Imagine, if you will, a writer coarse and crass, bitingly satirical, outrageous, and, when the letters weren’t paying the bills, he’d dabble in a little (okay a lot) of blackmail. Even better, imagine if he was the son of an … Read More
Your early modern doctor needed two main characteristics (don’t quote me on this), a vivid imagination and a very strong stomach for gore. Helkiah Crooke was one such individual, and he stands out from crowd because (like Da Vinci … Read More
This blog post is brought to you by the seven well fed mosquitos who bit my arm whilst I was dodging rain and storm in the vege garden… Brief History of Rhubarb Rheum palmatum is mentioned in records as early … Read More
So… in Florence, pre 1860 (when all of Italy went metric), the length of stuff and things was tricky to measure consistently. Not that people just lived out their lives happy and free of the tyranny of meters…
Villa Basilica LigaDue, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Galileo’s mum, Giulia di Cosimo Ammannati, was born in January 1538, in a tiny mountain village called Villa Basilica, in the province of Lucca, in the Tuscan region of Italy. … Read More
Devils wielding implements which may include a fork, from Breviari d’Amor, Southern France (Toulouse?), 1st quarter of the 14th century, Royal MS 19 C I, f. 185v So some lowlife stole my beloved purple mountain bike… as its Halloween I … Read More
So most of us have heard of Galileo… the father of modern science (well according to Einstein and Hawkins… and really they’d know, right?). Galileo is known as … well… Galileo. Like Michelangelo, Napoleon and Jesus, he doesn’t need a … Read More
My Elder trees are in flower. So, naturally, its time to start doing something with these delicious blooms. First up is Elderflower cordial. Elderflower Cordial 2½ kg white sugar, either granulated or caster 2 unwaxed lemons 20 fresh elderflower heads, … Read More
Basically yes. In France a convent was considered a viable alternative to prison. St Catherine with the Lily by Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) While its safe to assume that Jesus and God featured in the lives of the hundreds of … Read More