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© 2009 Loren Zemlicka
Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.
- Thomas Jefferson
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As finished (10 October 2022).
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www.munus.com/tempo-liberato?ln=2
Tempo Liberato
Perugia, Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna - 10 November / 16 December 2018
The City of Perugia and Munus, the museum service provider company that’s working on a project for optimising and enhancing the value of the Civic Museum in Palazzo della Penna, of the Chapel of San Severo and of the Templar Complex of San Bevignate, are pleased to present Tempo Liberato. Curated by GMGProgettoCultura and Francesca Romana Pinzari and set up in the Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna, this exhibition features 23 contemporary artists who employ paintings, sculptures, photographs and live performances to discuss the concept of Time and the relationship between the frenetic rhythms that dominate today’s globalised society, obsessed as it is with continuous productivity, and the free time that individuals find themselves increasingly having to sacrifice.
Our personal time – the time we have for meditating, the time we can call our own, so “free” – has become one of the most precious although least-prized commodities of our era. Yet despite often being considered to be a luxury, it is intangible and non-cumulative: we yearn for it, but cannot own it; we spend it, but cannot earn it.
Today’s constantly increasing technology has given us tools for slashing in half and sometimes practically eliminating the time it takes to produce things, yet those same devices have paradoxically only served the purpose of increasing, not decreasing, the personal time we devote to our work.
In short, time is not free any more, but the slave of our social superstructures, so that even in the air we breathe we can perceive an increasingly widespread need to take back control of the natural rhythms that govern mankind’s life.
Art is the place where time is set free of the mechanisms of consumption and usability, of calculations and of predestination, and can express itself in the principles of its cyclic nature, in the potential dichotomies of contingent and transcendent, of natural and arithmetic, of space and work.
Hence the title Tempo Liberato, a play on the Italian word combination between “Free Time” and “Time Set Free” that stresses how artists, architects and town planners both past and present manage to create places with the ability to enrich the social time we spend in meditative, evolutionary spaces, bringing together spirit and matter. And the fact is that artistic cities have long proved to be particularly suitable locations for achieving that magical coincidence between man, space and time.
The city of Perugia has always taken care to leave eloquent narrative traces of its evolution over the years, keeping faith with the gentle harmony of the landscape that surrounds it.
An early example is the Fontana Maggiore, or Great Fountain, with its depictions of agricultural tasks alternating with signs of the zodiac, followed by the seven liberal arts and Philosophy.
Then there’s Pope Gregory XIII, who decided to reform the Julian calendar and replace it with the Gregorian one. To do it, he called in Father Egnazio Danti, a mathematician and astronomer from Perugia who turned his hand directly to redesigning the way we measure the times of the world in which we live.
Perugia is the virtuous example of a city that has hosted enlightened industries like Perugina and the Luisa Spagnoli fashion group, which have paid attention to considering their employees’ needs, taking care not only of the time they devote to production, but also their private time; building recreational facilities and giving everyone a chance to spend pleasant time with their families, in a context at no great removed from their workplace.
Nowadays, Time generates fear and wounds, caught up in a bruising frenzy, wrapping fragments of moments up into isolated little parcels that shift us even further away from holistic understanding.
The artists in this show express themselves in their own highly personal idioms, making a gift of their working time, which we see as a creative, ritual act, a generating presence that balances contingency with transcendence, a conscious awareness of the correspondence between space and time, a moment of choice that is extended and held, an act of care and of memory.
Art reinforces the mythical idea of Time, simultaneously young and old, fast and slow, the impudent offspring of Earth and Sky, proud and stubborn in its inexorable forward march.
"War’s Lament: The Tragedy of Victims"
Tragedy seeks out vulnerability and inherent worth.
And kindness attracts those positioned to self-consume.
It is in fields of conflict where the virtuous can temporarily inflict dominion.
Whilst claiming righteousness as the essential prize.
And satiate struggle of the empowered over the objectified is given grace.
Advocates of justice and equality are silenced.
Decision-makers entangle themselves in the interconnected web of power and corruption.
Until ethical decisions become inoperable.
And the profound sense of loss and injustice engulfs all victims.
Then calls for action against the objectification and mistreatment of victims fall away.
So that righteousness of victory is systemically ritualised.
And the well-positioned can claim generational status.
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www.jjfbbennett.com/2023/07/wars-lament-tragedy-of-victim...
JJFBbennett Art Directory
Contemporary Positional Video Art and Socio-Fictional Writings
It is about being creative and innovative with knowledge
Dutch postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
American actor James Stewart (1908-1997) is among the most honored and popular stars in film history. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.
James Maitland Stewart was born in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The studio did not see leading man material in Stewart, but after three years of supporting roles and being loaned out to other studios, he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You (1938). Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man (Stewart) from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman (Jean Arthur) from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family. The following year, Stewart got his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an idealised and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), again opposite Jean Arthur. He won the Academy Award for his work in the screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. A licensed amateur pilot, Stewart enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps as soon as he could after the United States entered the Second World War in 1941. Although still an MGM star, his only public and film appearances in 1941—1945 were scheduled by the Air Corps. After fighting in the European theater of war, he had attained the rank of colonel and had received several awards for his service. He remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. He retired in 1968 and was awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
After the war, James Stewart had difficulties in adapting to changing Hollywood and even thought about ending his acting career. He became a freelancer, and had his first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) with Donna Reed. Although it earned him an Oscar nomination, the film was not a big success at first. It has gained in popularity in the decades since its release and is considered a Christmas classic and one of Stewart's most famous performances. In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career revival by playing darker, more morally ambiguous characters in Westerns and thrillers. Some of his most important collaborations during this period were with directors Anthony Mann, with whom he made eight films including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he collaborated on Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958) with Kim Novak. Vertigo was ignored by critics at its time of release, but has since been reevaluated and recognised as an American cinematic masterpiece. His other films in the 1950s included the Broadway adaptation Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959), both of which landed him Oscar nominations. He was one of the most popular film stars of the decade, with most of his films becoming box office successes. Stewart's later Westerns included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), both directed by John Ford. He signed a lucrative multi-movie deal with 20th Century-Fox in 1962 and appeared in many popular family comedies during the decade. After a brief venture into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s, although he remained a public figure due to the renewed interest in his films with Capra and Hitchcock and his appearances at President Reagan's White House. He received many honorary awards, including an honorary Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994. James Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later in Beverly Hills.
Source: Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1080. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actor James Stewart (1908-1997) is among the most honored and popular stars in film history. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.
James Maitland Stewart was born in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The studio did not see leading man material in Stewart, but after three years of supporting roles and being loaned out to other studios, he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You (1938). Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man (Stewart) from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman (Jean Arthur) from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family. The following year, Stewart got his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an idealised and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), again opposite Jean Arthur. He won the Academy Award for his work in the screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. A licensed amateur pilot, Stewart enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps as soon as he could after the United States entered the Second World War in 1941. Although still an MGM star, his only public and film appearances in 1941—1945 were scheduled by the Air Corps. After fighting in the European theater of war, he had attained the rank of colonel and had received several awards for his service. He remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. He retired in 1968 and was awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
After the war, James Stewart had difficulties in adapting to changing Hollywood and even thought about ending his acting career. He became a freelancer, and had his first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) with Donna Reed. Although it earned him an Oscar nomination, the film was not a big success at first. It has gained in popularity in the decades since its release and is considered a Christmas classic and one of Stewart's most famous performances. In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career revival by playing darker, more morally ambiguous characters in Westerns and thrillers. Some of his most important collaborations during this period were with directors Anthony Mann, with whom he made eight films including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he collaborated on Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958) with Kim Novak. Vertigo was ignored by critics at its time of release, but has since been reevaluated and recognised as an American cinematic masterpiece. His other films in the 1950s included the Broadway adaptation Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959), both of which landed him Oscar nominations. He was one of the most popular film stars of the decade, with most of his films becoming box office successes. Stewart's later Westerns included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), both directed by John Ford. He signed a lucrative multi-movie deal with 20th Century-Fox in 1962 and appeared in many popular family comedies during the decade. After a brief venture into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s, although he remained a public figure due to the renewed interest in his films with Capra and Hitchcock and his appearances at President Reagan's White House. He received many honorary awards, including an honorary Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994. James Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later in Beverly Hills.
Source: Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Alabaster & marble wall monument which has not fared well over time:
"Here lies buried the most virtuous Lady Catherine Graham wife of Sir Richard Graham of Netherby in the county of Cumberland, knight and Bart, daughter of Thomas Musgrove of Cumcach Esq and Susanna his wife. Well beloved in her country as being a very hospitable and charitable matron, she died March 1649 in the 48th year of her age leaving behind her 2 sons and 4 daughters namely George, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth, Susanna and Henrietta Maria."
Richard, bc.1583 was the 2nd son of Fergus Graham 1625 of Plump, Kirkandrews-upon-Esk and Sybil daughter of William Bell of Scotsbrig, Middlebie, Dumfries & Brockethouse by Elizabeth Bowmont
He was knighted on 9th January 1629 and created a baronet on 29th March 1629
He was groom to George, 1st Marquess (later Duke) of Buckingham by 1617, gentleman of the horse 1619-28;8 joint. clerk of customs bills 1619-21;9 equerry, King’s Stables 1629-?44; master of the harriers 1644- Member, Council in the North 1629-41 .......
Sir Richard came from one of the more obscure branches of a border clan, notorious for its participation in violent raiding, that settled at Plump by the middle of the sixteenth century His elder brother was deported to the Low Countries after a particularly audacious week of pillage in 1603, and his ‘debatable lands’ were granted to George Clifford, 3rd earl of Cumberland. Sir Richard himself ‘came on foot to London and got entertained into ... Buckingham’s service, having some spark of wit, and skill in moss-trooping and horse-coursing’. Despite a temporary loss of office in 1620 after a duel with his employer’s kinsman, a younger son of Basil Feilding*, he was able to lay out £3,955 on the purchase of property in Lincolnshire in 1621-2. As a part-time resident in Cumberland, he endeavoured to reform vice there by building a church and educating the young Appointed customer of Carlisle in 1623, he was granted permission to execute the office by deputy on account of his attendance at Court. In the same year, with Sir Francis Cottington* and Endymion Porter†, he accompanied Buckingham and Prince Charles on their ill-fated journey to Spain to woo the Infanta.
In 1624 the year of his marriage, Richard bought Norton Conyers from his wife’s father (whose own father had purchased it from the Crown in 1593 ) with 'all messuages, granges, mills, lands, tenements, tithes, waters, warrens, leet lawdays, views of frankpledge' and other liberties for £6,500.28 During the autumn he fought a duel with another follower of Buckingham, Sackville Crowe*, but again escaped serious consequences Graham took the credit for persuading Lord Robartes to buy a peerage for £3,000 in 1625, and Edward Clarke* heard that he had been rewarded with a suit valued at £500 a year.
He m 1624 Catherine daughter of Thomas Musgrove 1600 of 1600 of Cumcatch Manor, Brampton, Cumberland & Susanna Thwaites
Children
1. George 2nd Bart c1624-58 married Mary daughter of James Johnstone 1st Earl of Hartfell and 1st wife Margaret daughter of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Queensberry & Isabel Kerr
2. Richard 1635 - 1711 was made a baronet in 1662 for services to the royal cause in the Civil War . He m Elizabeth daughter of Chichester Fortescue & Elizabeth Slingsby
Elizabeth was the grand-daughter of William Slingsby www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/6123004013/ and had a son Reginald 1728 who married Frances Bellingham
3. Mary m Edward 1st baron Musgrave 1673 of Hayton Castle, Cumberland
4. Elizabeth m (1st wife) Sir Cuthbert Heron of Chipchase Castle
5. Susanna
6. Henrietta Maria
Sir Richard was first elected MP for Carlisle, ten miles from his Cumbrian estate, in 1626, during the mayoralty of his kinsman Edward Aglionby*, who acted as returning officer. He left no trace on the records of the second Caroline Parliament, though he may have heard his transaction with Robartes mentioned in Sir John Eliot’s* report on 24 Mar. 1626 of the charges of corruption levelled against Buckingham. Graham attended his master on the expedition to the Ile de Ré in 1627, and with John Ashburnham* helped to rally a faltering regiment at the landing He was re-elected in 1628, but again went unnoticed in the parliamentary records. On 8 July he re-purchased Nicholl Forest and other ‘debatable lands’ formerly confiscated from his family, from the Cliffords at the favourable price of £7,050.33 After his Buckingham’s assassination he was granted a market and fair on his Cumberland estate, and rebuilt Kirkandrews church in 1637, though in a thoroughly shoddy manner.
Richard was created a baronet in 1629.
He fought on the side of Charles I at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642, where he was severely wounded and lived in the York garrison until 1 July when the city was relieved by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. However Rupert and Newcastle were defeated the next day at the decisive Battle of Marston Moor, where Richard suffered 26 wounds returning home on horseback more dead than alive .
Later taken prisoner while on his way from Oxford to Newark in November 1645, he promptly submitted to Parliament and was thus able to compound for his delinquency at a favourable rate, paying £2,385 on an estate of just under £1,250 a year.
Sir Richard made his will on 26 March 1653, leaving a portion of £1,500 for his only unmarried daughter , named after the queen, Henrietta Maria, and an annuity of £20 for a cousin at whose house in Newmarket he died on 28th January 1654 and was buried here at Wath.
His Cumberland property had been settled on his elder son George who died before the 1660 Restoration of King Charles ll , however his grandson Sir Richard Grahame reeped the rewards for their loyalty to the Crown, and was given a Scottish peerage and represented the county under James II.
His younger son Richard founded another branch of the family at Norton Conyers where they still live . He was created 1st Baronet Graham of Norton Conyers for his loyal services in the Civil War,
(The descendants of George & William seem to have intermarried in the 17c & 18c www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/88Rn92 )
Monument repaired by Sir Bellingham Graham Bart 1783 "
A brass inscription placed on the wall underneath, is said by Longstaffe to refer to Katherine - "..Enobled virtue lyes within this tombe, whose life & death inferiour was to none. Her soules in heaven, this tombe is but a tent. Her endless worth is her owne monument" www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/877569
www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1604-1629/member/graham-richard... www.geni.com/people/Sir-Richard-Graham-of-Esk-1st-Baronet...
- Church of St Mary, Wath, Yorkshire
At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.
This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.
But I was on vacation, or not going to work.
I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.
For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.
It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.
So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.
Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.
We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.
So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.
At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.
As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.
Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.
The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.
The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.
I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.
The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.
So there I was.
Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.
This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.
I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.
Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.
I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.
It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.
I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.
I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.
It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.
I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.
I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.
The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.
I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.
And pray.
I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.
About eight elderly parishioners did, though.
I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.
I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.
After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.
He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.
By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.
Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.
I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.
At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.
With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.
She was now done for Christmas too.
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A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Penshurst
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PENSHURST.
THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.
There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.
THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.
The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.
SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.
By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.
Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.
The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.
The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.
This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)
By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.
¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.
PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.
The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.
Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.
This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)
¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)
The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)
John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)
[Exeter: Chapel of St Clare (Listed Grade II) - [Historic England List]]:
This tree (centre) is said to stand where Thomas Benet, the martyr, was burnt at the stake
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'The religious upheavals of the Reformation rocked the West Country. A Master of Arts from Cambridge, Thomas Benet, came to Exeter in 1 525 and ran a small school in Smythen Street. In 1 531 he began pinning placards to the cathedral door proclaiming such Lutheran sentiments as 'We ought to worship God only and no saints'. Benet was not discovered until he laughed during a cathedral service, when the 'heretic' was publicly cursed by bell, book and candle and condemned to be burnt. The mayor refused the use of Southernhay, Benet refused to retract his beliefs, and died at the stake at Livery Dole on 1 5 January 1532. By this time Henry VIII was already in the process of breaking with Rome. He soon sent Bishop Hugh Latimer on a tour to preach the Reformation, and he reached Exeter in June 1534.'
The Story of Exeter, p.47-48 [Reformation and Resistance], by Hazel Harvey
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'It is believed that Benet's death in the flames at Livery Dole was witnessed by an illiterate child called Agnes Prest. Years later she settled near Launceston with a husband, who welcomed the return of Catholicism under Queen Mary. He ordered Agnes to attend mass and confession, but she refused and fled to Exeter, returning because she missed her children. In Launceston she was accused of heresy against the sacrament of the altar and for speaking against idols. Bishop Turberville told her she should be burned to death, but she replied that calling a piece of bread God and then worshipping it was absurd and blasphemous. She was visited in prison by Walter Raleigh's mother. On 15 August 1557 Agnes was led outside the city walls to Southernhay and burnt at the stake. She and Thomas Benet are commemorated by a tall obelisk in Denmark Road [Exeter Memories]: the Protestant Alliance meets every October here, equidistant from the two martyrdom sites. They lay wreaths and remember the Protestant martyrs. Harry Hems created the memorial, and portl carved scenes and inscriptions on it. The inscription on the southern elevation reads:
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THOMAS BENET, M.A. WHO, SUFFERED AT LIVERYDOLE, A.D. 1531. FOR DENYING THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE, AND OF AGNES PREST, WHO SUFFERED ON SOUTHERNHAY, A.D. 1557, FOR REFUSING TO ACCEPT THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 'FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH '. TO THE GLORY OF GOD & IN HONOUR OF HIS FAITHFUL WITNESSES WHO, NEAR THIS SPOT, YIELDED THEIR BODIES TO BE BURNED FOR LOVE TO CHRIST AND IN VINDICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION, THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION, A.D. 1909.
THEY BEING DEAD YET SPEAK'
The Story of Exeter, p.54-55 [Reformation and Resistance], by Hazel Harvey
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'The King this year upon the persuasions and resolutions of the best learned divines that the marriage with his brother's wife was unlawful and against the law of god he forsaketh her bed and in the end by judgerment of the church he is divorced. And not long after he having good liking of the Lady Anne Boleyn he created her Marchioness of Pembroke and in the year following he married her. This year one Thomas Benet, a master of art, was detected, arrested and condemned for heresy. He came from Oxford secretly to this city and here lived in private manner by teaching of children but in the end notwithstanding he lived most godly and virtuously yet the same being not liking the papists he was convented before the bishop and his clergy, they condemned him and delivered him to the secular power to be burned and the execution whereof was committed to Sir Thomas Denys then Sheriff of Devon and Recorder of this city. And he having received his writ for the burning of heretics commended his petty officers to set up the stake in Southernhay for burning of him. But the mayor and common council of the city would not suffer it and therefore he was carried to Livery Dole where he was burned. The manner of this whole history the writer hereof hath penned and set down at large and it is recorded in the book of the acts and monuments set forth by Mr John Foxe. '
Book: The Chronicle of Exeter, p.80, [1531: Gilbert Kyrke], by Todd Gray
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'In 1531 Sir Thomas Denys (name also recorded as Dennys or Dennis), Sheriff of Devon, was involved in the execution on the grounds of heresy of a Thomas Benet at Livery Dole. Perhaps through a feeling of guilt Sir Robert Denys, being the next generation of the Denys family, founded the almshouses in 1591. In his will dated 15 July 1592 Denys requested that his son, Sir Thomas Denys, finish the almshouses3. Each almshouse consisted of a small room on the ground floor with a bedroom over and a small garden, the whole being enclosed by a wall.'
Book: Exeter's Almhouses, p.80 [Livery Dole Almshouses], by Jane Passmore
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'In 1517 Martin Luther protested against the power and wealth of the church by nailing his protests to the church door. A few years later in 1534, Henry VIII appointed himself head of the Church of England and, as protestantism replaced catholicism in England, iconoclasts went around destroying or removing anything connected to the Roman church.' - [Heavitree Local History Society - Newsletter 60 (March 2015)]
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Sadly, possibly Exeter's most famous martyr, Thomas Benet [Wikipedia], was ahead of his time in claiming the Pope was the Antichrist, as three years later his views were to be 'officially adopted' in the country, and this minor err in timing cost him his life:
'Benet's case marks the start of a new chapter in cathedral history: the age of the Reformation. The views he held were soon to be officially adopted. Within three years the pope's authority in England was to be abolished and so, within twenty years, was the worship. of saints. In 1531, however, such ideas were unfamiliar and rather unwelcome to most Exonians. There had been religious dissenters in England ever since Wycliffe in the 1370s, but scarcely any had appeared in Devon. Benet, significantly, was an immigrant scholar who had developed his opinions at Cambridge. He had a few in Exeter, but only a few. Most local people, whether devoutly religious or not, were traditionalists. They were used to the established system of things and resented attempts to change it.' [From book: Exeter Cathedral as it Was, 1050-1550, p.91, by Nicholas Orme]
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In the book Exeter's Almshouses, by Jane Passmore, there is mention of a '... pen and ink drawing by George Townsend in the WSL [Westcountry Studies Library].'
From the following ...
• Devon Archives and Local Studies Service
• Search the local studies illustration collections
• Search [Keywords]: 'Livery Dole'
Heavitree Toll Houses - [Heavitree Local History Society]
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In fact the Reformation was a movement with much earlier origins ...
'In 1164, Henry II framed the Constitutions of Clarendon here [at Clarendon Palace], which attempted to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and place limits on Papal authority in England. A memorial erected on the site in 1844 stated:
The spirit awakened within these walls ceased not until it had vindicated the authority of the laws and accomplished the Reformation of the Church of England.' [Clarendon Palace Wikipedia]
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'In August 1431, Drew Steyner was burnt at the stake at Livery Dole while a hundred years later, in 1531, Thomas Benet, the Protestant Martyr was the last to die there.' - ['Livery Dole' Exeter Memories]
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Tweet (26/11/2022):-
'The account of Katherine Raleigh’s vigil in the prison cells beneath Rougemount Castle . with Exeter martyr Agnes Prest in Foxe’s book of martyrs gave me the title for my novel - A Woman of Noble Wit.
#HistoryWritersDay22 #HistoricalFiction' - @RAGriggsauthor - [Rosemary Griggs]
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Panorama created using Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) with minor adjustments made in Photoshop Elements. Photos taken using my Canon EOS 550D SLR camera.
.Earliest It's messagesIt is true that there exist one or two other explanations of the origin of things which introduce a personal creator. There is, for instance, the legend—first mentioned by Lieh Tzŭ (to whom we shall revert later)—which represents Nü Kua Shih (also called Nü Wa and Nü Hsi), said to have been the sister and successor of Fu Hsi, the mythical sovereign whose reign is ascribed to the years 2953–2838 B.C., as having been the creator of human beings when the earth first emerged from Chaos. She (or he, for the sex seems uncertain), who had the “body of a serpent and head of an ox” (or a human head and horns of an ox, according to some writers), “moulded yellow earth and made man.” Ssŭ-ma Chêng, of the eighth century A.D., author of the Historical Records and of another work on the three great legendary emperors, Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti, gives the following account of her: “Fu Hsi was succeeded by Nü Kua, who like him had the surname Fêng. Nü Kua had the body of a serpent and a human head, with the virtuous endowments of a divine sage. Toward the end of her reign there was among the feudatory princes Kung Kung, whose functions were the administration of punishment. Violent and ambitious, he became a rebel, and sought by the influence of water to overcome that of wood [under which Nü Kua reigned]. He did battle with Chu Jung [said to have been one of the ministers of Huang Ti, and later the God of Fire], but was not victorious; whereupon he struck his head against the Imperfect Mountain, Page 82Pu Chou Shan, and brought it down. The pillars of Heaven were broken and the corners of the earth gave way. Hereupon Nü Kua melted stones of the five colours to repair the heavens, and cut off the feet of the tortoise to set upright the four extremities of the earth.5 Gathering the ashes of reeds she stopped the flooding waters, and thus rescued the land of Chi, Chi Chou [the early seat of the Chinese sovereignty].”
Another account separates the name and makes Nü and Kua brother and sister, describing them as the only two human beings in existence. At the creation they were placed at the foot of the K’un-lun Mountains. Then they prayed, saying, “If thou, O God, hast sent us to be man and wife, the smoke of our sacrifice will stay in one place; but if not, it will be scattered.” The smoke remained stationary.
But though Nü Kua is said to have moulded the first man (or the first human beings) out of clay, it is to be noted that, being only the successor of Fu Hsi, long lines of rulers had preceded her of whom no account is given, and also that, as regards the heavens and the earth at least, she is regarded as the repairer and not the creator of them.
Heaven-deaf (T’ien-lung) and Earth-dumb (Ti-ya), the two attendants of Wên Ch’ang, the God of Literature (see following chapter), have also been drawn into the cosmogonical net. From their union came the heavens and the earth, mankind, and all living things.
EDWARD MONTAGU, second Earl of Manchester (Earl of SANDWICH ) (1602-1671), born in 1602, was the eldest son of Sir Henry Montagu, first Earl of Manchester, by Catherine, second daughter of Sir William Spencer of Yarnton in Oxfordshire, who was the third son of Sir John Spencer of Althorp, Lincolnshire. After a desultory education, he entered Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, on 27 Jan. 1618.1 He represented the county of Huntingdon in the parliaments of 1623-4, 1625, and 1625-6. In 1623 he attended Prince Charles in Spain, and was by him created a knight of the Bath at his coronation on 1 Feb. 1625-6. On 22 May 1626, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, he was raised to the Upper House with the title of Baron Montagu of Kimbolton. In the same year he became known by the courtesy title of Viscount Mandeville, on his father being created Earl of Manchester. Being allowed but a small income from his father, Mandeville resided little in London, and mixed much with the relations of his second wife, the daughter of Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick. By them he was led to lean towards the puritan party, and to detach himself from the court.
On 24 April 1640, during the sitting of the Short Parliament, he voted with the minority against the king on the question of the precedency of supply.2 In June 1640 he signed the hesitating reply sent by some of the peers to Lord Warriston's curious appeal to them to aid the Scots in an invasion of England.3 Mandeville signed the petition of the twelve peers (28 Aug. 1640) urging the king to call a parliament, and with Lord Howard of Escrick presented it to Charles on 5 Sept. In the same month he obeyed the king's summons to the grand council of peers at York, and was one of those chosen to treat with the Scottish commissioners at Ripon on 1 Oct. In the negotiations he took an active part, passing frequently to and fro between Ripon and York, urging an accommodation,4 and drawing up the articles.5
Mandeville was during the early sittings of the Long Parliament an acknowledged leader of the popular and puritan party in the Lords. He was in complete accord with Pym, Hampden, Fiennes, and St. John, and he held constant meetings with them in his house at Chelsea.6On the discovery of the 'first army plot,' in May 1641, he was despatched by the Lords to Portsmouth with a warrant to examine the governor [see Goring, George, Lord Goring], and to send him up to London to appear before parliament.7 He was one of the sixteen peers chosen as a committee to transact business during the adjournment from 9 Sept. to 20 Oct. 1641. On 24 Dec. he protested against the adjournment of the debate on the removal of Sir Thomas Lunsford from the command of the Towering
His position was very clearly denned when his name was joined with those of the five members who were impeached by the king of high treason on 3 Jan. 1642, although his inclusion appears to have been an afterthought.8 When the articles of impeachment were read, Mandeville at once offered, 'with a great deal of cheerfulness,' to obey the commands of the house, and demanded that, 'as he had a public charge, so he might have a public clearing.'9 This demand he reiterated in the House on 11 Jan., and again on 13 Jan., notwithstanding the message from the king waiving the proceedings.10 A bill was finally passed by both houses in March 1642,11 clearing him from the accusation.12
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester. After Anthony Van Dyck's painting of the late 1630s.
Having thus identified himself with the popular party, he was among the few peers who remained with the parliament in August 1642, and in the following month he took command of a regiment of foot inEssex's army. When the king retired to Oxford, Mandeville (who had succeeded his father as Earl of Manchester in November) returned to London and occupied himself in raising money for the army,13 and in the negotiations for the cessation of arms. He was made Lord-Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire by the parliament in 1642. On the first suspicion of the Tomkins and Challoner plot [see Waller, Edmund], Manchester, with Viscount Save and Sele and others, managed (on Sunday, 28 May 1643) to elicit from Roe, a clerk of Tomkins, so many important secrets, that the whole conspiracy was speedily discovered. He afterwards acted as president in the resulting court-martial in June and July.14 Manchester was one of the ten peers nominated to sit as lay members in the Westminster Assembly of Divines in July of the same year.
The fortunes of the parliamentary forces in the eastern counties had in the early summer been seriously imperilled by local quarrels. Cromwell recognised the danger, and appealed to parliament to appoint a commander of high position and authority. On 9 Aug. accordingly the Commons resolved to make Manchester Major-General of the associated counties in the place of Lord Grey of Wark. The choice was confirmed by the Lords on the following day, and Essex at once complied with the request to give him the commission. Cromwell and Manchester were thus brought into close connection. They were already well acquainted with each other. Each belonged to a leading family of Huntingdonshire, had been educated at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge,16 and had been concerned in a dispute relating to the enclosing of common lands in the eastern counties, which had been before a committee of the House of Commons.17
By 28 Aug. Manchester, in his new capacity, was besieging Lynn-Regis in Norfolk; the town capitulated 16 Sept., and the governorship was bestowed upon him (21 Sept.). On 9 Oct. he joined Cromwell and Fairfax, then besieging Bolingbroke Castle, and the three commanders won Winceby or Horncastle fight on 11 Oct.18 On 20 Oct. the town of Lincoln surrendered to Manchester. On Cromwell's motion (22 Jan. 1644), Lord Willoughby of Parham, who had been commanding in Lincolnshire as Serjeant-Major-General of the county, was ordered to place himself under Manchester's orders. Charges of misconduct had been brought against Willoughby, who resented the position now forced on him, and challenged Manchester as he was on his way to the House of Lords. Both houses treated Willoughby's conduct as a breach of privilege, but after Manchester had defended himself against Willoughby's complaints, the subject dropped,19 and Willoughby returned to his duties under him.
On 22 Jan. 1644,20 Manchester was directed to 'regulate' the university of Cambridge, and to remove scandalous ministers in the associated counties. On 24 Feb. he accordingly issued his warrants to the heads of colleges, and began the work of reformation. About the same time (19 Dec. 1643) he authorised William Dowsing to destroy 'superstitious pictures and ornaments.' In February 1644 Manchester became a member of the new committee of both kingdoms, meeting at Derby House. In April he was again with his army watching the movements of Prince Rupert. The town of Lincoln had been retaken by the royalists in March, but Manchester successfully stormed the close on 6 May, and thus secured the county for the parliament.21 A bridge was thrown over the Trent at Gainsborough, and Manchester marched to the aid ofLord Fairfax and the Scots, who were besieging York. This junction was effected on 3 June. On the same day the committee of both kingdoms sent Vane to York, ostensibly to urge the generals to send a force into Lancashire to arrest Prince Rupert's progress, but in reality to propose the formation of a government from which Charles was to be excluded. Manchester and his colleagues rejected the suggestion, but Cromwell, Manchester's Lieutenant-General, probably accepted Vane's proposals, and to this difference of view may be traced the subsequent breach between the two.22Cromwell at the battle of Marston Moor (1 July) commanded Manchester's horse, while the earl himself exercised a general control as a field officer. Though carried away in the flight, he soon returned to the field, and successfully rallied some of the fugitives. After the surrender of the city of York on 16 July, the armies divided, and Manchester marched to Doncaster, which he reached on 23 July. While there Tickhill Castle surrendered (26 July) to John Lilburne, who had summoned it contrary to Manchester's orders, Sheffield Castle surrendered (10 Aug.) to Major-General Lawrence Crawford, and Welbeck House to Manchester himself (11 Aug.) But Pontefract Castle had been passed by, and Manchester paid no attention to the entreaty of the officers to blockade Newark.23 Proceeding leisurely to Lincoln, he subsided into inaction. The committee of both kingdoms (3 Aug.) directed him to march against Prince Rupert, but he (10 Aug.) shrank from 'so large a commission, and a worke so difficult,' in the unsatisfactory condition of his men, and the lateness of the season,24 and though constantly urged to make his way westward, the earl made no movement till the beginning of September.25 By 22 Sept. he was at Watford, on his way to the general rendezvous at Abingdon, and reached Reading on 29 Sept. Here he remained till the middle of October, notwithstanding the urgent desire of the committee in London that he should move forwards. He had reached Basingstoke by 17 Oct., was joined by Waller on the 19th, and by Essexon 21 Oct. For the command of the three armies thus united, a council of war, consisting of the three generals, with Johnston of Warriston and Crewe, had been appointed by the committee of both kingdoms.
At the second battle of Newbury, on 28 Oct., Manchester's lethargy became fatally conspicuous. Delaying to make the attack assigned to him till too late in the day, he failed in his attempt on Shaw House, and the royalist army under cover of the darkness made its escape westward, within 'little more than musket-shot' of the earl's position.26 At the council held the following day Manchester opposed Waller's and Cromwell's advice to pursue the enemy, and preferred to summon Donnington Castle. Failing in his attempt to storm it on 1 Nov. he leisurely withdrew, and the castle thus abandoned was relieved by the king on the 9th. At a council of war at Shaw Field on 10 Nov. Manchester plainly declared his horror of prosecution of the war. 'If we beat the king 99 times,' he said, 'he is king still, and so will his posterity be after him; but if the king beat us once, we shall be all hanged, and our posterity be made slaves.' On 17 Nov. he left Newbury for the purpose of protecting the besiegers of Basing House. But Basing was never reached. His starving men were deserting him, and with the remains of his army he made his way to Reading. The siege of Basing House was necessarily abandoned.27
Manchester's religious views, though sincere, were not very deep. He inclined to presbyterianism from circumstances rather than from conviction, and had not attempted to curtail Cromwell's efforts to 'seduce' the army 'to independency'.28 Discords among his officers were growing, and in September he had paid a hurried and fruitless visit to London in the hope of healing them, but the breach between him and Cromwell was soon irreparable.
On 25 Nov. Cromwell laid before the House of Commons a narrative, charging Manchester with neglect and incompetency in the prosecution of the war.29 He called attention to 'his Lordshipe's continued backwardness to all action, his aversenes to engagement or what tendes thereto, his neglecting of opportunityes and declineing to take or pursue advantages upon the enemy, and this (in many particulars) contrary to advice given him, contrary to commands received, and when there had been noe impediment or other employment for his army.'30 Cromwell's charges were probably not exaggerated. Manchester, a civilian at heart, was always of opinion 'that this war would not be ended by the sword, for if it were so concluded, it would be an occasion of rising again or of a future quarrel, but it would be better for the kingdom if it were ended by an accommodation.'31 Manchester defended himself in the House of Lords on 27 Nov., when a committee of inquiry was appointed,32 and made a vigorous attack on Cromwell.33 But the presentation of the bill for new modelling the army turned the course of public debate from the shortcomings of individuals to more general principles. The Commons (26 Dec., 30 Dec., and 1 Jan.), although urged by the lords to deliver their reports respecting Manchester, centred all their energies on the struggle for the passing of the self-denying ordinance, and on 2 April 1645 (the day before the ordinance passed the Lords) Manchester, like Essex and Denbigh, resigned his commission in the army. Forty of his officers in January 1645 signed a petition for his continuance in the service, fearing that his removal would 'breed a great confusion amongst them by reason of the differences between the Presbyterians and Independents.'34
Manchester, although relieved of military duty, still (4 April) retained his powers for regulating the university of Cambridge, was a constant attendant on the committee of both kingdoms, and frequently acted as Speaker of the House of Lords. In the propositions for peace at the end of 1645 it was recommended that he should be made a marquis. He was one of those to whom Charles on 26 Dec. 1645 expressed himself willing to entrust the militia, in accordance with the Uxbridge proposals, and was a commissioner for framing the articles of peace between the kingdoms of England and Scotland in July 1646.35 With William Lenthall he was entrusted with the charge of the Great Seal from 30 Oct. 1646 to 15 March 1648. Early in 1647 he was busy with other leading presbyterian peers in sketching out a pacification more likely to meet with the royal approval. When the houses of parliament were attacked by the London mob in July 1647, Manchester, notwithstanding his presbyterian leanings, fled to the army on Hounslow Heath with the independent members, and signed the engagement of 4 Aug. to stand by the army for the freedom of parliament.36 On 6 Aug. he returned to London escorted by Fairfax and resumed his duties as Speaker of the upper chamber.
Manchester stoutly opposed the ordinance for the king's trial in the House of Lords on 2 Jan. 1649, and retired from public life when the formation of a commonwealth grew inevitable. After the death of the Earl of Holland he was, on 15 March 1649, made chancellor of the university of Cambridge, a post of which he was deprived in November 1651 for refusing to take the engagement.37 Cromwell summoned him to sit in his Upper House in December 1657,38 but the summons was not obeyed. Manchester took an active part in bringing about the Restoration, and as Speaker of the Lords welcomed the king on his arrival (29 May). He was speedily invested with many honours. On 27 April 1660 he was appointed one of the commissioners of the Great Seal, on 22 May was restored to his Lord-Lieutenancy of the counties of Northampton and Huntingdon,39 and on the 26th to the chancellorship of Cambridge. He was made Lord Chamberlain of the household on 30 May, privy councillor on 1 June, and was also chamberlain of South Wales.
From 9 to 19 Oct. he was engaged on the trial of the regicides, and appears to have inclined to leniency.40 At the coronation of Charles II on 23 April 1661 he bore the sword of state, and was made a Knight of the Garter. He became joint commissioner for the office of Earl-Marshal on 26 May 1662, and was incorporated M.A. in the university of Oxford on 8 Sept. 1665. When, in 1667, the Dutch appeared in the Channel, Manchester was made a general, and a regiment was raised under his command (15 June). He was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1667 till his death. He died on 5 May 1671, and was buried in Kimbolton Church, Huntingdonshire.
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester. Studio of Peter Lely, after 1661. NPG
Manchester was of a generous and gentle disposition. Burnet speaks of him as 'of a soft and obliging temper, of no great depth, but universally beloved, being both a virtuous and a generous man,'41and this view is corroborated even by Clarendon.42 Sir Philip Warwick describes him as 'of a debonnair nature, but very facile and changeable,'43 while Baillie calls him 'a sweet, meek man.'44 Peace, a constitutional monarchy, and puritanism were the objects at which he aimed, and his inactivity in the army dated from the time when protracted war, the rule of the people, and independency seemed to be the inevitable outcome of the struggle. It was easy to begin a war, he was in the habit of saying, but no man knew when it would end, and a war was not the way to advance religion.45 When actually in the field, his sense of duty and his humanity prompted him to activity. To encourage his men he marched among them for many a weary mile,46 or spent the night after an engagement in riding from regiment to regiment, thanking the soldiers and endeavouring to supply their wants.47 The same longing for peace and accommodation is exemplified in his religious connections. A presbyterian member of the assembly of divines, he used his influence to have Philip Nye, the independent, appointed to the vicarage of Kimbolton, and in the hearing of Baxter pleaded for moderate episcopacy and a liturgy.48 Baxter, while designating him 'a good man,' complains that he would have drawn the presbyterians to yield more than they did, and was earnest in urging the suppression of passages that were 'too vehement.'49
Many of Manchester's letters on army business are in the British Museum50 and in the Bodleian Library.51Manchester married five times. His first wife was Susanna, daughter of John Hill of Honiley in Warwickshire, and of his wife Dorothy Beaumont, sister to the Duke of Buckingham's mother. Pecuniary arrangements between the duke and Manchester's father were amicably concluded by means of the match. The marriage ceremony, which took place early in February 1623, was performed in the king's bedchamber, where James was confined to his bed. He was not, however, incapable of throwing his shoe after the bridal party as they left the room. Susanna Montagu died in January 1625. As Lord Mandeville, Manchester married at Newington Church, on 1 July 1626, Anne, daughter of Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick, Lord Admiral of the Long Parliament, by whom he had three children: Robert, his successor, noticed below; Frances, who married Henry, son of Dr. Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln; and Anne, who married Robert Rich, second Earl of Holland and fifth Earl of Warwick. Anne, Lady Mandeville, died on 14 or 19 Feb. 1641-2, and was buried at Kimbolton. There is a portrait of her at Kimbolton Castle. His third wife was Essex (d. 28 Sept. 1658), daughter of Sir Thomas Cheke of Pirgo in Essex, by his wife Essex Rich, daughter of Robert, first Earl of Warwick, and widow of Sir Robert Bevil (d. 1640) of Chesterton in Huntingdonshire, by whom he had six sons and two daughters. Of the daughters, Essex (born 1644) married, in June 1661, Henry Ingram, Viscount Irwin. Of the six sons, Edward, Henry, Charles, and Thomas were members of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Manchester married a fourth wife in July 1659; she was Ellinor, daughter of Sir Richard Wortley of Wortley in Yorkshire, and he was her fourth husband. She had previously married Sir Henry Lee, first Baronet (d. 1631), of Ditchley in Oxfordshire; Edward Radcliffe, sixth Earl of Sussex (d. 1641); and Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick (d. 1658) (the father of Manchester's second wife). She died in January 1666-7. In August 1667, at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Manchester married his fifth wife, Margaret, daughter of Francis Russell, fourth Earl of Bedford, a widow of James Hay, second Earl of Carlisle (d. 1660). She died in November 1676, and was buried at Chenies, Buckinghamshire.
1. Admission Registers.
2. Calendar of State Papers, 1640, p. 66.
3. Gardiner, Fall of Charles I, p. 402; Mandeville, MS. Memoirs in Addit. MS. 15567, ff. 7-8.
4. Harl. MS. 456, ff. 38-40.
5. Borough, Treaty of Ripon, pp. 44,55.
6. Evelyn, Diary of Correspondence, iv. 75-6.
7. Lords' Journals, iv. 238.
8. Nicholas Papers, Camden Society, i. 62.
9. Lords' Journals, iv. 501.
10. ib. pp. 505, 511.
11. ib. p. 649.
12. cf. v. 564.
13. Comm. for the Advance of Money, p. 1.
14. Sanford, Studies of the Great Rebellion, p. 561, quoting from D'Ewes.
15. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, i. 224-6.
16. Sanford, Studies, pp. 202-5.
17. Clarendon, Life, 1857, i. 73-4; Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 1866, i. 90.
18. See Manchester's letter of 12 Oct. in Lords' Journals, vi. 255-6.
19. Harl. MS. 2224, ff. 12-16.
20. Husband, Ordinances of Parliament, 1646, folio, p. 415.
21. True Relation, E. 47 [2], Manchester's letter read in the House of Commons on 9 May.
22. Gardiner, Civil War, i. 431-3.
23. Pickering's Deposition, Cal. State Papers, 1644, p. 151.
24. Quarrel of Manchester and Cromwell, p. 9.
25. ib. pp. 20-4.
26. Watson's Deposition, Cal. State Papers, 1644-5, p. 150.
27. Gardiner, Civil War, p. 518.
28. Baillie, Letters and Journals, ii. 185.
29. Quarrel of Manchester and Cromwell, Camden Soc., pp. 178-95.
30. Cromwell's Narrative in Quarrel, p. 79.
31. Pickering's Deposition, Cal. State Papers, 1644-5, p. 152.
32. Lords' Journals, vii. 76.
33. Camden Miscellany, vol. viii.
34. Whitacre, Diary, British Library Addit. MS. 31116, f. 185.
35. Thurloe, State Papers, i. 77-9.
36. Rushworth, vii. 754.
37. See letters in Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. ii. p. 64.
38. Parl. Hist. iii. col. 1518.
39. Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. ii. p. 65.
40. Exact and most impartial Account. E. 1047 [3], p. 53 b.
41. Burnet's History of his Own Time,, 1875, i. 66.
42. History of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, i. 242, ii. 545.
43. Sir Philip Warwick, Memoires of the Reign of King Charles I, 1701. 246.
44. Baillie, Letters and Journals, ii. 229.
45. Cal. State Papers. 1644-5, Pickering's Deposition, p. 152.
46. Ashe, Particular Relation.
47. Sanford, Studies, p. 608.
48. Sylvester, Reliquae Baxterianae, p. 278.
49. ib. p. 365.
50. British Library Egerton MSS. 2643 ff. 9, 23, 2647 ff. 136, 229, 241, 319; Addit. MS. 18979, f. 158; Harl. MS. 7001, ff. 170, 172, 174, 202.
51. Bodleian Library Tanner MSS. lxiii. f. 130, lxiv. f. 91, lxii.'tf.43l, 471, lvii. f. 194.
"But “there is no partiality with God” (Rom 2:11) because God is perfectly just. He will, as St Paul says clearly and as we repeated in the psalm response, “repay everyone according to his works” (Rom 2:6). So, as St Paul goes on to say to the Romans, Man will be rewarded with heaven for his good works, and hell for his wicked works. Or to be more precise, for one’s unrepented evil deeds".
The rest of my sermon for today can be read here.
Detail from a medieval altarpiece in the Lille Museum of Fine Art.
Hemos descubierto muchas maravillas durante nuestro viaje en los países bálticos, pero la más inesperada fue la arepera venezolana donde comimos anoche en la capital lituana. ¡Chévere!
Fue un placer platicar con el chef de la arepera "Venesuelos Virtuvé." Las arepas que nos preparó fueron sabrosísimas y el ambiente típico del restaurante es genial. Recomiendo a todos que vayan al restaurante si estén en Vilnius.
El señor chef es muy amable y es un verdadero patriota como todos de la diáspora venezolana en el extranjero.
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Who knew that there's a Venezuelan owned and operated arepera in Vilnius, Lithuania!
It was sheer serendipity to come across it was I was sifting through the restaurant listings in Trip Advisor yesterday looking for a place to have a dinner on a special day.
The restaurant is called Venesuelos Virtuvé, and the food and atmosphere are indeed virtuous. The chef is a great guy, very friendly, who knows how to cook a mean arepa, a Venezuelan staple that consists of corn-flour bread with a delicious filling. The arepa is crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and what makes it a delight is the enormous variety of filings on the menu.
The gentleman who's the chef is part of the Venezuelan diaspora, the flood of people who are leaving what is fast becoming a criminal failed state to seek safety and better opportunities elsewhere. Well, Venezuela's loss is absolutely Lithuania's gain.
"Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’"
– Luke 5:32, which is part of today's Gospel at Mass.
Stained glass detail from a window in St Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, NYC.
"Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
‘Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”
‘Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink; I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.”
‘And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.’"
– Matthew 25:31-46, which is today's Gospel at Mass.
My sermon for today can be read here.
Stone carving from Baltimore Cathedral.
The Cathedral of Pisa , officially the Primate Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta , in the center of the Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli , is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa as well as the Primate church .
A masterpiece of the Romanesque , in particular of the Pisan Romanesque , it represents the tangible testimony of the prestige and wealth achieved by the maritime republic of Pisa at the moment of its apogee.
Its construction began in 1063 ( 1064 according to the Pisan calendar in force at the time) by the architect Buscheto , with the tenth part of the spoils of the Palermo campaign in Sicily against the Muslims ( 1063 ) led by Giovanni Orlandi belonging to the Orlandi family [ 1] . Different stylistic elements blend together: classical, Lombard-Emilian , Byzantine and in particular Islamic, proving the international presence of Pisan merchants in those times. In that same year the reconstruction of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice also began , so it may also be that there was a rivalry between the two maritime republics at the time to create the most beautiful and sumptuous place of worship.
The church was built in an area outside the early medieval city walls , to symbolize the power of Pisa which did not require protection. The chosen area was already used in the Lombard era as a necropolis and, already in the early 11th century , an unfinished church was built which was to be dedicated to Santa Maria. The new large church of Buscheto, in fact, was initially called Santa Maria Maggiore until it was finally named after Santa Maria Assunta.
In 1092 the church changed from a simple cathedral to being primatial, the title of primate having been conferred on Archbishop Daiberto by Pope Urban II , an honor which today is only formal. The cathedral was consecrated in 1118 by Pope Gelasius II , as recorded by the inscription placed internally on the counter-façade at the top left.
In the first half of the 12th century the cathedral was enlarged under the direction of the architect Rainaldo , who lengthened the naves by adding three bays in front of the old facade [2] according to the Buscheto style, widened the transept and designed a new facade, completed by the workers led by the sculptors Guglielmo and Biduino . The date of the start of the works is uncertain: immediately after Buscheto's death around the year 1120 , according to some, around the year 1140 according to others. The end of the works dates back to 1180 , as documented by the date affixed to the bronze doors by Bonanno Pisano on the main door.
The current appearance of the complex building is the result of repeated restoration campaigns that took place in different eras. The first radical interventions followed the disastrous fire on the night between 24 and 25 October 1595 [3] , which destroyed many decorative interventions and following which the roof was rebuilt and the three bronze doors of the facade were made, the work of sculptors from the workshop of Giambologna , including Gasparo Mola and Pietro Tacca . Starting from the eighteenth century, the progressive covering of the internal walls began with large paintings on canvas, the "quadroni" with Stories of Pisan blesseds and saints , executed by the main artists of the time thanks to the initiative of some citizens who financed themselves by creating a special business.
The Napoleonic spoliations of the Cathedral of Pisa and the Opera del Duomo were significant, many works converged on the Louvre where they are exhibited today, including The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas among the Doctors of the Church by Benozzo Gozzoli , now in the Louvre, Death of San Bernardo dell'Orcagna and San Benedetto , the work of Andrea del Castagno .
Among the various noteworthy interventions, it is worth mentioning the dismantling of Giovanni Pisano's pulpit which was reassembled only in 1926 in a different position and with several parts missing, including the staircase, and the dismantling of the monument to Henry VII created by Lupo di Francesco which was located in front of the door of San Ranieri and subsequently replaced by a simplified and symbolic version.
The subsequent interventions took place during the nineteenth century and affected both the internal and external decorations, which in many cases, especially the sculptures on the facade, were replaced by copies (the originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del duomo ).
The building has a Latin cross shape with a large dome at the intersection of the arms. The longitudinal body, divided into five naves , extends over ten bays . This plan continues in the choir with two more bays and a final apse crowning the central nave alone. The transept has 4 bays on each side (or six if we include the two in common with the longitudinal body) and has three naves with apses ending on both sides. In the center four large pillars delimit the rectangular cross ending at the top with a large elliptical dome.
The building, like the bell tower, has sunk perceptibly into the ground, and some defects in the construction are clearly visible, such as the differences in level between Buscheto's nave and the extension by Rainaldo (the bays towards the west and the facade) .
The exterior of the cathedral is mainly in white and gray marble although the older stones placed at the lower levels of the longitudinal body are of other poorer material. There is no shortage of valuable materials, especially on the facade, where there are multicolored marble inlays, mosaics and also bronze objects from war booty, including the Griffin used on the top of the roof at the back (east side), perhaps taken from Palermo in 1061 ( today there is a copy on the roof, the original is in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo ).
The longitudinal body, transept and choir have a rich facing punctuated by three orders or floors. On the lower floor, long rows of pilasters supporting blind arches , in turn enclosing lozenges or windows, punctuate the space on all sides of the building with very few interruptions (only the apse of the right transept). The second floor still has pilasters but this time these do not support blind arches and are rather architraved , a motif interrupted only in the apse of the right transept (where blind arches appear again) and in the main apse where two orders of loggias are visible . In addition to the windows and lozenges, inlaid oculi also appear between the pilasters . The third floor has columns or semi-columns which again support blind arches (longitudinal body and choir) or an architrave (transept) with the usual alternation of windows, lozenges and inlaid oculi.
The raised round arches on the facade and in the main apse recall elements of Muslim art from Sicily . The blind arches with lozenges recall the similar structures of the churches of Armenia . Even the ellipsoidal dome rebuilt after the fire of 1595, surmounted by a lantern, recalls Islamic architecture.
The gray and white marble façade , decorated with colored marble inserts, was built by master Rainaldo in the 12th century and finished by 1180. On the lower floor, the seven blind arches which enclose lozenges, one every two, echo the same motif which spreads over the remaining three sides of the Cathedral. On the façade, however, the ornamentation becomes richer: semi-columns placed against semi-rectangular pillars replace the slender pilaster strips on the sides and are surmounted by Corinthian or figurative capitals. The arches are embellished with a rich texture of vegetal motifs and the lozenges are also larger and inlaid with multicolored marble. The empty spaces between the three portals have marble slabs forming square or rectangular motifs and are embellished with horizontal ornamental bands with plant motifs. The empty spaces between the arches are also filled with marble tablets inlaid with geometric or animal motifs. Noteworthy is the one at the top right of the main portal which depicts a Christian brandishing the cross between two beasts and the writing of Psalm 21 : Salva me ex ore leonis et a cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam (Save me from the mouth of the lion Lord and my humility from the unicorn's horns), the original of which is preserved in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo .
Of the three portals , the central one has larger dimensions and is enclosed by two columns decorated with vegetal motifs which support, above the capitals, two lions to symbolize the two "faces" of Christ the Judge , the one who condemns on the left and the one who rewards and is merciful on the right (note the saved and protected lamb between the legs). All three portals have eighteenth-century mosaics by Giuseppe Modena da Lucca in their lunettes depicting the Assumption of the Virgin (centre), Santa Reparata (left) and Saint John the Baptist (right). The bronze doors were made by various artists of the caliber of Giambologna , after the fire of 1595, replacing the two wooden side doors and the bronze-covered wooden royal door by Bonanno Pisano which bore the date of 1180 (seen and described before the fire) to testify to the completion of the façade in that year. To the left of the north left portal, there is Buscheto's tomb.
The four upper floors are characterized by four orders of superimposed loggias, divided by finely sculpted frames, behind which there are single , double and triple lancet windows . Many of the friezes on the arches and frames were redone in the 17th century after the fire of 1595, while the polychrome marble inlays between the arches are original. Even higher up, to crown it, the Madonna and Child by Andrea Pisano and, in the corners, the four evangelists by Giovanni Pisano (early 14th century).
Contrary to what one might think, since ancient times the faithful have entered the Cathedral through the door of San Ranieri , located at the back in the transept of the same name, in front of the bell tower. This is because the nobles of the city went to the cathedral coming from via Santa Maria which leads to that transept. This door was cast around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano , and is the only door to escape the fire of 1595 which heavily damaged the church. The door is decorated with twenty-four panels depicting stories from the New Testament. This door is one of the first produced in Italy in the Middle Ages, after the importation of numerous examples from Constantinople , (in Amalfi , in Salerno , in Rome , in Montecassino , in Venice ...) and one admires an entirely Western sensitivity, which breaks away from the Byzantine tradition.
The original gràdule of the Duomo, designed by Giovanni Pisano and dating back to the end of the 13th century, were removed in 1865 and replaced by the current churchyard . These gràdule consisted of small walls, decorated with squares carved with figures of animals and heads, close to the external perimeter of the cathedral and served as a base for the numerous sarcophagi of the Roman era which, during the medieval era, were reused for the burials of nobles (among whom Beatrice of Canossa stands out ) and heroes. Currently some fragments are visible in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, while the sarcophagi were all moved within the enclosure of the monumental cemetery .
The lower register of the facade is not very rich in figurative sculptural decorations unlike other contemporary Romanesque cathedrals, but it still gives a rich meaning both to its unitary components and a complex allegory in its overall vision. To read the latter you need to start from the left where the outermost capital of the left side portal shows two ferocious lions devouring weak prey and two human figures further behind. The former represent the struggle between good and evil where evil dominates [6] , but behind them the figure of the old man stacking wood and the young man towering over a ram perhaps represent Abraham and Isaac and the sacrificial ram (or two peasants virtuous at work) which show preparation for God's plan of salvation. The arch that starts from the same capital shows a row of dragons that two virtuous human figures in the center are forced to face in the continuous struggle between good and evil. [6]
At the level of the central portal we enter the New Testament which concretizes the plan of salvation brought about by God starting from Abraham . It is the portal dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption and her Son , whose divine judgment is represented by the two lions of justice, the one that condemns on the left and the one that protects and saves on the right with the little lamb protected between its legs, for Divine Mercy or Justice whatever it is. [6] The 42 stylized human figurines present on the decorated arch show the 42 generations that separate, according to the Gospel of Matthew , Abraham from Jesus Christ (the figurines are actually 43 but perhaps due to renovation needs or other reasons for filling the frieze ). This transition from the old to the new is strengthened by the two marble inlays in the intrados of the main arch where a ferocious dragon and a lion facing each other depicting the perennial struggle between the evil forces (left inlay) [6] become two equally ferocious unicorns but in the middle to whom a Christian appears brandishing a cross to defend himself from them (inlay on the right) and where we read in Latin:
de ore leonis libera me domine et a cornibus unicorni humilitatem mea ("Save me from the lion's mouth, Lord, and my humility from the unicorn's horns", psalm 21 ).
The last element of this complex narrative is the outermost capital of the right portal, which acts as a pendant to that of the left portal from which we started. We are well beyond the coming of Jesus where the evil lions, previously in the foreground, are relegated to a backward and out of the way position, always ready to strike as shown by the heads turned back and the tongue out, but in a contorted position due to the continuous escapes to which the Savior and the Church forces them to do. [6] In a prominent position there are now two naked human figurines, the souls of those saved by the Savior through the intercession of the Church , which are composed and serene figures with large eyes, well anchored with their arms to the garland of the capital and the feet resting well on the acanthus leaves, symbol of men of faith, victorious over sin and blessed by faith rather than merit.
The five- nave interior is covered in black and white marble, with monolithic columns of gray marble and capitals of the Corinthian order . The arches of the ten bays are round arches (those of the central nave) or raised arches in the Moorish style of the time (those of the side naves).
The central nave has a seventeenth-century gilded coffered ceiling, in gilded and painted wood, by the Florentines Domenico and Bartolomeo Atticciati ; it bears the Medici coat of arms in gold . Presumably the ancient ceiling had a structure with exposed wooden trusses. The four side naves have a cross-shaped plastered roof. The coffered roof is also present in the choir and in the central nave of the transept, while a plastered barrel roof is present in the side naves of the transept. The coverage of the lateral naves of the transept at the level of the two bays shared with the lateral naves of the longitudinal body is curious: these are cross-shaped (as in the lateral naves of the longitudinal body), but are higher (as in the lateral naves of the transept) . There is also a women's gallery of Byzantine origin that runs along the entire church, including the choir and transept and which has a coffered roof (central body) or wooden beams (transept). Even higher up, thin and deep windows allow the church to be lit.
The interior suggests a spatial effect that has some analogy with that of mosques , for the use of raised arches, for the alternation of white and green marble bands, for the unusual elliptical dome , of oriental inspiration, and for the presence of women's galleries with solid monolithic granite columns in the mullioned windows , a clear sign of Byzantine influence. The architect Buscheto had welcomed stimuli from the Islamic Levant and Armenia . [7]
Only part of the medieval decorative interventions survived the fire of 1595. Among these is the fresco with the Madonna and Child by the Pisan Master of San Torpè in the triumphal arch (late 13th-early 14th century), and below it the Cosmatesque flooring , of a certain rarity outside the borders of Lazio . It was made of marble inlays with geometric "opus alexandrinum" motifs (mid- 12th century ). Other late medieval fresco fragments have survived, among them Saint Jerome on one of the four central pillars and Saint John the Baptist , a Crucifix and Saint Cosimo and Damian on the pillar near the entrance door, partially hidden by the compass .
At the meeting point between the transept and the central body the dome rises, the decoration of which represented one of the last interventions carried out after the fire mentioned. Painted with the rare encaustic painting technique [8] (or wax on wall) [9] , the dome represents the Virgin in glory and saints ( 1627 - 1631 ), a masterpiece by the Pisan Orazio Riminaldi , completed after his death. which occurred in 1630 due to the plague, by his brother Girolamo . The decoration underwent a careful restoration which returned it to its original splendor in 2018.
The presbytery, ending in a curved apse, presents a great variety of ornaments. Above, in the basin, the large mosaic of Christ enthroned between the Virgin and Saint John is made famous by the face of Saint John, a work by Cimabue from 1302 which miraculously survived the fire of 1595. Precisely that Saint John the Evangelist was the The last work created by Cimabue before his death and the only one for which certified documentation exists. It evokes the mosaics of Byzantine churches and also Norman ones, such as Cefalù and Monreale , in Sicily . The mosaic, largely created by Francesco da Pisa, was finished by Vincino da Pistoia with the depiction of the Madonna on the left side ( 1320 ).
The main altar, from the beginning of the twentieth century, features six Angels contemporary with Ludovico Poliaghi , and in the center the bronze Crucifix by Giambologna , of which there are also the two candle-holder Angels at the end of the rich marble transenna, while the third Angel on the column to the left of the altar is by Stoldo Lorenzi .
Below, behind the main altar, there is the large decorative complex of the Tribune, composed of 27 paintings depicting episodes from the Old Testament and Christological stories. Begun before the fire with the works of Andrea del Sarto (three canvases, Saint Agnes , Saints Catherine and Margaret and Saints Peter and John the Baptist ) del Sodoma and Domenico Beccafumi ( Stories of Moses and the Evangelists ), it was completed after this calamity with the works of several Tuscan painters, including Orazio Riminaldi .
The pulpit , a masterpiece by Giovanni Pisano (1302-1310), survived the fire, but was dismantled during the restoration work and was not reassembled until 1926 . With its articulated architectural structure and complex sculptural decoration, the work is one of the largest narratives in fourteenth-century images that reflects the renewal and religious fervor of the era. The episodes from the Life of Christ are carved in an expressive language on the slightly curved panels . The structure is polygonal, as in the similar previous examples, in the baptistery of Pisa , in the cathedral of Siena and in the church of Sant'Andrea in Pistoia , but for the first time the panels are slightly curved, giving a new idea of circularity in its type. Equally original are: the presence of caryatids , sculpted figures in place of simple columns, which symbolize the Virtues ; the adoption of spiral brackets instead of arches to support the mezzanine floor; the sense of movement, given by the numerous figures that fill every empty space.
For these qualities combined with the skilful narrative art of the nine scenes it is generally considered Giovanni's masterpiece and more generally of Italian Gothic sculpture. The pulpit commissioned from Giovanni replaced a previous one , created by Guglielmo ( 1157 - 1162 ), which was sent to the cathedral of Cagliari . Since there is no documentation of what the pulpit looked like before its dismantling, it was rebuilt in a different position from the original one and, certainly, with the parts not in the same order and orientation as had been thought. It is not known whether or not he had a marble staircase.
The right transept is occupied by the Chapel of San Ranieri , patron saint of the city, whose relics are preserved in the magnificent shrine on the altar. Also in the chapel, on the left, is preserved part of the fragmentary tomb of Henry VII of Luxembourg , Holy Roman Emperor , who died in 1313 in Buonconvento while besieging Florence in vain . The tomb, also dismantled and reassembled, (it was sculpted by Tino di Camaino in 1313 - 1315 ) and was originally placed in the center of the apse, as a sign of the Ghibelline faith of the city. It was also a much more complex sculptural monument, featuring various statues. Moved several times for political reasons, it was also separated into several parts (some inside the church, some on the facade, some in the Campo Santo). Today we find the sarcophagus in the church with the deceased depicted lying on it, according to the fashion in vogue at that time, and the twelve apostles sculpted in bas-relief. The lunette painted with curtain-holding angels is instead a later addition from the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (end of the 15th century ). The other remains of the monument have been reassembled in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo . The left transept is occupied by the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, in the center of which is the large silver tabernacle designed by Giovan Battista Foggini (1678-86).
On the numerous side altars there are sixteenth-seventeenth century paintings. Among the paintings housed on the minor altars, we remember the Madonna delle Grazie with saints, by the Florentine mannerist Andrea del Sarto, and the Madonna enthroned with saints in the right transept, by Perin del Vaga , a pupil of Raphael , both finished by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani . The canvas with the Dispute of the Sacrament is in Baroque style, by the Sienese Francesco Vanni , and the Cross with saints by the Genoese Giovanni Battista Paggi . Particularly venerated is the image of the thirteenth-century Madonna and Child , known as the Madonna di sotto gli organi , attributed to the Volterra native Berlinghiero Berlinghieri .
Pisa is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics.
The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.
History
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Pisa.
Ancient times
The most believed hypothesis is that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river.
Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the Etruscan origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations.
Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; and gives the epithet of Alphēae to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from Pisa in Elis, near which the Alpheius river flowed. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era.
The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name to Colonia Iulia obsequens.
Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 km (7 mi) north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from the coast. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city.
Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
During the last years of the Western Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably due to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevalent. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia, and the southern coasts of France and Spain.
After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca. In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside. In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia. Lucca was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of tenth century Liutprand of Cremona, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and a century later, the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. From the naval point of view, since the ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to expand its fleet; in the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts.
11th century
The power of Pisa as a maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century, when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy (Repubbliche Marinare).
At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in the south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with some 'Saracens' - a medieval term to refer to Arab Muslims - who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017, Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid, who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these major marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051–1052, the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, Admiral Giovanni Orlandi, coming to the aid of the Norman Roger I, took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo.
In 1060, Pisa had to engage in their first battle with Genoa. The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077 the new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a council of elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years, the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092, Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising the town to the rank of archbishopric.
Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia. A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade, and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land, the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands; the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert, the future patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant. In particular, the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, Latakia, and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea, plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo, Alexandria, and of course Constantinople, where the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities, the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century, the Pisan quarter in the eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century, Pisa was the most prominent commercial and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself.
12th century
In 1113, Pisa and Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors; the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped the Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral, and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean.
In the following years, the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi, drove away the Saracens after ferocious battles. Though short-lived, this Pisan success in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with Languedoc, Provence (Noli, Savona, Fréjus, and Montpellier) were an obstacle to Genoese interests in cities such as Hyères, Fos, Antibes, and Marseille.
The war began in 1119 when the Genoese attacked several galleys on their way home to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults.
In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of Pope Innocent II against those of Pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support, but was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing Pisan and Genoese spheres of influence. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily. Amalfi, one of the maritime republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on August 6, 1136; the Pisans destroyed the ships in the port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas, and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa. This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later, its soldiers sacked Salerno.
New city walls, erected in 1156 by Consul Cocco Griffi
In the following years, Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I. He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with these grants: Apart from the jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, a half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno and Naples, the whole of Gaeta, Mazara, and Trapani, and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily. Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI, Otto IV, and Frederick II. They marked the apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of other cities such as Lucca, Massa, Volterra, and Florence, thwarting their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena, the main trade route between Rome and France. Last, but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa.
Genoa had acquired a dominant position in the markets of southern France. The war began in 1165 on the Rhône, when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse, failed. Pisa, though, was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily, where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI. In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III, allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon, he stipulated[clarification needed] a pact with Genoa, too, further weakening the Pisan presence in southern Italy.
To counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with its traditional Spanish and French bases (Marseille, Narbonne, Barcelona, etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180, the two cities agreed to a nonaggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation. Soon, attacks on Venetian convoys were made. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona, Pula, Zara, Split, and Brindisi; in 1195, a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima soon reconquered the rebel sea town.
One year later, the two cities signed a peace treaty, which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa, but in 1199, the Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Apulia. In the following naval battle, they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on, the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase the trading benefits in Constantinople.
13th century
In 1209 in Lerici, two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa were held. A 20-year peace treaty was signed, but when in 1220, the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years, Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed the pope tried to deprive Pisa of its dominions in northern Sardinia.
In 1238, Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa, too. One year later, he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241, a combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the emperor's son Enzo, attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from northern Italy and France, next to the isle of Giglio (Battle of Giglio), in front of Tuscany; the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about a thousand sailors, two cardinals, and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this major victory, the council in Rome failed, but Pisa was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243.
The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici, conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256.
The great expansion in the Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned, and in 1230, the new city rulers named a capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain") as civil and military leader. Despite these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti. In 1237 the archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains continued. In 1254, the people rebelled and imposed 12 Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had the power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate.
Decline
The decline is said to have begun on August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria, in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered; in 1290, the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's port), and covered the land with salt. The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods, however, continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but the end came when the Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. The nearby area also likely became infested with malaria. The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was entirely lost to the Aragonese.
Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century, and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under the command of Uguccione della Faggiuola. Eventually, however, after a long siege, Pisa was occupied by Florentines in 1405.[9] Florentines corrupted the capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain"), Giovanni Gambacorta, who at night opened the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In 1409, Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism. In the 15th century, access to the sea became more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples, Pisa reclaimed its independence as the Second Pisan Republic.
The new freedom did not last long; 15 years of battles and sieges by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja, Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi were made, but they failed to conquer the city. Vitellozzo Vitelli with his brother Paolo were the only ones who actually managed to break the strong defences of Pisa and make a breach in the Stampace bastion in the southern west part of the walls, but he did not enter the city. For that, they were suspected of treachery and Paolo was put to death. However, the resources of Pisa were getting low, and at the end, the city was sold to the Visconti family from Milan and eventually to Florence again. Livorno took over the role of the main port of Tuscany. Pisa acquired a mainly cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa, created in 1343, and later reinforced by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1810) and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (1987).
Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei. It is still the seat of an archbishopric. Besides its educational institutions, it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II.
Since the early 1950s, the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa, which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area.
Geography
Climate
Pisa has a borderline humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). The city is characterized by cool to mild winters and hot summers. This transitional climate allows Pisa to have summers with moderate rainfall. Rainfall peaks in autumn. Snow is rare. The highest officially recorded temperature was 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 22 August 2011 and the lowest was −13.8 °C (7.2 °F) on 12 January 1985.
Culture
Gioco del Ponte
In Pisa there was a festival and game fr:Gioco del Ponte (Game of the Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge (Ponte di Mezzo). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the targone, a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of the bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated.
In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist Cornelis de Bruijn. He wrote:
"While I stayed in Livorno, I went to Pisa to witness the bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing the bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in Venice between the it:Castellani and the Nicolotti."
In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 Vittorio Emanuele III with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions.
Festivals and cultural events
Capodanno pisano (folklore, March 25)
Gioco del Ponte (folklore)
Luminara di San Ranieri (folklore, June 16)
Maritime republics regata (folklore)
Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa
Pisa Book Festival
Metarock (rock music festival)
Internet Festival San Ranieri regata (folklore)
Turn Off Festival (house music festival)
Nessiáh (Jewish cultural Festival, November)
Main sights
The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
While the bell tower of the cathedral, known as "the leaning Tower of Pisa", is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo, also known, since the 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery). The medieval complex includes the above-mentioned four sacred buildings, the hospital and few palaces. All the complex is kept by the Opera (fabrica ecclesiae) della Primaziale Pisana, an old non profit foundation that has operated since the building of the Cathedral in 1063 to maintain the sacred buildings. The area is framed by medieval walls kept by the municipal administration.
Other sights include:
Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, church sited on Piazza dei Cavalieri, and also designed by Vasari. It had originally a single nave; two more were added in the 17th century. It houses a bust by Donatello, and paintings by Vasari, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Fei, and Pontormo. It also contains spoils from the many naval battles between the Cavalieri (Knights of St. Stephan) and the Turks between the 16th and 18th centuries, including the Turkish battle pennant hoisted from Ali Pacha's flagship at the 1571 Battle of Lepanto.
St. Sixtus. This small church, consecrated in 1133, is also close to the Piazza dei Cavalieri. It was used as a seat of the most important notarial deeds of the town, also hosting the Council of Elders. It is today one of the best preserved early Romanesque buildings in town.
St. Francis. The church of San Francesco may have been designed by Giovanni di Simone, built after 1276. In 1343 new chapels were added and the church was elevated. It has a single nave and a notable belfry, as well as a 15th-century cloister. It houses works by Jacopo da Empoli, Taddeo Gaddi and Santi di Tito. In the Gherardesca Chapel are buried Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons.
San Frediano. This church, built by 1061, has a basilica interior with three aisles, with a crucifix from the 12th century. Paintings from the 16th century were added during a restoration, including works by Ventura Salimbeni, Domenico Passignano, Aurelio Lomi, and Rutilio Manetti.
San Nicola. This medieval church built by 1097, was enlarged between 1297 and 1313 by the Augustinians, perhaps by the design of Giovanni Pisano. The octagonal belfry is from the second half of the 13th century. The paintings include the Madonna with Child by Francesco Traini (14th century) and St. Nicholas Saving Pisa from the Plague (15th century). Noteworthy are also the wood sculptures by Giovanni and Nino Pisano, and the Annunciation by Francesco di Valdambrino.
Santa Maria della Spina. A small white marble church alongside the Arno, is attributed to Lupo di Francesco (1230), is another excellent Gothic building.
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno. The church was founded around 952 and enlarged in the mid-12th century along lines similar to those of the cathedral. It is annexed to the Romanesque Chapel of St. Agatha, with an unusual pyramidal cusp or peak.
San Pietro in Vinculis. Known as San Pierino, it is an 11th-century church with a crypt and a cosmatesque mosaic on the floor of the main nave.
Borgo Stretto. This medieval borgo or neighborhood contains strolling arcades and the Lungarno, the avenues along the river Arno. It includes the Gothic-Romanesque church of San Michele in Borgo (990). There are at least two other leaning towers in the city, one at the southern end of central Via Santa Maria, the other halfway through the Piagge riverside promenade.
Medici Palace. The palace was once a possession of the Appiano family, who ruled Pisa in 1392–1398. In 1400 the Medici acquired it, and Lorenzo de' Medici sojourned here.
Orto botanico di Pisa. The botanical garden of the University of Pisa is Europe's oldest university botanical garden.
Palazzo Reale. The ("Royal Palace"), once belonged to the Caetani patrician family. Here Galileo Galilei showed to Grand Duke of Tuscany the planets he had discovered with his telescope. The edifice was erected in 1559 by Baccio Bandinelli for Cosimo I de Medici, and was later enlarged including other palaces. The palace is now a museum.
Palazzo Gambacorti. This palace is a 14th-century Gothic building, and now houses the offices of the municipality. The interior shows frescoes boasting Pisa's sea victories.
Palazzo Agostini. The palace is a Gothic building also known as Palazzo dell'Ussero, with its 15th-century façade and remains of the ancient city walls dating back to before 1155. The name of the building comes from the coffee rooms of Caffè dell'Ussero, historic meeting place founded on September 1, 1775.
Mural Tuttomondo. A modern mural, the last public work by Keith Haring, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio, painted in June 1989.
Museums
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: exhibiting among others the original sculptures of Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano, the Islamic Pisa Griffin, and the treasures of the cathedral.
Museo delle Sinopie: showing the sinopias from the camposanto, the monumental cemetery. These are red ocher underdrawings for frescoes, made with reddish, greenish or brownish earth colour with water.
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo: exhibiting sculptures and paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries, among them the masterworks of Giovanni and Andrea Pisano, the Master of San Martino, Simone Martini, Nino Pisano and Masaccio.
Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale: exhibiting the belongings of the families that lived in the palace: paintings, statues, armors, etc.
Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti per il Calcolo: exhibiting a collection of instruments used in science, between a pneumatic machine of Van Musschenbroek and a compass which probably belonged to Galileo Galilei.
Museo di storia naturale dell'Università di Pisa (Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa), located in the Certosa di Calci, outside the city. It houses one of the largest cetacean skeletons collection in Europe.
Palazzo Blu: temporary exhibitions and cultural activities center, located in the Lungarno, in the heart of the old town, the palace is easy recognizable because it is the only blue building.
Cantiere delle Navi di Pisa - The Pisa's Ancient Ships Archaeological Area: A museum of 10,650 square meters – 3,500 archaeological excavation, 1,700 laboratories and one restoration center – that visitors can visit with a guided tour.[19] The Museum opened in June 2019 and has been located inside to the 16th-century Medicean Arsenals in Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli, restored under the supervision of the Tuscany Soprintendenza. It hosts a remarkable collection of ceramics and amphoras dated back from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century BC, and also 32 ships dated back from the second century BCE and the seventh century BC. Four of them are integrally preserved and the best one is the so-called Barca C, also named Alkedo (written in the ancient Greek characters). The first boat was accidentally discovered in 1998 near the Pisa San Rossore railway station and the archeological excavations were completed 20 years later.
Churches
St. Francis' Church
San Francesco
San Frediano
San Giorgio ai Tedeschi
San Michele in Borgo
San Nicola
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno
San Paolo all'Orto
San Piero a Grado
San Pietro in Vinculis
San Sisto
San Tommaso delle Convertite
San Zeno
Santa Caterina
Santa Cristina
Santa Maria della Spina
Santo Sepolcro
Palaces, towers and villas
Palazzo della Carovana or dei Cavalieri.
Pisa by Oldypak lp photo
Pisa
Palazzo del Collegio Puteano
Palazzo della Carovana
Palazzo delle Vedove
Torre dei Gualandi
Villa di Corliano
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Sports
Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa, currently plays in the Serie B (the second highest football division in Italy), and has had a top flight history throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world-class players such as Diego Simeone, Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time. The club play at the Arena Garibaldi – Stadio Romeo Anconetani, opened in 1919 and with a capacity of 25,000.
Notable people
For people born in Pisa, see People from the Province of Pisa; among notable non-natives long resident in the city:
Giuliano Amato (born 1938), politician, former Premier and Minister of Interior Affairs
Alessandro d'Ancona (1835–1914), critic and writer.
Silvano Arieti (1914–1981), psychiatrist
Gaetano Bardini (1926–2017), tenor
Andrea Bocelli (born 1958), tenor and multi-instrumentalist.
Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907), poet and 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature winner.
Massimo Carmassi (born 1943), architect
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1920–2016), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Maria Luisa Cicci (1760–1794), poet
Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari (1677–1754), a musical composer and maestro di cappella at Pistoia.
Alessio Corti (born 1965), mathematician
Rustichello da Pisa (born 13th century), writer
Giovanni Battista Donati (1826–1873), an Italian astronomer.
Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250), mathematician.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), physicist.
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944), philosopher and politician
Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639), painter.
Count Ugolino della Gherardesca (1214–1289), noble (see also Dante Alighieri).
Giovanni Gronchi (1887–1978), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Giacomo Leopardi [1798–1837), poet and philosopher.
Enrico Letta (born 1966), politician, former Prime Minister of Italy
Marco Malvaldi (born 1974), mystery novelist
Leonardo Ortolani (born 1967), comic writer
Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), physicist, inventor of the dynamo
Andrea Pisano (1290–1348), a sculptor and architect.
Afro Poli (1902–1988), an operatic baritone
Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993), nuclear physicist
Gillo Pontecorvo (1919–2006), filmmaker
Ippolito Rosellini (1800–1843), an Egyptologist.
Paolo Savi (1798–1871), geologist and ornithologist.
Antonio Tabucchi (1943–2012), writer and academic
Sport
Jason Acuña (born 1973), Stunt performer
Sergio Bertoni (1915–1995), footballer
Giorgio Chiellini (born 1984), footballer
Camila Giorgi (born 1991), tennis player
The Iron Academy sword was forged by David DelaGardelle for the Iron Academy school, a school based out of Raleigh North Carolina that was founded to help craft young men into honorable, virtuous, humble, and Godly leaders for future generations.
Crafted to be large, powerful, imposing, yet precisely balanced and swift moving in the hand of its wielder. The blade was forged and hand ground out of high carbon 1075 steel, with mild steel blued fittings and a walnut wood core grip wrapped with veggie tanned blood red leather.
The overall design is a hybrid blend of many late medieval Northern European swords, while still having its own distinctive bold voice in its design and aesthetics.
Crafted to inspire and empower its wielder with strength and responsibility, no matter how young or old the wielding warrior of the sword may be.
Down the length of the fullers the hand engraved phrases read:
"Live Pure, Speak True, Right Wrong, Follow The King."
And on the other side:
"Iron Academy - Because Biblical Manhood Is Never An Accident"
Stats:
OAL: 43"
Blade length: 32 1/2"
Blade Width: 2"
Grip Length: 8 1/2"
Balance point: 2 1/4" from the guard
Blade Steel: 1075 high carbon
Fittings: Blued Mild Steel
Grip: Wooden core with Veggie Tanned Leather Wrap
Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. 3440. Photo: 20th Century Fox. James Stewart in Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1948).
American actor James Stewart (1908-1997) is among the most honoured and popular stars in film history. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.
James Maitland Stewart was born in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The studio did not see leading man material in Stewart, but after three years of supporting roles and being loaned out to other studios, he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You (1938). Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man (Stewart) from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman (Jean Arthur) from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family. The following year, Stewart got his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an idealised and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), again opposite Jean Arthur. He won the Academy Award for his work in the screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. A licensed amateur pilot, Stewart enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps as soon as he could after the United States entered the Second World War in 1941. Although still an MGM star, his only public and film appearances in 1941—1945 were scheduled by the Air Corps. After fighting in the European theater of war, he had attained the rank of colonel and had received several awards for his service. He remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. He retired in 1968 and was awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
After the war, James Stewart had difficulties in adapting to changing Hollywood and even thought about ending his acting career. He became a freelancer, and had his first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) with Donna Reed. Although it earned him an Oscar nomination, the film was not a big success at first. It has gained in popularity in the decades since its release and is considered a Christmas classic and one of Stewart's most famous performances. In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career revival by playing darker, more morally ambiguous characters in Westerns and thrillers. Some of his most important collaborations during this period were with directors Anthony Mann, with whom he made eight films including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he collaborated on Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958) with Kim Novak. Vertigo was ignored by critics at its time of release, but has since been reevaluated and recognised as an American cinematic masterpiece. His other films in the 1950s included the Broadway adaptation Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959), both of which landed him Oscar nominations. He was one of the most popular film stars of the decade, with most of his films becoming box office successes. Stewart's later Westerns included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), both directed by John Ford. He signed a lucrative multi-movie deal with 20th Century-Fox in 1962 and appeared in many popular family comedies during the decade. After a brief venture into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s, although he remained a public figure due to the renewed interest in his films with Capra and Hitchcock and his appearances at President Reagan's White House. He received many honorary awards, including an honorary Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994. James Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later in Beverly Hills.
Source: Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1214a. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actor James Stewart (1908-1997) is among the most honored and popular stars in film history. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart had a film career that spanned over 55 years and 80 films.
James Maitland Stewart was born in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stewart started acting while studying at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The studio did not see leading man material in Stewart, but after three years of supporting roles and being loaned out to other studios, he had his big breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy You Can't Take It with You (1938). Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the film is about a man (Stewart) from a family of rich snobs who becomes engaged to a woman (Jean Arthur) from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family. The following year, Stewart got his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an idealised and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), again opposite Jean Arthur. He won the Academy Award for his work in the screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. A licensed amateur pilot, Stewart enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps as soon as he could after the United States entered the Second World War in 1941. Although still an MGM star, his only public and film appearances in 1941—1945 were scheduled by the Air Corps. After fighting in the European theater of war, he had attained the rank of colonel and had received several awards for his service. He remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. He retired in 1968 and was awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
After the war, James Stewart had difficulties in adapting to changing Hollywood and even thought about ending his acting career. He became a freelancer, and had his first postwar role was as George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) with Donna Reed. Although it earned him an Oscar nomination, the film was not a big success at first. It has gained in popularity in the decades since its release and is considered a Christmas classic and one of Stewart's most famous performances. In the 1950s, Stewart experienced a career revival by playing darker, more morally ambiguous characters in Westerns and thrillers. Some of his most important collaborations during this period were with directors Anthony Mann, with whom he made eight films including Winchester '73 (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Naked Spur (1953), and Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he collaborated on Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958) with Kim Novak. Vertigo was ignored by critics at its time of release, but has since been reevaluated and recognised as an American cinematic masterpiece. His other films in the 1950s included the Broadway adaptation Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) and the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959), both of which landed him Oscar nominations. He was one of the most popular film stars of the decade, with most of his films becoming box office successes. Stewart's later Westerns included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), both directed by John Ford. He signed a lucrative multi-movie deal with 20th Century-Fox in 1962 and appeared in many popular family comedies during the decade. After a brief venture into television acting, Stewart semi-retired by the 1980s, although he remained a public figure due to the renewed interest in his films with Capra and Hitchcock and his appearances at President Reagan's White House. He received many honorary awards, including an honorary Academy Honorary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985. Stewart remained unmarried until his 40s and was dubbed "The Great American Bachelor" by the press. In 1949, he married former model Gloria Hatrick McLean. They had twin daughters, and he adopted her two sons from her previous marriage. The marriage lasted until McLean's death in 1994. James Stewart died of a pulmonary embolism three years later in Beverly Hills.
Source: Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
"The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:
‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,” he would say “I have found my sheep that was lost.” In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance."
– Luke 15:1-7, which is part of today's Gospel at Mass.
This tabernacle door with the image of Christ the Good Shepherd is in the church of St Catherine in Lille.
"Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has ears!’"
– Matthew 13:36-43, which is part of today's Gospel at Mass.
My sermon for today can be read here.
Stained glass window from the Episcopal National Cathedral in Washington DC.
www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=14
Claudia Quinta embodied the greatest virtues of Roman womanhood—chastity, piety, and fortitude. It had been prophesied that Roman victory in the Second Punic War depended on bringing Cybele, the Anatolian Great Mother goddess, to Rome. But when a ship with her image arrived at the mouth of the Tiber River, it became mired in mud. Strong men were unable to free it. Claudia was a virtuous young matron, falsely accused of impropriety, who had prayed to Cybele for a sign of her innocence. At the goddess's direction she slipped a slender cord over the ship's bow and easily pulled the vessel free.
This painting was part of a set of at least seven works representing paragons of virtue. Such cycles devoted to famous men and women of the past had been popular since the Middle Ages and seemed to enjoy particular favor in Siena. The men and women in this set, taken from ancient literature and the Bible, were renowned for chastity, fortitude, or self-restraint. In civic buildings such cycles usually focused on men of political courage, but because this group contains so many women and concentrates on more "domestic" virtues, it probably decorated a private house.
In 1868, four Irish Christian brothers, P.A. Treacy, D.F. Bodkin, J.B. Lynch and P.J. Nolan, arrived in Melbourne to open a new Christian school in the booming, and somewhat wild, city at the behest of Bishop Gould. They began teaching in 1869 in a small rented primary school behind St. Francis’ Church in Lonsdale Street. However, they really wanted something more permanent than the rented school they had, and they also wished to have a monastery in which to reside, rather than the rented rooms in Fitzroy that they had taken as a temporary measure.
With help from the Irish Catholic Church, they acquired a parcel of land along the wide boulevard of Victoria Parade in East Melbourne. In 1871 their dreams were realised when a new bluestone college was blessed by Bishop Gould in the presence of the venerable Archbishop of Sydney, the Archbishop Polding. They called their new school Parade College, after the name of the street it was built on, and dedicated it to Mary Immaculate.
The building is an imposing three storey bluestone structure that was built to the designs of Melbourne architect William Wilkinson Wardell (1823 – 1899), who also designed the nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The building has been designed in the popular Victorian Gothic style, a mostly ecclesiastical architectural style. It features gothic style windows on the Victoria Parade facade, and a double storey verandah of cast iron on the rear of the building, which when it was built, would have taken in beautiful views of the nearby Fitzroy Gardens and the burgeoning city beyond it. The building also included a beautiful chapel on the third floor, accessed via a stairwell that was also designed in the Gothic style. The chapel is small; however it makes up in beauty what it lacks in size, with a vaulted pressed metal ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows.
On the school’s first day, more than one hundred boys were enrolled and the number increased steadily as accommodation became available. As time went on, more Brothers arrived at Parade College from Ireland, and so the number of boys attending the school could increase. In 1902 the school building was extended yet again and finally completed William Wardell’s original designs. It is this building that we see today. This building was affectionately known as the "Old Bluestone Pile" and the school’s song takes its name from this building.
Gothic architecture was perceived by the pious Victorians as an expression of religious, and therefore, moral values, and this may be the reason why architects preferred to build schools in this style throughout the Nineteenth Century. Its revival was seen as virtuous and equated with moral revival; the perfect environment in which to educate young minds. For this reason an ecclesiastical character was predominant even on buildings that were not necessarily religious.
In 1999 after being located in Clayton for 25 years, the Catholic Theological College moved into the former Parade College building (which had been sold in 1994) alongside which it built a new modern building designed by Gregory Burgess.
William Wilkinson Wardell was a civil engineer and architect born in England. He studied under Gothic architect Augustus Pugin, who became his friend as well as his mentor. Between 1846 and 1858 he designed over thirty churches in England, which was a very prodigious output, and he had a flourishing business. Some of the churches he designed include: St Birinus, Bridge End, Dorchester-on-Thames which was worked on between 1846 and 1849, and Greenwich’s Our Lady Star of the Sea which was worked on between 1846 and 1851. By 1858, Mr. Wardell’s health was suffering and his doctors felt that the warmer climate afforded by Australia might be more beneficial to his health. Therefore he, his wife Lucy, his two sons and daughter migrated after Mr. Wardell obtained the position of "Government Architect" to the city of Melbourne. In Melbourne he is known for designing the first St Mary’s Church in East St Kilda in 1859 and the second in 1897, Government House Melbourne in 1876, the ANZ Gothic bank in Collins Street in 1877, and St Patrick’s Cathedral which was completed in 1897 but was still being modified by Mr. Wardell at the time of his death. He is also known in Sydney for designing, the ASN Co. Building in 1884, St John’s College at the University of Sydney, which was completed after a breakdown in relations between the architect and the Sydney City Council, and St Mary’s Cathedral which was not completed until after his death. Mr. Wardell died at his home, “Upton Grange” in North Sydney in November 1899 of heart failure and pleurisy, but left behind a rich legacy in Australia, not only of the commercial and ecclesiastical buildings that he created, but for the numerous private houses and mansions that he designed.
In Greek mythology, the Underworld, may be the land of the dead, but it has living botanical items, like meadows with asphodel flowers, and geographical features. Among the most famous are the five rivers of the Underworld.Lethe /ˈliːθi/ (Greek: Λήθη, Lḗthē; Ancient Greek: [lɛ́:tʰɛː], Modern Greek: [ˈliθi]) was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified.In Classical Greek, the word lethe literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness", or "concealment".It is related to the Greek word for "truth", aletheia (ἀλήθεια), which through the privative alpha literally means "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment".Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld, the other four being Styx, Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (the river of lamentation) and Phlegethon (the river of fire). According to Statius, it bordered Elysium, the final resting place of the virtuous. Ovid wrote that the river flowed through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, where its murmuring would induce drowsiness..The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. In the Aeneid, Virgil writes that it is only when the dead have had their memories erased by the Lethe that they may be reincarnated.Lethe was also the name of the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often associated. Hesiod's Theogony identifies her as the daughter of Eris ("strife"), and the sister of Ponos ("Hardship"), Limos ("Starvation"), Algae ("Pains"), Hysminai ("Battles"), Makhai ("Wars"), Phonoi ("Murders"), Androktasiai ("Manslaughters"), Neikea ("Quarrels"), Pseudea ("Lies"), Logoi ("Stories"), Amphillogiai ("Disputes"), Dysnomia ("Anarchy"), Ate ("Ruin"), and Horkos ("Oath")Some ancient Greeks believed that souls were made to drink from the river before being reincarnated, so they would not remember their past lives. The Myth of Er in Book X of Plato's Republic tells of the dead arriving at a barren waste called the "plain of Lethe", through which the river Ameles ("careless") runs. "Of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity," Plato wrote, "and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things."] A few mystery religions taught the existence of another river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience. Initiates were taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from Mnemosyne instead of Lethe.
These two rivers are attested in several verse inscriptions on gold plates dating to the 4th century BC and onward, found at Thurii in Southern Italy and elsewhere throughout the Greek world.
There were rivers of Lethe and Mnemosyne at the oracular shrine of Trophonius in Boeotia, from which worshippers would drink before making oracular consultations with the god.More recently, Martin Heidegger used "lēthē" to symbolize the "concealment of Being" or "forgetting of Being" that he saw as a major problem of modern philosophy. Examples are found in his books on Nietzsche (Vol 1, p. 194) and on ParmenidesMany ancient Greek poems mention or describe Lethe. The river is also referenced in more recent novels and poetry. Simonides of Ceos, an ancient Greek lyrical poet, references Lethe in the sixty-seventh fragment of one of his poems. Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid, in his description of the Underworld in his Metamorphoses, includes a description of Lethe as a stream that puts people to sleep. Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil's epic Latin poem, Aeneid, travels to Lethe to meet the ghost of his father in Book VI of the poem.
"The souls that throng the flood
Are those to whom, by fate, are other bodies ow'd:
In Lethe's lake they long oblivion taste,
Of future life secure, forgetful of the past." Virgil also writes about Lethe in his didactic hexameter poem, the Georgics.In the Purgatorio, the second cantica of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the Lethe is located in the Earthly Paradise atop the Mountain of Purgatory. Dante, held in the arms of Matilda, is immersed in the Lethe so that he may wipe out all memory of sin (Purg. XXXI). After being washed in the Lethe, penitents are washed in the Eunoe, a river of Dante's own invention. The Lethe is also mentioned in the Inferno, the first part of the Comedy, as flowing down to Hell from Purgatory to be frozen in the ice around Satan, "the last lost vestiges of the sins of the saved"[8] (Inf. XXXIV.130).
The recent Heroes of Olympus series and a short story by Rick Riordan for children and young adults mention Lethe as a river in the Underworld.
Wintergarden, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver, Flanders, Belgium :
central fountain of Villeroy and Boch and busts in Carrara-marble (A. Piazza) of Rachel - Rebecca - Sara - Ruth, four virtuous women of the bible
Church of St. Michael and All Angels Diseworth Derbyshire built of local stone, in the centre of the village which has been inhabited since Roman times . It stands at St Clements Gate at the meeting of Lady Gate , Grimes Gate and Hall Gate, names which recall its Viking past .
Originally appropriated to nearby Langley Priory of Benedictine nuns who employed some of the villagers, In late 15c Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, purchased a considerable part of the village to found what became Christ's College, Cambridge.
The Priory dedicated to God and the Blessed Virgin described as small and in good repair, was dissolved n June 1536 . At that time there were 6 nuns as well as the prioress, who was very old and impotent. All the nuns desired to continue in religion, and all were virtuous, though one was over 80 and another was feeble-minded. There was a priest attached to the nunnery, and the lay servants consisted of 10 men and 4 women.
The church consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, north porch and a western tower with dwarf spire, containing a clock, and 6 bells dating from 1626 to 1803:
The present building dates from the 13c, although it is known that a church existed here centuries earlier. It replaced a Saxon single cell church remains of which can been seen in the north wall of the nave.. The 2 blocked windows in the chancel are of Saxo-Norman type. Herringbone work can also be seen inside the building at the base of the old external nave wall in the south aisle chapel.
A large Anglo Saxon font also survives.
The added south aisle is not tied in to the main building but is simply butted up against the existing walls, with buttresses for stability. The original pent roof line can be seen in the east and west walls. On the parapet of the south wall and near the top of the west wall are 4 heads, much defaced by weathering. The east and south west windows in this aisle are early 13c. The taller early 14c window on the south wall, which cuts through the original roof line and into the added masonry, gives the date by which the roof was raised and pitched. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/74G74W The south doorway is 13c and much weathered.
The tower and spire may date from the 1300s. The tower has four triple-chamfered bell openings, their tracery and cusping now removed. The spire has tall broaches and one tier of lucarnes (dormers). The external west door under the tower was blocked and a new window created when the tower and spire were restored in 1896.
The building was originally thatched until the roof was leaded in c 1699, however the increased weight led to distortion of the chancel arch so the brick buttress on the north wall was built. Some of the sheets of 1699 lead have markings of shoe outlines, made with a sharp tool. Much of the stone coping from the parapet of the north wall is missing.
The church is entered through the north porch which was built in 1661. However, the outer heavily weathered arch is in the same style as that of the 13c north and south doors, and may be made from reused stone
the church was restored in 1840, and in 1885 the chancel was restored and fitted with oak and the floor relaid at a cost of £130: there are 150 sittings, 50 at that time being free
In the 19c the living was a vicarage, funded from 106 acres of glebe, with residence, in the alternate gift of the Haberdashers’ Company and Christ’s Hospital, The land belonged mostly to the Master and Fellows of Christ’s College, Cambridge and the owners of Langley Priory after its 16c dissolution, beginning with the Grays, the Cheslyns and ;ater the Shakepears. The college sold their interest in Diseworth in 1920
Two monuments to tragedy stand out - that of Anne Cheslyn who drowned herself in the Priory lake in 1823 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/03L204 ; and Trooper George Harris killed in action at Dewetsdorp, Orange River Colony in 1901 whose monument was erected "by Emily Lock in gratitude to his mother" www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/0HgCw7
The Lock family have 2 monuments of interest , one to young vicar Rev Herbert Lock 1902 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1RmX1r whose hope to erect a church in memory of his younger brother Joseph www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/775hP6 was thwarted by his own early death. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/470vh2 - 2 windows inscribed the St Joseph Benefaction being given instead. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/N5pPK0 It may well be that Trooper Harris's mother nursed Rev Herbert Lock in his final year thus earning Emily Lock's gratitude (?) .
Picture with thanks - copyright Andrew H Jackson britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101068865-church-of-st-micha...
I know not any season of life that is past more agreeably than virtuous old age.
#MarcusTulliusCicero
The 6th Lego incarnation of the Doctor, played by Colin Baker. The sixth Doctor was Stubborn, self-centered, arrogant and thought himself superior to everyone around him, but beneath this dramatic exterior he was quite the opposite: a passionate, warm, virtuous and empathetic individual.
"God made man imperishable,
he made him in the image of his own nature;
it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world,
as those who are his partners will discover.
But the souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God,
no torment shall ever touch them.
In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die,
their going looked like a disaster,
their leaving us, like annihilation;
but they are in peace.
If they experienced punishment as men see it,
their hope was rich with immortality;
slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be.
God has put them to the test
and proved them worthy to be with him;
he has tested them like gold in a furnace,
and accepted them as a holocaust.
When the time comes for his visitation they will shine out;
as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
They shall judge nations, rule over peoples,
and the Lord will be their king for ever.
They who trust in him will understand the truth,
those who are faithful will live with him in love;
for grace and mercy await those he has chosen."
– Wisdom 2:23–3:9, which is today's 1st reading at Mass.
Medieval stained glass detail from St Martin le Grand church in York, depicting the death of St Martin. His soul is carried up to heaven as a demon is foiled.
Franciszek Smuglewicz (1745-1807)
Vilnius Art Gallery
Vilnius. Lithuania
About the Subject
The account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is given in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, and is the subject of many paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter the tent of Holofernes because of his desire for her. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith's home, the city of Bethulia. Overcome with drink, he passes out and is decapitated by Judith; his head is taken away in a basket (often depicted as being carried by an elderly female servant).
Artists have mainly chosen one of two possible scenes (with or without the servant): the decapitation, with Holofernes supine on the bed, or the heroine holding or carrying the head, often assisted by her maid. An exception is an early sixteenth-century stained glass window with two scenes. The central scene, by far the larger of the two, features Judith and Holofernes seated at a banquet. The smaller background scene has Judith and her servant putting Holofernes' head in a sack, the headless body standing behind with his arm waving helplessly. The subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women topos.
In European art, Judith is very often accompanied by her maid at her shoulder, which helps to distinguish her from Salome, who also carries her victim's head on a silver charger (plate). However, a Northern tradition developed whereby Judith had both a maid and a charger, famously taken by Erwin Panofsky as an example of the knowledge needed in the study of iconography.[1] For many artists and scholars, Judith's sexualized femininity interestingly and sometimes contradictorily combined with her masculine aggression. Judith was one of the virtuous women whom Van Beverwijck mentioned in his published apology (1639) for the superiority of women to men,[2] and a common example of the Power of Women iconographic theme in the Northern Renaissance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_beheading_Holofernes
About the Artist
Franciszek Smuglewicz, or Pranciškus Smuglevičius,[1][2] 6 October 1745 – 18 September 1807) was a Polish-Lithuanian draughtsman and painter. Smuglewicz is considered a progenitor of Lithuanian art in the modern era.[1] Some consider him as a spiritual father of Jan Matejko's school of painting.[citation needed] His brother was Antoni Smuglewicz.
Biography
Franciszek Smuglewicz was born in Warsaw into a Polish-Lithuanian family.[1] His father, Łukasz Smuglewicz, also a painter,[3] had moved to Warsaw from the Lithuanian province of Samogitia.[citation needed] His mother, Regina Olesińska, was the niece of painter Szymon Czechowicz.[4][3] In 1763 Franciszek journeyed to Rome, where he began the study of fine arts under the tutorship of Anton von Maron. He stayed in Rome for 21 years, where he embraced the Neo-Classical style.
In 1765 he received a royal scholarship from the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław August Poniatowski and was admitted into the Saint Lucas Academy. As a colleague of Vincenzo Brenna he participated in cataloging artifacts from Nero's Domus Aurea. In 1784 he returned to Warsaw, where he founded his own school of fine arts, one of the predecessors of the modern Academy of Fine Arts.
A classicist, but under strong influence of the Polish baroque,[citation needed] Smuglewicz became a notable representative of historical paintings, a genre that dominated the fine arts of Poland throughout the 19th century. Around 1790 he started working on a series of sketches and lithographies inspired by Adam Naruszewicz's History of the Polish Nation. Although never finished, this series gained him much popularity.
In 1797 he moved to Vilnius, where he became the founder and the first deacon of the Institute of Sketch and Painting at the Academy of Vilnius.
In 1801 he painted allegorical ceiling paintings for Tsar Paul I at his new imperial palace, the Mikhailovsky Castle, in St Petersburg, which was also designed by Brenna.[5]
A tutor of generations of Polish-Lithuanian painters, Smuglewicz devoted himself to historical paintings in the latter years of his life. He brought to Lithuania classical ideas and views of enlightened classicism. He painted everyday life, and the architecture of Vilnius in a realistic manner. His works helped with the ongoing reconstruction of the Royal Palace of Lithuania in Vilnius.
Among the notable surviving works of that period are A Meeting of the Four Years' Sejm (1793) and Kościuszko's Oath at Kraków's Old Town Market (1797), Lithuanian Peasants, Freeing Peasants from Serfdom in Merkinė.[2] Among his works of the period are views of the city walls and city gates that were demolished during the 19th century.
He was buried in Vilnius at Rasos Cemetery (Polish: Cmentarz na Rossie), although the exact location is not known.
Psalm 31
Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
11 Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She finds wool and flax
and busily spins it.
14 She is like a merchant’s ship,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household
and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.
16 She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She is energetic and strong,
a hard worker.
18 She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
her lamp burns late into the night.
19 Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber.
20 She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
21 She has no fear of winter for her household,
for everyone has warm[c] clothes.
22 She makes her own bedspreads.
She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,
where he sits with the other civic leaders.
24 She makes belted linen garments
and sashes to sell to the merchants.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.
French actor of Spanish origin Louis de Funès (1914-1983) was one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel. In many of his over 130 films, he portrayed a humorously excitable, cranky man with a propensity to hyperactivity, bad faith, and uncontrolled fits of anger. Along with his short height (1.63 m) and his facial contortions, this hyperactivity produced a highly comic effect, especially opposite Bourvil, who always played calm, slightly naive, good-humored men.
Louis de Funès (French pronunciation: [lwi də fynɛs]) was born Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza in Courbevoie, France in 1914. His father, Carlos Luis de Funès de Galarza had been a lawyer in Seville, Spain, but became a diamond cutter upon arriving in France. His mother, Leonor Soto Reguera was of Spanish and Portuguese extraction. Since the couple's families opposed their marriage, they settled in France in 1904. Known to friends and intimates as ‘Fufu’, the young De Funès was fond of drawing and piano playing and spoke French, Spanish, and English well. He studied at the prestigious Lycée Condorcet in Paris. He showed a penchant for tomfoolery, something which caused him trouble at school and later made it hard for him to hold down a job. He became a pianist, working mostly as a jazz pianist at Pigalle, the famous red-light district. There he made his customers laugh each time he made a grimace. He studied acting for one year at the Simon acting school. It proved to be a waste of time except for his meeting with actor Daniel Gélin, who would become a close friend. In 1936, he married Germaine Louise Elodie Carroyer with whom he had a son, Daniel (1937). In 1942, they divorced. During the occupation of Paris in the Second World War, he continued his piano studies at a music school, where he fell in love with a secretary, Jeanne Barthelémy de Maupassant, a grandniece of the famous author Guy de Maupassant. They married in 1943 and remained together for forty years until De Funès' death in 1983. The pair had two sons: Patrick (1944) and Olivier (1947). Patrick became a doctor who practiced in Saint-Germain en Laye. Olivier was an actor for a while, known for the son roles in his father's films, including Le Grand Restaurant/The Big Restaurant (Jacques Besnard, 1966), Fantômas se déchaine/Fantomas Strikes Back (André Hunebelle, 1965) starring Jean Marais, Les Grandes Vacances/The Big Vacation (Jean Girault, 1967), and Hibernatus (Edouard Molinaro, 1969) with Claude Gensac as De Funès’ wife, a role she played in many of his films. Olivier later worked as an aviator for Air France Europe.
Through the early 1940s, Louis de Funès continued playing piano at clubs, thinking there wasn't much call for a short, balding, skinny actor. His wife and Daniel Gélin encouraged him to overcome his fear of rejection. De Funès began his show business career in the theatre, where he enjoyed moderate success. At the age of 31, thanks to his contact with Daniel Gélin, he made his film debut with an uncredited bit part as a porter in La Tentation de Barbizon/The Temptation of Barbizon (1945, Jean Stelli) starring Simone Renant. For the next ten years, de Funès would appear in fifty films, but always in minor roles, usually as an extra, scarcely noticed by the audience. Sometimes he had a supporting part such as in the Fernandel comedy Boniface somnambule/The Sleepwalker (Maurice Labro, 1951) and the comedy-drama La vie d'un honnête homme/The Virtuous Scoundrel (Sacha Guitry, 1953) starring Michel Simon. In the meanwhile, he pursued a theatrical career. Even after he attained the status of a film star, he continued to play theatre. His stage career culminated in a magnificent performance in the play Oscar, a role which he would later reprise in the film version of 1967. During this period, De Funès developed a pattern of daily activities: in the morning he did dubbing for recognized artists such as Renato Rascel and the Italian comic Totò, during the afternoon he worked in film, and in the theater in the evening. A break came when he appeared as the black-market pork butcher Jambier (another small role) in the well-known WWII comedy, La Traversée de Paris/Four Bags Full (Claude Autant-Lara, 1956) starring Jean Gabin and Bourvil. In his next film, the mediocre comedy Comme un cheveu sur la soupe/Crazy in the Noodle (Maurice Régamey, 1957), De Funès finally played the leading role. More interesting was Ni vu, ni connu/Neither Seen Nor Recognized (Yves Robert, 1958). He achieved stardom with the comedy Pouic-Pouic (Jean Girault, 1963) opposite Mireille Darc. This successful film guaranteed De Funès top billing in all of his subsequent films.
Between 1964 and 1979, Louis de Funès topped France's box office of the year's most successful films seven times. At the age of 49, De Funès unexpectedly became a superstar with the international success of two films. Fantômas (André Hunebelle, 1964) was France's own answer to the James Bond frenzy and lead to a trilogy co-starring Jean Marais and Mylène Demongeot. The second success was the crime comedy Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez/The Gendarme of St. Tropez (Jean Girault, 1964) with Michel Galabru. After their first successful collaboration on Pouic-Pouic, director Girault had perceived De Funès as the ideal actor to play the part of the accident-prone gendarme. The film led to a series of six 'Gendarme' films. De Funès's collaboration with director Gérard Oury produced a memorable tandem of de Funès with Bourvil, another great comic actor, in Le Corniaud/The Sucker (Gérard Oury, 1964). The successful partnership was repeated two years later in La Grande Vadrouille/Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (Gérard Oury, 1966), one of the most successful and the largest grossing film ever made in France, drawing an audience of 17,27 million. It remains his greatest success. Oury envisaged a further reunion of the two comics in his historical comedy La Folie des grandeurs/Delusions of Grandeur (Gérard Oury, 1970), but Bourvil's death in 1970 led to the unlikely pairing of de Funès with Yves Montand in this film. Very successful, even in the USA, was Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob/The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Gérard Oury, 1973) with Suzy Delair. De Funès played a bigoted Frenchman who finds himself forced to impersonate a popular rabbi while on the run from a group of assassins. In 1975, Oury had scheduled to make Le Crocodile/The Crocodile with De Funès as a South American dictator, but in March 1975, the actor was hospitalised for heart problems and was forced to take a rest from acting. The Crocodile project was canceled.
After his recovery, Louis de Funès collaborated with Claude Zidi, in a departure from his usual image. Zidi wrote for him L'aile ou la cuisse/The Wing and the Thigh (Claude Zidi, 1976), opposite Coluche as his son. He played a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, who is waging a war against a fast-food entrepreneur. It was a new character full of nuances and frankness and arguably the best of his roles. In 1980, De Funès realised a long-standing dream to make a film version of Molière's play, L'Avare/The Miser (Louis de Funès, Jean Girault, 1980). In 1982, De Funès made his final film, Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes/Never Play Clever Again (Tony Aboyantz, Jean Girault, 1982). Unlike the characters he played, de Funès was said to be a very shy person in real life. He became a knight of France's Légion d'honneur in 1973. He resided in the Château de Clermont, a 17th-century monument, located in the commune of Le Cellier, which is situated near Nantes in France. In his later years, he suffered from a heart condition after having suffered a heart attack caused by straining himself too much with his stage antics. Louis de Funès died of a massive stroke in 1983, a few months after making Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes. He was laid to rest in the Cimetière du Cellier, the cemetery situated in the grounds of the château. Films de France: “Although fame was a long time coming, Louis de Funès is regarded today as not just a great comic actor with an unfaltering ability to make his audience laugh, but practically an institution in his own right. His many films bear testimony to the extent of his comic genius and demonstrate the tragedy that he never earned the international recognition that he certainly deserved.”
Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Iturrino González, Francisco
Nacionalidad Española
(España, Santander, 1864 – Suiza, Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1924)
1911-1912
Oil on canvas
138 x 100 cm.
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Commentary on
Mujer mora
This painting by Francisco Iturrino has been compared to the work of Henri Matisse, not only because of the characteristic formal arguments and late orientalist genre, but also because of the solid relationship between both artists.
They traveled together through Tangier, after stays in Seville, accompanied by James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) and Charles Camoin (1879-1965) in 1911 and early 1912; Mujer mora is one of the results of this common aesthetic experience, initiated in meetings in the workshop of Gustave Moreau.
Cruz Valdovinos has proposed that the model is the same Zora portrayed by Matisse, and affirms the example of Mujer mora to mark the parallelism between both artists.
The search for a decorative painting, which breaks with the criteria of naturalistic representation, is undoubtedly well achieved in this painting, as well as the handling of color, with tonal subtleties and relations of great visual sensitivity among the colors present in the tunic, the sofa and the background.
The painting is related to the two figures of the Oriental genre in the Musée de Grenoble, the composition of the space is the same, with the checkerboard of the floor fusing with the background; the color determines in both the visual rhythm from its vibrations.
Iturrino is one of the international figures of Spanish art at the beginning of the century, related to the European avant-gardes.
He integrated the modernization of Fauvism, but retaining a personal language within the common concern for color and the rupture of the naturalist space.
However, this plastic modernity merged with the tradition of popular types and female figures of Spanish art, with the erotic charge of Orientalism.
His work, thus, avoided both the simply decorative solution and the regional nationalism of his contemporaries.
The work was shown in the controversial exhibition of 1947, the cultural expression of the agreement between Franco and Perón, then went unnoticed. Picasso, Gris and Miró were conspicuous by their absence, while Gutiérrez Solana, associated with Black Spain, was prominent.
Nothing could be a greater contrast with this tenebrism than the work of Iturrino.
The virtuous simplicity of Mujer mora could not then obtain the recognition deserved by a hostile press: it was the image of another Spain, before the ruin.
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Comentario sobre Mujer mora
Esta pintura de Francisco Iturrino ha sido comparada con la obra de Henri Matisse, no solo desde los notorios argumentos formales y de asunto orientalista tardío, sino también desde un hecho fáctico: la relación sólida entre ambos artistas.
Viajaron juntos por Tánger, luego de compartir estadías sevillanas, acompañados de James Wilson Morrice (1865- 1924) y Charles Camoin (1879- 1965) en 1911 y principios de 1912; Mujer mora es uno de los resultados de esta experiencia estética común, iniciada en encuentros en el taller de Gustave Moreau.
Cruz Valdovinos ha propuesto que la modelo es la misma Zora retratada por Matisse, y afirma la ejemplaridad de Mujer mora para marcar el paralelismo entre ambos artistas.
La búsqueda de una pintura decorativa, que rompa con los criterios de representación naturalista, sin duda está bien lograda en esta pintura, al igual que el manejo del color, con sutilezas tonales y relaciones de gran sensibilidad visual entre los colores presentes en la túnica, el sofá y el fondo.
La pintura se relaciona con las dos figuras de Escena oriental del Musée de Grenoble, la composición del espacio es la misma, con el damero del piso fundiéndose con el fondo, y el color determina en ambas el ritmo visual desde sus vibraciones.
Iturrino es una de las figuras internacionales del arte español de principios de siglo, relacionado con las vanguardias europeas. Integró la modernización del fauvismo, pero conservando un lenguaje personal dentro de la común preocupación por el color y la ruptura del espacio naturalista.
Sin embargo, esta modernidad plástica entraba en fusión con la tradición de tipos populares y figuras femeninas del arte español, con la carga erótica del orientalismo.
Su obra, así, evitó tanto la solución simplemente decorativa como el nacionalismo regionalista de sus contemporáneos.
La obra adquirida en la polémica exposición de 1947, expresión cultural del acuerdo entre Franco y Perón, pasó entonces desapercibida: extrañaban las grandes ausencias de Picasso, Gris y Miró, mientras que impactaban las telas de Gutiérrez Solana, asociadas a la España Negra.
Nada más contrastante con este tenebrismo que la obra de Iturrino.
Muerto tempranamente, era solo el nombre de un precursor puesto en el catálogo, advertido solamente por algunos conocedores como Larco, de una exposición de posguerra.
La virtuosa simpleza de Mujer mora no podía entonces obtener el reconocimiento merecido por una prensa beligerante: era la imagen de otra España, anterior a la ruina.
Fuente/source:
It might be rather over-ambitious of me to presume we're going to need space for a second installment, but hey, this is a long term investment.
FRIGHTENED BIRD
You have to calm down
A frightened bird before it feels
Comfortable enough on your
Shoulder to sing to you
YOU’VE SPOILED MARY POPPINS FOR ME
You’ve made Mary Poppins so painful to watch
There’s only one spoonful of sugar I need
Those magic umbrellas just mess up my mind
Cause I wish that you’d buy one and fly here to me
Then I’d be your sweep with my chimney brush
Till you’re singing chim chim cher-ee
That’s why Mary Poppins is painful to watch
Oh how dare you spoil Mary Poppins for me!?!
IN PRAISE OF NATURE
Clouds must be happy releasing their rain
After holding so much in for so long
The earth must be as happy to receive the rain
As the rain is to meet the earth once again
Loving it by keeping it moist so things can grow
Flowers must be as happy welcoming sunlight
As the sun is having someone take it in
To make something beautiful
Two rivers flowing separately must be
Happy to become one again in the sea
The sea must be happy living beside the shore
Because the sea remembers a lot of sadness
That’s why sometimes the sea gets angry,
Exploding from its emotions, but the strong
Forgiving shore always weathers the tempest
In nature, so many partners
Perfectly suited to each other
But here comes mankind, who couldn’t even
Keep a garden together, throwing a
Monkey wrench into all this happiness
No wonder nature doesn’t like us
Better watch out mankind, cause
Volcanoes know the sweetness of release
SAMOAN CHICKEN
Proud symbol of all that’s loud, all that’s tough,
All that’s virile. Let the hens lay the eggs,
We’re warriors with wings and sharp talons,
Sailing our canoes, raiding your island,
Stealing your women provided they aren’t
As ugly as you. As our feathers show,
We’re endowed with the looks and the goods too
Your fuzzy-haired females only half-fight
To resist. They know where they’d rather be,
So you might as well just hand them over,
Then your miserable ass can live to
Fight another day someone who’s weaker.
We’re so tough that even if you cut off
Our heads they’ll still be sticking out their tongues.
Maybe our symbol is just a humble
Chicken, but this small bird will bite your eyes.
I’M DANGEROUS
Those who attack so
Casually are
Really defending.
Takes one to know one.
Wish I could convince
You that there’s nothing
You have to defend
Against, but it’s your
Own choice. Maybe I’m
More dangerous than
I think I am. Ask
My cats if they think
I’m dangerous and
They’d probably laugh
And say, “We’ve pissed him
Off a lot worse than
You ever will and
The guy still feeds us.”
MOON
Let me pull on your tides
Like a magnet, draw them
In my direction. I’m
Like the moon in that way,
Trying to pull your oceans
To flow on my dry, cold
Sands, be the blood that brings
Even my dark side life.
My cycle calls me to
Fade from you, but you know
I always come back to
Bathe you in my soft light.
MYTH
I’m sure some old myths have outlived
Their own time for a good reason.
They portray an image of man
Conquering all adversities.
Myths might still have something to teach
But we don’t need one more image
We can only fail to reflect.
Certain myths embody ideals
For bodies quite unlike our own,
More used to warfare or farm work
Than computers and SUVs.
Computer seduces me with
The myth all I need to know is
Available from a machine.
It’s not your mythical features
That hold my attention, it’s when
You don’t care how you deviate.
I would rather know your cold looks,
Garlic breath, fat middle, stuffed nose
And occasional burp than some
Airbrushed nonsense on my flat screen.
All the myths, then or now, pale next
To beauty alive and breathing.
SHADOW
Careful with your image because
If you’re too much of a blank screen
People will project whatever
They like on to you, and sometimes
What they like is not very pretty.
So what if it says more about
Them than it does about you? If
The shoe doesn’t fit, make it fit.
I don’t mind taking the blame for
What I’ve done, but when people think
I should feel guilty for what they
Imagine I’ve done, the fact that
I don’t makes me guilty all the
More in their eyes. Vicious circle,
Isn’t it? And so my shadow
Follows me even when it’s dark.
I’d say if you’re going to judge
Me, at least get to know me first,
But it’s a bit too late for that
For many – not for you, I hope.
RACE RELATIONS
Some people in the USA
Still haven’t gotten over the
Civil War. They know slavery
Has been outlawed but they still wish
The slaves would get back in their place.
Some people here in Samoa
Still haven’t gotten over the
Sight of the first white man. They know
He’s real enough, but still expect
This aberration will vanish
And things will return to normal.
SENTIMENTS
So I've learnedthe hard way
That sentiments are something
You don't like to deal with. I
Wouldn't make you walk the plank
For being uncomfortable with
Someone else's sentiments,
I mean, there are ones I'm not
Terribly comfortable with myself
Such as sentiment held by some
That an adultress should be
Stoned to death. That's detriment
Not sentiment in my opinion.
No, sentiment to me means that
Feeling I knew for a short time
When my family was still together.
Sentiment means the appreciation
Of those so much older than me
Before they passed away (we
Forget how cruel they could
Sometimes be when they're
Gone for good). Sentiment means
Memories of times that just didn't
Seem as hard as these times.
Sentiment means those things
You'll hold as important as long
As you're breathing. Sentiment
Links the past and present with
The eternal. I can see how you
Might be thinking by now, if you've
Got your sentiments why do you
Need me? I know sentiments
Make you uncomfortable so not
To add insult to injury but I think
I'll always be sentimental in some
Way about you too.
JOKER
Can you believe the cheek of this joker
Who wants to run the show? If he were
Joking I’d be laughing, but he’s serious
And I’m freaking because he seems so
Sincere in his speaking, even though if
What he’s saying came out of the mouth
Of a clown we’d be rolling. But no, if you
Say the dumbest things anyone’s ever
Heard, but with the utmost sincerity,
Someone who doesn’t know better
Will think you’re talking wisdom not
Utter nonsense. Anyone who can
Still discern a true vision from a
Clown’s parody should be as freaked
As me because this guy on tv has either
Forgotten the difference or, more
Likely, never knew it all along. No
Wonder government is the ideal hiding
Place for idiots. It’s a sector where you
Can do something stupid, and if anyone
Even notices at all, you can easily obscure
Responsibility behind political smoke and
Mirrors. So it makes perfect sense this
Joker’s asking for our trust as if none of us
Get the joke. If he gets in we should all apply
White makeup to our brown faces, paint our
Noses red, put on baggy clothes and big floppy
Shoes, and spend our days trying to out-do each
Other at being ridiculous because only clowns
Need a joker for their leader.
DOGHOUSE
The doghouse is a prison of your own making. You
Could walk out anytime, but you won't. The doghouse
Is a euphamism for being shut out of the real house.
You wonder if it was something you said, something
You did, or some stray thought you shouldn't have
Let slip that got you in the doghouse. It's when
Someone who used to think you were someone
Thinks you're a dog who belongs in the doghouse
And has you so well trained that you don't even
Question the ruling. It makes me wonder how
Dogs must sometimes ponder the strange
Behavior of those whom they have so much
Devotion to that they'll let them be master, no
Questions asked. Dogs just want to care for
And protect, and sometimes go overboard with
It because that's all they know. And if they end
Up in the doghouse, they just accept it with the
Faith that their master will eventually see sense.
SUSPICION
Never been in the FBI, never been a
Russian spy but I can feel your deep
Dark suspicion. Never embezzled or
Robbed a bank but you look at me and
Draw a blank and that causes you deep
Dark suspicion. I’d have to learn a whole
Lot more to do the things you suspect me
For, but that don’t ease your deep dark
Suspicion. Why you think these things must
Be is just a mystery to me, causing me my
Own deep dark suspicion. I suspect you
Don’t care. I suspect you mean me harm.
I suspect you’ll break my heart and never
Give it a second thought. Why we must
Think things like these is why love must
Be forced to its knees under the weight
Of deep dark suspicion. If all our suspicions
Turned out right, then morning is evening
And daytime is night in disguise justifying
These deep dark suspicions. We can suspect
Penguins or Santa’s elves, but most of
All we should suspect ourselves of having
Surplus deep dark suspicions. Covert crimes
In the name of romance that we're capable of
If we just had the chance are what cause us
To dance with these deep dark suspicions.
I wish you’d hear this simplest of pleas, I’m
Just flesh and blood not some fantasy that
Embodies each one of your deep dark
Suspicions.
SHARKS
Sad to see you bored swimming with friendly
Dolphins and contemplating sharper thrills
In the shark waters. Maybe you want to be
A shark for a night, tearing into someone you
Can treat as disposable and vice versa. It takes
A cold nature to be a shark, for whom the scent
Of a wounded heart signifies an easy feed, and
Who’ll gladly sink its teeth into your self-esteem
Till you can’t resist going for any bait, any time.
Can you swim with the sharks, or is that the false
Confidence of someone hurting who cries out for
Help by being emotionally reckless? See, you’re
No pioneer, others have been there before you,
And all they found was the smell of being with
Sharks is not so easily scrubbed away, nor the
Scars so easily covered up.
VOODOO DOLL
Voodoo doll, full of holes from the pins,
Feels it every time. Says, it’s why I was
Created, to take this so someone else
Doesn’t have to. Voodoo doll catches the
Fallout from someone who couldn’t face
Her own reflection and ran. Voodoo doll
Knows neglect like the child of an accident,
Born someone’s problem, an inconvenience
Since first breathing. Voodoo doll takes the
Sting of always being wrong for reasons
Never made clear or always changing to
Keep him that way. Voodoo doll knows
All the excuses by heart. See voodoo
Doll tossed to the flames, taking with him
All those feelings soon to be forgotten like
Ashes cast into the wind. See voodoo doll
Smiling in the fire, knowing at last the feeling
Of release.
MARKET
Mean old market we’re all living in.
Everyone uses a scale to calculate
Your worth, your use, your value.
Some would say that in the market,
I deal in junk. I say, let them talk, my
Scale is just different and I’ve turned
Someone else’s junk into my own gold.
I’m always taking something that’s
Broken and making it shine again.
Often something of value is junked
Way before its time. A small fix and
It’s fine, but people seem in a rush to
Replace anything that breaks down
Even once, usually from their own
Poor care. Just because something’s
Built to last doesn’t mean you should
Beat on it. Or maybe you should, cause
The more you do the more I corner the
Market. Speaking of which, you must
Have tipped my scale on the positive side
Cause look how freely I’ve given you all
My secrets. You’re not going to try and
Sell me out, are you?
BUTTERFLY
Kind of surreal to hear a political party already
In office exclaiming, “We will bring change”.
Change from the situation you created in the
First place? So you made a mess, and if you
Get back in you’ll clean it up? That’s very
Convenient. So you’ve only appeared to be
A sow’s ear all this time, but you’re really a
Silk purse just waiting for your moment to
Show us what you really can do? Or like a
Caterpillar ready to emerge from the cocoon
Of your past as a beautiful butterfly who’ll
Flutter right over every obstacle and every
Challenge? I have no doubt your leadership
Would be colorful, but can a butterfly rally
A cabinet full of mosquitoes?
HONOR
In matters of honor the million dollar question is:
Would you still honor me if I did the same thing?
Honor is fluid, just ask Bill Clinton, who’s back in
Everyone’s good graces after learning the hard
Way how dishonor shares a cigar with dishonesty.
By fluid, I don’t mean what left stains in the
Whitehouse, but fluid in the sense that it’s not
Carved in stone. Honor implies what, virtue
Beyond the ordinary? That would imply that
It’s not ordinary for us to be virtuous. It’s no
Accident that it’s easier to honor people after
They pass, since they’re no longer around to
Tarnish their own golden picture. Give people
Enough rope and if honor were a woman then
Honor would be on her knees, but she can rise
Again whenever she pleases because honor can
Be restored just as friendship can be repaired
And love can be healed. Honor can help with all
Of that, but whether any of it happens depends
More on how much those involved do or don’t
Care. Someone can’t feel dishonored by you if
They never cared. Which brings us back to that
Million dollar question…
FACES
Love has many faces. Love is high up
In the heavens. Love is down here in
The dirt. Love is an answer to your
Prayers. Love is the result of too much
Booze. Love is your soul. Love is your
Body. Sometimes it’s all of the above.
Love has many faces so that even when
What we thought was love turns into
Something we hate, it’s still not true
There’s no such thing as love at all.
Love has many faces, but which one
To be devoted to? That is the question.
It’s only through belief in the truth of
Love itself that love will show you
Someone’s true face.
TART
Something tart about you. Must be the
Sour words you sometimes sling, like lime
On an open wound. But a certain sting kills
Parasites in the blood or in the mind, and
Leaves the taste buds re-tuned. That’s a
Rare flavor few can pull off without leaving
An essence of something spoiled, but your
Tartness instead brings out someone else’s
Sweetness like salt on a ripe mango. Shows
How you can be fine on your own but still
Blend naturally with your exact opposite.
LAKE
Sssh… Softly… The angels might overhear
And get envious. Someone whispered to me
The path to the lake of happiness. Careful…
Its waters look calm but they run deep and
Will drown you if you dive in foolishly. But if
You learn the path to the lake, and how to
Enter its waters with nothing to fear, you can
Return again and again.
FISH
They say life began in the sea, and there’s
Something of the sea still in us. Like fish
Intuition. Fish never mastered the art of
Conversation, don’t have to. The fish don’t
Need Facebook to stay connected when they
Embody connection with every fiber of their
Being. Even with tiny little minds that a
Toothpick could easily crumble, they simply
Know by instinct when it’s time to swim
Closer together. Intuition rules, and all
Else is just complication. Ask any fish.
GLAD
Ok, I take it back. I'm really glad
I'm not a fish because conversation
Can be a joy too. Just depends who
You're talking to. Intuition tells me
It's like water with us - we'll find
Our own depth in our own way, at
Our own speed.
MONKEY
Monkey dreamed of a motorcycle
Then one day his cherished wish
Appeared under the coconut tree.
Now all monkey has to do is
Figure out how to turn it on,
Make it go, guide it, take care
Of it without wrapping it around
The coconut tree, flying straight
Into the river on it or getting
Run over by his own wheels. It's
Balance, monkey, think balance!
MIME
Mime can’t find his voice so he shows you
Images he makes, hoping you’ll form your
Own picture of his meaning. Why not just
Say it? Mystery. Maybe he put his voice
Inside a suitcase sent on the wrong flight,
Never heard from again. Maybe he feels he
Misused his voice to hurt someone he loved,
And now he can’t stand the sound of it. Maybe
He likes the challenge, talking with his hands.
Or he knows if you have to work to get the
Message, maybe you’ll really think about it.
Maybe being whimsical is his way of being
Delicate. Ideas from the delicate silence.
Action speaks louder than words? Watch.
Let me speak to you, all action, not a single
Word in sight. Is it loud enough now for you
To believe me?
BLUES
I’ll sing any old thing, but it all comes out
Sounding like the blues. Born out of conflict
And confusion, hurting for a certain resolution,
Blues is your heart against your world, on a
Train with no brakes. Blues sings to an absence,
To the hunger for a return. Blues is an anchor,
Sometimes holding you together, sometimes
Holding you captive. Blues comes from the
Emptiness someone once filled. Being used
To the blues doesn’t make you used to hurt,
Just makes you see it differently. It’s like love –
The wider you open the more it comes in, until
You just naturally breathe in the absence and
Hunger, and breathe out the blues.
JAZZ
I wish life could be more like jazz,
Where there’s an incentive to make
The best use of your freedom. Jazz
Comes from the joy of not having to
Confine music to what’s on the page.
Those same old themes provide a
Bedrock, but it’s the variations on
Those themes that you really want
To listen for. Not everyone can
Improvise, but if you get the hang
Of it, on a good night you can give
The music wings. I wish life could
Be more like jazz, where interplay
Is treated as conversation, not as
A shouting match. Where players do
Themselves the greatest service by
Serving the music. I wish life
Could be more like jazz, where
There’s a willingness if not an
Eagerness to embrace the unusual,
Like when two styles, two approaches
You never thought could blend end up
Doing exactly that, creating something
No one’s heard before. So let's be like
Jazz - play the changes through once
So we know where we are, and then
We'll just improvise.
(NOTE: I mean jazz as in John Coltrane, not jazz as in Kenny G.)
SUGAR
Imagine life without sugar. There was
No sugar when Jesus walked among us.
Was life any less sweet? It wasn’t a lack
Of sugar that put him on a cross, it was a
Lack of understanding. He said “You don’t
Understand,” and many felt so threatened
They proved his point. Now we have sugar
Everywhere you look. Is life any more
Sweet? We also have the understanding
Jesus tried to leave us, but many are still
Proving his point. He was just trying to
Explain what real sweetness is.
SHELTER
Let’s open a shelter for refugees from
Troubled families. If it’s just the two of
Us, it’s still a shelter. Let’s open a shelter
For survivors of sour relationships. If it’s
Just the two of us, it’s still a shelter. Let’s
Open a shelter for the uncertain, who in
The course of just being themselves seem
To wind up on a different course than most.
If it’s just the two of us, it’s still a shelter.
Let’s open a shelter for those who still
Need to still need to master the art of
Kissing. It’s like mastering the art of flying
A plane – just because you haven’t done it
Yet doesn’t mean you can’t do it. And one
More thing… This is really important…
Listen carefully… I know it sounds crazy,
But… Even… If it’s just the two of us, it’s
Still a shelter.
CLOUDY
My favorite cloud. I know you
Not so much by how you look
As how you make me feel. You
Sometimes linger awhile, or else
Seem in such a hurry to pass by.
So big, so blank, so quiet – can I
Write poems on you? I know I’d
Be superimposing my thoughts,
But only the ones you inspired.
You might think if you stay too
Long you’ll block my sunshine,
But stay as long as you like -
Your shade suits me fine, and
You can let your water down too -
My garden could use the rain.
SALESMAN
I really suck as a salesman. Too concerned
My customers get a fair deal. Telling them
Take your time deciding, instead of it’s now
Or never. Giving too many free samples.
Too proud to offer the cheapest instead
Of the best. Won’t try convincing you to
Buy what I know is better for you if your
Heart is set instead on some junk. Trying
To build relationships when I should just
Take the money and run. Worst of all,
Way too trusting my customers will play
Fair too. If all salesmen were like me, the
Economy would collapse.
RABBIT
Rabbit, why is it all you do is run?
I’m not trying to put you in a stew,
Not trying to cut off your foot for a
Good luck charm. Not trying to skin
You to make moccasins. I just have
A sense about you. Something very,
Very right, almost magical, but fragile,
Like you could bolt, uncomfortable
With you own nervousness, trembling
In a way I wish I knew how to calm. It’s
Out of character for me to chase a rabbit
But you awakened a different side of my
Character. It’s not better, not worse,
Only deeper. Deep as the hole that you
Disappear into just when I think maybe
You can breathe easily with me. Are you
Trying to see how long I’ll wait or how far
I’ll go? It would help to know if you want
Me to wait, or how far you want me to go.
Otherwise, I just live my life like I always have,
But it’s part of my life now to watch for you
Rabbit, just to feel something leap inside
When I catch a glimpse.
QUALITY
Quality over quantity. Quality over quantity.
Quality over quantity. QUALITY over quantity.
Quality OVER quantity. Quality over that damned
Quantity. Quality over that stupid quantity that
I’d like to slap in the head. Quality over that
Contemptuous quantity that I’m going to throw
Out the window. Quality over that freakin’ quantity
That I’m mad as hell at and not going to take it
Anymore. Quantity, you bet it’s personal. Quantity,
If there’s a hell below, you’re gonna go. Quantity, I
Hope you’ve made funeral arrangements. Quantity,
I could take these bare hands and… Oh… Oh dear…
Sorry, got too into it. It’s really just quality over
Quantity. Quality over quantity. Quality over
Quantity.
GUARDED
This part of me that’s guarded has a
Long story to tell about people I thought
I could trust and assumptions I thought
I could take for granted. I’ve seen people
Change 180 degrees right in front of my
Eyes and I’ve learned the hard way about
The fluid nature of truth. I can’t blame
People for being human – what a
Hypocrite I’d be – but how sour to see
Humanity used as an excuse for stupidity
Or even cruelty. And how stupider and
Crueler still to realize you set yourself up
Like a bowling pin. So yes, I’m bound to
Judge you, but if you’re sincere enough
To hang on till I judge you as trustworthy,
Then you’ll see the part of me that’s more
Open, more free, more tender, more
Loving, more devoted. It’s there, but
You need your security clearance before
You’re allowed access to what’s guarded.
OPTIMISTIC
As hard as it can be to find, I’m still grateful
That there’s such a thing as love, and someday
I’m going to buy my love 1000 flowers, write her
1000 poems about how much I love her, take
More than 1000 steps with her in places all over
This planet, eat 1000 meals with her though not
All at once, smoke 1000 cigarettes with her if she’s
A smoker, get scolded by her 1000 times if she even
Suspects I’ve snuck a smoke if she makes me quit,
Cry 1000 tears if I make her sad, but probably when
She’s not looking cause big boys aren’t supposed to
Cry, and of course kiss her more than 1000 times in
More than 1000 different places. There, optimistic
Again, something to look forward to.
COMEDY & TRAGEDY
Before I paint this as some insurmountable problem,
It might give the situation some levity if we remind
Ourselves that we’re not the first two people to run
Up against our individual, and if I may be so bold as
To say it, our collective challenges. Volumes of
Tragedies have been written about situations like
Ours, but comedies too, because sometimes when
You find out what really went wrong, despite the
Right thing sitting on the sidelines the whole time
Wondering when these two idiots would see what
Was right under their noses, you have to either cry
Or laugh. Comedy and tragedy remind us that it’s
Hardly rare for people not to get things right at first,
But even when the balance seems hopelessly out
Of sync, things balance out in the end, and sorrow
Should just remind us that joy is something we
Should never take for granted.
BULL
Would you like to evaluate my soul? I’m not
Afraid of that. I’m more afraid of walking into your
Life like a bull walking into a china shop, who
Would not only get chased away or possibly shot,
But also leave a lot of damage behind. In other
Words I feel like I have to keep a certain distance
Even while letting you know how much I wish I
Was close to you. In order for me to walk into a
Delicate situation, you’d have to lead me around
And show me how to not break things. Or else I
Could say, just let me handle it, and walk in as
Graceful as Fred Astaire, but everyone around
You would take one look and say, that is a bull,
And in their panic they would break everything
Themselves. Ok, ok, ok, maybe there’s such a
Thing as being over-concerned with your well
Being, but that’s better than under-concerned,
Right? Besides, you have to figure the bull
Must genuinely adore china to even want to
Enter a china shop. He wouldn’t mistake it
For just another feeding pen. Hear his hoof
Softly tapping outside the shop window, wishing
He could be closer to what’s so dear to him?
(DON’T) DO THE TWIST
Are you twisting my attempts to accept you
Into a belief that I’m rejecting you? I thought
You were rejecting me, and I was trying to say,
Guess I’ll just have to live with that but I’m still
Going to believe in love. I wasn’t saying, you
Really suck and I’m looking elsewhere cause I
Give up looking at you. We should compare
Notes sometime just to be clear on who’s
Rejecting who, and if neither of us are really
Rejecting each other, then… I would be happily
Crowned as King Idiot and promise to try and
Get things right or else off with my head.
WOUND
What does that wound inside tell you? You could
Say it just tells you that you’re weak, or you could
Say it’s trying to tell you you’re denying something.
The wound is trying to speak, and it won’t heal until
It’s free to say whatever it’s trying to say. When it’s
Served that purpose, it will leave and take the pain
With it. The hardest wounds to heal are the ones
You get from fighting with yourself.
MISERABLE HORSE
Emotions are so like wild horses, so meant to
Be free, so precious in their embrace of life to
Its fullest that you wish you could just let them
Stay forever as they were in the beginning. But
To have any real engagement with your emotions
You have to tame them first, or like wild horses
They'll run away from you, or worse, run away
With you. Ever tried to capture something while
Keeping it free at the same time? Given the right
Care and kindness, a tamed horse needn't be a
Miserable horse.
DRAGON GIRL
So easily displeased, Dragon Girl
I don’t breathe fire like you, I just
Burn like ashes to ashes. Dragon Girl’s
Raging again, torching towns and
Villages all over my heart cause I’m
Drawn to her flame. Over and over,
Dragon Girl, you’ll find others taking
Your heat till your fires run low, but
I always want to see you bright, even
If you bite, even if you just treat me
Like fuel. I’m wiser, Dragon Girl, than
Your average fool but even the wise
Are slain by your tail Knowing you,
Dragon Girl. Is knowing why Adam
Listened to Eve instead of the voice
Saying just follow this one rule and
You’ll be happy eternally. So easily
Are fortunes won and lost when
The heart treats love as a game.
Still, as often as you’ve burned me
Or I’ve rained all over your hot
Victories, there’s never been an
Opponent more engaging than
You, so before you retreat,
Dragon Girl, behind your firewall,
Remember the sparks that flew in
Those rare moments when we
Could really speak to each other.
LAMB
When the flock panics because a wolf
Is present, the lamb who responds to
The confusion by running off on its own
Is the one who’ll have to face the wolf
Alone. Conformity is confining, a type
Of sacrifice, but to be free and survive
Takes strength, awareness and smarts,
Not just a notion that being different
Is fun. Most challenges are best faced
Together with those to whom we belong.
ARMADILLO
Why would the armadillo need his armor? He
Must have something tender he’s protecting.
With no feathers to strut with, nor love songs
Like monkeys, nor a musk like skunks with
Romance on their minds, I wonder how the
Armadillo signals to his mate that it’s the
Time of the season? How do armadillo partners
Recognize each other? They must have the
Keenest of intuitions. How do they make love
With all those spikes? Maybe they know
Something the Kama Sutra doesn’t. Given the
Lengths to which they’ve gone to protect
Whatever’s under all that armor, I imagine
Armadillo poetry must be the most heartfelt
Kind. “Oh yes”, said armadillo, gesturing yonder
Where I LOVE YOU was written in giant
Letters across the sand. “Our poems may
Blow away with the next wind, so we
Give them a hundred per cent of our
Souls every time.”
FUEL
I wish there was a fuel for belief. I’d fill
Your tank with it. I’d fix the leaks in your
Fuel line. I’d tune up your engine. I’d check
Your tires so that when the rubber meets
The road you’d fly past the speed limit.
I’d get you an army tank filled with the
Fuel of belief so that you could plough
Through all the walls of doubt and send
Your inner demons screaming as they
Run for cover or flatten under your wheels.
MUSIC
Music has no agenda other than to
Be itself. Music doesn’t judge you.
It’s always there for you and ready
To please. It takes different forms
To match our different moods. Or
You can just ignore music and it won’t
Get suspicious about you not paying
Attention. Music doesn’t hold a grudge.
Music remembers, but just the good
Part. Music seems so passive but try
Messing with it and you’ll just cause
Problems for yourself rather than for
Music. When it’s good it has a magic
No one can explain. You don’t have to
Explain music, just let it do its thing.
Whoever invented music must have
Loved us more than we can imagine.
It’s not easy for us to love each other
That much, but at least music gives us
Something to go by.
RANGE
All quiet tonight on the range, but inside
It’s more like Georgia, Georgia, no peace
Do I find. Cows seem to like my voice, but
Would she? Singing to the wilderness ain’t
Winning no popularity contest. Cows seem
Encouraging, murmuring a chorus low and
Deep. Georgia…mmmm. Georgia…mmmm.
Crickets sound their soft percussion and
From the hill the whippoorwill chimes in
With its blue note. None of us thinking of
Quickly passing days or milking fate on a
Dairy farm on the way to hamburger…
Poor cows… Problems can wait till later,
For now the night’s song is enough.
THE BEST THING YOU CAN SAY
When the best thing you can say about
Superman is that he didn’t hurt anybody,
Something’s wrong. He was drunk at the
Superheroes’ party, acting like he could
Kick anybody’s ass and have any woman
In the room. It was all talk, but it didn’t take
Long before he found himself alone after
Everyone smiled in his face, pretending
They thought he was funny, and then quickly
Disappeared to mingle elsewhere. When he
Wasn’t displaying the noticeably forced
Bravado, Superman seemed angry but
Wouldn’t say why. Wandering over by
The band, he seemed lost in their music
And showed his appreciation by insulting
Them between every song. He thought they
Knew he was joking, but soon even the band
Looked like they wished they were somewhere
Else. Sensing the less than warm mood around
Him, Superman got drunker and angrier. When
A little girl, the daughter of a friend, walked by,
Superman grabbed her to give her a hug but
She screamed in frightened shock. Her father
Hurried over and asked if Superman could just
Maybe chill out a bit. This made Superman coil
Up like a snake about to strike. In a voice that
Suggested he was ready to follow through with
His fists, Superman told the father that so-called
Men holding crying little girls ought to be more
Careful about who they insult. A few friends of
Superman came up to keep him distracted while
The father and daughter left the party. Superman
Went on and on about how the father was a jerk
Who deserved to get his ass kicked. In the end,
Superman didn’t kick anyone’s ass that night, but
He was seen hugging the few friends who would
Talk to him and telling them how much he loved
Them, while they all said Superman we love you
Too , but looked relieved to get away from hm.
No one’s had the nerve to ask Superman what
Was wrong, because it’s understood that if
You’re Superman, nothing’s supposed to ever
Be wrong, but when the best thing you can say
About Superman is that he didn’t hurt anybody,
Something’s wrong.
YEAR OF THE SNAKE
It’s the time I crawl into your room while you
Sleep, seeking a snug, warm hiding place for
Pleasure and rest – it’s the Year of the Snake!
It’s the time we rattle our tails at each other
And click our tongues in conversation. It’s the
Time we show our adversaries what these tiny
Fangs are for, and let our venom deliver a sharp
Reminder to the bloodstream of those who’ve
Treated us criminally that it just doesn’t pay. It’s
The Year of the Snake! It’s the time we can’t
Get much lover, when we’re about as grounded
As we’ll ever get. It’s the time we stare down
What we used to fear and ingest things bigger
Than ourselves. It’s the time I wrap myself
Around you, my jaws open wide. It’s the time
We devise creative movements to compensate
For our lack of hands, the time we refrain from
Football for obvious reasons, but find sport in
Torturing mice. It’s the time we camouflage
Ourselves and prey on the reckless. It’s the
Time we take advantage of humans’ vanity –
Imagine their surprise when we advise them
To ignore all the rules and embrace temptation,
And imagine our amusement as we watch what
Follows. I told you we prey on the reckless. So
Hear me clearly, my slithery sweetie, you must
Always have your wits about you in the Year of
The Snake.
MY DARK SHADOW
I don’t know how I picked up my dark shadow
When most of the time I’m just minding my
Own business. Maybe I’ve just had one too
Many fools disturb my tranquility, so until
I know you’re not a fool that shadow always
Lingers nearby. Children don’t see my dark
Shadow. No, you need a certain semi-adult
Neurosis for it to register, and even then,
What’s scary is more what it reflects than
Anything it conceals. My dark shadow is
Too conscious of danger. This sometimes
Serves me well and sometimes doesn’t.
I’m often the one not chosen, usually
Passed over for someone projecting a
Brigher countenance. Gee thanks shadow,
I’ve mumbled with some bitterness, but
Later when I realize what I’ve avoided
Being chosen for, my thanks are anything
But sarcastic. My dark shadow has a sense
Of humor and says that even in the absence
Of certainty you can always see the absurdity
And laughter is your best defense against
Emptiness. My dark shadow says the biggest
Joke is that everyone sees the shadow even
Though the person casting it is really not so
Dark at all. One day I said, shadow, aren't you
Keeping my love from finding me? Shadow
Looked at me like if idiocy were a mountain
Then I'd be Everest and said, either her own
Shadow will blend right in with yours, or else
You'll know her by the words: Shadow? What
Shadow?
MISTAKES
When all is said and done, I still
Believe there’s more to you than
Your mistakes, but as long as you
Treat me like just another one of
Them, what can I do?
PIANO MUSIC
I wish we could have connected like the
Notes in the soft piano music I hear while
Typing these lines. The notes float lazily
Between one another, playfully make
A theme. Assured they’re where they
Belong, notes soar like birds on a warm,
Gentle wind. The tones go deep, seem
Very serious, then open into something
Freer, more joyful. Unexpected colors
Emerge from new sound combinations,
One rhythm sways into the next, faster,
Slower, flowing. Something new with
Each passing moment, each new idea,
Continuous re-invention of the familiar.
Themes leaving and returning like a
Reminder of our birth and death cycle
Played out to please the ear, calm the
Soul. No idea where this music will go,
But no worries either because the pianist
Obviously loves the tune and can let the
Notes dance, converse, glide and embrace,
Secure in their key. If the love I daydream
About made a sound, It would be very
Similar to this soft piano music.
RESONATES
I can hear other living souls driving by in
Their cars, and birds are nearby doing
Bird things and singing, but otherwise it’s
Just me and the sunshine. It’s nice. Moments
Like this resonate. Makes me feel like this
Moment connects to other moments of
Rare calm, peace and clarity. I’ve had these
Moments since childhood, though I could
Never say they were there when I needed
Them – they just come when they come
And the rest of time it’s the usual racket.
In one such childhood moment, in a place
Now forever changed, I imagined one who
Was all beauty but human too. The thought
Resonated, inseparable from feeling, from
Emotion, from physical sensation and
Spiritual awareness. Hit like a lightning bolt,
Almost too much for a child to comprehend.
How strange to think that you’re the one I
Imagined back then, come to life from
Somewhere in the back of a child’s mind.
How else to explain why it’s only you who
Resonates with me in the particular way
You do? I’m not saying you owe me for it,
Nor that you even have to see my face or
Hear my voice if you don’t want to. Just trying
To shed some light on what I imagine makes
Little or no sense to you, or even to me for
That matter, unless I were to speculate that
Maybe something bigger than the both of us
Had a hand in all this. Perhaps the heart has
A soft spot for its own crackpot mysticism,
And some of us try to re-arrange the truth
To suit ourselves rather than re-arrange
Ourselves to suit the truth. But when I paid
No attention to any of that, in a moment of
Clarity where past resonated with present
Like an unbroken chain of awareness, it made
Perfect sense that on a day like this long ago,
I imagined you into being. Someone else just
Did the work.
ARTSY FARTSY
Earth calling ___. Hollow be the
Sound of your name since you
Abandoned this earthly realm to
Lowly constructions of mud like
Myself. The very notion of you ever
Being down to earth again seems
So beneath you now. You're clearly
A creature of the spheres, speaking
Your lofty language comprehensible
Only to you, adhering to values of no
Value except to you, and applying a
Logic only you find logical. Although
You can't be down to earth, please
Try and remember what earth was
Like before your head ascended to
The astral plane, the galaxies and
Universes so infinite in that space
Between your butt cheeks.
Spontaneous Bathers.
Acque agitazione tremanti baci fioritura di respirazione dei pesci,
courbe soutient bouts de doigts lisses lèvres plumes sprays de l'océan,
нежные ласки любовные круги входные нервы,
όμορφα δέρματα τζάμια βυθίζοντας τους μηρούς προσδεδεμένα όνειρα ζεστά,
rhosod cyfoethog heulwen melys ysbrydoledig cerddoriaeth aur cnawd betalau,
stralend vlammende eminence almacht brandende lusten gezegend genie huilt,
afferra rilassanti coltivati che perseguono attività di spazzamento,
Bieten Naturfedern ewige Gemüter Blüten erreichen,
צורות נצחיות להציף תשוקות סערה לוהטות הרמוניה לבבות,
welsprekende lachende ogen overdekte impulsen aspirant beroertes,
eyðandi orku logi hreint glæsilega virtuous elskhugi ferskur,
емоционалне табуи изгубио тајне сексуалне радње смешан,
opphisselse fysiske interesser aggressive avvik dyp,
テーマ冬の夢を刺激する架空のエロ五感を泳ぐ.
Steve.D.Hammond.
The Goat dance- A very old Romanian fertility ritual - VIDEO
The goat dance appears in the rural area of Romania as a symbol of fertility and fecundity, connecting the Romanian territory to the Greek antiquity and to the Oriental civilizations.
Watching today the play of the Goat mask, in every area of the country, you'll recognize in the virtuous pantomime of the mask bearer, in the vitality of his movements but also in the death and rebirth of the Goat, the ancient symbol of vegetation. The goat dance is a frantic dance, which is executed for hundred of years in every carolled house.
Everything is extremely glittering and fascinating, reflecting the light and the relegation of the dark and the cold, which destroyed the vegetation. The body of the Goat is made of textile (carpets, red sail) on which other decorative elements are sewed.
A noisy children group accompanies the mask together with the country singers who accompany the goat dance. The goat jumps, jerks, turns round, and bends, clattering regularly the wooden jaws offering a remarkable authentic show.
The goat dance:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnza2iL2yQQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fyG1rJYCww
=====================================================
Many Thanks to the +5,070,000 visitors of my photographic stream!
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© Ioan C. Bacivarov
All the photos on this gallery are protected by the international laws of copyright and they are not for being used on any site, blog or forum, transmitted or manipulated without the explicit written permission of the author. Thank you in advance
Please view my most interesting photos on flickriver stream: www.flickriver.com/photos/ioan_bacivarov/
Many thanks for yours visits and comments.
DROGO (~1040~). "Friend of the family" of William the Conqueror.
Castle Montacute, 1068-1093/1104. An early Norman castle.
Montagues and the Crusades, 1095-1588. A long tradition.
Conon de Montaigu, ?1096?. Crusader. Commander under Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade.
1100-1200
Pedro Guerin de Montagu, 1168-1230. Crusader. Grand Master of the Hospitalers (Knights of Saint John; Knights of Malta).
1200-1300
William de Montagu, ?1216?. One of the rebel Barons excommunicated for backing the Magna Carta.
Pedro de Montaigu, ?-1232. Crusader. One of the most successful Grand Masters of the Knights Templar, from 1219-1232. Led the Christian defense of the Holy Land, supervised building the largest Crusader castle in the Middle East. Key role in the Fifth crusade and Frederick's crusade.
1300-1400
Simon de Montacute, ?-1317. First Baron Montacute. Senior positions in Norman wars in France, Wales, and Scotland. One of the first British admirals, served in all the wars of Edward I.
William de Montacute, ?-1319. Second Baron Montacute. Scottish and Welsh Norman wars, peace negotiator. Commander of the fleet and the royal cavalry. In charge of Aquitane and Gascony (English possesions in France).
William de Montacute, 1301-1344. First (sixth) earl of Salisbury. Close confidant of Edward III, killed two in the queen-mother's chamber while arresting her ally, key role in outbreak of the Hundred Years war. Issued the "declaration" of the Hundred Years War.
Katherine/Catharine/Alys de Montacute (Katharine de Grandison), ?-~1350. Countess of Salisbury. One of the two women after which the Order of the Garter, the oldest and most prestigious English order of chivalry, is purportedly named. Virtuously resisted the advances of the king...
Simon de Montacute, ?-1345. Bishop, Oxford grad...
Joan (the fair maid) of Kent (Joan Plantagenet), 1328-1385. Wife of William de Montacute, marriage annulled directly by the pope; Princess of Wales, mother of king Richard II. The other woman after which the Order of the Garter may have been named.
William de Montacute, 1328-1397. Second (seventh) earl of Salisbury. Commander during early Hundred Years War, at Crecy and Poitiers. Last survivor of the original 25 foundingKnights of the Garter. Accidentally killed his own son at a joust, divorced by the Pope from Joan of Kent.
Montagues in the March of Wales, 1330-1354 A typical feudal career.
John de Montacute, 1350?-1400. Third (eighth) earl of Salisbury. Key Lollard and lieutenant of the (now) infamous Richard II, convicted of treason. Politically liberal, he was considered an intellectual Francophile and beheaded by a mob. Lollardry involved the idea that religion should not involve image-worship, pilgrimage, prayers for the dead, rich rewards for the clergy, etc..
Thomas de Montacute/Montagu, 1388-1428. Fourth (ninth) earl of Salisbury, Henry V's field commander. The leading commander of the Hundred Years War; his life is inseperable from the Hundred Years War and vice versa. A key commander at Agincourt. He is one of the first on record to be killed by an artillery shell. He has a curious relation to Joan of Arc. His wife Alice was granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer.
1400-1500
Alice Montacute, 1409-?. Famous mother of Richard Neville, the " Kingmaker" during the War of the Roses. Married at either age fifteen or nine...
Nicholas Montacute, ~1466. A historian. He apparently belonged to the "poetic" school of historians...
Richard Montagu (Ladde), ~1471~. Yeoman. A " gateway ancestor" of many Montagu/es. Genealogy related material - cowboys, carpenters, tailors, and on to Virginia!
1500-1600
Sir Edward Montagu, ?-1557. Judge, Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Common Pleas; regent while Edward VI was underage. In charge of Army's Commissary during Prince of Grace rebellion; became rich seizing church lands. Altered king's will in favor of succession of Lady Jane Grey (who was shortly afterwards executed).
Mrs. Alice? Montagu/e ~1560~. The Queen's "Silk Woman", introduced silk stockings to Queen Elizabeth. A woman of mystery.
First Viscount Montagu/e (Anthony Browne), 1528-1592. First Viscount Montagu. Important Catholic loyal to the Queen during the time of the Armada. The Browne's were important in keeping the Catholic faith alive in England as a minority religion.
Edward Montagu, 1562-1644. First Baron Montagu of Boughton. Politician, "royalist". The original creator of the first Thanksgiving, in response to the failure of the Gunpowder Plot to kill all of Parliament and the king using the equivalent of a truck-bomb.
?? Montagu, ?-1588. Lord ?? Montagu. English Catholic, killed fighting for the Spanish against Dutch/English forces while serving aboard the Portugese flagship San Mateo in the Spanish Armada.
Captayne Charles Mountague, ~1592. English captain in Ireland during Tyrone's Rebellion. Commanded the horse at the Yellow Ford (Englands worst defeat in Ireland). He was found innocent in a court-martial regarding an ambush, with the circumstances described in one of the first "official" military histories...
Sir Henry Montagu, 1563?-1642. First earl of Manchester. Judge, Chief Justice of the King's Bench; Treasurer of England and senior statesman; trusted advisor of Charles I, close long-time friend and ally of Francis Bacon . Ordered execution of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Jesuit found guilty of leading the Gunpowder Plot. On original Virginia Company Council to settle Jamestown (as was Francis Bacon).
James Montagu/Mountague, 1568?-1618. Bishop of Winchester. Dean of the Royal Chapel, a close advisor and confidant of James I and Bess of Hardwick. Edited and translated the writings of James. On the original Virginia Company Council to settle Jamestown.
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1571-1631. Librarian, record-keeper, his thousand-book library changes history by creating in effect the first public law library and "public-service think-tank". A founder of modern government, and rule by precedence and common-law. Kinsman, neighbor of Hinchinbrooke Montagus.
Second Viscount Montagu (Anthony Maria Browne), 1574-1629. Second Viscount Montagu.
Richard Montagu/e/Mountague, 1577-1641. Bishop, scholar, king's chaplin, favorite theologian of Charles I. Political role defending Church of England from "both sides" (Puritans and Catholics) in Puritan controversy; defending right of the church to tax (tithe); and in controversy over the teachings of Ramus (which influenced the rise of modern science).
Johannes Montague (Jean de la Montague), 1595-1670. Early settler in Dutch New York, physician, politician, and Vice-Director General; school master of first New York public school.
1600-1700
Northamptonshire, the Montagus, the Spencers, and The Parliament of 1624.
Hinchinbrooke Montagu's, Cromwell, The Long Parliament, and the English Civil War.
Edward Montagu, 1602-1671. Second earl of Manchester. Key participant, English Civil War. Initially in command of the Parliamentary army (in revolt against the king). Cromwell's commander, in command at Marston Moor (the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil), shaped the ensuing peace and the formation of the Restoration. Bitter political enemy of Cromwell. Married in King James' bedroom.
Peter Montague/Mountague, 1603-1659. Early settler and politician in colonial Jamestown, Virginia.
Walter (Wat) Montagu, 1603?-1677. Secret agent; apparently ran the English secret service in France and was a long-time adversary of Richelieu (sinister power behind the French throne). Imprisioned in the Bastile; served as translator and negotiator for Buckingham (king James' favorite); at Buckingham's assasination; had the ear of three great princesses. Converted to Catholicism and defended it in England; Henry, the son of Charles I, was put under his care.
Richard Montague/Montaque, ~1614-1681. Early Massachusetts settler.
Edward Montagu, 1616-1684. Second Baron Montagu of Boughton. Royalist politician, active agent of Charles II, welcomed the Restoration.
Montagues in Jamestown and the Virginia Company.
Sir William Montagu, 1619?-1706. Judge, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Edward Mountagu,1625-1672. First earl of Sandwich. Famous Admiral, friend of Cromwell, friend of Charles II, decisive role in end of English Civil war and the start of the Restoration. Enthusiastic young admirer of Cromwell, experienced regimental combat commander by age of twenty, appointed Pepys his secretary, had the fleet restore the king when Parliamentary politics degenerated into endless civil war.
Samuel Pepys, 1633-1703. A cousin of Edward Mountagu, 1625-1672, his detailed diary is perhaps the best source of information on Restoration history. He essentially defined the position that is now, in the U.S., the Secretary of the Navy. Founder of the modernprofessional British Navy and arguable founder of modern style of Civil Service. The "first great modern civil servant" (bureaucrat)!
Jemima Montagu, ~1665. Daughter of first earl of Sandwich. Her arranged marriage is intimately documented by Samuel Pepys.
Robert Montagu,1634-1683. Third earl of Manchester.
Edward Montagu,1635-1665. Young politician and adventurer; favored Restoration. Killed at Battle of Bergen in Norway (an attempt to hijack the treasure-laden Dutch East Indies fleet); remembered for his premonition of death; comrade of poet Lord Rochester.
Ralph Montagu, 1638?-1709. Duke of Montagu. "Scheming" politician and womanizer. He played an important role in the rise of party politics in England (the Whigs) and triggered the fall of the catholic Stuart kings. Had a famous simultaneous affair with both a duchess and her daughter; married an insane heiress by pretending to be an emperor. Patron of John Lock, Robert Boyle, and others...
Edward Montagu,1647-1688. A vignette regarding the foundation of modern science.
John Montagu, 1655?-1728. Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1683-~1700. Received his Doctorate by direct decree of the King. Dean of Durham. Upon leaving Trinity, his position was offered to Newton, who turned it down. He was Master of Trinity during very troubled academic times...
Charles Montagu, 1660?-1722. First Duke of Manchester. Diplomat. Became an active supporter of protestant Prince of Orange (William and Mary); raised troops that immediatly supported William when he landed in England...
Charles Montagu, 1661-1715. Earl of Halifax. Innovative finance minister; principal patron and lifelong friend, supporter, and companion of Sir Isaac Newton; founded the Bank of Englandand modern form of government financing by national debt; "common-law" husband of Isaac Newton's niece.
Sir James Montagu, 1666-1723. Judge, attorney-general.
John Montagu, 1688-1749. Second Duke of Montagu. Courtier. His house became the first British Museum. Attempted to colonize two West Indies islands.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689-1762. Writer, early "feminist", socialite, and traveler,introduced smallpox innoculation in England. Considered the leading "woman of letters" of her century, introduced many words into the english language and had a significant indirect influence on the advance of medicine.
1700-1800
George Montagu, 1713-1780. His extensive correspondence with Horace Walpole, famous man-of-letters, is widely available. Walpole's correspondence is an important source of historical material, somewhat similar to Pepy's journal.
George Montagu (Brudenell), 1712-1790. Duke of Montagu, fourth Earl of Cardigan. Governor to Prince of Wales; Captain of Windsor Castle.
Edward Wortley Montagu, 1713-1776. Playboy, dilettante, author, and traveler - dysfunctional rebel child! Chased across the Sinai!
George Montagu Dunk, 1716-1771. Second Earl of Halifax. Active in founding Nova Scotia and expanding American commerce and colonies. Wrote perhaps the most famous Warrant in Anglo-American Law. The "father of the colonies".
John Montagu, 1718-1792 . Fourth Earl of Sandwich. First Lord of the Admiralty, rebuilt the English Navy, but America was lost "on his watch". Villified as the "fall guy" for the loss of the first British empire, he actually may have pulled off a coup with quite a long historical shadow in salvaging as much from the wreck as he did... Invented the "Sandwich"!
Edward Montague and the American Revolution. Agent for Virginia (the official representative of the Virginia Assembly to the English government). Ten years with Ben Franklin and the boys... Significant political and legal ground-work for the American revolution.
John Montagu/Mountagu, 1719-1795. Admiral. In charge of the British navy in North America during the revolution (he watched the Boston Tea Party take place under his window...).
William Montagu, 1720?-1757. Naval Captain, earned the well-deserved moniker "Mad Montagu".
Elizabeth Montagu, 1720-1800. Socialite, invented the "blue-stocking" high-society social gathering. Publicized Shakespear internationally. Had an appreciable effect on the evolution of intellectual and scientific culture.
Frederick Montagu, 1733-1800. Politician, Lord of the Treasury.
George Montagu, 1737-1788. Fourth Duke of Manchester. Advocate of American colonists, leader of the Whigs.
Charles Greville Montagu, 1741-1783. Last Colonial Governor of South Carolina. During the American revolution, raised a regiment of captured American prisoners to fight for the British against the Spanish in Central America. After the war settled many of these troops in Nova Scotia.
Pierre Francois de Montaigu. Comte (Count) de Montaigu, French ambassador to Venice (1743-1777), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's boss.
James Montagu, 1752-1794. Navy Captain, fought in the revolution, in India, against the French, ... in command of the Montagu.
Edward Montagu, 1755-1799. Artillery officer in India.
Sir George Montagu, 1750-1829. Admiral, fought in the revolution and against Spain and France. Command role in famous action of Howe's Grand Fleet during the Napoleonic wars.
George Montagu, 1751-1815. Biologist, one of earliest members of Linnean Society, helped shape the formation of modern biology; one of those that provided the foundation for Darwin, who was quite laudatory of his work...
Soldiers of the American Revolution.
William Montagu, 1768-1843. Fifth Duke of Manchester. Governor of Jamaica.
Basil Montagu, 1770-1851. Son of John Montagu, fourth earl Sandwich and mistress Martha Ray. Developed significant amount of "modern" Bankruptcy Law, first to publish the collected works of Francis Bacon.
John Montagu, 1797-1853. Soldier, Colonial Secretary of Tasmania and South Africa. Significant role in forming Australian and South African government.
Daniel Montague, 1798-1876. Early American settler in Texas. Soldier and surveyor. President of the Court at the Great Hanging in Gainesville, which executed 42 during the Civil War to destroy a pro-Northern plot; member of the Snively anti-Mexico privateering raid.
1800-1900
Algernon Sidney Montagu, 1802-1880. Scandalous "mad Judge" at the ends of the earth (Australia, Falklands, Sierra Leone). Australian Supreme Court justice.
Alexander Montague, 1815-1898. Australian pioneer, politician, and a founder of Cooma, NSW.
Robert Latane Montague, 1819-1880. President of Virginia Secession Convention, Lt-Governor of Virginia, Confederate Congress Representative. One of the core politicians of the Confederacy.
Civil War Soldiers.
Samuel Skerry Montague, 1830-1883. Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad. In charge of building the western half of the first transcontinental railroad; significant role in the modern layout of California and Nevada. Leland Stanford's engineer (of Stanford University fame).
William Lewis Montague, 1831-1908. Amherst Linguistics Professor, Registrar, and Family Historian.
Samuel Montagu (Montagu Samuel), 1832-1911. International financier and famous Jewish activist.
Oliver George Powlett Montagu, 1844-1893. Colonel, British Army, Egyptian campaign.
Andrew Philip Montague, 1854-1928. President of 4 colleges, Latin scholar and classicist.
George Prescott Montague, 1854-1928. Lawyer before the Supreme Court, businessman, aviation enthusiast.
Walter Humphries Montague, 1858-1915. Canadian doctor, Minister of Agriculture and Public Works, Secretary of State.
Andrew Jackson Montague, 1862-1937. Progressive Governor of Virginia and 12 term U.S. Congressman.
Daniel Montague, 1867-1912. Sailor, Master-At-Arms. Received the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Spanish-American war.
Charles Edward Montague, 1867-1928. Famous author, journalist, World War I soldier, poet.
Alice Montague, 1869-1929. Mother of the women who caused the only voluntary abdicationof the throne in British history. (A fascinating story - a dirt poor Apallachian childhood, a single-woman alone through war-torn China in the 1920's, a scandalous affair with the King of England...).
William Pepperell Montague, 1873-1953 . Influential American philosopher; one of the founder's of the pragmatic "New Realism".
Edwin Samuel Montagu, 1879-1924. British Minister of Munitions in 1916, Secretary of State for India (1917-1922), and key participant in drafting the Balfour Declaration.
Gilbert Holland Montague, 1880-1961 . Pro-business antitrust lawyer and economist, book collector; FDR's economics instructor. Involved (adversarily) at the top levels in the formation of FDR's New Deal. A relative of Emily Dickinson, he maintained an extensive collection of her correspondence.
Percival John Montague, 1882-1966 . Canadian soldier and judge, chief of staff and judge advocate general of Canadian army overseas during WWII.
Hundreds thousands schoolchildren from all over Thailand join the the 6th V-Star Challenge Day at Dhammakaya temple.
The “World Morality Restoration Project” aims to create the youth leaders who are the virtuous models called V-Stars (Virtuous Stars). V-Star children will be trained by the daily routine until it becomes their habit. Moreover, V-Star children have to do the social creative activities and study about the Triple Gems. This is the cooperation among the main institutes of Thai societies which are homes, temples, and schools. The previous operation was very successful, both quantity and quality. In the quantity aspect, there were more educational institutes and students participating in this project and in the quality aspect, the participating schools satisfied their students’ behavioral changes (moral behavior).
More info: www.dmc.tv/pages/en/scoop/V-Star-2012.html
Sony A77 + Sony 16-50mm f2.8 SAL1650 SSM lens
Os nomes dos 660 militares, principalmente de generais, que serviram durante a Primeira República Francesa e o Primeiro Império Francês, principalmente nas guerras napoleónicas. Estão inscritos nos quatro pilares do monumento, consoante os exércitos e as campanhas em que participaram. Os nomes sublinhados são os dos que morreram em combate. Na foto, os relativos aos Exércitos dos Pirenéus, do Oeste da França e unidades notáveis.
The names of the 660 soldiers, mainly generals, who served during the First French Republic and the First French Empire, mainly in the Napoleonic Wars. They are inscribed on the four pillars of the monument, according to the armies and campaigns in which they participated. The underlined names are those who died in combat. In the photo, those relating to the Armies of the Pyrenees, western France and notable units.
© i see the moon photography
ok, bear with me....i had fun goofin' around with my apron and dress form today....now i need to see the project through. ;)
Blueberries with Lemon Cream
Blending vanilla yogurt and reduced-fat cream cheese creates a topping that's as virtuous as it is delicious. Any fresh berry can be used in this recipe.
4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)
3/4 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 cups fresh blueberries
Using a fork, break up cream cheese in a medium bowl. Drain off any liquid from the yogurt; add yogurt to the bowl along with honey. Using an electric mixer, beat at high speed until light and creamy. Stir in lemon zest.
Layer the lemon cream and blueberries in dessert dishes or wineglasses. If not serving immediately, cover and refrigerate for up to 8 hours.
Details from a Guthrie/Mann/Gauld? window. The window depicts 4 joyless women, 2 despondent angels, some dour looking bairns, lots of cobwebs and the glummest possible cherub .... perhaps something to do with this interpretation of the inscription on the window of the proverb "She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands on the distaff".
Represents the virtuous woman. She is very careful to recommend herself to her husband's esteem and affection, to know his mind, and is willing that he rule over her. 1. And she makes it her constant business to do him good. 2. She is one that takes pains in her duties, and takes pleasure in them. She is careful to fill up time, that none be lost. She rises early. She applies herself to the business proper for her, to women's business. She does what she does, with all her power, and trifles not.... 10. She shall reflect with comfort when she comes to be old, that she was not idle or useless when young. Repair. www.rdwglass.com
When I happened upon this I decided to camp. There had been lots of dried-up tarns I'd passed along the way, so the combination of viable water plus super beautiful spot (plus tired body;) seemed like a virtuous confluence of reasons to stay here:)
The Proverbs 31 woman is a picture of a fine example of what a wife and mother should be.
Proverbs 31
1 The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. 2 What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows? 3 Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. 4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: 5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. 6 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. 7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. 8 Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. 9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. 13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. 14 She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar. 15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. 16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. 17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. 21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. 24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. 25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. 28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
The Cathedral of Pisa , officially the Primate Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta , in the center of the Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli , is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa as well as the Primate church .
A masterpiece of the Romanesque , in particular of the Pisan Romanesque , it represents the tangible testimony of the prestige and wealth achieved by the maritime republic of Pisa at the moment of its apogee.
Its construction began in 1063 ( 1064 according to the Pisan calendar in force at the time) by the architect Buscheto , with the tenth part of the spoils of the Palermo campaign in Sicily against the Muslims ( 1063 ) led by Giovanni Orlandi belonging to the Orlandi family [ 1] . Different stylistic elements blend together: classical, Lombard-Emilian , Byzantine and in particular Islamic, proving the international presence of Pisan merchants in those times. In that same year the reconstruction of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice also began , so it may also be that there was a rivalry between the two maritime republics at the time to create the most beautiful and sumptuous place of worship.
The church was built in an area outside the early medieval city walls , to symbolize the power of Pisa which did not require protection. The chosen area was already used in the Lombard era as a necropolis and, already in the early 11th century , an unfinished church was built which was to be dedicated to Santa Maria. The new large church of Buscheto, in fact, was initially called Santa Maria Maggiore until it was finally named after Santa Maria Assunta.
In 1092 the church changed from a simple cathedral to being primatial, the title of primate having been conferred on Archbishop Daiberto by Pope Urban II , an honor which today is only formal. The cathedral was consecrated in 1118 by Pope Gelasius II , as recorded by the inscription placed internally on the counter-façade at the top left.
In the first half of the 12th century the cathedral was enlarged under the direction of the architect Rainaldo , who lengthened the naves by adding three bays in front of the old facade [2] according to the Buscheto style, widened the transept and designed a new facade, completed by the workers led by the sculptors Guglielmo and Biduino . The date of the start of the works is uncertain: immediately after Buscheto's death around the year 1120 , according to some, around the year 1140 according to others. The end of the works dates back to 1180 , as documented by the date affixed to the bronze doors by Bonanno Pisano on the main door.
The current appearance of the complex building is the result of repeated restoration campaigns that took place in different eras. The first radical interventions followed the disastrous fire on the night between 24 and 25 October 1595 [3] , which destroyed many decorative interventions and following which the roof was rebuilt and the three bronze doors of the facade were made, the work of sculptors from the workshop of Giambologna , including Gasparo Mola and Pietro Tacca . Starting from the eighteenth century, the progressive covering of the internal walls began with large paintings on canvas, the "quadroni" with Stories of Pisan blesseds and saints , executed by the main artists of the time thanks to the initiative of some citizens who financed themselves by creating a special business.
The Napoleonic spoliations of the Cathedral of Pisa and the Opera del Duomo were significant, many works converged on the Louvre where they are exhibited today, including The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas among the Doctors of the Church by Benozzo Gozzoli , now in the Louvre, Death of San Bernardo dell'Orcagna and San Benedetto , the work of Andrea del Castagno .
Among the various noteworthy interventions, it is worth mentioning the dismantling of Giovanni Pisano's pulpit which was reassembled only in 1926 in a different position and with several parts missing, including the staircase, and the dismantling of the monument to Henry VII created by Lupo di Francesco which was located in front of the door of San Ranieri and subsequently replaced by a simplified and symbolic version.
The subsequent interventions took place during the nineteenth century and affected both the internal and external decorations, which in many cases, especially the sculptures on the facade, were replaced by copies (the originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del duomo ).
The building has a Latin cross shape with a large dome at the intersection of the arms. The longitudinal body, divided into five naves , extends over ten bays . This plan continues in the choir with two more bays and a final apse crowning the central nave alone. The transept has 4 bays on each side (or six if we include the two in common with the longitudinal body) and has three naves with apses ending on both sides. In the center four large pillars delimit the rectangular cross ending at the top with a large elliptical dome.
The building, like the bell tower, has sunk perceptibly into the ground, and some defects in the construction are clearly visible, such as the differences in level between Buscheto's nave and the extension by Rainaldo (the bays towards the west and the facade) .
The exterior of the cathedral is mainly in white and gray marble although the older stones placed at the lower levels of the longitudinal body are of other poorer material. There is no shortage of valuable materials, especially on the facade, where there are multicolored marble inlays, mosaics and also bronze objects from war booty, including the Griffin used on the top of the roof at the back (east side), perhaps taken from Palermo in 1061 ( today there is a copy on the roof, the original is in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo ).
The longitudinal body, transept and choir have a rich facing punctuated by three orders or floors. On the lower floor, long rows of pilasters supporting blind arches , in turn enclosing lozenges or windows, punctuate the space on all sides of the building with very few interruptions (only the apse of the right transept). The second floor still has pilasters but this time these do not support blind arches and are rather architraved , a motif interrupted only in the apse of the right transept (where blind arches appear again) and in the main apse where two orders of loggias are visible . In addition to the windows and lozenges, inlaid oculi also appear between the pilasters . The third floor has columns or semi-columns which again support blind arches (longitudinal body and choir) or an architrave (transept) with the usual alternation of windows, lozenges and inlaid oculi.
The raised round arches on the facade and in the main apse recall elements of Muslim art from Sicily . The blind arches with lozenges recall the similar structures of the churches of Armenia . Even the ellipsoidal dome rebuilt after the fire of 1595, surmounted by a lantern, recalls Islamic architecture.
The gray and white marble façade , decorated with colored marble inserts, was built by master Rainaldo in the 12th century and finished by 1180. On the lower floor, the seven blind arches which enclose lozenges, one every two, echo the same motif which spreads over the remaining three sides of the Cathedral. On the façade, however, the ornamentation becomes richer: semi-columns placed against semi-rectangular pillars replace the slender pilaster strips on the sides and are surmounted by Corinthian or figurative capitals. The arches are embellished with a rich texture of vegetal motifs and the lozenges are also larger and inlaid with multicolored marble. The empty spaces between the three portals have marble slabs forming square or rectangular motifs and are embellished with horizontal ornamental bands with plant motifs. The empty spaces between the arches are also filled with marble tablets inlaid with geometric or animal motifs. Noteworthy is the one at the top right of the main portal which depicts a Christian brandishing the cross between two beasts and the writing of Psalm 21 : Salva me ex ore leonis et a cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam (Save me from the mouth of the lion Lord and my humility from the unicorn's horns), the original of which is preserved in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo .
Of the three portals , the central one has larger dimensions and is enclosed by two columns decorated with vegetal motifs which support, above the capitals, two lions to symbolize the two "faces" of Christ the Judge , the one who condemns on the left and the one who rewards and is merciful on the right (note the saved and protected lamb between the legs). All three portals have eighteenth-century mosaics by Giuseppe Modena da Lucca in their lunettes depicting the Assumption of the Virgin (centre), Santa Reparata (left) and Saint John the Baptist (right). The bronze doors were made by various artists of the caliber of Giambologna , after the fire of 1595, replacing the two wooden side doors and the bronze-covered wooden royal door by Bonanno Pisano which bore the date of 1180 (seen and described before the fire) to testify to the completion of the façade in that year. To the left of the north left portal, there is Buscheto's tomb.
The four upper floors are characterized by four orders of superimposed loggias, divided by finely sculpted frames, behind which there are single , double and triple lancet windows . Many of the friezes on the arches and frames were redone in the 17th century after the fire of 1595, while the polychrome marble inlays between the arches are original. Even higher up, to crown it, the Madonna and Child by Andrea Pisano and, in the corners, the four evangelists by Giovanni Pisano (early 14th century).
Contrary to what one might think, since ancient times the faithful have entered the Cathedral through the door of San Ranieri , located at the back in the transept of the same name, in front of the bell tower. This is because the nobles of the city went to the cathedral coming from via Santa Maria which leads to that transept. This door was cast around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano , and is the only door to escape the fire of 1595 which heavily damaged the church. The door is decorated with twenty-four panels depicting stories from the New Testament. This door is one of the first produced in Italy in the Middle Ages, after the importation of numerous examples from Constantinople , (in Amalfi , in Salerno , in Rome , in Montecassino , in Venice ...) and one admires an entirely Western sensitivity, which breaks away from the Byzantine tradition.
The original gràdule of the Duomo, designed by Giovanni Pisano and dating back to the end of the 13th century, were removed in 1865 and replaced by the current churchyard . These gràdule consisted of small walls, decorated with squares carved with figures of animals and heads, close to the external perimeter of the cathedral and served as a base for the numerous sarcophagi of the Roman era which, during the medieval era, were reused for the burials of nobles (among whom Beatrice of Canossa stands out ) and heroes. Currently some fragments are visible in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, while the sarcophagi were all moved within the enclosure of the monumental cemetery .
The lower register of the facade is not very rich in figurative sculptural decorations unlike other contemporary Romanesque cathedrals, but it still gives a rich meaning both to its unitary components and a complex allegory in its overall vision. To read the latter you need to start from the left where the outermost capital of the left side portal shows two ferocious lions devouring weak prey and two human figures further behind. The former represent the struggle between good and evil where evil dominates [6] , but behind them the figure of the old man stacking wood and the young man towering over a ram perhaps represent Abraham and Isaac and the sacrificial ram (or two peasants virtuous at work) which show preparation for God's plan of salvation. The arch that starts from the same capital shows a row of dragons that two virtuous human figures in the center are forced to face in the continuous struggle between good and evil. [6]
At the level of the central portal we enter the New Testament which concretizes the plan of salvation brought about by God starting from Abraham . It is the portal dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption and her Son , whose divine judgment is represented by the two lions of justice, the one that condemns on the left and the one that protects and saves on the right with the little lamb protected between its legs, for Divine Mercy or Justice whatever it is. [6] The 42 stylized human figurines present on the decorated arch show the 42 generations that separate, according to the Gospel of Matthew , Abraham from Jesus Christ (the figurines are actually 43 but perhaps due to renovation needs or other reasons for filling the frieze ). This transition from the old to the new is strengthened by the two marble inlays in the intrados of the main arch where a ferocious dragon and a lion facing each other depicting the perennial struggle between the evil forces (left inlay) [6] become two equally ferocious unicorns but in the middle to whom a Christian appears brandishing a cross to defend himself from them (inlay on the right) and where we read in Latin:
de ore leonis libera me domine et a cornibus unicorni humilitatem mea ("Save me from the lion's mouth, Lord, and my humility from the unicorn's horns", psalm 21 ).
The last element of this complex narrative is the outermost capital of the right portal, which acts as a pendant to that of the left portal from which we started. We are well beyond the coming of Jesus where the evil lions, previously in the foreground, are relegated to a backward and out of the way position, always ready to strike as shown by the heads turned back and the tongue out, but in a contorted position due to the continuous escapes to which the Savior and the Church forces them to do. [6] In a prominent position there are now two naked human figurines, the souls of those saved by the Savior through the intercession of the Church , which are composed and serene figures with large eyes, well anchored with their arms to the garland of the capital and the feet resting well on the acanthus leaves, symbol of men of faith, victorious over sin and blessed by faith rather than merit.
The five- nave interior is covered in black and white marble, with monolithic columns of gray marble and capitals of the Corinthian order . The arches of the ten bays are round arches (those of the central nave) or raised arches in the Moorish style of the time (those of the side naves).
The central nave has a seventeenth-century gilded coffered ceiling, in gilded and painted wood, by the Florentines Domenico and Bartolomeo Atticciati ; it bears the Medici coat of arms in gold . Presumably the ancient ceiling had a structure with exposed wooden trusses. The four side naves have a cross-shaped plastered roof. The coffered roof is also present in the choir and in the central nave of the transept, while a plastered barrel roof is present in the side naves of the transept. The coverage of the lateral naves of the transept at the level of the two bays shared with the lateral naves of the longitudinal body is curious: these are cross-shaped (as in the lateral naves of the longitudinal body), but are higher (as in the lateral naves of the transept) . There is also a women's gallery of Byzantine origin that runs along the entire church, including the choir and transept and which has a coffered roof (central body) or wooden beams (transept). Even higher up, thin and deep windows allow the church to be lit.
The interior suggests a spatial effect that has some analogy with that of mosques , for the use of raised arches, for the alternation of white and green marble bands, for the unusual elliptical dome , of oriental inspiration, and for the presence of women's galleries with solid monolithic granite columns in the mullioned windows , a clear sign of Byzantine influence. The architect Buscheto had welcomed stimuli from the Islamic Levant and Armenia . [7]
Only part of the medieval decorative interventions survived the fire of 1595. Among these is the fresco with the Madonna and Child by the Pisan Master of San Torpè in the triumphal arch (late 13th-early 14th century), and below it the Cosmatesque flooring , of a certain rarity outside the borders of Lazio . It was made of marble inlays with geometric "opus alexandrinum" motifs (mid- 12th century ). Other late medieval fresco fragments have survived, among them Saint Jerome on one of the four central pillars and Saint John the Baptist , a Crucifix and Saint Cosimo and Damian on the pillar near the entrance door, partially hidden by the compass .
At the meeting point between the transept and the central body the dome rises, the decoration of which represented one of the last interventions carried out after the fire mentioned. Painted with the rare encaustic painting technique [8] (or wax on wall) [9] , the dome represents the Virgin in glory and saints ( 1627 - 1631 ), a masterpiece by the Pisan Orazio Riminaldi , completed after his death. which occurred in 1630 due to the plague, by his brother Girolamo . The decoration underwent a careful restoration which returned it to its original splendor in 2018.
The presbytery, ending in a curved apse, presents a great variety of ornaments. Above, in the basin, the large mosaic of Christ enthroned between the Virgin and Saint John is made famous by the face of Saint John, a work by Cimabue from 1302 which miraculously survived the fire of 1595. Precisely that Saint John the Evangelist was the The last work created by Cimabue before his death and the only one for which certified documentation exists. It evokes the mosaics of Byzantine churches and also Norman ones, such as Cefalù and Monreale , in Sicily . The mosaic, largely created by Francesco da Pisa, was finished by Vincino da Pistoia with the depiction of the Madonna on the left side ( 1320 ).
The main altar, from the beginning of the twentieth century, features six Angels contemporary with Ludovico Poliaghi , and in the center the bronze Crucifix by Giambologna , of which there are also the two candle-holder Angels at the end of the rich marble transenna, while the third Angel on the column to the left of the altar is by Stoldo Lorenzi .
Below, behind the main altar, there is the large decorative complex of the Tribune, composed of 27 paintings depicting episodes from the Old Testament and Christological stories. Begun before the fire with the works of Andrea del Sarto (three canvases, Saint Agnes , Saints Catherine and Margaret and Saints Peter and John the Baptist ) del Sodoma and Domenico Beccafumi ( Stories of Moses and the Evangelists ), it was completed after this calamity with the works of several Tuscan painters, including Orazio Riminaldi .
The pulpit , a masterpiece by Giovanni Pisano (1302-1310), survived the fire, but was dismantled during the restoration work and was not reassembled until 1926 . With its articulated architectural structure and complex sculptural decoration, the work is one of the largest narratives in fourteenth-century images that reflects the renewal and religious fervor of the era. The episodes from the Life of Christ are carved in an expressive language on the slightly curved panels . The structure is polygonal, as in the similar previous examples, in the baptistery of Pisa , in the cathedral of Siena and in the church of Sant'Andrea in Pistoia , but for the first time the panels are slightly curved, giving a new idea of circularity in its type. Equally original are: the presence of caryatids , sculpted figures in place of simple columns, which symbolize the Virtues ; the adoption of spiral brackets instead of arches to support the mezzanine floor; the sense of movement, given by the numerous figures that fill every empty space.
For these qualities combined with the skilful narrative art of the nine scenes it is generally considered Giovanni's masterpiece and more generally of Italian Gothic sculpture. The pulpit commissioned from Giovanni replaced a previous one , created by Guglielmo ( 1157 - 1162 ), which was sent to the cathedral of Cagliari . Since there is no documentation of what the pulpit looked like before its dismantling, it was rebuilt in a different position from the original one and, certainly, with the parts not in the same order and orientation as had been thought. It is not known whether or not he had a marble staircase.
The right transept is occupied by the Chapel of San Ranieri , patron saint of the city, whose relics are preserved in the magnificent shrine on the altar. Also in the chapel, on the left, is preserved part of the fragmentary tomb of Henry VII of Luxembourg , Holy Roman Emperor , who died in 1313 in Buonconvento while besieging Florence in vain . The tomb, also dismantled and reassembled, (it was sculpted by Tino di Camaino in 1313 - 1315 ) and was originally placed in the center of the apse, as a sign of the Ghibelline faith of the city. It was also a much more complex sculptural monument, featuring various statues. Moved several times for political reasons, it was also separated into several parts (some inside the church, some on the facade, some in the Campo Santo). Today we find the sarcophagus in the church with the deceased depicted lying on it, according to the fashion in vogue at that time, and the twelve apostles sculpted in bas-relief. The lunette painted with curtain-holding angels is instead a later addition from the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (end of the 15th century ). The other remains of the monument have been reassembled in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo . The left transept is occupied by the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, in the center of which is the large silver tabernacle designed by Giovan Battista Foggini (1678-86).
On the numerous side altars there are sixteenth-seventeenth century paintings. Among the paintings housed on the minor altars, we remember the Madonna delle Grazie with saints, by the Florentine mannerist Andrea del Sarto, and the Madonna enthroned with saints in the right transept, by Perin del Vaga , a pupil of Raphael , both finished by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani . The canvas with the Dispute of the Sacrament is in Baroque style, by the Sienese Francesco Vanni , and the Cross with saints by the Genoese Giovanni Battista Paggi . Particularly venerated is the image of the thirteenth-century Madonna and Child , known as the Madonna di sotto gli organi , attributed to the Volterra native Berlinghiero Berlinghieri .
Pisa is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics.
The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.
History
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Pisa.
Ancient times
The most believed hypothesis is that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river.
Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the Etruscan origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations.
Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; and gives the epithet of Alphēae to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from Pisa in Elis, near which the Alpheius river flowed. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era.
The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name to Colonia Iulia obsequens.
Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 km (7 mi) north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from the coast. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city.
Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
During the last years of the Western Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably due to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevalent. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia, and the southern coasts of France and Spain.
After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca. In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside. In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia. Lucca was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of tenth century Liutprand of Cremona, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and a century later, the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. From the naval point of view, since the ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to expand its fleet; in the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts.
11th century
The power of Pisa as a maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century, when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy (Repubbliche Marinare).
At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in the south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with some 'Saracens' - a medieval term to refer to Arab Muslims - who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017, Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid, who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these major marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051–1052, the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, Admiral Giovanni Orlandi, coming to the aid of the Norman Roger I, took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo.
In 1060, Pisa had to engage in their first battle with Genoa. The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077 the new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a council of elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years, the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092, Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising the town to the rank of archbishopric.
Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia. A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade, and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land, the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands; the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert, the future patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant. In particular, the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, Latakia, and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea, plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo, Alexandria, and of course Constantinople, where the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities, the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century, the Pisan quarter in the eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century, Pisa was the most prominent commercial and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself.
12th century
In 1113, Pisa and Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors; the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped the Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral, and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean.
In the following years, the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi, drove away the Saracens after ferocious battles. Though short-lived, this Pisan success in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with Languedoc, Provence (Noli, Savona, Fréjus, and Montpellier) were an obstacle to Genoese interests in cities such as Hyères, Fos, Antibes, and Marseille.
The war began in 1119 when the Genoese attacked several galleys on their way home to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults.
In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of Pope Innocent II against those of Pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support, but was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing Pisan and Genoese spheres of influence. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily. Amalfi, one of the maritime republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on August 6, 1136; the Pisans destroyed the ships in the port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas, and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa. This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later, its soldiers sacked Salerno.
New city walls, erected in 1156 by Consul Cocco Griffi
In the following years, Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I. He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with these grants: Apart from the jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, a half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno and Naples, the whole of Gaeta, Mazara, and Trapani, and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily. Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI, Otto IV, and Frederick II. They marked the apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of other cities such as Lucca, Massa, Volterra, and Florence, thwarting their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena, the main trade route between Rome and France. Last, but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa.
Genoa had acquired a dominant position in the markets of southern France. The war began in 1165 on the Rhône, when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse, failed. Pisa, though, was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily, where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI. In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III, allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon, he stipulated[clarification needed] a pact with Genoa, too, further weakening the Pisan presence in southern Italy.
To counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with its traditional Spanish and French bases (Marseille, Narbonne, Barcelona, etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180, the two cities agreed to a nonaggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation. Soon, attacks on Venetian convoys were made. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona, Pula, Zara, Split, and Brindisi; in 1195, a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima soon reconquered the rebel sea town.
One year later, the two cities signed a peace treaty, which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa, but in 1199, the Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Apulia. In the following naval battle, they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on, the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase the trading benefits in Constantinople.
13th century
In 1209 in Lerici, two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa were held. A 20-year peace treaty was signed, but when in 1220, the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years, Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed the pope tried to deprive Pisa of its dominions in northern Sardinia.
In 1238, Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa, too. One year later, he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241, a combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the emperor's son Enzo, attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from northern Italy and France, next to the isle of Giglio (Battle of Giglio), in front of Tuscany; the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about a thousand sailors, two cardinals, and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this major victory, the council in Rome failed, but Pisa was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243.
The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici, conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256.
The great expansion in the Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned, and in 1230, the new city rulers named a capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain") as civil and military leader. Despite these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti. In 1237 the archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains continued. In 1254, the people rebelled and imposed 12 Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had the power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate.
Decline
The decline is said to have begun on August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria, in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered; in 1290, the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's port), and covered the land with salt. The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods, however, continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but the end came when the Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. The nearby area also likely became infested with malaria. The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was entirely lost to the Aragonese.
Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century, and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under the command of Uguccione della Faggiuola. Eventually, however, after a long siege, Pisa was occupied by Florentines in 1405.[9] Florentines corrupted the capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain"), Giovanni Gambacorta, who at night opened the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In 1409, Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism. In the 15th century, access to the sea became more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples, Pisa reclaimed its independence as the Second Pisan Republic.
The new freedom did not last long; 15 years of battles and sieges by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja, Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi were made, but they failed to conquer the city. Vitellozzo Vitelli with his brother Paolo were the only ones who actually managed to break the strong defences of Pisa and make a breach in the Stampace bastion in the southern west part of the walls, but he did not enter the city. For that, they were suspected of treachery and Paolo was put to death. However, the resources of Pisa were getting low, and at the end, the city was sold to the Visconti family from Milan and eventually to Florence again. Livorno took over the role of the main port of Tuscany. Pisa acquired a mainly cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa, created in 1343, and later reinforced by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1810) and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (1987).
Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei. It is still the seat of an archbishopric. Besides its educational institutions, it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II.
Since the early 1950s, the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa, which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area.
Geography
Climate
Pisa has a borderline humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). The city is characterized by cool to mild winters and hot summers. This transitional climate allows Pisa to have summers with moderate rainfall. Rainfall peaks in autumn. Snow is rare. The highest officially recorded temperature was 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 22 August 2011 and the lowest was −13.8 °C (7.2 °F) on 12 January 1985.
Culture
Gioco del Ponte
In Pisa there was a festival and game fr:Gioco del Ponte (Game of the Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge (Ponte di Mezzo). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the targone, a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of the bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated.
In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist Cornelis de Bruijn. He wrote:
"While I stayed in Livorno, I went to Pisa to witness the bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing the bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in Venice between the it:Castellani and the Nicolotti."
In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 Vittorio Emanuele III with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions.
Festivals and cultural events
Capodanno pisano (folklore, March 25)
Gioco del Ponte (folklore)
Luminara di San Ranieri (folklore, June 16)
Maritime republics regata (folklore)
Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa
Pisa Book Festival
Metarock (rock music festival)
Internet Festival San Ranieri regata (folklore)
Turn Off Festival (house music festival)
Nessiáh (Jewish cultural Festival, November)
Main sights
The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
While the bell tower of the cathedral, known as "the leaning Tower of Pisa", is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo, also known, since the 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery). The medieval complex includes the above-mentioned four sacred buildings, the hospital and few palaces. All the complex is kept by the Opera (fabrica ecclesiae) della Primaziale Pisana, an old non profit foundation that has operated since the building of the Cathedral in 1063 to maintain the sacred buildings. The area is framed by medieval walls kept by the municipal administration.
Other sights include:
Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, church sited on Piazza dei Cavalieri, and also designed by Vasari. It had originally a single nave; two more were added in the 17th century. It houses a bust by Donatello, and paintings by Vasari, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Fei, and Pontormo. It also contains spoils from the many naval battles between the Cavalieri (Knights of St. Stephan) and the Turks between the 16th and 18th centuries, including the Turkish battle pennant hoisted from Ali Pacha's flagship at the 1571 Battle of Lepanto.
St. Sixtus. This small church, consecrated in 1133, is also close to the Piazza dei Cavalieri. It was used as a seat of the most important notarial deeds of the town, also hosting the Council of Elders. It is today one of the best preserved early Romanesque buildings in town.
St. Francis. The church of San Francesco may have been designed by Giovanni di Simone, built after 1276. In 1343 new chapels were added and the church was elevated. It has a single nave and a notable belfry, as well as a 15th-century cloister. It houses works by Jacopo da Empoli, Taddeo Gaddi and Santi di Tito. In the Gherardesca Chapel are buried Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons.
San Frediano. This church, built by 1061, has a basilica interior with three aisles, with a crucifix from the 12th century. Paintings from the 16th century were added during a restoration, including works by Ventura Salimbeni, Domenico Passignano, Aurelio Lomi, and Rutilio Manetti.
San Nicola. This medieval church built by 1097, was enlarged between 1297 and 1313 by the Augustinians, perhaps by the design of Giovanni Pisano. The octagonal belfry is from the second half of the 13th century. The paintings include the Madonna with Child by Francesco Traini (14th century) and St. Nicholas Saving Pisa from the Plague (15th century). Noteworthy are also the wood sculptures by Giovanni and Nino Pisano, and the Annunciation by Francesco di Valdambrino.
Santa Maria della Spina. A small white marble church alongside the Arno, is attributed to Lupo di Francesco (1230), is another excellent Gothic building.
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno. The church was founded around 952 and enlarged in the mid-12th century along lines similar to those of the cathedral. It is annexed to the Romanesque Chapel of St. Agatha, with an unusual pyramidal cusp or peak.
San Pietro in Vinculis. Known as San Pierino, it is an 11th-century church with a crypt and a cosmatesque mosaic on the floor of the main nave.
Borgo Stretto. This medieval borgo or neighborhood contains strolling arcades and the Lungarno, the avenues along the river Arno. It includes the Gothic-Romanesque church of San Michele in Borgo (990). There are at least two other leaning towers in the city, one at the southern end of central Via Santa Maria, the other halfway through the Piagge riverside promenade.
Medici Palace. The palace was once a possession of the Appiano family, who ruled Pisa in 1392–1398. In 1400 the Medici acquired it, and Lorenzo de' Medici sojourned here.
Orto botanico di Pisa. The botanical garden of the University of Pisa is Europe's oldest university botanical garden.
Palazzo Reale. The ("Royal Palace"), once belonged to the Caetani patrician family. Here Galileo Galilei showed to Grand Duke of Tuscany the planets he had discovered with his telescope. The edifice was erected in 1559 by Baccio Bandinelli for Cosimo I de Medici, and was later enlarged including other palaces. The palace is now a museum.
Palazzo Gambacorti. This palace is a 14th-century Gothic building, and now houses the offices of the municipality. The interior shows frescoes boasting Pisa's sea victories.
Palazzo Agostini. The palace is a Gothic building also known as Palazzo dell'Ussero, with its 15th-century façade and remains of the ancient city walls dating back to before 1155. The name of the building comes from the coffee rooms of Caffè dell'Ussero, historic meeting place founded on September 1, 1775.
Mural Tuttomondo. A modern mural, the last public work by Keith Haring, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio, painted in June 1989.
Museums
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: exhibiting among others the original sculptures of Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano, the Islamic Pisa Griffin, and the treasures of the cathedral.
Museo delle Sinopie: showing the sinopias from the camposanto, the monumental cemetery. These are red ocher underdrawings for frescoes, made with reddish, greenish or brownish earth colour with water.
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo: exhibiting sculptures and paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries, among them the masterworks of Giovanni and Andrea Pisano, the Master of San Martino, Simone Martini, Nino Pisano and Masaccio.
Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale: exhibiting the belongings of the families that lived in the palace: paintings, statues, armors, etc.
Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti per il Calcolo: exhibiting a collection of instruments used in science, between a pneumatic machine of Van Musschenbroek and a compass which probably belonged to Galileo Galilei.
Museo di storia naturale dell'Università di Pisa (Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa), located in the Certosa di Calci, outside the city. It houses one of the largest cetacean skeletons collection in Europe.
Palazzo Blu: temporary exhibitions and cultural activities center, located in the Lungarno, in the heart of the old town, the palace is easy recognizable because it is the only blue building.
Cantiere delle Navi di Pisa - The Pisa's Ancient Ships Archaeological Area: A museum of 10,650 square meters – 3,500 archaeological excavation, 1,700 laboratories and one restoration center – that visitors can visit with a guided tour.[19] The Museum opened in June 2019 and has been located inside to the 16th-century Medicean Arsenals in Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli, restored under the supervision of the Tuscany Soprintendenza. It hosts a remarkable collection of ceramics and amphoras dated back from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century BC, and also 32 ships dated back from the second century BCE and the seventh century BC. Four of them are integrally preserved and the best one is the so-called Barca C, also named Alkedo (written in the ancient Greek characters). The first boat was accidentally discovered in 1998 near the Pisa San Rossore railway station and the archeological excavations were completed 20 years later.
Churches
St. Francis' Church
San Francesco
San Frediano
San Giorgio ai Tedeschi
San Michele in Borgo
San Nicola
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno
San Paolo all'Orto
San Piero a Grado
San Pietro in Vinculis
San Sisto
San Tommaso delle Convertite
San Zeno
Santa Caterina
Santa Cristina
Santa Maria della Spina
Santo Sepolcro
Palaces, towers and villas
Palazzo della Carovana or dei Cavalieri.
Pisa by Oldypak lp photo
Pisa
Palazzo del Collegio Puteano
Palazzo della Carovana
Palazzo delle Vedove
Torre dei Gualandi
Villa di Corliano
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Sports
Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa, currently plays in the Serie B (the second highest football division in Italy), and has had a top flight history throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world-class players such as Diego Simeone, Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time. The club play at the Arena Garibaldi – Stadio Romeo Anconetani, opened in 1919 and with a capacity of 25,000.
Notable people
For people born in Pisa, see People from the Province of Pisa; among notable non-natives long resident in the city:
Giuliano Amato (born 1938), politician, former Premier and Minister of Interior Affairs
Alessandro d'Ancona (1835–1914), critic and writer.
Silvano Arieti (1914–1981), psychiatrist
Gaetano Bardini (1926–2017), tenor
Andrea Bocelli (born 1958), tenor and multi-instrumentalist.
Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907), poet and 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature winner.
Massimo Carmassi (born 1943), architect
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1920–2016), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Maria Luisa Cicci (1760–1794), poet
Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari (1677–1754), a musical composer and maestro di cappella at Pistoia.
Alessio Corti (born 1965), mathematician
Rustichello da Pisa (born 13th century), writer
Giovanni Battista Donati (1826–1873), an Italian astronomer.
Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250), mathematician.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), physicist.
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944), philosopher and politician
Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639), painter.
Count Ugolino della Gherardesca (1214–1289), noble (see also Dante Alighieri).
Giovanni Gronchi (1887–1978), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Giacomo Leopardi [1798–1837), poet and philosopher.
Enrico Letta (born 1966), politician, former Prime Minister of Italy
Marco Malvaldi (born 1974), mystery novelist
Leonardo Ortolani (born 1967), comic writer
Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), physicist, inventor of the dynamo
Andrea Pisano (1290–1348), a sculptor and architect.
Afro Poli (1902–1988), an operatic baritone
Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993), nuclear physicist
Gillo Pontecorvo (1919–2006), filmmaker
Ippolito Rosellini (1800–1843), an Egyptologist.
Paolo Savi (1798–1871), geologist and ornithologist.
Antonio Tabucchi (1943–2012), writer and academic
Sport
Jason Acuña (born 1973), Stunt performer
Sergio Bertoni (1915–1995), footballer
Giorgio Chiellini (born 1984), footballer
Camila Giorgi (born 1991), tennis player