If access to the sea determined the future of Pisa as a race of sailors and adventurers, Siena’s location in the arid mountains was equally significant. Despite the great beauty of the landscape, the fact is that Siena lacked water and was subject to serious droughts. This limited not only the potential size of the city but also its industrial development: The wool trade became a great business in F
When asked to name the writer who best described daily life in the United States, my father invariably answered, “Chekhov.”
If we can trust a recent Rasmussen poll, nearly half the eligible voters in the United States believe the republic established by the mythical founding fathers has crumbled. Predictably, Republicans are more inclined to this gloomy opinion than Democrats, and perhaps surprisingly, women more than men.
In this podcast we introduce Petrarch, speak briefly about his life and work, and proceed to discuss his recommendations on how to lead a private life.
Seeing an opportunity in the Pisan disaster, Florence and its Guelf allies struck, but after the fall of Ugolino, Pisan patriotism revived, and–short of men–in 1292 they secured a famous condottiere, Guido da Montefeltro, who trained the Pisan militia to use crossbows and recovered the city’s lost fortresses from both Lucca and Florence.
Strictly speaking, I should’ve stayed home last Saturday, passing time in meditation and prayer, but then how would we have celebrated on Sunday? We had fasted for nearly two months before Easter, and visions of sausage spirals borne aloft by sugar plum fairies swirled in our heads, along with whole cheeses cleaved in twain by Giulio’s expert hand and laid out amid platters of iridescent prosciutto and bowls of painted eggs. No, this was to be a day of action.
I was hoping last year’s movie “Oppenheimer” would make people more aware of the perils of Armageddon. It didn’t. We’re still closer to nuclear war than ever since the first A-bomb was exploded 79 years ago at Alamogordo.
Suppose, per impossibile, we were to carry out an even more thoroughgoing plan of reform. You can fill in any impossible details and requirements that suits your fancy. Even if we were to gain the whole world, we would still be left with a population of some 300 million clueless lost souls, without any skill or knowledge that is not technical, with churches that are the enemy of Christ, with a commercial culture that is more morally degrading than heroin and methamphetamines.
Machiavelli’s fourth chapter is devoted, at least ostensibly, to answering the question: Why did the Persians not rebel, after the death of Alexander the Great? The republican Machiavelli has a reasonable answer, but one that should be chilling to any American who can think dispassionately about his own country.
I cannot think of any English diminutives for Paul, but one of the Russian ones is Pavlik, functionally equivalent to Paolino in Italy. Saying “Paolino” to an Italian, however, will draw a blank, and it is vain to expect a response along the lines of “Ah, yes, of course, Fra Paolino da Pistoia, Dominican friar and Renaissance painter!” or something yet more recherché. But to any Russian alive today, “Pavlik” can only ever refer to one historical personage.
Most of our readers are familiar with Josh Doggrell, who has written several pieces for this website. He is among the last of a dying breed, the two-fisted Southern Christian who concedes nothing to the trends that are destroying the nation. Josh has written a book, which has been published by Shotwell Press.
