In the year 1492, Italy faced troublesome years ahead as the death of Lorenzo de Medici threw the nation's political system off balance and paved the way for an invasion by the French. That August in Rome, Rodrigo Borgia became Pope and Christopher Columbus put out to sea to set foot in the New World just over two months later. In April 1492, Lorenzo de Medici, the powerful and highly respected ruler of Leonardo's native Florence, lay dying. When lightening struck the cathedral dome, the extraordinary Dominican preacher, Girolamo Savonarola took it for an omen, thundering at his congregation ' Behold the sword of the Lord, swift and sure over the peoples of the earth ! ' and he warned the Florentines that terrible times lay ahead for the church and the state.
By 1527 Rome was ransacked by German troops, while Michelangelo worked for the Medici in Florence. Pope Clement VII was held prisoner and was soon to face another crisis - Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, wanted to divorce his wife, and if the Pope refused his permission the dominion of the Catholic Church in England was at risk.
Against all this historical background, here we are in the year 2009. Now the Vatican is openly ackowledging extra-terrestrials beings associated with Jesus Christ ! The same church which squashed other religions in the New World as heathen.
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Anyway, Savonarola's prophesies of doom were soon fulfilled. In Florence itself, Lorenzo's successor, his son Piero, showed none of his father's political tact or acumen, and under Savonarola's influence the city was soon subjected to a fanatically harsh, hell-fearing regime. More important still, the death of Lorenzo de Medici destabilized Italian politics. A reshuffling of alliances led to the diplomatic isolation of Leonardo's master, Ludovico Sforza, who was so alarmed that he began making friendly overtures to the French king. Charles VIII. The subsequent French invasion (which Savonarola had uncannily predicted) unleashed a series of Italian wars, that was eventually to cost Ludovico Sforza his duchy and Leonardo his comfortable position at court - and was to make an impotent Italy the battleground of the great powers for years to come.
In Rome, the Spanish-born cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope, taking the title of Alexander VI. The reputation of the Borgia family had been unsavoury for centuries, though it is questionable whether they were much worse than many other Italian politicians and ecclesiastics in that amoral age. Rodrigo Borgia otherwise known as Alexander, certainly fathered at least seven children, accumulated vast wealth, and bribed his way to the papal throne. Once in power, he did everything he could to advance his children, and his ruthless son Cesare Borgia had a brilliant but brief career as a despot and conqueror, employing Leonardo da Vinci as a military engineer and architect.
Hello Maria,
gosh maybe you could be like all the others .. and write a book!
You are so very knowledgeable about Art and the Rennaissance.
The only problem I suppose is that there are so many of those books already in publication .. a bit like all those 'Ripper' books .. what else can one say on the subject!
Thanks for putting up the picture of the Castle that you were lucky enough to stay in, in Ireland, it looks so very beautiful, elegant and grand.
I used to look at castles for sale in the UK in country life magazines, some were quite affordable .. but my ever practical husband pointed out the fact that I wouldn't be able to afford the heating or maintainance bills! Probably need servants as well .. and all that gardening to do. Maybe an apartment would be better ...
Actually they do have stately homes in the countryside made into apartments, the best of both worlds ..apart from your weather.
Hi Victoria,
Yes, you are quite right. It needs an army of people to keep it ship-shape. This castle has several acres of land, including a golf-course; the entrance hall greets you with a cozy fire-place and a lovely portrait of a lady hanging just above the mantel piece. It has an enormous drawing room, with a huge fire-place and a black grand piano, with wonderful views to the gardens outside.
These past four days, we were down in London and we saw all the Christmas lights and decorations. Our hotel is just a short walk from Harrods the famous department store which feels like a mini-city: they have just about everything anyone could wish to buy. They even have a bank and a travel agency, a pharmacy, several cafeterias, restaurants, food halls, just about anything to buy, is there. I just love shopping there. Harrods has a wonderful service where they take all your shopping to your hotel when you are done and you don't have to go out of the store full up with bags and when the bags get to your horel, the concierge sends them all up to your room. They also gift-wrapped everything, so all I have to done now, is put them under the Christmas tree, saving lots of time. We travelled there and back in the Virgin Pendolino trains where they offer you excellent food and lots of beverages to choose from. It was really pleasant without having to struggle driving home just simply enjoying the country-side and reading without a care in the whole world. I really do recommend it.
thanks for the porno links Maria.....but unfortunately giraffes and dwarfs,and one legged lesbians dont turn me on in the least!....but tks for the thought.
WHAAAT.... That's dreadfull! I hope you don't think I have sent you such material Dougie. It is only now, that I came up to see this blog after an illness where I had to go to hospital and I have had a set-back today and as you suggested, I have now taken steps to avoid getting this trashy material which has also reached to my friends. It is strange to me that shortly after you were thrown out of Nut-casebook it was the time when these funny messages purporting to be from me, have been appearing to my friends and funnily enough, only to the ones that I met in the Nut-casebook place! coincidence? I don't believe in coincidences given the low quality of people populating the Jack the ripper nut-casebook. They are known for that kind of low thing, so it does not surprise me if any of them are involved in this.
Maria,
Of course I didnt believe you sent them..ive got a very clear idea who did though...when i know for certain who the culproit is ill announce it.
p.s ive sent a copy of my book to you,publisher has high hopes,but personally I think its rubbishy,cloying and far too full of sentimental clap trap..it seemed ok during the writing and editing and re-editing,but the final product doesnt flow in the way I feel it should..you are my harshest critic maria,id value your opinion.....ho hum .............ok ladies and gentlemen....fags out! back to leonardo.
Hello Maria, dougie and Robert,
what is happening here?? ... porno links,
culprits to be announced, a book to be published! and maybe dougie is back on the 'fags' .. pity on that score.
What type of book dougie? .. I wish you all the best in getting it published. I imagine it would be difficult getting something published as a first time writer.
Yes Harrods is such a lovely store Maria, and not always that expensive, I have had some good buys from there.
Whenever I hear the word 'Harrods' .. my Harrods 'experience' ..comes to mind.
It was a long time ago about 1989, I was in my late 30's, and living in London for a bit. My Dad had come to visit and this day he was looking after my son who was about five at the time. I was going to an auction at South Kensington, but called into Harrods on the way. I bought some vitamins and had been talking to the sales assistant. Anyway I was walking through the pharmacy section on my way out, and for some mysterious reason I blacked out, was on the floor and as my vision came and went .. I could see people looking at me then turning away and kept walking. It was a dreadful experience being there and not being able to get up at all.. and so many people just ignoring you like you were a leper .. or most likely they thought me a druggie (I was wearing jeans and had long hair?).Eventually the girl that served me the vitamins saw me and came to my aid. They put me in a wheelchair and took me to their sick bay, questioned me gave me some tea and a biscuit and I was on my way.
It is just surprising to me that people could see a fellow human in need and then do nothing ..I didn't look like a 'down and out' type .. but even if I did that should not matter.
Hi....after reading Marias comment about the low level of humanity on casebook..I could not but help take a stroll down to the O.K corral to have a look-see at the latest trivia.....I couldnt resist joining in a particular thread (i havent been discovered yet lol) What arrant nonsense yet again!,Im refferring of course to the thread discussing how people who post without proper punctuation,grammar,spelling etc are basically insulting the members of casebook....Ally of course (the modern day Boadicea) is at present getting a good hiding and made to look the ignorant,spiteful ,loathsome obnoxious and venomous individual she most plainly is.
What should be more important,and which should be addressed are the the majority of posts there which are dull,dreary and monotous...no passion-no drive-no excitement-no nothing, just an endless stream of oft heard statements from people who profess to be experts in everything Ripper...what a dour dull crowd!
I cant help but laugh at the periodic orgies of mutual head nodding and congratulatory back slapping that occur at intervals between the heirarchy.....its comedy in its purest form.
Remember the green brownie points system some while back?....when a group of posters ,after treasuring their "greenies" for what must have seemed a lifetime,suddenly noticed that others outside the circle were accumulating "greenies" also and en masse decided they didnt want to partake in the "greeny" thing any more...hilarious stuff!
I believe I was accused on more than one occasion of bad grammar....non capitilisation .the usual crap lol......the more I was criticised the more I did it..it was a case of who was kidding who..or whom lol....
They never did work that one out......
It seems I'm behind with all the news here. I'm sorry to hear about such an unpleasant experience in Harrods Victoria. Unfortunatelly, it does happen in big cities where people become detatched about other people but it was good that you got the help of the saleswoman in the end.
Going back to Leonardo da Vinci and the influence that the great philosopher Marsilio Ficino had on him as well as all the other wonderful painters of the Renaissance period concerning painting. Leonardo wrote the following:
"If you condemn painting, which is the only imitator of all visible works of nature, you will certainly despise a subtle invention which brings philosophy and subtle speculation to the consideration of the nature of all forms - seas and plains, trees, animals, plants, and flowers - which are surrounded by shade and light. And this is true knowledge and the legitimate issue of nature; for painting is born of nature -or, to speak more correctly, we will say it is the grandchild of nature; for all visible things are produced by nature, and these her children gave given birth to Painting. Hence we may justly call it the grandchild of nature and related to God."
Leonardo da Vinci Manuscript A1.
Dougie, maybe you should go on that holiday first and then calmly re-read your book when you come back by then, your mind will be fresh and you can do the necessary changes if indeed it needs some changes. That is what I do with my paintings, whenever I get stuck and when I come back, I usually have the right solution.
Dougie
You have re-infiltrated enemy lines ? as... Lassie ?
Maria,
Not exactly re-infiltrated...its whats called in technical jargon "a sleeper"lolololol......Yes I know Im every bit as childish as others on there I guess....I think kat braDSHAW did and is doing wonderfully well against "the queen slug" dont you? Im in half a mind to congratulate her......but Ill congratulate you here instead..oooops.
Victoria...nasty experience for you at Harrods I bet,one I hiope isnt repeated...funnily enough..or perhaps not so funnily enough,my sister in law works there and has done so for 20? 30 years? the regime so she informs me is getting stricter by the day (even the minute) apparently some yellow,slant eyed bastard (and i say that with greatest respect for our oriental brothers(and sisters)is ruling that particular roost.....they got the whip hand now-no doubt bout it.
Hi all
Sorry I've been absent, but this is the first time I've seen this thread. It's never appeared on my screen before, even though I've visited regularly.
Just three quick comments :
Maria, more Leonardo please.
Victoria, glad you've put the blackout behind you. I collapsed in the street once. I thought, "How silly to die here." Anyway, I was OK after a brief trip to hospital.
Dougie, the name of your book is : "How To Quit Smoking."
Hi Dougie, Thank you, now I have blushed.
Mmmm that must be nice to work at Harrods with all the interesting people who can be seen there, including the leeches from government. I bought Peter a nice pair of shoes and the nice guy attending us was telling me that a client had gone there and bought 17pair of cocodrile shoes for £15,000each. I winked my eye and said the price is a steal. ha,ha,ha,ha.
Just on the comment that Robert made in regard to this not being on his screen until now .. it has been on mine, but with only the first two comments .. the rest only just appearing. I can see by the dates they were written, that they should have been showing earlier.
dougie, the name of your book? or what is it about?
I must take a minute to check out the goings on at casebook ...
Hi Robert,
Something about Leonardo da Vinci, his codices do exist these have been recently unearthed after all these years by chance and Amazon has reproduced only ten copies of the codices for a thosand pounds each. Then someone wrote to Amazon: For that price, they could have given me Leonardo in person ! Anyway, if anyone is interested, I call tell you all about the Leonardo da Vici codices. Its quite interesting.
Victoria,
My book is entitled.."35 years as a peeping tom"....or "How I learned to love the bum"
No it was a private joke between myself and Maria....no book ,I leave book writing to those who have something to say,though having nothing to say doesnt exactly seem to be a hurdle for some so-called authors today.I could give a few examples,but why stir the pot-you never can tell who is watching lol.
I think the art of writing died out a generation ago..Im talking about true penmanship,the kind that conjures up images,entraps the reader to such a degree that it becomes an effort to lay the book down....as opposed to it being a great effort to pick the book up and continue with it.
The last works that I read that had me by the scruff of the neck were a large volume of Racines plays,written too many years ago to contemplate.....Steinbeck-Zola-Twain,even hemingway Mailer and Capote.....show me the authors today who even come up to the level of their bootstraps.....If you can ,Ill read them gladly and thank you genuinely for that gift.
American literature in particular was described thus by I forget who..."There was no american literature of any consequence before "Huckleberry Finn" and there has been nothing as good since"......trashy novels do nothing for me....non fiction works are,of course,a different kettle of fish,no real "brilliance" is needed,because it doesnt need to flow,it merely needs to inform one of the facts...A list of those facts would do just as well in my opinion.....plain facts -no adornment-and omit the coloured crayon.
But here I go ,waffling again.....But Ive done it now,might as well post it.
No, not waffling dougie, nice post .. I liked the 'omit the coloured crayon'.
I know what you mean re the standard of penmanship, that is true .. I feel it is just a reflection on the way society is today.
But then one doesn't need to follow blindly, far better to rebel and swim upstream.
I do not read trashy novels either .. very occassionally I get the urge, say if going on holiday, but never end up reading it.
Then again I don't read enough of other things that I would really like to read. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote beautifully, and has great things to say.
Hi Maria
Yes, let's heat about Leonardo please.
Victoria,
Im glad to hear Im not the only one who laments the dearth of modern day literature.
Sadly youre right it IS how society has gone....Emerson wrote when there WERE values,he reflected those,and as you wrote ,he had things to say and said them marvelously well.But who cares anymore?
But I suspect this conversation might be irritating to the leonardo devotees..my apologies.
Dougie and Victoria, great posts !
What you say is true, although I find that second hand book shops sell great old books so those shops are worth paying a visit to and the price is a lot cheaper too. Oxfam which is the only genuine charity that I support, even has a section of rare books; they have an expert who combs through everything looking for antique books or rare first editions that somehow, have come to them amongst all the other pile of books. These rare or valuable books are sold a bit more expensive than the rest. Only the other day, they had a first edition of a Lewis Carrol's 'Alice in Wonderland'. I don't know if you read in the newspaper the other day about a man who found a first edition of "The Origin Of The Species" by Charles Darwin. The book was in the bathroom of his in in-laws, that is like striking gold! the book, was recently auctioned by Christie's and it fetched a lot of money. For me, the most exciting books I own are on Art-Forgeries. There is a particular book, one of those that you cannot put down, it is called: 'The Caravaggio Conspiracy' it is a real life thriller where a man impersonates a wealthy art dealer to be able to get his mafia contacts and he pretends to be interested in buying a Caravaggio. The saga starts in London and then he travels to Italy. The narration of this real life adventure is a page turner, this book was actually made into a drama-documentary. I treasure it. It had me biting my nails! It was both dangerous and exciting at the same time. I thoroughly recommend it. An excellent read. He not only had to pretend to be wealthy but also very knowledgable about Italian Art a connoissur, one mistake: he could have been mincemeat!
Hallo everyone
I love second-hand books, particularly old ones where someone has written an inscription like "To James for winning the tennis tournament. !912. From Uncle Fred and Auntie Jean." Or where someone has used a very old piece of newspaper as a bookmark. The essayist Charles Lamb once wrote a piece about all the poor books in the world doomed to destruction when their owner dies, and how nice it is to step in and buy them and rescue them. I'll buy books on most things. I even have a Hebrew dictionary - and I don't know any Hebrew.
Hello everyone ..
me too, I love old books .. they are made better, look better, feel better, and somehow seem more substantial.
I hadn't thought about that point Robert of rescueing them from destruction .. it's good, a bit like taking a stray animal from the shelter instead of buying a designer dog!
Any book I want to buy now I always check on a couple of good booksites that I know, and look for a good condition copy etc etc.
AbeBooks is great, buy from around the world, good descriptions of condition etc, postage rates vary from seller to seller, and of course country. The UK is very reasonable for postage to Australia.
I recently bought a book that I had read already 'An Indian Monk, His Life and Adventures' by Shri Purohit Swami. It is a first edition 1932, in beautiful condition, and as you mentioned Robert about liking books with an inscription, this has a rather special inscription.
It says "To The Princess Andrew, with the blessings of Purohit Swami", and he has drawn the 'OM' symbol.
At first I was baffled by by calling a Princess .. Andrew and then I was told that is how it was ..called by the husbands name.
So I started checking it all out .. it was Prince Phillips mothers book. Her name being, Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Maria, but was known as Princess Alice of Battenburg before she was married. She looked very beautiful also.
On reading up about her, I found out that she was deaf, and in 1930 was diagnosed with schizophrenia (aged about 45) and was committed to a sanatorium for I think it was about 5 years. I believe Purohit Swami visited her at the sanatorium and give her the book.
I also read that she was into the occult and such things, she also had an affinity with Indian philosophy, and had been to India for those same reasons.
Anyway she recovered, but lived seperately from her husband, spending the rest of her life in charity work.
I felt sad knowing that she had to go through what she had in her life, but it gives the book such extra life, knowing where it has been ..and I treasure it.
Your book sounds a really good read Maria 'The Carravaggio Conspiracy' .. real life but reading like a novel.
A first edition 'Alice in Wonderland' ..would be expensive I am sure. How about the real original .. 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground', written out by hand and with drawings by 'Lewis Carroll' .. who was really Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
He had it bound in leather and gave it to a young girl called Alice Liddell .. it now is in the possession of The British Library.
Gosh .. what a long post, a record for me, I hope it didn't bore you all .....
On the contrary, very interesting, Victoria. A book with royal connections.
I bought a Greek language New Testament, and it had little date marks at various places. I think what must have happened is that some theology student must have been slowly reading this in the Greek, and making notes to chart his progress. He was averaging about a page a day. The thing is, I bought the book around 1999, and the dates in the book read from 100 years before. That's when the man was reading it.
Oh what interesting posts from you Victoria and Robert and yes, you are right, there is a story within a story when you know the history of who owned it previously.
I have a biography of Sir Bernard Spilsbury the Crown's pathologist who is considered The Father of Pathology, which I bought when an ex-friend of ours, Stewart Peter Evans called to say that he had first view of books that regularly come in from an established second-hand crime book shop and that he had seen a biography of Sir Bernard Spilsbury that his friend had instructions to sell to an avid collector related to Sir Bernard's memorabilia & books, this collector, went by the name of Jonathan Goodman who has been described as 'the premier investigator of crimes past' and who was editor of the 'Celebrated Trials' series, and who was a member of the Medico-legal Society also, one of the few lay members of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Anyway, when Stewart saw this biography, he called us to ask if I would like to buy it and naturally enough I said: "Yes, please" so we had first choice over Jonathan because the shop-owner thought that I should have it because I'm a distant relative of Sir Bernard. When we got the book, it had a small note from a gentleman who was a dentist asking something to Sir Bernard and also included in the book was one of his filing note cards.
Another book I treasure is: "The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu which is the breath-taking story of the most brilliant and daring spy plot of WWII. It was a Top Secret mission called: Operation MINCE-MEAT. The objective was to trick the Germans into changing their Mediterranean defence plans so that the Allies could successfully invade Sicily. The method was to take one anonymous corpse. Outfit him as a major of the Royal Marines, plant secret messages on him, and cast him from a submarine into the sea where he would float to the shores of neutralist Spain, so that hopefully, one the Spanish found the body with the false messages and turn them over to the Nazis. The result was a resounding success and the most exciting spy story to come out of WWII. Sir Bernard's mission was to choose the corpse in such a manner that it would fool another German doctor when it was discovered so that it all looked authentic and not a ruse, which is what it was.
I have an (or did have) an 1888 desktop Letts Diary ......only entries that were in it was what appeared to be a shopping list,or maybe an expenses list for the month of march..items like matches-sugar-molasses-coal and similar things...I sold it for 25 pounds omn E bay......now if id only thought about it,i could have forged Montague Druitts signature-put in a load of entries for relevant dates....and put the last entry as something like "The whores of whitechapel done for me-but Ive taught them a lesson they will never forget" "..they coming to take me away ha ha to the funny farm,but ill have the last laugh on Anderson and co..they will never prove it was me,cos im giving all the knives and sundry evidence to my good ole pal Sir melville,and anyhow my family will cover up for me..i just hope no-one discovers i was involved in the 1881 attacks on women in wimbourne"
Then there would have been 2 diarys,oh wat fun
Yes ..if only you had dougie, and you would have got much more than twenty five pounds for it as well ....
Maybe some fun, maybe some money,
and maybe a lot of trouble ...
Yes Victoria I think you got it right there....trouble trouble trouble.. ,maybe Id be famous! or should that be infamous?
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