SIR ISAAC NEWTON PURCHASED SHARES IN THE SOUTH SEAS COMPANY WHICH TRADED IN SLAVES I recently learned that the University of Sheffield in England was considering canceling Sir Isaac Newton, or stringing him up in effigy (It turns out he is dead) so … I took it upon myself to write this morning to the …
ANDREA MANTEGNA’S HOUSE IN MANTUA: Andrea Mantegna, the court painter to the Gonzagas of Mantua, had a talent for conjuring magical spaces out of square boxes – his “bridal chamber” – or camera picta – in Mantua’s Ducal Palace, with its trompe-l’œil oculus, is one example, creating as it does a complex sense of space, …
While writing the novel “Son of Two Fathers” – (2019 House of Anansi Press) – set in the Renaissance between 1536 and 1543, I plunged into the life of Isabella d’Este, ruler of Mantua, a brilliant, talented, highly cultured woman, an effective ruler, a promoter of women’s education, and one of the great patrons of …
A few small insights from my recent visit to Sicily. Unlimited migration or immigration is not necessarily a delightful thing. In Palermo, sub-Saharan Africans were camped out next to people’s homes, and in public parks and public squares, cooking their food, washing, defecating, etc. Improvised tents. Quite a lot of this. Little hygiene, little or …