17th and 18th century Philippine printing is remarkable in its breadth, depth, linguistic interest and variety of visual effect - all the richness of the Spanish tradition but in a wildly multilingual environment and enhanced by the contributions of local typesetters & printers.
This is Juan Francisco de San Antonio's "Chronicas de la Apostolica Provincia de S. Gregorio", 3 volumes printed in red & black in Manilla, 1738-1744. The plate, actually engraved in Manila, shows the martyrdom of San Pedro Bautista along with his 22 companions in Japan in 1597.
The Chronicas, besides being a fine example of Philippine printing - described by Medina as "sobresaliente" - is an invaluable source of information. The 3 volumes provide a comprehensive history of the Spanish Franciscan Missions in the Philippines from their arrival until 1741.
Vol. I gives a full history of the Philippine Archipelago, including its conquest by Spain, early exploration, and its native peoples; as well as a description of the archipelago and its coastline which was so detailed & accurate that mariners were able to use it for navigation.
The 3rd vol is devoted entirely to the Spanish missions in Japan, and is illustrated with the magnificent engraved plate showing the martyrdom in 1597 of the Franciscan missionary San Pedro Bautista, who was crucified at Nagasaki along with 22 Franciscan companions and 3 Jesuits.
Juan Francisco de San Antonio was a Franciscan priest, born in Madrid in 1682. He went to the Philippines in 1724 where he served as reader of theology and secretary of the Province; he spent most of the rest of his life living amongst the local people. He died in Manila in 1744.
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Today, August 2, Roma people around the world commemorate the genocide of the Roma with Samudaripen memorial day. It marks both the specific moment in 1944 when the Nazis murdered around 3,000 Roma at Auschwitz, and the wider Roma genocide during the Second World War. 1/
The number of Roma killed during the Samudaripen is still unclear - the US Holocaust Memorial Museum puts the figure of Roma dead at between a quarter of million and a half a million people. 2/
However, the advocacy group the International Romani Union believes that as a result of this genocide, approximately 2 million Roma were killed, which was about two-thirds of the total Roma population in Europe at the time. 3/
One of the masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art, the 'Seated Scribe' was discovered by the French archeologist Auguste Mariette at the Saqqara necropolis just south of Cairo in 1850, and dates to the period of the Old Kingdom, around 2500 BCE. It's now in the collections of @MuseeLouvre.
The eyes are especially amazing. I'll explain why. 🧵
The eyes of the scribe are sculpted from red-veined white magnesite, inlaid with pieces of polished rock crystal. The inner side of the crystal was painted with resin which gives a piercing blue colour to the iris and also holds them in place. 2/
Two copper clips hold each eye securely in place. The eyebrows are marked with fine lines of dark paint. The scribe stares calmly out to the viewer as though he is waiting for them to start speaking. 3/
This is the Rongorongo script of Easter Island. Rongorongo lacks an accepted decipherment but is generally presumed to encode an earlier stage of Rapa Nui, the contemporary Polynesian language of the island. It is possible that it represents an independent invention of writing. 1/
Hundreds of tablets written in Rongorongo existed as late as 1864 but most were lost or destroyed in that period and only 26 of undoubted authenticity remain today; almost all inscribed on wood. Each text has between two and over two thousand glyphs (some have what appear to be compound glyphs). 2/
The longest surviving text is that on the ‘Santiago Staff’: around 2,500 glyphs, depending upon how the characters are divided. The glyph-types are a mixture of geometric figures and standardized representations of living organisms; each glyph is around one centimetre in height. 3/
Oy. Forget about being a "rabbi", if you had even a kindergarten level knowledge of Hebrew (or Judaism for that matter) you'd know that this is not old, not Jewish, not an amulet, and nothing to do with kabbalah (which you grotesquely mischaracterize). It's a crude mishmash of… https://t.co/3IJjWrqnIp https://t.co/U7OBn124MNtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
When looking at any purportedly ancient Jewish manuscript, bear in mind: 1. Jewish manuscripts are generally austerely plain and written in black ink only. Red ink is seen occasionally as a highlight color in for example Yemenite manuscripts, but gold ink is essentially never… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Oi u luzi chervona kalyna - Oh, the Red Guelder Rose in the Meadow - is the anthem of 🇺🇦 Ukrainian resistance to Russian oppression.
Written in 1875, it was adapted by Stepan Charnetsky in 1914 to honor the Sich Riflemen of the First World War. 1/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The red guelder rose or viburnum of the song ('kalyna' in Ukrainian) - a shrub that grows four to five metres tall - is referenced throughout Ukrainian folklore. It is depicted in silhouette along the edges of the flag of the President of Ukraine. 2/
Due to the song's association with the Ukrainian people's aspiration for independence, singing of the song was banned during the period in which Ukraine was a Soviet Republic(1919-1991). Anyone caught singing it was jailed, beaten, and even exiled. 3/
Bought this this morning at our regular Sunday market in Bon-Encontre.
This bread is called a 'tortillon', and has been made since the late 17th century ONLY in this one tiny village just outside Agen in the Lot-et-Garonne, ONLY on Sundays and holidays in the month of May.
The tortillon celebrates the feast days of Notre-Dame de Bon-Encontre in May.
The flour is blanched and then boiled in hot water, before being baked in a wood oven. It's traditionally eaten with sausages and white wine. 2/
The idea that there's an entirely unique type of bread that exists exclusively in one tiny French village for 5 or 6 days of the year only - and that this has been the unchanged situation for over 300 years - is exactly the kind of thing that makes me love living in France. 3/