#maria marchese

[oubliettemagazine]

Natalia Jacquounain: le opere che catturano e sintetizzano il miracolo della luce

Natalia Jacquounain: le opere che catturano e sintetizzano il miracolo della luce

Natalia Jacquounain nasce in Russia, ma, a metà degli anni ‘80, decide di abbandonare la propria terra d’origine, per raggiungere la Francia, ricongiungendosi, così, con un approccio, nei confronti dell’arte, per lei, più “colorato” e vivo, rispetto a quello russo. Étoile du diable – Opera di Natalia Jacquounain Sin dagli anni ’70, affronta un percorso estetico, costituito da studi certosini: le…

[lamarchesacasati]

Master of Sketches: Design sketch by Karl Lagerfeld. To reinvent Marchesa Luisa Casati, the designer channelled her idiosyncratic spirit in a series of sketches and photographs of Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue: 

“She has the same bone structure and wildly daring fashion sense,” Lagerfeld says. “She plays a modern Casati, but the drama of Casati was that she was not playing.”

Karl Lagerfelds sketch of  Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue in an evening dress by Gucci.

[dk-thrive]

Live your way into the answer. If you hold a question, if you’re faithful, the question will be faithful back to you.

So what’s a new possibility you’re inspired by? I love your questions. You’re pushing in the really important way. Here’s what I think of: I see the disarray. I see the broken power structures. I see the damage and the pain. I also see people tending to that. At the heart of some of these national-level or community-level conflicts, there is space to move below the radar and start stitching together relationships and quiet conversations at a very human, granular level. We're going to work on quiet conversations that will not be publicized. That feels to me like a power move in this world...

A lot of people worry about finding their calling. Do you have any advice for them? I’m very aware that in this culture, in the 20th-century world, we’ve diminished the idea of a calling to mean your job title. I think there are many callings in a life. I want people to liberate the idea of their calling from what they’re being paid to do for a living. Your calling may be something that you do that gives you joy but that you’re never going to get paid for. It may be certain relationships that you’re holding that are primary. Being a parent or being a child, being a friend, being a neighbor, the service you do in your community. It can be how you show up through your day, how you treat strangers. You can play an instrument. You can write. It’s the things that amplify your best humanity.I don’t think I have to define that, because we all intuitively know what it is. I talk so much on this show about Rilke —

I know where you’re going: “Living the questions.” Yes! The notion of living the questions in a world that is in love with answers. I’ve been reading Rilke since I was in Berlin almost 40 years ago, what I feel coming back to our world is this idea that to do justice to a question means that you cannot rush to an answer. What you’re called to do is hold the question itself, dwell with the question respectfully, and love the question. Live your way into the answer. If you hold a question, if you’re faithful, the question will be faithful back to you.

OK, what was the last thing that blew your mind? For me the last two years have been one seismic event after the other. That experience of the ground shaking beneath our feet and that happening to every person on the planet — that is what all of our spiritual traditions tell us is the reality at any given moment, and it’s what our culture gives us a million devices to deny. But there it was: We are fragile. Civilization rests on something as tender as bodies breathing in proximity to other bodies. We were reminded of that. And living in Minneapolis when George Floyd was killed. The West Coast caught fire. Our political fragmentation that we’ve been walking into for such a long time. We have a war in Europe. We pretended like capitalism triumphing would lead to a moral universe. It just goes on and on. It’s all before-and-after now.

— David Marchese, excerpts of a interview with Krista Tippett in "Krista Tippett Wants You to See All the Hidden Signs of Hope" (NY Times Magazine, July 7, 2022)

[perfettamentechic]

10 aprile … ricordiamo …

10 aprile … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2024: Paola Gassman,  è stata un’attrice teatrale italiana, figlia di Vittorio Gassman e Nora Ricci e sorellastra della dott.ssa Vittoria, dell’attore Alessandro e del regista Jacopo. Paola si dedicò quasi esclusivamente al teatro, a eccezione di alcune sporadiche ma significative apparizioni televisive in commedie e sceneggiati. Negli ultimi anni con l’attore Ugo Pagliai, conosciuto ai tempi…

[mrsoftthoughts]

Just Some of my headcanons of the Di Angelo(s) in the 30's

(that honestly are pretty delusional but sometimes i just want to think of them as a happy family before the Washington DC event and the lotus casino ok??)

- Maria is the oldest sister of the 3 daughters of the marchese Stéfano Di angelo and her father little gem as the only daughter of his first "marriage" (*Cof* *cof* daughterofVenusMariadiAngelo *Cof*)

- Hades proposed and married Maria because no fucking way that he let a woman of her status being judged for having a long term relationship without a ring and even less having kids with her out of wedlock ( in fact the ring was what make that Persephone don't like Maria, she couldn't care less if only she stayed as her husband girlfriend, i may explain this in another post some day)

- Hades was there for Bianca and Nico while they grow up, living with them during the spring and summer and being always looking up for them in some way during winter , they really got to be a family, Family vacations around Europe, little and silly baking days, Nico and bianca trying to convince the house personal to helping them to spy their parents dates, that kind of things

-Alecto has been the kids babysitter and bodyguard since they were born, her job is just slay anything that it dares to try attack them, even in hades presence in order to him doesn't get distracted from the family activities

-Stéfano really loves his Son-in-law, for him is the son that he never had, he doesn't know that hades is a god, but he's concius that just like his lover he is something non human and that his grand kids are also especial like his daughter, but he doesn't seem in hades the intention of letting behind Maria like Venus do it to him, and Hades is probably the only man wealthy enough and with enough class to be of his liking for his little princess, so he isn't complaining

-And don't make him talk about his grandchilds, because you're gonna be stuck hearing him talk of them for hours, Bianca and Nico are the first since that maria is the only one of his daughters in age to have kids and he couldn't be more happy when the nurses anounced that Nico was a Boy, he may be a girls father but he really wanted a male from his blood, and sice he didn't get a son he was rejoicing for his grandson he really spoiled those little things

- Nico and bianca were homeschooled and The family end up getting the reputation of being "really hard" towards the personal tutors of Bianca and Nico, actually they just dont tolerate the bullshit of entitled people calling their kids stupid or lazy because they couldn't read right lenguajes that weren't romances or Greek... Needs to say, they fired a lot a people until they find people that really were disposed to teach the kids and not just screaming at them ,Even getting people that weren't from Italy for that because their kids only would have the best and would be treated with the respect that they deserved

- Bianca plays the piano, Nico the violin, I'm not elaborating, just trust me

- in fact their music instructors end up being zagreus and macaria, they were introduced to everyone except Maria and the kids as hades cousins because there isn't a logic and no controversial way to say that the full grown adults over there are his children

-Bianca used to have a Best friend, she lived in Switzerland so they only could see each other every once in a while when one of them was allowed to stay with the other for a time, the last thing that the girl know about bianca is that she moved to the US and then... Well, we know what happened there ( in some place in Switzerland there's and old lady that still concerned about what happened to her friend)

[angelap3]

Oggi è il 15 Aprile ed in questo giorno, nel 1967, a Roma moriva il grande “Totò”. Era nato nel 1898, a Napoli con il nome di Antonio Vincenzo Stefano Clemente De Curtis, e fu tra i maggiori rappresentanti del teatro (presente in 50 commedie) e del cinema comico italiano (presente in 97 film) di tutti i tempi. Non fu riconosciuto dal padre e visse in estrema povertà la sua gioventù nel “Rione Sanità”. Non impegnato nello studio e distratto precocemente dalla passione per il teatro, dalla quarta elementare fù addirittura retrocesso in terza, dove iniziò ad intrattenere i compagni di scuola con piccole recite e battute. Dopo le elementari, al Collegio Cimino, il colpo di un pugno causato involontariamente da un precettore né causò una particolare deformazione al mento ed al naso, cosa che caratterizzò in seguito la sua “maschera” di comico. Abbandonò gli studi senza conseguire la licenza ginnasiale, ed a 15 anni iniziò ad esibirsi nei teatrini periferici con macchiette ed imitazioni con lo pseudonimo di “Clement”. Dopo la prima Guerra Mondiale (trascorsa in reggimenti a Pisa, Pescia e Livorno) riprese il teatro e tra il 1923 ed il 1927 si esibì nei maggiori caffè-concerto italiani raggiungendo notorietà nazionale con le sue macchiette e mimiche facciali.Negli anni trenta si dedicò all'”avanspettacolo” iniziando ad improvvisare ed inventare deformazioni linguistiche. Nel 1933, a 35 anni, fu adottato dal marchese Francesco Maria Gagliardi Focas di Tertiveri, nel 1937 visse il debutto cinematografico e nel 1938 perse la vista dall'occhio sinistro (cosa che mantenne segreta e che solo i familiari sapevano). In seguito lavorò con i massimi attori e registi italiani, raggiungendo il massimo successo popolare (anche se non di critica). Fu anche attore televisivo (con 9 telefilm) drammaturgo, poeta, paroliere, compositore e cantante. Paragonato ai massimi attori comici mondiali come Charlie Chaplin e Buster Keaton, ancora oggi è considerato il comico italiano più popolare di ogni tempo.

Bruno Pollacci

Direttore dell'Accademia d'Arte di Pisa

[archduchessofnowhere]

What the tea on Maria Carolina? You said in one of your posts: “Maria Carolina truthers know she's the most interesting daughter and the one there should be hundreds of books and movies about, but the general audiences haven't seen the light yet.” I’m intrigued

Hi! Sorry it took me so long; I was reading a book about the Bourbons in Naples and I wanted to finish it to be able to give a more complete answer… but it ended up taking me MONTHS to be done with it.

This answer was a bit difficult to put together because Maria Carolina’s life was very eventful, so I’ll just mention some facts about her life, focusing more on the Napoleonic era and Napoleon specifically because I think you’ll be more interested in that. Also please feel free to correct me If I got something wrong, since this is a time period I’ve only started to learn about recently. So what was the tea?

Born in 1752 Maria Carolina was the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresia and Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor. As part of her mother’s policies of rapprochement to the Bourbons, she and her siblings were engaged to different members of the houses of Spain, France, Parma and Naples. Maria Carolina was promised to the Dauphin of France, but when her elder sister, promised to the King of Naples, died of smallpox, she took her place.

Ferdinando of Naples had been a child king, and he remained so for the rest of his life. His only diversions were hunting and pulling pranks on his courtiers, and he had a terrible reputation across the courts of Europe as an uneducated, bad mannered, spoiled man, kept in ignorance by his Ministers so they could control him. Everyone pitied the young Archduchess’ fate, her mother Maria Theresia wrote around the time of Maria Carolina’s wedding that she “trembled in fear for her”. But duty came first, and so she went to Naples, aged only sixteen.

Maria Carolina did not had it easy at first. She was terribly homesick and found herself in a court that could not have been more different to the one she grew up in. When her sister Maria Antonia married the Dauphin of France, she wrote to her former aya:

When I imagine that her fate will perhaps be the same as mine, I want to write volumes to her on the subject, and I very much hope that she has someone like me [to advise her] at the beginning. If not, to be frank, she may succumb to despair. One suffers real martyrdom, which is all the greater because one must pretend outwardly to be happy. I know what it is like, and I pity those who have yet to face it… I would rather die than endure again what I went through at the beginning. Now all is well, which is why I can say—and this is no exaggeration—that if my faith had not told me, ‘Set your mind on God,’ I would have killed myself.

Unsurprisingly Maria Carolina didn’t fall head over heels for her husband, but she did convince him that she had, and eventually won his affection. After she bore a son in 1775 she earned a seat in the State Council (as her marriage contract established), and from that point onward she became an active player in Neapolitan politics. One of her firsts moves was to remove the Secretary of State, Marchese Tanucci, who had been Regent during her husband’s minority and still held a huge influence over him.

After Tanucci’s dismissal she became the person with the most influence over Ferdinando, and she pretty much had him wrapped around her finger for most of their marriage, acting as the de facto ruler of Naples. Every decision the king took was only after consulting his wife, and she often had the final say. However, this didn’t meant Maria Carolina held absolute power: Ferdinando was still a very unpredictable person, and as soon as his wife was out of his favor he stopped listening to her.

Maria Carolina was enthusiastic about the ideas of the Enlightenment, as many other royals were at first, and even protected and encouraged the Masons in Naples during her early years as queen. But she was still the consort of an absolute monarch that believed they were chosen by God to rule, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she was horrified by the French Revolution and fervently opposed it. If it were for her, she would've declared war on France immediately, but this was not possible. On the execution of her brother-in-law Louis XVI she wrote:

Knowing your upright mind, I can imagine your emotion on hearing of the appalling crime perpetrated against the unfortunate King of France in all solemnity, tranquillity and illegality (…) He was the head of our family, our kinsman, cousin and brother-in-law. What an atrocious example! What an execrable nation! I know nothing about the other wretched victims in the Temple. If sorrow does not kill them, other horrors may be expected from this horde of assassins. I hope that the ashes of this good Prince, of this too good Prince who has suffered shame and infamy for four years culminating in execution, will implore a striking and visible vengeance from divine Justice, and that on this account the Powers of Europe will have no more than a single united will, since it is a matter in which they are all involved.

She was growing increasingly anxious about her sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, and her hatred for France became an obsession:

I hear horrible details from that infernal Paris. At every moment, at every noise and cry, every time they enter her room, my unfortunate sister kneels, prays and prepares for death. The inhuman brutes that surround her amuse themselves in this manner: day and night they bellow on purpose to terrorize her and make her fear death a thousand times. Death is what one may wish for the poor soul, and it is what I pray God to send her that she may cease to suffer. . . . I should like this infamous nation to be cut to pieces, annihilated, dishonoured, reduced to nothing for at least fifty years. I hope that divine chastisement will fall visibly on France, destroyed by the glorious arms of Austria.

At this point she had lost all hopes of her being rescued, and wished her “a natural death as the best thing that could happen to her”. But even though she had been waiting for it, the news of Marie Antoinette’s execution still shocked her. She wept and prayed with her children for “her wretched sister”.

Naples fell into a social crisis during these years, paranoia, fear and suspicion of the revolution in every corner. There was an active persecution of everyone thought to be a “jacobin”, arrests, trials and executions. But the country couldn’t wage war against France, and eventually they had to sign a peace treaty, which the Queen disapproved: “I am not and never shall be on good terms with the French… I shall always regard them as the murderers of my sister and the royal family”.

It was also during this time that the star of a certain Bonaparte started to rise, and Maria Carolina followed his career with interest and admiration. Before the treaty of Campo Fornio in October 17, 1797, she wrote about Napoleon:

I admire him, and my sole regret is that he serves so detestable cause. I should like the fall of the Republic, but the preservation of Bonaparte. For he is really a great man; and when one can only see ministries and sovereigns with petty and narrow views, one is all the more pleased and astonished to watch such a man rise and increase in power, while deploring that his grandeur is attached to so infernal a cause. This may seem strange to you. But while I loathe his operations, I admire the man. I hope that his plans will miscarry and his enterprises fail; at the same time I wish for his personal happiness and glory so long as it is not at our expense… If he dies they should reduce him to powder and give a dose of it to each ruling sovereign, and two to each of their ministers, then things would go better.

Soon she would have less nicer things to say about Naps, but she never lost that original admiration and astonishment.

In 1798 Ferdinando, encouraged by his wife and the British, led a expedition in December to try to expel the French from Rome. Not only the Neapolitan troops weren’t prepared to defeat the French Army, they were also technically still at peace with France, so this wasn’t a good move at all, and only two days after entering Rome Ferdinando had to retreat. Expectedly, Napoleon’s reaction to such a break of peace was marching over Naples. The royal family had to flee to Sicily, a tragic journey in which Maria Carolina’s six-years-old son Alberto died after a series of convulsions.

This ask is already too long to unpack all the political mess around the short-lived Parthenopean Republic, so to summ it up: it didn’t work out, and by 1799 the Bourbons were back in power. They were unforgiving of the republicans: during the following months there were thousands of arrest and hundreds of executions and deportations. Maria Carolina felt no mercy for them: “Death for the ringleaders, deportation for the rest... Our country must be purged of this infection”.

The Queen returned to Naples in August 1802, after more than three years of absence. She had never been a liked queen, but her unpopularity reached a new low since she was blamed for all the misfortunes of the last years. Having lost the influence she had on her husband, who held her responsible for the Rome expedition fiasco, she meddled a little less in politics now, dedicating mainly to her children and grandchildren, particularly to her unmarried daughters.

Speaking of her children, she had seventeen (!!!) but she would outlive fourteen of them. Part of her masterplan for them was to marry them all to her Habsburg nephews and nieces, and in many cases she succeeded. Just to name one exemple her eldest daughter Maria Theresa married Emperor Franz II/I of Austria. Maria Carolina’s relationship with this son-in-law ended up being a bit tense, since Franz found her mostly meddlesome and never aligned with her plans. On top of that, she was quite hurt when Franz remarried only months after her daughter’s death; after he announced his engagement she stopped adressing him as her son and resorted only to “Your Majesty” instead.

In 1804 Napoleon became Emperor, and we have a letter she wrote to Minister Gallo on this. Buckle up because whatever you imagine her reaction was, you aren’t ready for it:

It was not worth the trouble to condemn and slaughter the best of kings [Louis XVI], dishonour and revile a woman, a daughter of Maria Theresa, a holy princess [Marie Antoinette], to wallow in massacres, shootings, drownings, and kill six hundred prelates in a church, perpetrating horrors of the most barbarous ages at home and abroad, writing whole libraries on liberty, happiness, etc., and at the end of fourteen years become the abject slaves of a little Corsican whom an incredible fortune enabled to exploit all means to succeed, marrying without honour or decency the cast-off strumpet of whom the murderer Barras was surfeited, Turkish or Mohammedan in Egypt, atheist at the start, dragging the Pope after him and letting him die in prison, a devout Catholic after that, practising every deceit, shortening the lives and normal careers of sovereigns who might assert themselves, only allowing the dummies to vegetate, then atrociously, without a shadow of justice, assassinating the Duc d'Enghien, plotting himself (and he did not blush to admit it, so blinded is he by passion) a conspiracy to victimize the rulers he still feared, and on top of all these abominations he is acclaimed as Emperor: he and his race of Corsican bastards are to dominate almost half Europe, yet every thinking person is not revolted. Far from it, their egoism and weakness are such that they study how low they can prostrate themselves before the new idol… Send me word of the august Emperor’s intentions regarding Italy: whether he will deign to accept us as his slaves or will leave us in our obscurity… Tell me what the other Powers are saying. I imagine a Gloria in Excelsis Demonio will be the general refrain…

She took it pretty well right?

The future of the Bourbons of Naples once again seemed bleak, and this time Maria Carolina resorted to directly appealing to Napoleon. This was the beginning of a very passive-agressive epistolary relationship, both of them trying to be civil but still borderline insulting each other. I honestly find this funny, because you have Maria Carolina swearing to Napoleon that she had nothing against him or France and then she would write this to one of her ministers: “You will never imagine the rage and despair which the extremely insolent screed of the scoundrelly but too lucky Corsican has caused me.”

Despite the passive-agressiveness, when Napoleon was looking for a princess bride for his stepson Eugène he actually considered one of Maria Carolina’s daughters, Maria Amelia, as a possible candidate. But when the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gallo told Maria Carolina of Napoleon’s inquiries about her daughter she was so utterly horrified at the idea of marrying into the Corsican’s family that the project was immediately dropped (eventually Maria Amelia would go on to marry the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis Philippe I, and became the last queen of the French).

After Austerlitz Napoleon pretty much had all of Europe eating from his hand, and the Neapolitan sovereigns felt abandoned by every other power. Maria Carolina tried one last futil attempt to plead to Napoleon, but he had already decided to take Naples. The King was the first to Sicily flee this time, the Queen stayed behind and tried to organize a resistance, but eventually she realized there was nothing they could and also fled with her daughters. Before sailing she wrote to her daughter Empress Maria Theresa of Austria: “I fear we shall never see Naples again”. She was right.

The royal couple spent their second exile the same way they spent their first: Ferdinando living his best life enjoying the freedom he had in Sicily and Maria Carolina being utterly miserable. Her health worsened and she often was in pain, but recovering Naples from the Bonapartes became her obsession. She was the leading force behind every attempt to get the kingdom back, but soon she started to crash with their only allies left, the British. They wanted to keep the Bourbons in Sicily, getting back Naples was not a priority for them.

So remember Maria Carolina’s her reaction when Napoleon suggested to marry her daughter to Eugène? Well she didn’t took her granddaughter’s marriage to Napoleon himself any better: “Only this calamity was held in reserve. To become the Devil’s grandmother”.

But at the end, the final boss in Maria Carolina’s life wasn’t Napoleon, but the British. The Queen was too meddlesome and hindered their plans, and made a personal enemy of the British representative Lord Bentinck. Maria Carolina was accused of conspiring and being a threat to Sicily, and eventually the King was forced by the British to send her away. Exiled in exile, having nowhere else to go, she returned to Vienna in an eight-months-journey. While her son-in-law had no desire to receive her, he couldn’t turned her away either. She got in a better mood once she was once back at her childhood home, spending time with her Austrian grandchildren. It was there that she heard of the French defeats and Napoleon’s abdication.

Even though Maria Carolina made her hatred of Napoleon her personality for fifteen years she felt sympathetic towards him after he was defeated, reproached Marie Louise for not going to Elba with her husband, and told her that if she wasn’t allowed to reunite with him she should tie her bed-sheets to her window and escape, because marriage was for life. She also showed a lot of interest in her great-grandson, little Napoleon II, whom she called “mon petit monsieur”; in a letter to Marie Louise she described him as “very charming, quiet and well behaved” and told her that “may God give you in him every consolation a mother can receive.”

Maria Carolina was not to see the Bourbons restored in Naples. She died of a stroke in September 8, 1814, aged sixty-two-years old. At the time of her death Murat was still King of Naples, and the allies were happy to leave Ferdinando in Sicily. She was buried in the Capuchin Crypt, her death being only a small incident in the Congress of Vienna’s dance.

Overall, I personally find Maria Carolina the most fascinating because of everything she represented: she was a healthy daughter of the ancien régime that saw how the world as she knew it crumbled down and changed forever, to the point that by the time of her death she, the last surviving child of Maria Theresia, was a living relique (and she wasn’t even that old - a testament of how fast everything had changed). And she didn't got there sitting by idly: she fought against this new world every step of the way, made it out alive, but lost the battle still. And I don't know about you, but to me this is just a more interesting story to tell than Unoriginal Marie Antoinette Adaptation Number 7383.

Sources:

Acton, Harold (1998). The Bourbons of Naples (1734-1825)

Castelot, André (1974). King of Rome; a biography of Napoleon's tragic son

Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara (2020). Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in her Time

[tagthescullion]

Ancestors

Fandom(s): Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Rating: General Audiences

Summary: Bianca and Nico's sixth sense starts showing, Maria's not amused

AO3 link

Mimmo - Bassi's Recipe

Chapter Three: Salvatore's Grandchildren

The Secondo Capo Regia Marina Agostino Bernardi hated wakes and funerals. Nothing could make him more uncomfortable than sitting down with the family of a recently deceased person weeping for somebody they had seen twice a year at best.

Old spinsters, rich great uncles, cousins many times removed… all of them laid peacefully to rest by a herd of unwillingly involved relatives.

Agostino generally avoided these events like the plague, but unfortunately for him this time there was no way out. 

A close friend of his had just lost his mother-in-law. Agostino could have thrown some excuse, apologised profusely, and spent his afternoon fishing with his colleagues. The truth was, however, that the Marchese Salvatore di Angelo had been there for every single one of Agostino’s family’s wakes and refusing would seem terribly unkind on his behalf. 

There was another reason Agostino didn’t quite enjoy the prospect, and it was Salvatore’s —frankly bizarre— family. 

For a person of Salvatore’s position, rumours were unavoidable. If it wasn’t his short engagement, it had been his wife’s troubles giving him sons, or his suffragist oldest daughter being seen at a protest, or his reluctance to follow the current government as it was expected of him. 

But nothing, nothing, Salvatore had ever done, had made his family the spotlight of society’s villainous rumours such as his youngest daughter’s elopement and subsequent birth to not one but two children with the mysterious husband nobody seemed to know.

Whether the girl had actually married her paramour was dubious at best. Some even said the man had already been married abroad. The children used their mother’s surnames under the excuse that Salvatore wouldn’t have his grandson and heir be called an unknown, foreign name. 

Whatever the case, Agostino paid no heed to such nonsense. If his friend said his daughter was married, then so be it. If his friend wanted his grandchildren to carry his family name, he saw no problem with that at all. 

No. What really bothered the Secondo Capo wasn’t the children’s names or background but the children themselves. 

He had seen them on several occasions. At first glance, they were perfectly normal children, brought up in a perfectly normal environment, following perfectly normal rules imposed by their perfectly normal mother and grandparents. 

But first impressions seldom told the truth. 

Those children were strange. 

Throughout the years, Agostino had experienced strange occurrences around those kids: shadows followed them, they spoke to thin air, they would stare at the most mundane creatures with fear. Hell, Agostino was sure he’d heard them muttering in a language that had sounded like outdated Greek.

It made him shudder to think about it.

Despite his misgivings, Agostino had promised his friend he’d attend the wake, and the Bernardi family always kept their word.

It was a cloudy morning in Cessalto, but the grey overcast sky didn’t look like it would bring rain. 

A humid summer had made way to a cold spring in the North and by the time he made it to Salvatore’s home, Agostino’s hands were stiff with cold.

Luckily, his friend had spared no expense in heating. The inside of the 17th century home was warm enough to make Agostino regret the extra undershirt he’d decided to wear. 

Quite a few people were wandering around already; greeting acquaintances and, most likely, gossiping about whatever poor unfortunate soul had given them anything to criticise. 

Agostino spotted Salvatore by the window, speaking softly to his wife, Beatrice. When he saw Agostino watching, he waved feebly. 

Getting closer to them, Agostino said: “I’m terribly sorry about your loss.”

He was speaking to both of them, but his attention was on the marchesa, who was, after all, the one whose mother had passed.

She smiled insincerely and thanked him for being there. Agostino couldn’t fault her indifference to his sentiment. At his mother’s funeral, he’d been inconsolable, he wouldn’t have cared if the king himself had spoken to him. 

“Mia cara,” said Salvatore, putting a hand on his wife’s arm. “The Sartoris are here.”

Beatrice gave Agostino another weak smile, and left to greet the newcomers. 

“It’s a difficult time,” Salvatore explained. “Her brother and her were terribly fond of their mother… and it was rather sudden, too.”

Agostino wasn’t all that sure. He’d heard the woman was ill. But, he supposed, illnesses could hit faster than expected. 

“Of course,” he said anyway. “How are your girls handling it?”

Salvatore shrugged. “Hardly girls anymore… Eleonora will arrive this afternoon. Her flight from Berlin was delayed because of the weather. And Maria—”

“Nonno!”

A small person dodged past Agostino, and slammed into Salvatore with the force of a bullet.

“Niccolino!” His friend gave his grandson a tight hug. “There you are!”

Agostino forced his face to remain casual. The little devils had arrived then.

He heard Maria’s voice calling for her son. She appeared to his right, holding the hand of her daughter, who looked to be around 7 or 8.

“Topolino, ti ho detto che no—!” She stopped when she saw Agostino. “Secondo Capo Bernardi, how kind of you to be here.”

Maria di Angelo looked a lot like her father. Her dark hair was spotlessly coiffed, she had the same deep brown eyes, and there was a certain air of authority she shared with Salvatore. 

Today she looked upset, though. Red rimmed her eyes and she seemed exhausted. 

Agostino nodded at the young woman. 

Salvatore must’ve seen something in her expression that Agostino ignored because he held his daughter’s arm softly and told his friend: “Will you excuse us a moment, Agostino?”

Agostino stepped back to give them some privacy. He looked around to find somebody he could entertain himself with.

To his chagrin, in front of him stood the two little children. 

Niccolò and Bianca di Angelo were studying him curiously. 

“Who are you?” Asked the boy. 

“Didn’t you hear, silly? He’s a Secondo Capo.” The girl rolled her eyes. 

Agostino could see that meant absolutely nothing to the boy, who kept staring unabashedly at him. 

“I’m in the navy,” Agostino explained. “I work on a ship.”

Niccolò grinned. “Like a pirate?”

Agostino frowned. “Not at all! Pirates are lawless.”

“The navy kills pirates, Nico,” Bianca scoffed. Turning to Agostino she added: “He’s always wanted to be a pirate, which is dumb because ships make him dizzy.”

“That’s rather unfortunate.” Agostino said as the boy vehemently denied such accusations. 

He was mildly disturbed by the strength of the girl’s gaze. Her eyes were darker than her brother’s, and had an ethereal air to them. But she was only a child, so Agostino held her stare until she looked away.

He wasn’t sure what else to say when their conversation faded into silence, so he repeated: “I’m terribly sorry for your loss.”

The girl shrugged. “We didn’t know mamma’s nonna very well.”

“But mamma’s so upset!” Niccolò told her sister with wide eyes. “Her nonna must’ve been very nice before she met us.”

“She didn’t want to meet us.” Said Bianca. Agostino noticed a trace of resentment in the girl’s voice. “She only did when our nonna insisted.”

Niccolò threw a glance behind Agostino. The Secondo Capo didn’t want to pry, but he dared a glimpse too.

Salvatore had Maria in a tight hug. Her face was hidden in her father’s shoulder, Agostino didn’t keep his gaze on them long enough to make out whether she was crying or not but her distress was obvious.

“Why don’t you go with your mother?” Agostino suggested. “Tell her you’re sorry and whatnot.”

“She doesn’t like us to see her cry,” said Bianca. “She thinks we’ll think less of her if we do.”

Agostino prayed he could disappear. How on Earth did one speak with children? His own hadn’t been this demanding, had they? Admittedly, he hadn’t been around too much when they were young.

“It sounds silly, really.” Niccolò sighed. “But Bianca’s right.”

“Hmm—” Agostino bit the inside of his cheek. He scanned the room desperately. There, by the door, stood a friend from school. “Oh, look! I see an old acquaintance. If you don’t mind, children…?”

But they had run off. He gave the room a once-over but he couldn’t see where they’d gone. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The wake took its time. Salvatore was an influential man, and many people wanted to look good in front of him, making the place much fuller than Agostino had expected. 

Food was served, a priest read a passage the dead woman had apparently been fond of, and everyone took turns to get close to the open casket in the parlour to pay respects. 

Agostino was spooked by corpses so he opted for a less personal approach. He sent his prayers from the safety of the sitting room, and apologised to the dead woman for not breathing too close to her departed earthly body. 

The crowd dimmed as the morning turned into afternoon, with only family and close friends remaining by the time the clock struck two.

Agostino sat with Salvatore, his wife, and Beatrice’s brother —il Conte Carminati—, chatting about whether Chamberlain would declare war on Germany or not.

“He’s strongly against it,” said Beatrice. “My sister-in-law says the Brits are rather divided on the matter. They don’t want another war—” Agostino remembered the marchesa and the conte’s older brother had died in the Great War, fighting in the British Army for he had married an English woman. “But at the same time, they can’t help but feel Czechoslovakia's situation is unfair.”

“But another war so soon…” Conte Carminati shuddered. “Great nations such as Great Britain or Germany wouldn’t go to war over a country as insignificant as Czechoslovakia.”

“They would if they wanted a war,” Salvatore commented. “Why do you think Germany’s been building an army for? Protection? Only a fool would believe Hitler’s objectives are peaceful.”

Agostino felt the tension Salvatore’s words caused. Adolf Hitler was on good terms with the Duce. If Germany went to war, Italy would follow soon after, no doubt.

Agostino raised his glance just in time to catch Maria and her two children walking to the parlour. Through the glass doors he saw Maria wipe a tear off her face.

The two kids shared a look. 

The Secondo Capo returned to the conversation. He told the group about the intranquility in the Regia Marina. Everybody was half-expecting a war by this point, as Salvatore had explained. 

As Beatrice’s brother spoke of the Regia Aeronautica and their own restlessness, Agostino saw Maria exit the parlour, minus her two blessings.

He looked through the glass, studying the children talking between themselves, heads together.

Niccolò shook his head, clearly worried. Bianca made an exasperated gesture. Whatever she was saying, it looked as if she was trying to convince her brother of something.

The boy gave what must’ve been a loud sigh, muted by the glass doors, and nodded. 

Bianca put her hands on the edge of the casket and leaned onto it. Agostino hoped she didn’t put too much pressure onto one side. He wasn’t sure how strong children were, but if the casket tumbled and the corpse fell out he might scream.

What happened was much, much worse. 

For a minute Agostino was distracted by the conversation again. There were talks about a meeting in Munich between the European leaders. Or some of them, at the very least. Salvatore was saying, his tone a tad too loud to be casual, that not inviting representatives of all the countries involved was as bad as straight-up declaring war.

Agostino’s eyes froze as he stared into the parlour.

One of the children was sitting in the casket. Not on, in.

Except… except it was too tall to be one of the kids.

“...absolute madness!” Salvatore exclaimed.

“It is…” Agostino whispered.

Salvatore must’ve thought he was being sarcastic. With a frown he said “It’s not a joke, you know? The Great War was supposed to solve all this petty nonsense—”

But he’d seen Agostino’s face: pale, eyes wide and unmoving, staring at…

“Ma che caz—?” 

Salvatore had turned towards the parlour. 

There, walking hand in hand with Salvatore’s granddaughter was his departed mother-in-law.

The old woman’s eyes were open, glassy, and unfocused. Her skin had a blue tint, dark spots marked her bare arms below the edge of her dress. 

Beatrice screamed. 

Il Conte Carminati fainted, slipping from the couch and falling to the floor.

The dead woman kept approaching.

Bianca sat the corpse… was it a corpse? Oddio, Agostino thought his heart couldn’t beat any louder. 

Bianca sat her great-grandmother on an armchair. “Where’s mamma?”

When none of the adults replied, Niccolò said: “I told you they would be scared.”

“What’s happening?” Asked Beatrice weakly. “What have you done to my mother?!”

“Mamma was so sad,” Bianca replied. “I thought she might be happier if she could speak with her nonna again. Come on, Nico, go fetch mamma, will you?”

Niccolò sighed. “It’s your idea, you go fetch her.”

Agostino didn’t care who found Maria, he just wanted to leave this madhouse, but he was frozen to the spot by fear. 

As the girl left, muttering under her breath about how lazy her brother was, Agostino looked around.

Beatrice looked like she might follow her brother’s example and pass out at any moment.

The conte was still out. 

Salvatore looked shocked, but to Agostino’s chagrin, he didn’t appear quite as surprised as he should be.

“Why—? How did you do this?” Salvatore asked his grandson. 

“It was Bianca!” Niccolò said, pointing at the door his sister had left through. “She can do this with cats and dogs too!”

He was obviously taken with his sister’s unholy powers. He looked very proud.

Salvatore studied his companions. Agostino wondered if this was some sort of tasteless elaborate joke. 

Niccolò turned to the corpse. “I’m wearing that tie you gave me for my birthday, did you notice? Mamma said it would be nice even if you don’t like us. I think it’s too tight around my neck…”

“Oh, good God!”

Maria di Angelo had arrived.

Niccolò startled. “Mamma, guarda! Bianca made your grandmother wake up!”

Maria looked horrified, but not at all astonished. 

“You don’t have to be sad anymore!” Bianca added, appearing on her mother’s side. 

Maria’s eyes went to her father, then to the rest of them. Then returned to her children.

“Put her back!”

Bianca huffed. “No! She just woke up, she doesn’t want to go back into the box!”

“It’s a casket,” Maria corrected Bianca. “And she belongs there, topolina. She’s dead!”

Bianca’s head dropped. “Mi dispiace, mamma. I thought it would make you happy to have her back again.”

Maria sighed. She held Bianca’s face in her hands softly. 

“Topolina, I appreciate the gesture,” she said. “I really do. But you mustn’t disturb the nature of death. Mia nonna she… she passed away. That’s sad, but it’s okay. She’s at peace now, but if you—” her eyes went to the dead woman sitting on her father’s armchair. “If you awaken her, she won’t be at peace anymore. She’ll be sad because she doesn’t belong with the living.”

Bianca nodded.

Agostino thought that all sounded rational and well-put, but there was still a bloody corpse amidst them. An actual moving dead body. He controlled his breath so it wouldn’t sound too shallow.

The little boy seemed to think around those lines too, for he said: “So… what do we do now?”

Maria turned towards him, then towards Bianca. “You can… make her go to sleep again, can’t you?”

“I don’t know,” the girl shrugged.

Agostino felt lightheaded. 

“Merda,” Salvatore muttered.

His wife made an offended expression. “There’s no need to be inappropriate, Totò!”

He stared at her. “There’s a resuscitated person in our sitting room, mia cara. How exactly am I supposed to react?”

She raised her shoulders dismissively. “Without foul language.”

Agostino leaned back heavily on his couch. He wanted to close his eyes and take a deep breath, but he refused to lose sight of the dead woman.

Salvatore had a point. How were they supposed to react?

Agostino thought hyperventilating was appropriate, but it required him to force oxygen into his lungs, a task proving rather difficult. 

“If Jesus could come back, why can’t mamma’s nonna?” Niccolò inquired.

“My mother isn’t God’s child, Nico,” said his grandmother. 

“Of course not,” Maria rolled her eyes. “Jesus was a lot less judgemental.” 

Agostino felt a chill go down his back.

Maria looked behind him, and for a fraction of a second, Agostino feared there were more reanimated dead relatives in the room, but luckily, she seemed relieved.

“Thank God,” she sighed.

“Not quite.”

Agostino turned sharply towards the new voice.

There was another man with them, but he seemed perfectly alive. Tall, pale, well-dressed in a suit so black it seemed to absorb the light of the room.

Agostino wasn’t easily cowed. He spent most of his time with powerful people. His job demanded he interacted regularly with men who could make him and his whole family disappear if he said the wrong thing, or was heard by the wrong person. 

All the same, this man gave him goosebumps. 

He wasn’t sure if it was the sudden drop in temperature, or the man’s general poise and appearance, but whoever he was, it was clear he wasn’t somebody to mess around with.

“You know what I meant,” Maria said. “A little help would be appreciated. This is your fault.”

The man appeared perplexed. “My fault?”

Maria didn’t look impressed. She didn’t look afraid, or even worried. Behind her exasperated expression, which still held a trace of the unease she’d felt, there was a note of fondness.

Agostino appraised the man properly.

His dark eyes were intense. An intensity Agostino had noticed on the youngest di Angelo girl mere hours ago.

Was this…? Was this the children’s father?

For a second, curiosity clouded his self-preservation and fear. His wife would be so ridiculously jealous that he had met Maria di Angelo’s former husband —or former lover, whoever he was—.

Salvatore’s stance confirmed his suspicions. 

His old friend was rigid. His arms tightly crossed over his chest, and a cold, impassive façade on his face —not an easy feat, with your dead mother-in-law sitting quietly in your sitting room—.

“Somehow,” said Salvatore. “I don’t doubt it is.”

His wife put a hand on his arm. She threw Salvatore a warning look, and turning towards the man, she asked: “Can you fix this? Please?”

The man tilted his head and looked at the children. Niccolò was beaming at the sight of his father, oblivious to the tense atmosphere of the room. Bianca looked sheepish.

“Mi dispiace, papà,” she muttered.

The man sighed. He walked towards the children and knelt by their side, undisturbed by the corpse less than a metre away.

“I know,” the man told her in a soft voice. He brushed her cheek with his hand. “But you mustn’t do this again. There’s an order to life and death, and we must never distort it to our advantage.”

The girl nodded. “I was only trying to…” Her voice faded before she finished her sentence.

“I know,” her father repeated. “I’m not angry.” He took both her hands in his. “Your motives were noble, but sometimes we must accept fate, regardless of how frustrating or upsetting we think it is.”

Bianca nodded again. Her expression was as sombre, and her eyes as fierce as her father’s.

The conte groaned on the floor.

The man got up, looked at the marchesa’s brother and at Agostino, then at the corpse of Salvatore’s mother-in-law, then shook his head.

“I think you’ve seen enough,” he said without malice. 

He snapped his fingers, and Agostino’s world went black.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“Did you have to do that?” Maria asked her children’s father. “They’ll never believe they were poisoned by a gas leak in the radiator.

Hades leaned against the back of the sofa behind him. “Better than them believing the children are possessed by the devil, I should imagine.”

Maria huffed. 

She watched Nico and Bianca, playing with a set of dominoes on her parents’ sitting room carpet. 

They were so innocent. They were kind, and well-intended, but they were too young to understand so many things yet.

“Will it get worse?” She wondered. “Their… death thing?”

Hades gave her an honest look. “Yeah, it will. The older they get, though, the easier it’ll be to help them control that power.”

“So no more raising the dead at family gatherings?” 

He smiled. “No, I’ll make sure to pay attention the next time you host another relative’s wake or funeral.”

“Thank you,” she said. She crossed her arms. “My grandmother always thought they were somehow unholy, now she’ll haunt them forever.”

“Your grandmother was a piece of work,” Hades argued. “The possibility of her haunting all of you was always on the table, what’s another pebble to a mountain?”

Maria stared at him. “You’re joking, right?”

“Of course I am,” he waved a hand dismissively. 

“You didn’t tell me when my grandfather told Nico stories,” Maria reminded him. “Or when that aunt of mine was criticising my baking in the kitchen. I’d like a little heads-up the next time there’s wild spirits in my home.”

Hades shrugged. “What’s the fun in that? Let the children discover what they can do by themselves.”

“What if it’s dangerous?” She insisted. “What if they find a spirit, or ghost, or whatever that wants to hurt them?”

Hades took her hands in his. “Whatever they face that falls under the category of ‘afterlife’ is part of my domain. If they cannot handle it by themselves, I’ll always be there to help them.”

[occhietti]

Io so a memoria la miseria, e la miseria è il copione della vera comicità. Non si può far ridere se non si conoscono bene il dolore, la fame, il freddo, l’amore senza speranza, la disperazione della solitudine di certe squallide camerette ammobiliate, alla fine di una recita in un teatrucolo di provincia; e la vergogna dei pantaloni sfondati, il desiderio di un caffe latte, la prepotenza esosa degli impresari, la cattiveria del pubblico senza educazione. Insomma, non si può essere un vero attore comico senza aver fatto la guerra con la vita.

- Antonio de Curtis

Ritratto di Nicola Carnevale

Tutto il mondo lo conosce come Totò, ma il suo vero nome è Antonio de Curtis, anzi, per l'esattezza il suo nome intero è Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio. Totò nacque a Napoli, nel rione Sanità, da una unione clandestina tra sua madre, allora quindicenne e suo padre, il marchese Giuseppe De Curtis che inizialmente non lo riconobbe. Solo nel 1928 quando Totò aveva ormai 30 anni il padre decise di riconoscerlo e ne sposò la madre. Solitario e di indole malinconica, crebbe in condizioni estremamente disagiate. Nel 1933 venne adottato dal marchese Francesco Maria Gagliardi Focas che gli diede il suo nome in cambio di un vitalizio, ed ereditò dallo stesso tutti i suoi titoli nobiliari.

- @occhietti... Da vari articoli sul web, debitamente appurati e riassunti

[my18thcenturysource]

"The Family of Philip, Duke of Parma", 1755, Guiseppe Baldrighi, Galleria Nazionale, Parma.

Felipe de Borbón y Farnesio was the Duke of Parma from 1748 to 1765, and also the subject of one of my favourite portraits of the whole 18th century (from a set of 3, I will post those another time). The second son of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, he became the Duke of Parma, that had been ruled by his mother's family for generations, via the Teatry of Aux-la-Chapelle in 1748, founding the House of Bourbon-Parma.

In this portrait we can see Philip sitting next to his wife Louise Elisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of Louis XV of France. They didn't have happy marriage, and she died of smallpox in 1759 at 32 years old.

Standing behind them there's their daughter Isabella of Parma, here wearing a lilac robe de cour, she would later marry Marie Antoinette's older brother, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, and would become very close (some people think that suspiciously close) to her sister in law Maria Christina. She died of smallpox after a difficult birth followed closely by two miscarriages at the age of 21.

At the front there are the Ferdinand (later Duke of Parma) and Maria Luisa (future wife of Charles IV and then Queen of Spain, yeah her cousin because of course).

At the front there's Ferdinand and Maria Luisa (aren't they the CUTEST?!). Both of them were born in 1751, and she's keeping his toy sword away from him, playing and pissing him off, like all siblings should. Ferdinand would become the Duke of Parma in 1765 at 14 years old and be later married to his bother in law's sister Maria Amalia of Austria. In 1801 he ceded the Duchy of Parma to France in the Treaty of Aranjuez.

Maria Luisa of Parma would become the Queen of Spain since she married Charles, then Prince of Asturias in 1765. He was mainly interested in hunting and mechanics and she in state affairs, so she became an influential and dominant figure in court. If this telenovela is not already sad enough for you, her father died unexpectedly in 1765 in Alessandria after having accompanied her to sail for Spain to be married to the Infante Charles.

There's also the profile figure of Marie Catherine de Bassecourt y Thieulaine the children's governess. She was a maid of honour of Phiilip's mother Elisabeth Farnese, and she joined Maria Luisa when she went to Spain and remained in the Spanish court since then. In 1765 Philip gave her the title of Marchese of Borghetto, thanking her services and merits.

And finally, some pets and music. Didn't find anything about the dog nor the bird BUT I love them both. Especially the super fancy collar.

[weirdesplinder]

Cosa c'è di più adatto, visto che si avvicina il cenone di capodanno, di una lista di romance con protagonisti chef, cuochi e pasticceri?

- Tentazioni deliziose, di Sherry Thomas

Link: https://amzn.to/3TqeLyD

Trama: Famosa a Parigi per i suoi piatti indimenticabili, Verity Durant è altrettanto impopolare a Londra per la sua scandalosa vita privata. Ma questa è l’ultima delle sorprese che attendono il suo nuovo datore di lavoro... Per Stuart Somerset – astro nascente della politica londinese –, l’affascinante Verity non è altro che una donna come tante, esattamente come il cibo è nient’altro che cibo, almeno finché non assaggia uno dei suoi piatti. C’è stata solo un’occasione in cui ha provato una sensazione così dirompente: la notte in ci ha incontrato una splendida sconosciuta che gli ha lasciato solo il ricordo di un’incredibile passione, per poi sfumare nel nulla. Da allora sono passati dieci anni, e quando Stuart incontra Verity, capisce che c’è solo una cosa che potrà finalmente saziare il suo appetito. Si tratterà solo di desiderio, di sete di vendetta, o anche del più delicato dei sentimenti? Il passato di Verity cela segreti che potrebbero separarli per sempre, proprio mentre loro cercano di assaporare il frutto delizioso dell’amore.

- Il segreto di un gentiluomo, di Laura Lee Guhrke​

Link: https://amzn.to/3tfNtjL

Trama: Coronando il sogno di una vita, Maria Martingale vuole aprire a Mayfair una pasticceria con elegante sala da tè annessa. Tutto sembra filare liscio, ma l'altezzoso Phillip Hawthorne, marchese di Kayne, che abita lì accanto, cerca di metterle i bastoni fra le ruote. Così come aveva fatto dodici anni prima, impedendo che il proprio fratello minore avesse una storia d'amore con lei, figlia di un cuoco. Ora Phillip teme che la giovane cerchi di mandare a monte il matrimonio del fratello con una ricca ereditiera americana. Però le cose non stanno affatto come sembrano, e Maria non è più disposta a subire le interferenze di quell'uomo. Al quale, peraltro, sente di non essere affatto indifferente.

- Cannella e polvere da sparo, di Eli Brown

Link: https://amzn.to/3tiD0nD

Trama: Owen Wedgwood è un bravissimo cuoco, che lavora per il ricchissimo e potentissimo Lord Ramsey. Un giorno, siamo nel 1819, fa irruzione nel palazzo una banda di pirati, comandati dalla rossa Hannah Mabbot, che uccide Ramsey e tutti i suoi ospiti e rapisce il cuoco Wedgwood. Hannah, che tutti ritengono pazza e che proprio per questo ha un enorme ascendente sui suoi uomini, poche ore dopo gli propone/impone il patto: ogni domenica preparerà per lei un pranzo delizioso, in cambio resterà vivo. Owen accetta e resta quindi a bordo della Flying Rose. Accanto a lui, lo sguattero Joshua, a cui insegna a leggere e a scrivere, il gigantesco Apples, comandante in seconda e due gemelli cinesi. Mentre lotta per ricavare qualcosa di speciale dai miseri ingredienti della dispensa e dal pesce casualmente pescato dai marinai, Wedgwood impara che Hannah non è solo una spietata piratessa, capace di far divorare vivo un traditore dai gabbiani, ma una vittima dell'ipocrisia: è infatti rimasta orfana da bambina, a dieci anni è finita in un bordello, è fuggita per fare la ladra, è stata catturata e "salvata" da Ramsey, che l'ha utilizzata come concubina e le ha fatto fare un figlio. Hannah è dunque un'anticolonialista ante litteram, impegnata nella lotta contro i mercanti di oppio e di schiavi...

INEDITI IN ITALIANO:

- A Taste of Honey, di Rose Lerner

Link: https://amzn.to/4asLU2v

Trama:  Robert Moon ha rischiato tutto, compresa l'eredità conquistata a fatica da suo padre, per aprire la sua amata pasticceria Honey Moon nella strada più trafficata di Lively St. Lemeston. Ora rischia la bancarotta e la prigione per debitori. Quando arriva un grosso ordine di catering, accetta di chiudere la pasticceria per una settimana per soddisfarlo. C'è solo un problema: il suo apprendista è fuori città, quindi la sua bellissima commessa Betsy Piper deve aiutare Robert in cucina. Betsy ha trascorso l'ultimo anno cercando di convincere il suo determinato capo ad alzare lo sguardo dai suoi pasticcini e a notare che lei sarebbe una moglie perfetta. Ora i due sono soli in una cucina piena di dolci. Con solo una settimana per farlo innamorare di lei, sarebbe meglio che iniziasse questa seduzione...

- At the Sign of the Golden Pineapple, di Marion Chesney (alias M.C. Beaton)

Link: https://amzn.to/3H6N72l

Trama: Gli amici più intimi della signorina Henrietta Bascombe rimangono sconvolti nel sentire che una signora bene educata come lei intende entrare nel commercio. Ma Henrietta è determinata a trasformare la sua miseria eredità in una fortuna aprendo un negozio di dolciumi a Londra per rivaleggiare con il famoso Gunther! E sembra riuscirci quando l'intero ton sembra accorrere al suo negozio diventato subito di moda. Ma poi a metterle i bastoni tra le ruote arriva l'orgoglioso conte di Carrisdowne che non vuole che suo fratello minore e il suo migliore amico passino i pomeriggi a osservare le commesse carine dietro il bancone di Bascombe.

- Miss Delectable, di Grace Burrowes

Link: https://amzn.to/3RuPT6c

Trama: La signorina Ann Pearson ha passato anni ad apprendere la difficile arte della cuoca professionista e a proteggere gelosamente la sua posizione nella cucina dell'elegante Coventry Club. Quando il colonnello Sir Orion Goddard le chiede di assumere un giovane apprendista, Ann preferisce rifiutare. Ma Orion è rispettoso, burbero e affascinante e si prende cura di una ragazza che gli altri hanno trascurato, e questa è una combinazione a cui Ann non può resistere.

- A Taste for Love, di Donna Bell

Link: https://amzn.to/3NKJAdu

Trama: Dopo essersi diplomata alla Fannie Farmer's School of Cookery nel 1910, Charlotte Gregory è pronta a dare una svolta alla sua vita. È entusiasta di avere l'opportunità di viaggiare, tenere conferenze e dare dimostrazioni di cucina sull'ultima rivoluzione culinaria: i fornelli a gas, e di certo non le importa che la compagnia del gas abbia assunto il bel Lewis Mathis per esibirsi alle sue lezioni. Lewis incoraggia il suo lavoro, in particolare la sua crociata per introdurre cibo fresco, appetitoso e nutriente per coloro che sono in convalescenza negli ospedali. Ma il giovane sovrintendente dell'ospedale, il dottor Joel Brooks, non è convinto che si debbano apportare dei cambiamenti. Quando Charlotte e Joel saranno costretti a organizzare un gala per la raccolta fondi per l'ospedale, questa coppia infiammabile esploderà?

 L'irreprensibile Biddy Leigh, sottocuoca nella severa Mawton Hall, non vede l'ora di sistemarsi con il suo innamorato e di aprire la sua taverna. Ma quando il suo anziano padrone sposa la giovane ed enigmatica Lady Carinna, Biddy viene involontariamente trascinata in un mondo di intrighi, segreti e bugie. Costretta ad accompagnare la sua nuova padrona in Italia, Biddy porta con sé un vecchio libro di ricette di casa, The Cook's Jewel, in cui registra le sue osservazioni. Quando si ritrova coinvolta in una cospirazione omicida, Biddy si rende conto che i segreti che custodisce potrebbero essere la chiave per la sua sopravvivenza... o per la sua rovina.

#lauraleeguhrke #romance #listadilibri

[oubliettemagazine]

Intrecci d’arte: seconda edizione dell’esperienza artistica collettiva, dal 23 al 24 settembre 2022, Busto Arsizio

Intrecci d’arte: seconda edizione dell’esperienza artistica collettiva, dal 23 al 24 settembre 2022, Busto Arsizio

Il 23 settembre 2022, alle ore 15.00 si inaugura l’esperienza artistica collettiva “Intrecci d’arte”, presso il CDD Belotti Pensa, in via Lega Lombarda n°14, nella città di Busto Arsizio (Va). Intrecci d’arte 2022 La performance, alla sua seconda edizione, nasce dalla collaborazione tra Raffaella Ganzetti, coordinatore del CDD e della Cooperativa Sociale Società Dolce, Angela Pinto,…

[cuoredolce67]

VE LO SPIEGO NA VORTA PE TUTTE...

Sei romano se nasci a Roma, ma esselo davero è n'artra cosa.

Si romano se da' piccolo te portavano ar Gianicolo a guarda' pulcinella e, er botto der cannone de mezzogiorno. Tu dicevi che te piaceva ma quando vedevi da' foco alla miccia te piava a tremarella.

Si romano se l'estate non è estate se non te spari 40 minuti de fila pe magnatte a grattachecca de a sora Maria. Si romano se impazientemente spieghi per la centesima volta la differenza co la granita.

Si romano se a Natale vai a piazza Navona e ogni volta dici ma che ci venimo a fa? Però le bancarelle coi personaggi der Presepe e la fontanella che funziona davero so troppo belle.

Si romano se la befana è più di babbo Natale.

Si romano se conosci la differenza tra il carciofo alla romana e quello alla giudia e tra sticazzi e mecojoni. Si romano se la parolaccia la sai di. E non è più una parolaccia.

Si romano se da piccolo t'hanno 'nsegnato che er calcio è la città, condannandoti a una vita di sofferenze (frequenti) e (rare) gioie smisurate. Si quanno entri allo stadio olimpico te batte er core ogni volta. E il core è giallo e rosso . Non ammesse altre combinazioni a meno che da piccolo ti hanno raccontato che l'importante è vincere e no amare a dismisura.

Si romano se ogni volta che torni da quarsiasi parte tu venga te guardi attorno e dici ma quanto sei bella Roma. Se odi la tua città mentre la ami come un pazzo, se il riflesso delle luci sul Tevere la sera te commove.

Si romano se in fonno 'npo' si' Pasquino, se er core de ROMA è er sor Marchese del Grillo, Aldo Fabrizi, la sora Lella, Nannarella...e se "sta mano po' esse' piuma e po' esse' fero".

Si romano se sbuffi e te lamenti, se t'arrabbi pe er traffico e la monnezza, pe er caos e l'inefficienza...ma è come pe mamma tua. Se te lamenti te , c'hai ragione, se lo fanno l'artri "te li magni".

Si Romano se si nato a Campo de’Fiori. A sta gente che sta seduta in attesa de 'n bucatino alla matriciana, na carbonara, na coda alla vaccinara, ma come c....o gliela spieghi Roma, se non ce l'hai ner sangue.

[thegreenwallrabbit-blog]

Explaining one of VTMB paintings (pt 9)

Cain Killing Abel oil on canvas (Second quarter of 17th century) by Pietro Novelli 

Pietro Novelli (March 2, 1603 – August 27, 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Palermo. He was born in Monreale, and died in Palermo. He initially trained with his father, a painter and mosaicist. His father died in 1625 from the bubonic plague.[2]As a young apprentice he was a fellow pupil with Gerardo Asturino.[3] In 1618, he moved to Palermo and apprenticed with Vito Carrera (1555–1623). His first dated work is from 1626: St. Anthony Abbot for the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Palermo. The development of his style owed much to Anthony van Dyck, who visited Sicily in 1624 and whose altarpiece, the Madonna of the Rosary in the oratory of Santa Maria del Rosario in Palermo was highly influential for local artists. He was also commissioned works and paintings for many churches in Piana degli Albanesi, and various works to adorn the villas of the Sicilian nobility. Other influences on Novelli were the Caravaggisti or tenebrists active in Naples (for example, Ribera). Novelli also painted for the church of Santa Zita in Monreale, and painted a Marriage of Cana for the refectory of the Benedictines in Monreale.He was injured during the revolution in Palermo in 1647, and died from his wounds.[4] His pupils included Andrea Carreca, Francesco Maggiotto, Francesco Giselli, Michele Blasco, Vincenzo Marchese, Giacomo lo Verde, and Macri da Girgenti. He was also an architect and stage set designer. [1]

The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word barocco, which philosophers used during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweler’s term baroque pearl. Baroque art and architecture refers to the visual arts and building design and construction produced during the era in the history of Western art that roughly coincides with the 17th century. The earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain culminating achievements of Baroque did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts. [2]

Below is an explanation of the Cain and Able story from real life and in the context of VTM. This is the same for all the Explained Cain slaying Able paintings in VTMB posts I’ve done so feel free to skip if you’ve already read this as it’s long.

___________________________________________________________

The tale of Cain murdering his brother Able are nearly identical in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts with the oldest known version coming from the Dead Sea Scroll from the first century BCE. Cain was the the first born son of Adam and Eve and became a Farmer while Able was the second born son and became a shepherd. Both brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. In Islam the reason for their offerings is to decide which brother would marry Adam and Even’s first daughter who was also Cain’s twin sister. Able also had a twin sister and Adam wanted the brothers to marry the others twin. In multiple religions each brother has a twin sister but there is no consistently with the names as Cain’s twin sister being named Aclima, Kalmana, Lusia, Cainan, Luluwa, or Awan, and  Able’s twin sister is named Jumella, Balbira or to make it more confusing Aclima (though even when she is called this Able’s twin sister is never the one the brothers are competing to marry) depending on the source. In the Islamic text Able’s offers his fattest sheep while Cain offered only a bunch of grass and some worthless seeds. In Jewish and Christian texts the reason for the sacrifices and the exact nature of their offerings are merely described as the first born of Ables heard and products from Cain’s fields.[3] The most description we get is in Genesis when God sees that Cain is upset that his offering was not chosen God tells Cain “: Why are you angry? Why are you dejected? If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it.”(Genesis 4:6-7)  Cain then told Able to meet him in his fields where he then murdered his brother out of jealousy by hitting Abel in the head with a stone. When God asks Cain where his brother Cain, “I do not know! he answered. Am I my brother’s keeper?”(Genesis 4:9) to which God replies   “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you’ll get nothing but curses from this ground; you’ll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You’ll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You’ll be a homeless wanderer on Earth.” (Genesis 4:10-12)  When Cain objects saying the punishment is to great and that whoever finds him wandering shall kill him which then God says “No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over.” God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.” (Genesis 4:15). Cain then leaves east of Eden to wander in No-Mans-Land with his wife (who is not named in Genesis but is assumed to be his Twin sister in all tellings regardless of what name is given to her). Their first born Child was named Enoch, and Cain named the first city he built after his son. After Abel’s Death Adam and Eve had a Third son named Seth and when eve gave birth to him Eve said “God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed.”(Genisis 4:25-26). In some texts Seths wife and sister is named Azura. Their son is named Enosh it is through Seth’s line that humanity stems from, though both Cain and Seth had multiple decedents and confusingly used the same names (see family tree below). None of Cain’s decedents suffered the curse of their father Cain but where still seen as sinful and apart from God and where killed in the great flood. How Cain died is not as an agreed upon topic. He was ether crushed to death by the stone house he built, an irony as he used a stone to slay his brother or in some versions part of the Mark of Cain had him grow horns and his descendent Lamech (not to be confused with Lamech who decedent from Seth and was the father of Noah) who was a blacksmith and had two wives(this is viewed as sinful) killed him mistaking him for a wild animal and killed his own son Tubal-cain in the process.

While in the lore of Vampire the Masquerade the tale of Cain killing his brother able as told in the Book of Nod stick to the original tale regarding the murder of Able but starts to differ in God’s punishment. "Father" cursed him with a mark, and cast him out to wander in darkness in the Land of Nod alone. There is no mention of a wife or if he was still cursed to be unable to farm however it is clear that Cain was not  yet cursed to be a vampire by God. The Land of Nod was a place of utter darkness, with no source of light, where Caine was afraid and alone. There he found Lilith where they began a relationship and Cain realized that she possessed magical power and begged her to share them with him. While hesitant Lilith prepares an Awakening ceremony by cutting herself with a knife, bleeding into a bowl, and giving it to him so that he may drink. After Caine partakes of Lilith's blood, he is visited by three angels who are agents of God. Each angel offers Caine a chance to repent for the murder of Abel, but Caine rebuffed them out of pride. Michael, when denied, cursed Caine and his childer to fear his living flame. Raphael cursed Caine and his childer to fear the dawn, as the sun's rays would burn like fire. Uriel then cursed Caine and his childer to cling to Darkness, drink only blood, eat only ashes, and be frozen at the point of death, cursed so all they touch would crumble into nothing. A fourth angel, Gabriel, then appeared to offer the way of Golconda, the only way to "light", by the mercy of God. After the experience, Caine becomes officially "Awakened", possessing the following Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Dominate, Presence, Protean, Animalism, and Auspex. Caine then became aware of the Path of Blood, the Final Path from which all paths stem. And with all these powers, but now being cursed to be a vampire he breaks his bond with Lilith and leaves her.[3] While Cain never biologically fathers any children it is clear that their names of those he embraced and their decedents are inspired by the biblical names in his line though with massive changes. For instance the first city is founded by Cain in the land of Nod and and called Ubar and is explicitly stated to be settled by “Children of Seth” with the human king being Enoch at the time Cain settles there. Enoch still becomes his son as he is embraced by Cain. Another example of the reuse of a biblical name of Cain’s line is Zillah (which in Hebrew means shade or protection). In the original story she is one of Lamech(decedent of Cain) two wives( the other named Adah). After both wives discover that Lamech unwittingly kills Tubal-Cain(one of Lamech and Zillah’s sons) they both refuse to have sex with him because of the deaths he caused, on the pretext that they do not desire to give birth to cursed offspring. The three go together to the tribunal of Adam; Adam rules that they must obey their husband since he killed unwittingly. This midrashic tradition portrays Adah and Zillah as respected women, whose position is considered in all seriousness by the court. [4] In VTM Zillah was a human woman who lived in Udar so beautiful, Caine could not resist the Embrace. According to Nosferatu Zillah is the one of Cain’s second generation who sired their Antediluvian. Interestingly, even after the Embrace, Zillah did not desire him. It frustrated Caine to the point that he was ripping his hair out of his head. He did anything and everything to make her desire him. Yet, she would not have him. Finally, Caine sought the Crone's magic, who ultimately tricked him into a blood bond, she forced the First Vampire to Embrace her. The Crone sent her new thrall away, telling him that his blood would have the power to bond others as Caine himself was bonded to the Crone. The discovery of the blood bond was what finally made Zillah agree to marry her sire Caine. [3]

[1]“Pietro Novelli .” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Novelli. 

[2]“Baroque Art and Architecture .” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-architecture. 

[3] “Caine.” White Wolf Wiki, https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Caine.

[4] Kadari, Tamar. “Zillah: Midrash and Aggadah .” Jewish Women's Archive, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zillah-midrash-and-aggadah#:~:text=Zillah%20was%20a%20wife%20of,he%20unwittingly%20kills%20Tubal%2DCain.

[perfettamentechic]

10 aprile … ricordiamo …

10 … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2020: Pino Van Lamsweerde, all’anagrafe Giuseppe van Lamsweerde, è stato un regista e animatore italiano naturalizzato canadese.  (n. 1940) 2020: Carlo Sabatini, attore e doppiatore italiano. Noto per aver prestato voce a Ian McKellen/Magneto, ad Harvey Keitel, a Bruce Lee,  a Morgan Freeman, e a tanti altri attori famosi.  (n. 1932) 2012: Maria Pia Casilio, attrice italiana. (n. 1935) 2010:…

[roehenstart]

Portrait of a man (maybe Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto) in armour by Titian.

Del Vasto was a decorated military officer in the service of the Emperor Charles V. He married Maria D'Aragona, granddaughter of King Ferdinand I of Naples, in 1523. In 1538, Charles V appointed Del Vasto governor of Milan. The family left Naples to settle in a palace in Milan. Del Vasto had already served under Charles in Prague, Tunis and Naples, so he was constantly on the battlefield. D'Aragona assumed responsibility for the court, promoting a cultural programme in Milan similar to that of Naples.