Beech by the Cam

“Si le monde était clair, l’art ne serait pas.” Albert Camus, French philosopher, writer, author of L'Étranger, La Peste, born #OTD 1913; winner of Nobel Prize in Literature 1957. Nobel Prize

Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist, chemist, pioneer in radioactivity, first woman Nobel laureate & only winner of two Nobel prizes in different sciences (Physics & Chemistry); born #OTD 1867, buried in the Panthéon, Paris. Nobel Prize | 5th Solvay Conference 1927 (colourised)

William Stukeley, English antiquary, pioneered archaeological exploration of Stonehenge & Avebury sites, born #OTD 1687. Society of Antiquaries, London

#AdoorableThursday Looking out to the sea from the ancient doorway of St Winwaloe's, the 'Church of the Storms', on western Lizard, #Cornwall 📷 Yesterday

Charter of the Forest sealed #OTD 1217 ⁦‪at St Paul’s London. Carta Foresta, important complementary charter to Magna Carta, re-established rights of freemen to royal forest, protecting land for grazing, fuel & forage. Carta Foresta 1217 Durham Cathedral | Queen Mary Psalter 1310-20 British Library

A 2,000 year-old blue glass wine cup inscribed in Greek ‘EYΦPAINOY EΦωПAPEI’ “Be glad that you are here” Roman drinking cups like this were used to welcome guests at social gatherings. 1st century AD 🍷 📷 Corning Museum of Glass #EpigraphyTuesday #Archaeology

Going through the pictures taken today while on a hike along the #Rilke trail, starting at #Duino 🇮🇹 castle. Wonderful views on the Bay of #Trieste as the path follows the #Karst ridge.

Remember, remember

A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM

Greatest scientist between Newton & Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist, died #OTD 1879; formulated Theory of Electromagnetism, four equations which underpin modern information & communication technologies. Monument George Street Edinburgh | James Clerk Maxwell Foundation Edinburgh

Painting & Music: Self-portrait c 1770, by eminent Swiss Neoclassical artist Angelica Kauffman, who painted Handelian singer Sarah Harrop as Erato the lyric muse in 1780. The artist died in Rome #OTD 1807 & Canova directed her funeral. National Gallery London | Princeton University Art Museum

Gunpowder, treason and plot. Plot to blow up parliament foiled; Guy Fawkes arrested #OTD 1605. National Portrait Gallery London | James DF Mellor #drawnfromhistory

PS he's 78. Got his scholarship to Oxford a few years back in open competition against >50 other applicants. Recruited ballet dancers from around the world. Wrote a thesis that's going to improve how clinicians care for injured dancers. A privilege to work in a job where I meet people this good.

Master of candlelight: Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch artist of Golden Age & a founding figure of Utrecht Caravaggisti, born #OTD 1592; visiting painter at court of Charles I. Denial of St Peter c. 1620, Musée de Beaux Arts, Rennes

Christ giving the keys to St Peter, 1625, with distinctive rich yellow of Guido Reni, Italian Baroque artist of Bolognese School, born #OTD 1575. Trained in Rome under the Carracci, painter to the Pope, his restrained classicism inspired French & Spanish artists incl. Vouet, Murillo. Musée du Louvre

Furry seal skin AND tiny Icelandic manuscripts! www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his... www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...

Ten tapestries were commissioned in c.1515/16 by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel. We don’t regard tapestry that highly today, but then it was considered the most magnificent art form available. 2/

Today's #marginal #musicians are blue #angels playing golden stringed instruments - #fiddle, #psaltery & #harp. More (not blue) angels in the main image, #singing & playing #lute & #recorder. Coetivy Hours, c1443-5 Chester Beatty W 082 #earlymusic #marginaliamonday #manuscriptmonday #illumination

#HillfortsMonday 🧐🤔 ending the day at the enormous Trevelgue coastal promontory fort, Newquay in Cornwall. A complex set of defences enclosing a substantial Bronze Age barrow & metal resources

Part of the Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge at Stenness on Orkney. The stone circle dates to around 2600 to 2000 BC, and forms part of the ‘Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site’. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #Orkney #Prehistory #Archaeology

Fascinating world of ancient #glass: This delicate #Roman blue and white marbled glass unguentarium, a vessel to hold oil/perfume, was made from translucent dark blue glass with trails in opaque white. Dating 1st century AD. On display at Landesmuseum Württemberg 📷 me 🏺 #archaeology

Paragon of painters: Annibale Carracci, a founding figure of Baroque, influenced Bernini, Rubens & Poussin, born #OTD 1560; painted celebrated Loves of Gods fresco (1597-1608) on the vaulted ceiling of Farnese gallery. Palazzo Farnese

La Saliera: gold & enamel salt cellar 1543, masterpiece made for François I, by Benvenuto Cellini, Italian Mannerist goldsmith & sculptor, born in Florence #OTD 1500. La Saliera featured in Balzac’s novel La Peau de Chagrin; Cellini inspired Dumas’s novel L’Orfèvre du Roi. Kunsthistorisches Museum

Laws of thought: George Boole, influential mathematician, born #OTD 1815; Boolean logic laid foundation for computers & Information Age. University College Cork

Finding beauty in everyday life: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, born #OTD 1699, French painter of tranquil, luminous still-life & genre scenes, admired by Manet, Cézanne, Matisse and Proust. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC | Musée du Louvre

You’re welcome

Bullhead shaped double lamp - Late 1st Century CE At San Rossore, the wrecks of 30 vessels were discovered in the late 1990s Cargos & everyday items were found including this Roman lamp, found in the flood levels of the shipyard Now in Museo delle Navi Antiche di Pisa, #Pisa #RomanSiteSaturday.

Roman glass cups with colourful enamel decoration of animals from the Roman arena. AD 200s. Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

For the feast of All Saints, here is the garden of saints from the vaults of the Church of Our Lady in Skive, Northern Jutland. The church itself is mainly thirteenth-century, but the frescoes were painted in 1522.

The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden used to be the railway station. Most crowned heads passed through on their way to take the waters.

An enthusiastic article about the Hendrik Conscience Library in the Italian arts blog ArtLife: artslife.com/2025/10/26/h...

Palazzo Te, summer palace of Federigo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, with design & celebrated illusionistic frescoes (Stanza dei Giganti) 1524-1534, by versatile Mannerist architect & artist Giulio Romano, pupil of Raphael, died #OTD 1546; he was mentioned by Shakespeare in The Winter’s Tale.

November Englishmen vs Frenchmen Thomas Rowlandson 1788 Royal Collections Trust

The month of November Novembre, 1485-86, painted on vellum by Jean Colombe The acorn harvest: swineherd in oak forest, using a stick to dislodge ripe acorns, to fatten his foraging pigs. Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Musée Condé Château de Chantilly

Treats incoming this weekend, I am in Amsterdam and heading to the @rijksmuseum.bsky.social to enjoy their menswear exhibition. Here though, one of their c18th gems, a rare printed #1770s gown, the surface crimped and ruffled so it resembles a dress made of paper #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

Autumn in Parc Cefn Onn, one of my favourite places in Cardiff. The beautiful park with former bathing pool & summerhouse was created by Ernest Prosser in 1911 for his son Cecil to recuperate from TB. Prosser planned to build a house on the site but his son died in 1922 and he never did so.

From the Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden (2022) #travel #travelphotography #photography #photo #environment #photooftheday #picoftheday #landscape #sweden

About the size of a walnut these ‘Prayer nuts’ are delicately carved biblical scenes in boxwood. Made in the Netherlands in the first half of the 16th Century. On display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 🇳🇱 #FindsFriday #museum #woodcarving #Amsterdam #Rijksmuseum

It's Halloween-een so let me tell you a real life ghost story from my research. It concerns this guy, William Windover, successful merchant from Salisbury in England, and owner of one of the most impressive desk tidies in all of art history.

“…Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific-and all his men Look’d at each other with a wild surmise- Silent, on a peak in Darien.” On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer Keats born #OTD 1795

John Evelyn, English diarist & gardener, author of Sylva, influential book on forestry; founder member of Royal Society, born #OTD 1620. Portrait by Godfrey Kneller 1687, Royal Society London

The avenue at Middelharnis, painted in 1689 by Meindert Hobbema, Dutch landscape artist, baptised #OTD 1638; pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael, influenced Constable and Crome. National Gallery London

Admired by Proust, View of Delft painted c. 1660, by Johannes Vermeer, showing illuminated spire of the Nieuwe Kirk where the artist was baptised #OTD 1632. Mauritshuis, The Hague

Presentation of Jesus, oil on wood panel 1516, by Fra Bartolommeo, Italian Renaissance artist & Dominican friar, died #OTD 1517; friend of Raphael, known for distinctive purity of line & harmonious composition. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

This #FragmentFriday is found in De Thiende (1585), a groundbreaking #mathematical book by Simon Stevin, introducing the decimal separator (now , or . ) for fractions. It has a 19th century library binding, but retains the medieval parchment wrappers it was originally bound in. 📚💙 📜

Tregeseal barrow (looking in both directions). William Copeland Borlase found a wonderful urn here, now in the British Museum. The passage grave is on farmland not far from Tregeseal stone circle. I've been wanting to visit this for so long and finally have! #TombTuesday

This is such a Victorian thing. Combination streetlight and toilet ventilation. It is the 21st century so of course the toilet is locked. Outside the law courts.

Levitation on broomsticks in the margin: an early representation #Halloween BnF MS Français 12476; Le Champion des Dames, Martin le Franc prevost de l'église de Lausane; 1440 CE; f.105v @gallicabnf.bsky.social

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...