Victor Stater✓

This looks fascinating. I think I'll watch

Tomorrow we're releasing a full UATX course for free: all 19 lectures of Professor Isabella Reinhardt's Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome, filmed in class with our students. It runs from Rome's mythical founding to the Third Century Crisis. It ends on a question the class spent a whole session arguing about: did Rome ever really fall?

RT @tonyriches: Charles, Prince of Wales, c1640 in court costume, one of two paintings by Van Dyck #Stuarts #History

RT @Goudriaan2: The City Wall of Haarlem in the Winter Nicolaes Berchem, 1647

Yesterday's Gospel at church. A good one

'Jesus said: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself' Matthew 22: 37-39

RT @DomAdlerUK: An oldie but a goodie. In 1968 a bunch of entitled hippy bastards sent a letter detailing their specious demands to the Warden and Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford. This was their letter of reply, which speaks to how far the academy has since fallen.

RT @tonyriches: Today's research is about Cardinal Jules Mazarin, an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who effectively ruled France when he served as the chief minister to Queen Regent Anne, and the Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 unil his death in 1661.

RT @theoldworldshow: "In death the medieval aristocracy were always depicted as a physical elite and many were in life. A modern autopsy on the skeleton of Sir Bartholomew de Burghersh, who died in 1369 in his sixties after a lifetime of campaigning, revealed a sturdy man of nearly six foot with strong, muscular limbs. His physique was the result of regular exercise and a diet rich in protein, although his teeth were eroded by the grainy bread he had eaten. By contrast, analyses of the bones of the mass of the population reflect stunted growth and infirmities caused by inadequate diet and back-breaking labour. "Knights were not just taller and stronger than their inferiors. Popular chivalric romances constantly drew attention to the fine features and fair complexions of noble heroes and heroines. Fiction often reflected reality." -Aristocrats by Lawrence James

RT @DiaryOfPepys: Sunday 25th October 1663 (Lord’s day). Up, and my wife and I to church, where it is strange to see how by use and seeing Pembleton come with his wife thither to church, I begin now to make no great matter of it, which before was so terrible to me. Dined at home, my wife and I alone, a good dinner, and so in the afternoon to church again, where the Scot preached, and I slept most of the afternoon. So home, and my wife and I together all the evening discoursing, and then after reading my vowes to myself, and my wife with her mayds (who are mighty busy to get it dispatched because of their mistress’s promise, that when it is done they shall have leave all to go see their friends at Westminster, whither my wife will carry them) preparing for their washing to-morrow, we hastened to supper and to bed. *In May 1663 Elizabeth Pepys took dancing lessons from Mr Pembleton. Sam quickly developed a consuming jealousy, repeatedly interrupting lessons, and checking whether they were alone. By the 25th, the habit of seeing them in church (“by use”) has reduced the reaction. He is explicitly observing the change in himself, which is a characteristic Pepysian moment of self-awareness about his jealousy. “I slept most of the afternoon” The Sleeping Congregation William Hogarth: 1736

RT @Goudriaan2: Adolf and Catharina Croeser Jan Steen, 1655

RT @Goudriaan2: View of Alkmaar  Jacob van Ruisdael, 1675

RT @DiaryOfPepys: Saturday 24 October 1663 Up and to my office, where busy all the morning about Mr. Gauden’saccount, and at noon to dinner with him at the Dolphin, where mighty merry by pleasant stories of Mr. Coventry’s and Sir J. Minnes’s, which I have put down some of in my book of tales….* Thence by coach with Mr. Coventry to the Temple, and thence I to the Six Clerks’ office, and discoursed with my Attorney and Solicitor … Thence, it being night, homewards, and called at Wotton’s and tried some shoes, but he had none to fit me. He tells me that by the Duke of York’s persuasion Harris is come again to Sir W. Davenant upon his terms that he demanded, which will make him very high and proud. Thence to another shop, and there bought me a pair of shoes, and so walked home and to my office, and dispatch letters by the post, and so home to supper and to bed, where to my trouble I find my wife begin to talk of her being alone all day, which is nothing but her lack of something to do, for while she was busy she never, or seldom, complained.… Thence to another shop, and there bought me a pair of shoes, and so walked home and to my office … The Queen is in a good way of recovery; and Sir Francis Pridgeon hath got great honour by it, it being all imputed to his cordiall, which in her dispaire did give her rest and brought her to some hopes of recovery. *This shows he kept a separate personal volume specifically for recording humorous or characteristic tales he heard. It was almost certainly a small personal notebook from the diary years that either did not survive. Harris was a leading actor (second to Betterton) who had briefly left or threatened to leave over pay/demands; the Duke of York’s involvement underscores the court’s close ties to the licensed theaters after the Restoration. After Davenant’s 1668 death, Harris and Betterton managed the Duke’s Company. In 1671 they moved it to Dorset Garden Theatre, where Harris lived in an apartment. In 1673 he accidentally injured actor Philip Cademan in a stage swordfight. Harris lived fast, mixed in high society, and ran up heavy debts. Harris as Cardinal Wolsey by John Greenhill, 1664.

RT @wabbey: 'There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all' Ephesians 4: 4-6

RT @Goudriaan2: River landscape with travellers, a horse and cart next to a barn and windmills in the distance Aelbert Cuyp, 17th century

RT @DiaryOfPepys: Thursday 22 October 1663 Up to the office, where we sat till noon and then I home to dinner, and after dinner with my wife to her study and there read some more arithmetique, which she takes with great ease and pleasure. This morning, hearing that the Queen grows worse again, I sent to stop the making of my velvet cloake, till I see whether she lives or dies.* So a little abroad about several businesses, and then home and to my office till night, and then home to supper, teach my wife, and so to bed. *Cloaks of this era were frequently worn casually over the shoulder even indoors, and a velvet lining would have flashed richly against the cloth outer face. This was the kind of modest but noticeable upgrade Sam was making as his income rose. Gentleman in a black velvet cloak (Rembrandt, 1634; the style of cloak remained current into the 1660s)

RT @LeMarechal_X: If someone could only own 2 books on Napoleon and his army, it would be hard to beat these. Chandler’s classic, The Campaigns of Napoleon, is a detailed overview of Napoleon’s military career from 1796 to 1815. Beyond names and dates, Chandler dives deep into Napoleon’s military philosophy and how it applied to the situations he encountered. Elting’s Swords Around a Throne pairs perfectly as a definitive history and guide to the inner workings and daily life of soldiers within the Grande Armée. It’s also full of maps and diagrams plus some great regimental illustrations from Richard Knötel. Both are very accessible because of their narrative structure and serve well as reference books.

Lecturing on the French Rev today. Nearly 40 years after its publication, still the best book in English on the subject

RT @tonyriches: Today's research is the birth of King Charles I ninth child in 1644, a daughter named Henrietta Anne. She would eventually become Duchess of Orléans and a prominent figure at the French court. #Stuarts

RT @HistoryCalendar: Earliest known photograph of Queen Victoria, here with her eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, c. 1845

RT @LouiseWeebe: If by exercise you mean ‘let’s go walk around the bookshop for a couple of hours’, then yes, let’s exercise.

Wonderful actor, and a great narrator of audio books. He did a number of Trollope novels brilliantly

Remembering the late Actor, Timothy West CBE (20 October 1934 – 12 November 2024)