"Charlemagne", illumination from the manuscript "Les Grandes chroniques de France", ms. Royal 16 G VI, f. 165r, between 1332 and 1350, British Library, London. The illumination above portrays Charlemagne's visions of the Milky Way and…
On December 17, 1538, Pope Paul III proclaimed the excommunication of King Henry VIII of England. Henry's role in initiating the English Reformation is well-known, along with his many infamous remarriages that originally sparked the schism. Despite…
December 15, AD 37, Antium: the future Roman Emperor, Nero, was born. As the only son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, Nero was related to both Caligula and Augustus. After the death of…
"Juno", illumination from the manuscript "Ovide moralisé", ms. Fr. 176, f. 57r, 1380-1390, Bibliothèque de Genève, Geneva. The peacock came to see Juno, because he could not accept with equanimity the fact that the goddess had…
December 13 is Saint Lucy's Day, a Christian festivity of great popularity in Scandinavia, Italy, Hungary and Croatia. The feast day commemorates the 3rd-century martyr: according to legend, Lucy was a young Sicilian whose father had…
"Goat playing a violin", illumination from a Psalter, Harley 5102, f. 59r, first quarter of the 13th century, British Library, London. An inhabited gilded initial, a capital "D", with a blue goat playing a rebec or violin…
The Catholic Church celebrates today the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Not to be confused with the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception states that the Virgin Mary was conceived in…
December 7 is the feast day of Saint Ambrose, patron saint of Milan and one of the four original Doctors of the Church along with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great. Born in 340 near Augusta…