Category Archives: Italy

Rome In Three Days

Posted on 30/04/2019 by carolinemmurray

I am sitting in an apartment in Venice with a glorious view which encompasses the towers of San Stefano (looking worrisomely more lop-sided then usual), San Marco, San Francesco della Vigna, and even, in the most extreme distance, the three … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Botany, Classics, Gardens, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Coliseum, Galleria Borghese, Palatine Hill, Rome, St Peter's, traffic | 2 Comments

A Life in Footnotes

Posted on 15/04/2019 by carolinemmurray

I mentioned some time ago that I was going to investigate (at my usual superficial level, naturally) the life and career of the physician Francesco Travagino (sometimes Travagini), who appears to have taken advantage of a space on somebody else’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, History, Italy, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Federico Gualdi, Francesco Travagino, Henry Oldenburg, hermetic knowledge, Ragusa earthquake, Royal Society | 2 Comments

Ruskin at Two Hundred

Posted on 05/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

To London last week for a few days of Culture. I decided to go down the night before my first assignation, rather than turn up at Two Temple Place (which does not have cloakroom facilities) with two stuffed gorillas and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Botany, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged architecture, botanical drawing, Charles Fairfax Murray, George Allen, H.R. Newman, J.M.W. Turner, John Bunney, John Ruskin, Octavia Hill, Old Master copies, Ruskin at Walkley, Samuel Prout, Two Temple Place, Venice | 4 Comments

Woman’s Work

Posted on 10/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

… (a) is never done, proverbially, and (b) consists of cooking, cleaning and home-making (oh, and child-bearing), traditionally. Therefore it is always interesting, and sometimes quite astonishing, to come across a historical figure who worked in a role which, according … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged Anna Morandi Manzolini, Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Laura Bassi, university of Bologna, university of Padua, women scientists, women's education | 1 Comment

A Bizarre Story

Posted on 30/11/2018 by carolinemmurray

Thompson Cooper (1837–1904) was the son of Charles Henry Cooper (1808–66), the distinguished Town Clerk of Cambridge, whose historical and biographical works on the city are still a major source of information. From 1842 to 1853 he published four volumes … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Cambridge, History, Italy, Literature, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged Bernardino Ochino, C.H. Cooper, Elizabethan spies, ODNB, Pietro Bizzarri, Sir Leslie Stephen, Thompson Cooper, William Cecil | Leave a comment

The Scots Welshman

Posted on 07/11/2018 by carolinemmurray

… or possible the Welsh Scot? John Pryse Campbell, first Baron Cawdor of Castlemartin (1755–1821) was a member of the famous Scots clan, but two marriages in different generations to the daughters of Welsh landowners had brought their huge estates … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Biography, Classics, Gardens, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries | Leave a comment

I Blame Walter Pater

Posted on 03/11/2018 by carolinemmurray

‘She is older than the rocks among which she sits’ is one of those much repeated quotes which really needs a bit of context. Pater’s full paragraph on the subject of the Mona Lisa is positively rococo in its ramblings, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Andrea Mantegna, Louvre, Napoleon, paintings, Virgin and Child | 12 Comments

Printing R-Evolution

Posted on 17/09/2018 by carolinemmurray

I have been reading Julian Barnes’s Keeping An Eye Open, in which he remarks (p. 166) that ‘normal ocular fatigue sets in after about ninety minutes’. This is a huge relief, as I had always thought it was just me, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Classics, History, Italy, Literature, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged 15CBOOKTRADE, Correr Museum, incunabula, printing, publishing, Venice | 1 Comment

Am I, Personally, Responsible for the Death of Venice?

Posted on 14/09/2018 by carolinemmurray

There we were, on a surprisingly (well, we were surprised) misty morning, sitting on our balcony, from which you can usually see the campanile of San Marco (now in the mist), eating our breakfast pastries, when the Guardian intruded with … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged MOSE project, property prices, sustainability, Tintoretto, tourism, Venice | 2 Comments

Enter by the Founder’s

Posted on 26/08/2018 by carolinemmurray

… and exit by the gift shop. You can of course, alternatively, enter via the Courtyard, which takes you through/past the gift shop first, on your way to the café. Cambridge friends will realise that I am taking about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Cambridge, Classics, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries | Tagged architecture, C.R. Cockerell, Cambridge, Dr Victoria Avery, Fitzwilliam Museum, George Basevi, museums, portrait busts | 4 Comments