In the 19th century the Swiss historian Jacob Burkhardt (1818-1897) pioneered academic scholarship of art and cultural history, demonstrating how a knowledge of the art, literature, architecture and sculpture, politics and the social minutiae of any period would better inform students, and the public's knowledge of the past. Even today there are many who think that art… Continue reading The difficulty identifying 16th portraits of ‘Unknown Ladies & Gentlemen’
Parrots first became european symbols of status, wealth and power when Alexander the Great is said to have brought the Indian ring necked parakeet back from India in the second century B.C. Legend has it that wild green parakeets in gardens of an Indian temple repeated the prayers chanted by the monks leading to the… Continue reading Of Parrots, kings and other things!
My grateful thanks to Dr Wilkinson for giving me the privilege of hosting this article that gives us a wonderful insight into the early life of Henriette d'Angleterre, the daughter of Charles I, and later wife of Philipe d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV of France. Dr Wilkinson's last two books have been on Louis XIV… Continue reading Henriette: a Sketch of a Childhood – by Dr Jo Wilkinson
When you sit down to your Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners you may not realise it but you are about to enjoy dishes once presented and eaten at the court of Henry VIII and his queen, Katharine of Aragon. In America, according to popular belief, the Thanksgiving Dinner celebrates the survival of the first year the… Continue reading Food Fit for Kings
Thank you to Amberley for sending me a copy of Jo Wilkinson’s latest book, The Man in the Iron Mask. If you are interested in history and the back stories of who did what to whom, then The Man in the Iron Mask will have you enthralled. Dr Wilkinson’s knowledge of the court of Louis XIV of France and… Continue reading The Man in the Iron Mask by Dr Josephine Wilkinson
Melanie V Taylor 