Italy

  • Caterina Volpicelli

    Caterina Volpicelli was born on January 21, 1839 in Naples to Peter and Teresa de Micheroux. As a member of the upper middle class, she received a solid humanistic and religious education, and Volpicelli had a love of the arts. She was very involved in society life, and was trying to out do her older sister, when she had an epiphany. She felt a calling for the religious life. One of her advisers from school, Blessed Ludovico da Casoria, helped her understand that she was called to live the evangelical counsels “remaining in the midst of society.” On da Casoria’s advice she joined the Third Order of the Franciscans in…

  • Surviving life in the Past- Eating utensils or why your fork is the gateway to Hell

    Our first eating utensils were our fingers- utilitarian and simple. However, as manners and class distinctions developed eating with our hands became more complex. By the 1500’s, it was socially desirable to use only the first three fingers. Only the lower classes used their whole hand. This is one of the origins of “pinkie up” as being high brow. Hands were cleaned with a napkin or finger bowls. Erasmus, the Dutch humanist, wrote one of the first modern book of manners, and instructed diners to never lick their fingers. Use a napkin or if that was unavailable the tablecloth. It was also frowned upon to blow one’s nose in the…

  • LEGEND or FOR REALSIES: Pope Joan

    Most legends have roots in fact. Was there a King Arthur? Yes. Was he the vaunted king of old with round tables and wizards and Holy Grails? No. Was there a Robin Hood? Yes. Was he really an altruistic vigilante fighting for the little guy? Probably not, and his name was most likely not “Robin of the Hood”. Jesus Christ…. Well that is a topic for another day. For now, let me weave you a tale. Sometime in 1099, an educated young daughter of a landowner falls in love with the third son of a nobleman. She is shamed for her near-spinster status (at the ripe old age of sixteen)…

  • Michelangelo and de’ Medici

    Born to a family of minor nobility in Florence, Italy in 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti became one of the world’s most famous artists. However, his path to artistic greatness was not smooth. His father sent him to study with an eminent Humanist, but Michelangelo copied the paintings on the walls of the church instead. At 13, he became an apprentice of painter Domenico Ghirlandiao. Unusual for the time, Ghirlandiao paid the Buonarroti family for the apprenticeship not the other way around. This had to be due to the burgeoning talent of young Michelangelo. When Lorenzo de’ Medici requested two of Ghirlandiao’s most promising students, Michelangelo was sent to study at the…

  • Death of Leonardo da Vinci

    Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of Mr Piero of Vinci) was born in Vinci on 15th April 1452. His father was Messer Piero Frousino di Antonio da Vinci, a wealthy notary and gentleman of the area. His mother was a local peasant girl, Caterina. For the first few years of his life, Leonardo lived with his mother in Anchiano, but at the age of five went to live with his father, uncle and grandparents. His father had recently married a 16 year old girl, Albeira who died a few years later. His father married again, this time to a 20 year old, Francesca Lanfredini, Leonardo was 16…