reflects the coming of age of the Upper West Side. The Upper West Side had developed in the final decades of the 19th century as an enclave of upper middle-class life. Affluent middle-class families were attracted to the area by the quality of its housing, the presence of Riverside Park and Central Park, and by the accessibility of the neighborhood.

As the Upper West Side became more and more desirable, developers began to build on the more expensive sites bordering the parks, and Central Park West began to be transformed into an elegant avenue of tall buildings that contrasted dramatically in scale to low rise residential Fifth Avenue.

During World War I construction on Central Park West slowed, but between 1920 and 1931 the area was transformed as the vacant sites were filled and many of the early apartment hotels and flats were replaced by new apartment houses. This final phase of Central Park West's development culminated in 1929-31 with the construction of the four twin-towered buildings that give Central Park West its characteristic skyline.

The distinctive form of the Century at 62nd-63rd Streets, the Majestic at 71st-72nd Streets, the San Remo at 74th-75th Streets and the Eldorado at 90th-91st Streets has come to symbolize the high quality of residential design on New York's Upper West Side.

The Eldorado Apartments is not the first building of that name at this location. The present building replaces the Eldorado flats which consisted of two eight-story structures designed in 1901 by Neville & Bagge, "which for more than a generation have been among the best of the fine houses on Central Park West."

In addition to the old Eldorado, the new apartment building replaced five row houses on West 90th Street and three tenements and a row house on West 91st Street. This site was assembled in 1929 and sold to realtor Frederick Brown who retained ownership for several weeks before transferring the property to the Elkay Building Corporation, Louis Kloak, president. The architects commissioned to design the new Eldorado were the firm of Margon & Holder.

Irving Margon and Adolph M. Holder are architects about whom little is known. One of the few buildings known to have been designed by Margon is an Art Deco apartment house at 2805 Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

Although Margon & Holder were the chief architects for the new building, they do not appear to have had the experience to design such a large structure. Emery Roth, one of the most talented residential architects in New York during the early decades of this century was hired as a consultant.

Among Roth's finest apartment buildings are three important Upper West Side structures designed just prior to the Eldorado—the Oliver Cromwell at 12 West 72nd Street, the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, and the Beresford at 211 Central Park West. It was undoubtedly Roth's experience with designing these large-scale residential buildings that prompted the builders of the Eldorado to hire him as a consultant. It is believed that Roth was responsible for the massing and plan of the building and that Margon & Holder designed the facade.

The form of the Eldorado, with its massive base and twin towers set at the Central Park West corners, closely resembles the massing of the San Remo on which Roth was working at the time he received the Eldorado commission. In addition, the apartment layouts of the two buildings are similar. The twin towered form of the San Remo and Eldorado resulted from the multiple dwelling law passed by the New York State Legislature in 1929.

This law mandated an increase in yard and court area, but allowed residential buildings to rise higher than before, legalizing setbacks and towers in this building type for the first time. The bill limited the height of street walls to times the width of the street, but, on plots of over 25,000 square feet, allowed towers that could rise up to three times the width of the street. The San Remo and Eldorado were the first two buildings on Central Park West to be affected by this new law.

The few drawings that Roth produced for the Eldorado have classical details, creating a design that resembles the style of the San Remo. They do not exhibit the Art Deco forms of the building as constructed. Art Deco style ornament appeared on apartment buildings as early as 1928 on Raymond Hood's 3 East 84th Street and on Horace Ginsberg and Marvin Fine's Park Plaza in the Bronx.

Margon & Holder were probably aware of the Art Deco forms in use on those apartment houses and they adapted these forms for their Central Park West building. Among the finest Art Deco motifs on the Eldorado is the tripartite Central Park West entrance. The three entrance portals take on the faceted crystalline form that Rosemarie Bletter has traced to German Expressionist architecture.

Above these bronze entrance surrounds are bronze panels with the clashing angular geometric forms and soft curving foliate forms that give the finest Art Deco ornamentation its special tension. The best known Art Deco features of the Eldorado are the futuristic rocket-like pinnacles which crown each tower.

Other notable Art Deco motifs include an angular frieze that runs above the third floor, stylized brick spandrel panels below many of the windows, and angular balconies with zigzag panels.

Unfortunately, construction of the Eldorado coincided with the stock market crash of 1929. The crash led to the collapse of the real estate market; cooperatives failed, rental apartments remained vacant, and foreclosure actions were brought against many buildings.

Financial and labor troubles delayed the completion of the Eldorado, but on November 26, 1930, it was announced that the building was to be completed.

Although the Eldorado was finished, it experienced rental problems and the owners finally defaulted on loan payments.

On November 5, 1931, the building was auctioned. In more recent years, the Eldorado has attracted many people of note, particularly people associated with the arts. Among the Eldorado's residents have been Milton Avery, Martin Balsam, Richard Dreyfuss, Faye Dunaway, Carrie Fisher, Tuesday Weld, Pinchas Zuckerman, Richard Estes, Sybil Burton, Phil Donahue, Mario Thomas, Edie Adams, Ernie Kovaks, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowell, and Marilyn Monroe.

Description

The Eldorado is a symmetrical building set on a three-story yellow cast stone base and faced with tan brick trimmed with light brown brick and yellow terra-cotta above. The building extends along the entire Central Park West frontage between West 90th Street and West 91st Street, 200 feet along West 90th Street, and 194 feet along West 91st Street. In the center of the ground floor of the Central Park West frontage is the main entrance consisting of three faceted portals with bronze frames. Above each entrance are a pair of highly ornamental plaques embossed with Art Deco style geometric and floral forms. In the spandrels between the faceted entry arches and the plaques are panels with birds. Separating each pair of panels, as well as the windows above, are stepped piers with geometric incising. Above these piers are projecting skeletal cast stone motifs. A frieze of Art Deco chevrons and arches crowns the cast stone base of the building.

On the ground floor, to each side of the entrance are windows and metal doors with Art Deco grilles and handrails, all of which belong to professional apartments.

On Central Park West, the windows of the main bulk of the building are massed in a symmetrical pattern of 2-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-2-3-2 All of the windows were originally metal-paned casements with thin metal mullions. Each original window is divided into two movable casements of eight panes, each with a single transom of six panes. The small window panes add a sense of texture to the facade and prevent the window openings from becoming voids in the design.

The first and third window groups from either end project slightly, while the other groups are separated by projecting piers. The second and fifth groups from either end are framed with light brown brick that gives a vertical thrust to the facade. This vertical thrust is strengthened by the use of raised brick bands below the windows and by the addition of tan brick piers between the windows of the second group from each corner.

The patterned brickwork, also appears in the central two bays at the thirteenth and fourteenth floors . Projecting from the two central thirteenth floor windows are three-sided stone balconies each supported by a single corbeled bracket and ornamented with a vertical chevron panel.

The five central window groups step back above the fourteenth and sixteenth floors to form balconies, while the three end groups on either side rise up two additional floors before setting back at the sixteenth floor and again at the seventeenth floor. All of the balconies have Art Deco railings. Patterned brickwork and pairs of terra-cotta balconies also appear on the fifteenth and sixteenth floors of the end sections and on the sixteenth floor of the central section.

The brown brick bays are ornamented at their summits by terra-cotta panels adorned with chevron, diaper, and other geometric patterns.

The towers rise free of the base for twelve stories. Each tower is six bays wide on Central Park West and faced with tan brick highlighted by brown brick panels at the four central windows. Terra-cotta balconies appear at the twenty-sixth floor and terra-cotta panels at the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors.

The side elevations have similar detailing. There are corner penthouses at the twenty-ninth floor, as each tower steps back to the crowning pinnacle with its fin-like projections. It is these stepped pinnacles that give the Eldorado its distinctive silhouette and make the building immediately identifiable from as far away as Fifth Avenue.

On the side streets the Eldorado is seventeen stories tall with the three-story cast stone base continuing for the first seven bays before it drops down to a one-story base. Only near the Central Park West corners are there window bays articulated with the vertical brown brick bays used on the front elevation.

The side facades have penthouses with railings, the balconies and terra-cotta ornament described on the front, as well as professional office doors and secondary residential entrances with Art Deco carvings To the rear of the building are cast stone arches with Art Deco metal gates .

Alterations to the original design are limited to the replacement of some of the original multi-paned windows with plate glass windows. The most serious alteration has occurred on the eighteenth floor of the south tower where brickwork has been removed for the enlargement of several windows.

The Eldorado's futuristic crowning pinnacles, visible from up and down Central Park West and from as far east as Fifth Avenue, are true architectural landmarks. The Eldorado is the northernmost of the four twin-towered buildings that identify Central Park West as one of New York City's great residential boulevards and the building stands as one of the most important Art Deco apartment buildings in the city.

- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

collage on paper 14x11

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

The 332 West 83rd Street House, designed by well-known architect and developer Clarence F. True, was built on speculation in 1898-99 as one house of a picturesque group of six houses on the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 83rd Street. Today the 332 West 83rd Street House is architecturally significant and as one of the five extant houses in this group represents the first period of development on Riverside Drive. True designed several hundred houses, primarily in groups, on the Upper West Side in the years between 1890 and 1901, and was largely responsible for promoting the development and establishing the character of lower Riverside Drive.

The houses in the group at Riverside and West 83rd Street were designed in True's signature "Elizabethan Revival" style based on French and English Renaissance prototypes and built by True's development firm, the Riverside Building Company; they are the northernmost of True's designs built along the Drive. The design of the 332 West 83rd Street House is characterized by such picturesque elements as an asymmetrically-placed bowfront, contrasting red Roman brick and limestone facing, segmentally- arched and rectangular openings, keyed surrounds, decorative ironwork, a steeply-pitched tile roof with a gable, a dormer, prominent chimneys, and end-walls. All of the houses in the group were originally designed with projecting bowfronts or bays and low stoops, but these features on the houses along Riverside Drive became the focus of an interesting legal controversy several years after construction.

As the result of a lawsuit brought by an adjacent property owner, the court ruled in 1903 that no one had the authority to place permanent encroachments onto public thoroughfares, and the owners of the houses facing onto Riverside Drive were thus ordered to remove the projections. In 1911 these facades were removed and rebuilt to follow the diagonal of the Riverside Drive property lines. The 332 West 83rd Street House (owned by Robert E. Dowling, president of the City Investing Co.) apparently was not subject to the lawsuit as it does not face the Drive. It remains unaltered in its original picturesque Elizabethan Revival design.

The Development of Riverside Drive

The Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated at the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots. Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side, particularly the completion in 1879 of the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890).

The biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway), however, was the creation of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). The presence of the Park and Drive was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development. In 1865 the first proposal for converting the land on the Upper West Side along the eastern shore of the Hudson River into an ornamental park had been presented by Park Commissioner William R. Martin. The purchase of the park site and initial plans were approved in 1866. The drive, as proposed at this time, was to be a straight 100-foot wide road; however, this plan was impractical due to the existing topography. Hired by the Commissioners in 1873, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) , already distinguished by his collaboration with Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) in the successful design for Central Park, proposed an alternate scheme.

Olmsted's design for Riverside Park and Drive took into consideration the pre-existing topography, landscape possibilities, and views, resulting in a park and drive that would be amenable for horses and pleasure driving, would provide shaded walks for pedestrians, and would also allow easy access to and scenic vistas from the real estate bordering it on the east. Olmsted's plan was adopted by the Commissioners but the park was not executed under his supervision, due to his departure from New York City; it was actually developed between 1875 and 1900 by other designers including Vaux, Samuel Parsons, and Julius Munckwitz, who did not adhere to Olmsted's original scheme in its entirety. By the fall of 1879, work was completed between 72nd and 85th Streets, and Riverside Avenue (as it was called until 1908) was opened to the public in 1880.

The Drive, from West 72nd Street to approximately 129th Street, where it is effectively terminated by the viaduct and the Manhattanville fault, has a particularly strong character derived from its curves that break with the regular street grid and its location overlooking the park and the Hudson River. Riverside Park and Drive fulfilled the Park Commissioners' plans for promoting the development of the area west of Broadway. The numerous and exceptional advantages of the location, namely, its situation on a plateau, its "advantages of pure air and beautiful surroundings, glimpses of New Jersey hills . . . [and] the nearness of parks," assisted in making the area along Riverside Drive prime real estate, deserving of the highest character of residential development.

Development of the West End began slowly due to speculation, the hesitation of developers, and to the relative inconvenience of transportation compared to the area east of Broadway. By 1885, however, the whole Upper West Side had emerged as the area in the city experiencing the most intense real estate speculation. The expectation that the blocks along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue would be lined with mansions kept the value of these lots, as well as adjacent land, consistently higher and developers were willing to wait to realize profits from the potentially valuable sites.

The initial development along Riverside Drive mostly took the form of single-family town houses and rowhouses, although some freestanding mansions were built there. Luxury apartment buildings, as they gained in popularity toward the turn of the century, also appeared. Most of the single-family residences on the Upper West Side were speculatively-built rowhouses along West End Avenue and Riverside Drive the houses tended to be larger and more elegant than those on the side streets.

Architect-developer Clarence True, who characterized the Drive and its vicinity as "the most ideal home-site in the western hemisphere — the Acropolis of the world's second city," was largely responsible for the promotion of lower Riverside Drive as an attractive residential thoroughfare and his work there, like the group at 83rd Street, did much to establish the character of the area in the 1890s.

Clarence F. True and the Elizabethan Revival Style

Clarence Fagan True (1860-1928) was a prolific and well-known architect (and later architect-developer) who designed, almost solely, rowhouses and town houses and practiced mainly on the Upper West Side of Manhattan during the years from 1890 to 1901. Bom in Massachusetts, he came to New York City in 1880 and was trained in the office of Richard M. Upjohn beginning around 1881; he was listed in directories in 1884 and established his own firm in 1889. True received his commissions primarily from speculative builders and developers who were rapidly constructing houses throughout the Upper West Side.

True is documented as having designed at least 270 houses on the Upper West Side, the majority located west of Broadway between 71st and 107th Streets. Diverse and eclectic in architectural style and massing, these houses contribute greatly to the architectural character of the Upper West Side. He also designed some twenty houses in Harlem, including several now located in the Hamilton Heights and Mount Morris Park Historic Districts. In 1893 he published a prospectus of his work, Designs of 141 Dwelling Houses, in which he stated his aim of creating distinctive well- designed houses, both in interior plan and exterior appearance, that would mark a shift away from the homogeneity of the standard New York City brownstone rowhouse. True's executed work demonstrated that he succeeded in his ambitions.

True was primarily an architect of rowhouse groups. In his houses of the early 1890s, True employed a variety of contemporary architectural styles, frequently mingling them in an eclectic fashion; these included the popular Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles, as well as the Francois I and a style he called "Elizabethan Revival" which was based on French and English Renaissance prototypes.

In 1894 True began to work in part as his own developer and later formed the Riverside Building Company. A second prospectus, fA True History ofl Riverside Drive (1899), pictured many of the houses for the Riverside Building Company, including the group of six houses at 102 to 107-109 Riverside Drive and 332 West 83rd Street which were then under construction and completed later that same year. In this prospectus True promoted the development of lower Riverside Drive:

Mr. Clarence True, who had erected houses upon some of the lower lots, became so thoroughly impressed with the possibilities of the river front as a residence district that he secured all the available property south of 84th street, and by covering it with beautiful dwellings, insured a most promising future for the Drive.

The area along and adjacent to Riverside Drive, from 75th to 85th Streets, includes the densest concentration of extant houses designed by True; many of these are now included in the West End-Collegiate and Riverside Drive-West 80th-81st Streets Historic Districts.

These houses along the Drive — including No. 332 West 83rd Street and the other houses in the corner group — are characteristic of most of True's mature work; all were designed in the architect's highly idiosyncratic and readily identifiable "Elizabethan Revival" style. True's rowhouses in this vein are typified by lively silhouettes, composed of such elements as steeply-pitched roofs that often have curved or stepped gables, chimneys, stepped end-walls, turrets, bowed fronts, projecting three-sided and square bays, and dormers.

The facades, varied within the group, also display a variety of contrasting materials, including fine brick and stone, and such features as quoins, keyed surrounds, stylized cornices, crenellation, parapets, and decorative ironwork. True's interest in the use of varied colors of building materials is also evident in the group at Riverside and 83rd — the brick colors graduate in hue from house to house, from tan to light orange to orange to red.

True was one of the architects who greatly popularized the American basement plan for rowhouse design in New York City during these years. He received much favorable notice in the architectural press of the 1890s, which published a number of his designs. Real Estate Record & Guide (1893) stated that True "has earned quite a reputation for the novelty of the ideas he has carried out in a large number of houses built from his designs on the West Side in the last few years.

The old method of high stoop construction has been abandoned ... the houses are entered almost on a level with the street." Architecture and Building (1893) noted: "The facades show great variety and taste, and the plans, many of them upon narrow lots, ingenuity and skill in arrangement.ul A History of Real Estate, Building, and Architecture in New York (1899) considered True "probably the best known New York architect designing almost entirely residential structures His

work as exemplified by his houses is a credit both to himself and the city."

True also designed several apartment houses, hote 1 s, and sma 11 commercial structures, as well as a church building in Harlem. Little is known about the end of his career, but it appears to coincide with the demise of rowhouse construction in New York City after the turn of the century. His last directory listing was in 1910, although Clarence True & Son received a listing in 1916-17. True died in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1928, and was buried in Middletown, Connecticut.

Ackerman vs. True

An interesting controversy developed around the construction of the houses at 102 to 107-109 Riverside Drive, the others in the group of which No. 332 West 83rd Street is a part, which affected the design of their main facades eleven years after completion. Clarence True had obtained permission from the Commissioner of Parks in 1898 to erect projections beyond the building lines (his designs featured low stoops, areaways, bowfronts and bays) and paid a fee based on the square footage of the projections. Building encroachments onto public property, a fairly common practice in New York City during the nineteenth century, became an increasingly debated topic at the turn of the century, however, as evidenced by the numerous lawsuits filed and by discussions in such periodicals as Real Estate Record & Guide.

A lawsuit was brought against Clarence True, after the completion of the houses at Riverside Drive and West 83rd Street, by the adjacent property owner, Charlotte Y. Ackerman, who had purchased from True the lot to the south of the group. Ackerman's case argued that the projecting bowfronts and stoops on the houses next to her property were illegal encroachments upon the public street which also diminished the value of her property through the obstruction of her view, light, and air. Ackerman won the case in 1903 on appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals, which reversed the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court's finding in favor of True.

The court ruled that New York City's ownership of streets from property line to property line was "inalienable," that an encroachment was an "appropriation of the public street for private purposes," and that no individual or agency had the authority to permit encroachments onto public property.

Thus the owners of the five houses facing Riverside Drive had to remove the projections on their buildings; the main facades were rebuilt in 1911 to follow the diagonal of the property lines. No. 332 West 83rd Street and the West 83rd Street facade of No. 107-109 Riverside Drive remained unaltered as they do not face onto the Drive and were thus apparently not subject to the lawsuit. The sixth house at 102 Riverside Drive, to the south of the existing group, was later demolished for a corner apartment building, built in 1932.

The 332 West 83rd Street House

The 332 West 83rd Street House was purchased from Clarence True's development firm in 1900 by Robert E. Dowling. Dowling was the president of the City Investing Co., one of New York City's most influential real estate firms, and negotiated some of the city's largest transactions over a forty-year period.

He regarded the construction of the City Investing Co. skyscraper (1908, Francis H. Kimball, 165 Broadway, demolished) as the highlight of his career. Dowling also served as a director of the New York Life Insurance Co., City Bank Farmers Trust Co., East River Savings Bank, and National City Realty Corp. He died at this residence in 1943. The house was sold later that year and converted to a multiple dwelling in 1944.

No. 332 is designed with a wide (nearly forty feet) four-story three- bay facade, the eastern two bays of which form a projecting three-story bowfront. The ground story is faced with coursed limestone and has a recessed segmentally-arched entrance with carved limestone reveals in the bowfront, reached by a low stoop and flanked by pilasters and surmounted by an entablature; the entrance contains the original glass and wood doors.

To the east in the bowfront is a segmental ly-arched window with leaded glass, and to the west is a segmental ly-arched service entrance, having, respectively, a wrought-iron bowed grille and a gate; below the east window is a basement window with a wrought-iron grille.

The westernmost bay has three small rectangular windows with bowed wrought-iron grilles; below this bay is a basement entrance. The areaway is bordered by a decorative wrought-iron fence. The second through fourth stories, faced with red Roman brick (smaller gauge on the bowfront) and limestone trim, have rectangular windows with keyed surrounds; those on the bowfront are separated by brick panels and stone spandrel panels.

The western window of the second story is fronted by a wrought-iron railing. The bowfront is surmounted by a stone parapet; the story above this is flanked by pilasters. The picturesque, steeply-pitched red tile roof is embellished by a dormer with finials and two small windows above the western bay and by a gable, above the bowfront, which has a window with an elaborate surround that nearly mirrors the dormer.

The roof has two prominent chimneys rising from the coping of the end-walls. All windows originally had one-over-one double-hung wood sash; these have been replaced by one-over-one aluminum sash in the western bay of the third and fourth stories and in the windows of the roof.

The 332 West 83rd Street House remains unaltered in its original picturesque Elizabethan Revival design.

- From the 1991 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

The family history is a bit confusing, at least to me. There seems to be a lack of hard fact when it comes to the specifics. Here's the gist of it: speculation has our family in the Netherlands 500 to 600 years ago. The way I understand it, the Reformation occurred and my family split with the catholic church, joined the protestant movement, and eventually chose to follow the teachings of Simon Menno. Therefore, technically we could be called Mennonites, but more about that in a bit. At this point I've heard two versions. The first being that at some point the family moved to Prussia (this was before German unification. Whether we were in what is now Germany or Poland I don't know) and after a time were being pressured to joing the Kaiser's army. Given that one of the principles of Mennonism is pacifism, they refused. Catherine the Great in Russia was trying to settle parts of what is now the Ukraine and struck a deal with the Mennonites--freedom of religion and freedom from conscription into the army if they settled and farmed the land. They took the offer and settled near Molochansk, Ukraine--east of Odessa, near the Black Sea. But once again, at some point, the Russians needed cannon fodder, so the Mennonites sent twelve men over to the United States to check out the New World. My family jumped on a boat and came to southeastern South Dakota and settled near Marion and Freeman. The second version skips the move from Holland to Prussia, taking my forebearers directly from Holland to the Ukraine.

Now, a word about Mennonites. Most people seem to have a lot of pre-conceived notions about them: they live communally, dress funny, oppress the women of their communities, etc... In my family's case, sometime before or after moving to America they chose not to live in large, communal settlements. In fact, I don't know that they ever lived communally. They did settle en masse in South Dakota, but they have their own farms, don't dress funny and use cars, tractors, cell phones, the internet...though they do take their pacifism seriously. Many either refused to be drafted for WW I and WWII and were imprisoned, or were conscientious objectors and were allowed to serve by working in army hospitals, etc.... I get a kick out of my leftoid friends who disparage communal Mennonites, Hutterites, the Amish, etc... What they think a true socialist/communist/cooperative society would really look like is beyond me. I guess it's more about copping a political attitude while gorging on the abundance that surrounds them. Hmmmm. And anyway, I'm not sure that one could still call my family Mennonite, as it's really a religious distinction, as opposed to ethnic or national, and we haven't been members of the Mennonite church for 2 or 3 generations. Though I have to say I'm proud of being a descendant of people who told the rich and powerful to go fuck themselves. I hope to carry that tradition into the future.

Okay, so I have officially gone crazy with playing with Adobe. I think this picture turned out quite interesting.

At Garden of Cosmic Speculation

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Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

paris speculation [crossprocessing] (DSCF6344-gimp)

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_de_l'Alma

The Universe Cascade

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

Warkworth Castle in Northumberland is forever associated with the Percy Earls of Northumberland but the site did not start with them. Indeed there is some mystery over who first built it and when. Located on a tight bend in the River Coquet and about a mile from the sea, the castle sits on the neck of this land which means that the enclosed space becomes an outer ward with the river as its moat on three sides. The medieval church and modern village now occupy the bend.

As an easy to defend site, close to the English/Scottish border, the speculation is that it may have had some sort of fortification well before the present building but this is now elusive - especially so if the first fortification was of mere earth and timber. Henry, son of King David I of Scotland, was granted the site around 1139 AD and he, in turn, granted salt pans to various local monks. As the new Earl of Northumberland the old guide book speculates that he either built the first castle or he improved an existing motte and bailey with new stone walls; the guide book certainly notes ‘Norman’ foundations at various points in the current building. A castle certainly exists in documents of 1157 AD.

King John of England confirmed the castle to Robert of Clavering in 1199 AD. Robert spent much time in the area as Sheriff of Northumberland and was gifted other local estates. He is thought to have built the main gateway, some of the walls and improved the Great Hall. He may also have built or improved the keep but this work has since vanished under the large and luxurious later Percy building. The Claverings held the castle but such was its importance that royal troops were also garrisoned here at times - at the king’s expense - due to the Scottish wars. In 1322 the constable of the castle sent 26 light horsemen (hobilars) to join the English army. The Scots were beaten off in 1327 and again the following year when Robert The Bruce besieged it.

The last Clavering male died in debt in 1332 and the castle eventually passed to Henry, the second Lord Percy of Alnwick. He improved the gatehouse and walls and may have added the Grey Mare’s Tail tower on the eastern side. From this time onwards Warkworth was the second castle home of the Percys and much favoured by them. The third Percy lord was a great soldier in the 100 Years War in France and was created Earl of Northumberland in 1377 before winning the battles of Otterburn and Homildon Hill against the Scots.

Sometime during this period extensive building work was carried out by the Percys with the keep on the motte being rebuilt as a sumptuous and comfortable building with decent accommodation, ample water management and drainage. It even had a very modern feature - a light well extending down the centre of the building to draw in both light and fresh air. For the ‘grim north’ this was a very princely home.

However after supporting Henry IV’s 1399 coup against Richard II, the Percys fell out with King Henry and rebelled - leading to executions and a period of disgrace. During this time Warkworth was attacked by a royal army with gunpowder artillery and it surrendered after seven discharges of the royal cannons. It is thus the first British castle to be successfully attacked by artillery despite the claims of nearby Bamburgh Castle.

John, Duke of Bedford held the castle for 11 years before it was returned to the next Percy - Henry, Earl of Northumberland. He was drawn into disputes with the junior Nevilles (the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick) but was supported by the senior Nevilles, the Earls of Westmoreland, who had their own issues with the junior Nevilles. Inevitably all this was mostly about money and inheritance. It paved the way to private battles between these families BEFORE the so-called Wars of the Roses. Indeed the first Battle of St Albans in 1455 may be more of a Mafia-style ‘hit’ as the Yorkists were lead by the three Richards (York, Salisbury and Warwick) and the principal dead were the Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy and a Percy kinsman, Lord Clifford.

The castle passed into Yorkist hands and - at various times - the Earl of Warwick directed sieges at Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh using Warkworth as his base. Warwick’s brother John Neville was given the castle and the earldom of Northumberland for a time but Edward IV eventually returned it to Henry Percy, the 4th Earl of Northumberland. John Neville was thus ‘downgraded’ to 1st Marquis of Montague and was thoroughly alienated by this action, leading to John joining his brother Warwick in rebellion against Edward IV. Warkworth’s Montague Tower is probably his work.

The 4th Percy earl carried out some work in his own right. One oddity is that a collegiate church was planned right in front of the keep which would have cut the keep off from the rest of the inner bailey. We know this as the present church foundations contain a tunnel which would have passed under the massive building to allow access to the keep from the bailey. However the guide book suggests the church was never finished and that the foundation crypts were partly buried and then became used for storage.

Henry the 4th earl became infamous for not supporting King Richard III at Bosworth in 1485. He then managed to get himself killed by the locals at Cocklodge in 1489 and is now buried in Beverley Cathedral. Later Percys got involved in the 16th century religious conflicts in England and none of them came out of it well. One even got involved in the Gunpowder Plot against the new Protestant King James I of England. One footnote is that King James visited Warkworth in this period and found it ruined and overrun by goats and sheep in every chamber. Some of his party went into the castle and were: “Much moved to see it so spoiled and so badly kept”.

Later Percys favoured Alnwick over Warkworth and it was one of these (now a Duke) who turned the site over to the future Ministry of Public Building and Works in 1922. It is now an English Heritage site and well worth a visit.

Italy Face Speculation. What can I say, it's not a porn film but some pretty bad cold spaghetti served for breakfast. In Shang Hai.

How Architecture Learned to Speculate

Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest

December 2009

For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.

Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.

ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9

Number of pages: 246

Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm

www.igmade.net/order.html

The expansion of the Speculation and Vacancy Tax will help eliminate speculative real estate practices and turn empty units into homes for people in additional communities in B.C. struggling with housing affordability.

Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/27202

Bar Refaeli plastic surgery is another incident where the public has speculations that the model underwent surgical procedures to have her new looks.

plasticsurgerychanges.com/bar-refaeli-plastic-surgery/

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Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) was a French physicist and judge, born in Lyon. In 1618, Monconys' parents sent him to a Jesuit boarding school in Salamanca, Spain, as a plague had broken out in Lyon. Monconys was deeply interested in metaphysics and mysticism, and studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Zoroastrism, and Greek and Arab alchemists. From a young age, he dreamed of travelling to India and China. However, he returned to Lyon after finishing his studies. At the age of thirty-four years old he was finally able to leave behind the safety of his library and the theoretical speculation of the laboratory, and become a tireless traveller in Europe and the East.

Monconys travelled to Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Istanbul and the Middle East with the son of the Duke of Luynes. Even in his very first journey to Portugal, it is obvious that in each city Monconys is very soon able to connect with mathematicians, clergymen, surgeons, engineers, chemists, physicians and princes, to visit their laboratories and to collect “secrets and experiences”.

After Portugal, Monconys travelled to Italy, and finally departed to the East, to study the ancient religions and denominations, and meet the gymnosophists. In 1647-48 he was in Egypt. Seeking the Zoroasters and followers of Hermes Trismegistus, he reached Mount Sinai. In Egypt, the 17th century European was lost in a labyrinth of small and winding streetlets, and discovered different cults and religions, the diversity of ethnicities and their customs: Turks, Kopts, Jews, Arabs, Mauritans, Maronites, Armenians, and Dervishes. He followed several superstitious suggestions and discovered marvellous books of astronomy in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic. Later on, after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he crossed Asia Minor and reached Istanbul, from where he planned to travel to Persia. For once more in his life however, the plague forced him to change his course; he left for Izmir, and returned to Lyon in 1649.

Fron 1663 to 1665 Monconys travelled incessantly between Paris, London, the Netherlands and Germany. He visited princes and philosophers, libraries and laboratories, and maintained frequent correspondence with several scientists. Finally, after consequent asthma attacks he passed away before his travel notes could be published.

His travel journal (1665-1666) was edited and published by his son and by his Jesuit friend J. Berchet. The journal is enriched by drawings which testify to the wide scope of Monconys' interests. Monconys collected a vast corpus of material which includes medical recipes, chemistry forms, material connected to the esoteric sciences, mathematical puzzles, questions of Algebra and Geometry, zoological observations, mechanical applications, descriptions of natural phenomena, chemistry experiments, various machines and devices, medical matters, the philosopher's stone, astronomical measurements, magnifying lenses, thermometres, hydraulic devices, drinks, hydrometres, microscopes, architectural constructions and even matters connected to hygiene or the preparation of liquors.

The third volume includes a hundred and sixty-five medical, chemical and physics experiments with their outcomes as well as a sonnet on the battle of Marathon. There are five detailed indexes for the classification of the material. At the same time, this three-volume work permits the construction of a list of names (more than two hundred and fifty) of scholars, physicians, alchemists, astrologists, mathematicians, empirical scientists and other researches. From Monconys' text and correspondence a highly interesting network emerges, as it is possible for specialists of all disciplines to reconstruct the contacts between scientists and scholars of Western Europe, for a period spanning more than a decade in the mid-17th century.

Monconys' work is written in a monotonous style, but nevertheless possesses a perennial charm, as it is a combination of a travel journal and a laboratory scientist's workbook. The drawings accompanying the text make up a corpus of material unique in travel literature.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız asıllı fizikçi ve yargıç Balthasar de Monconys (1611-1665) (okunuş: Baltazar dö Monkoni) Lyon şehrinde doğar. Yaşadığı kentte 1618 yılında veba salgını baş gösterince, ailesi onu Salamanka şehrine bir Cizvit yatılı okuluna gönderir. Metafizik ve gizemcilik (mistisizm) için yoğun ilgi duyan Monconys, Pythagoras öğretilerini, Zerdüştlüğü, hatta Yunan ve Arap simyacıların eserlerini okur. Daha küçük yaştan beri Hindistan ve Çin'e kadar ulaşmayı düşlemesine karşın eğitimini tamamladıktan sonra Lyon'a geri döner ve nihayet 34 yaşındayken kütüphane güvenliğini ve teorik laboratuvar bilgilerini terkedip kararlı bir biçimde Avrupa ve Doğu'ya seyahat etmeye başlar.

Monconys, Luynes dükünün oğluyla birlikte Portekiz, İngiltere, Almanya, İtalya, Alçak Ülkeler (Hollanda), İstanbul ve Orta Doğu'ya seyahat eder. Daha ilk yolculuğundan (Portekiz'de) uğradığı her şehirde kısa zamanda matematikçi, rahip, cerrah, mühendis, kimyager, doktor ve prens gibi çeşit çeşit insanlarla bağ kurup laboratuvarlarını ziyaret ederek "sır ve tecrübeler" derler. Yazdığı metinde bu süreci izlemekteyiz. Portekiz'den sonra ilk kez olarak İtalya'ya gider ve nihayet çeşitli dogmaları, eski dinleri ve "gymnosophist"leri (çıplak bilgeler) incelemek üzere Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar. 1647-48 yıllarında Mısır'da bulunmaktadır; Zerdüştçüler ve Hermes-Thot (Hermes Trismegistus) müritleriyle karşılaşmak için Sina dağına kadar ulaşır. Mısır'da 17. yüzyılın bu Batı Avrupalısı daracık sokakların oluşturduğu labirent içinde yitip, türk, kıptî, yahudî, arap, moritanyalı, maruni, ermeni, derviş gibi binbir çeşit dogma ve mezhep, milliyet ve kültürel adet keşfeder. Batıl inançlara uyar, ibranice farsça yada arapça dillerinde yazılmış şahane gökbilim kitapları keşfeder. Kutsal Yerlere hacılık ziyaretinin ardından Anadolu'yu boydan boya geçip İstanbul'a varır. Buradan İran'a gitmeyi planlar. Ancak veba salgını bir kez daha onu kaçmaya zorlar; İzmir'e geçip oradan 1649 yılında Lyon'a döner.

Monconys 1663'ten 1665'e kadar hiç ara vermeden Paris, Londra, Hollanda ve Almanya arasında mekik dokuyup prens ve filozoflarla konuşur, çeşitli kütüphane ve laboratuvarları ziyaret eder ve birçok bilim adamıyla yoğun bir mektuplaşma sürdürür. Ancak sonunda üstüste geçirdiği astım krizlerinden sonra seyahat notlarının kitap olarak basılmış halini göremeden ölür.

Sözkonusu yayın (1665-1666) Monconys'nin oğlu ve dostu Cizvit rahip J. Berchet tarafından hazırlanmıştır. Monconys'nin geniş bir ilgi alanına sahip oluşu günlüğünü tamamlayan desenlerle kanıtlanmaktadır. Derlemiş olduğu çeşitli ve zengin malzeme içinde: ilâç reçeteleri, kimyasal formüller, gizli ilimlerle ilgili malzeme, matematik bilmeceleri, cebir ve geometri problemleri, zoolojiye (hayvan bilimi) ilişkin gözlemler, mekanik uygulamalar, doğa fenomenleri betimlemeleri, kimyasal deneyler, makineler, tıp konuları, felsefe taşı, astronomi ölçümleri, büyüteçler, termometreler, su tesisatıyla ilgili cihazlar, içkiler, hidrometreler, mikroskoplar, mimarî yapılar, hijyen ve likör yapımı gibi konular var.

Kitabın üçüncü cildinde işlenen konular arasında 165 tane fizik kimya ve tıp deneyi ve sonuçları, ve Maraton muharebesi hakkında bir sone yer almaktadır. Bu içeriğin sınıflanması için kitaba beş tane ayrı çözümlemeli dizin eklenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, Monconys'nin üç ciltlik eserinden upuzun bir isimler katalogu da (250'den fazla isim) elde edilebilir. Bu isimler yazar ve düşünür, doktor, simyacı, astrolog, matematikçi, deneyci ve çeşitli uzman araştırmacılara aittir. Monconys'nin metninden ve mektuplaşmalarından, 17. yüzyıl ortalarında özellikle batı Avrupa'da, 20 yıldan fazla bir süre için, tüm bilim uzmanlarının yeniden birleştirebileceği son derece ilginç bir bilimler arası ilişki ağı ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Monconys'nin yazış uslubu tekdüze olmakla birlikte, bir laboratuvar araştırmacısının seyahat günlüğü ile gözlem defterini bir arada bulundurması açısından eşsiz bir cazibeye sahiptir. Metne eşlik eden desenler seyahat edebiyatı yayınlarında rastlanan ender türden bir malzeme oluşturmaktadır.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

How Architecture Learned to Speculate

Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest

December 2009

For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.

Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.

ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9

Number of pages: 246

Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm

www.igmade.net/order.html

The word derives from Greek θεωρία theoria (Jerome), Greek "contemplation, speculation", from θεωρός "spectator", θέα thea "a view" + ὁρᾶν horan "to see", literally "looking at a show".[2] There is a second possible etymology that traces the word back to το θείον to theion "divine things" instead of thea, reflecting the concept of contemplating the divine organisation (Cosmos) of the nature. It is attested in English since 1592.[3]

Who calls this image a favorite?

Current Speculation Regarding The Seven Stars Despite It's Recent Revamp And Marston's Branding Is That A Supermarket Chain Has Showed Interest. Recently 'Save The Seven Stars' Posters Have been Put Up In The Area.....But What Happened Next........

Bien sûr, à Santorin, on peut faire les belles photos traditionnelles des moulins et des clochers blancs et bleus. Je les ai faites. Mais ce qui frappe, c'est la construction débridée. On ne paraît protéger que la vue de loin, de la mer. Mais sur le chemin de Fira à Ia, les belles perspectives sont cassées par des constructions nouvelles particulièrement mal placées. A qui profite le crime ? J'aurais dû y aller il y a trente ans...

L87 surfacing -- there is now speculation that he is the father of J49 -- explaining why he has been travelling with the J's since late 2010. Photo taken August 7th, 2012 as a sub-pod of the J's and L87, visited Saturna's East Point at around 3pm travelling with an ebb tide, heading west toward the San Juan Island. This visit included the first ever by J49 to this shore -- a day old calf of J37 -- closely guarded by members of the family travelling in a very tight group

Bien sûr, à Santorin, on peut faire les belles photos traditionnelles des moulins et des clochers blancs et bleus. Je les ai faites. Mais ce qui frappe, c'est la construction débridée. On ne paraît protéger que la vue de loin, de la mer. Sur le chemin de Fira à Ia, les belles perspectives sont cassées par des constructions nouvelles particulièrement mal placées. A qui profite le crime ? J'aurais dû y aller il y a trente ans...

The history of the Jemison Center, often strangely called "Old Bryce," seems to be mired in half-truths and speculation on the internet. The earliest information found dates back to when the land was a plantation, called Crab Orchard back in the 1820s, due to the many crab apple trees located on the property. It was owned by William Jemison, who then passed it down to his son, Robert Jemison Jr., a successful politician and businessman. The 4,000 acre tract in Northport was later known as Cherokee Place, where Robert would live until his new home was completed in Tuscaloosa in 1862. Jemison was a major advocate for the establishment of a hospital for the insane in Alabama, and is considered a major influence to select the area as the site for the first asylum in the state - the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane (Bryce Hospital).

By the 1920s the asylum had become severely overcrowded, and satellite institutions were created nearby to relieve the pressure, such as the Alabama Home for Mental Defectives (later known as Partlow State School). In 1939, the site of the Cherokee Plantation was purchased and transformed into the State Farm Colony for Negroes (the old Bryce Hospital grounds only housed white patients during the Jim Crow era). The former plantation house on the hill was razed and in its place the state of Alabama constructed the Jemison Institute, a three-story brick institution with detached heating plant for $161,000.

History seems to fade from there; it's assumed the Jemison Center operated as a state work farm, where able-bodied African American patients would work the fields to produce food for the hospital, as well as performing other kinds of labor (weaving, mending, etc). Desegregation orders from the government and changes in labor laws seemed to put an end to the Jemison Center; all farming operations at Bryce ceased in 1977. A mid-19th century structure was also erected on the property, called the S.D. Allen Intermediate Care Facility; it was used as a nursing home until it closed in 2003.

Info taken from - opacity.us/site245_jemison_center.htm

How Architecture Learned to Speculate

Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest

December 2009

For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.

Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.

ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9

Number of pages: 246

Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm

www.igmade.net/order.html

Two Dinky Toys Land Rovers.

There has been much speculation about the Dinky Toys model from 1955. Many modellers have wondered "did the MTP actually use red Land Rovers?".

Well, yes they did; although the markings on the Dinky Toy was different to the real beast and it had a black painted roof unlike the toy. The other thing that has confused many modellers is the colour of the later Land Rovers. Some "experts" have painted them in bright prime yellow and bright prime red..... WRONG!!

Careful research with thanks to the invaluable help of Inspector Russ Aitken at MTP, has shown that these vehicles were "cream" in colour and the red was more like a signal red than a fire engine red. The cream is in fact a primrose yellow shade, very similar to the colour used by many police forces of the period.

In some lights it will look cream and brown, as many other people have stated in their recollections of seeing these Land Rovers in the 1960's, but they were in fact this pale yellow and darker red. MTP did use a prime yellow on their vehicles BUT not until 1974 when the series 3 Land Rover was used and not the older series 1 and 2.

So the model experts that have these in code 3..... sorry guys, but they are all wrong!! They look nice, but they are the wrong colour!!