Beethoven and Haydn

Beethoven and Haydn

The On This Day website tells me that on the twelfth of December 1792, Beethoven had his first lesson in composition from Haydn. I’ve posted about being interviewed at the Dartmouth Book Festival by John Suchet. I doubt that anyone knows more about Beethoven than...

read more
Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The 10th of December holds a special place in the calendar of global achievements—it marks the day the Nobel Prizes are awarded each year. This tradition began in 1901 and commemorates the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and philanthropist who established...

read more
The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade was published on 9th December 1854 in The Examiner, a weekly intellectual journal. The military action had taken place on 25th October of the same year against the Russian army at the Battle Balaclava during the Crimean...

read more
Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX

On 8th December 1854 Pope Pius IX formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, stating that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) was the longest-serving pope in history, reigning from 1846 to 1878. His papacy is one...

read more
Cicero

Cicero

The assassination of Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest orators, statesmen, and philosophers, occurred on 7th December 43 BCE, during the turbulent period of the Roman Republic’s fall. I mentioned Cicero in my post about Petrarch whose study of Cicero’s...

read more
Philosophy – A Journey

Philosophy – A Journey

Thomas Aquinas’s divine vision refers to a mystical experience he reportedly had near the end of his life, which profoundly influenced his perspective on his theological work. This event occurred on 6th December 1273, while he was celebrating Mass in a chapel. During...

read more
Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance

Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance

I have written about Renaissance writers, artists, musicians, and scientists. But how did the Renaissance come about?  Francis Petrarch, often called the “Father of Humanism,” played a pivotal role in laying the intellectual and cultural groundwork for the...

read more
Breakspear

Breakspear

At time of writing there have been seven popes during my lifetime. The only other pope that I know much about was Pope Paul V, because he features in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But there was an English Pope and his relatives...

read more
Beethoven and Haydn

Beethoven and Haydn

The On This Day website tells me that on the twelfth of December 1792, Beethoven had his first lesson in composition from Haydn. I’ve posted about being interviewed at the Dartmouth Book Festival by John Suchet. I doubt that anyone knows more about Beethoven than...

read more
Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The 10th of December holds a special place in the calendar of global achievements—it marks the day the Nobel Prizes are awarded each year. This tradition began in 1901 and commemorates the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and philanthropist who established...

read more
The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade was published on 9th December 1854 in The Examiner, a weekly intellectual journal. The military action had taken place on 25th October of the same year against the Russian army at the Battle Balaclava during the Crimean...

read more
Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX

On 8th December 1854 Pope Pius IX formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, stating that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) was the longest-serving pope in history, reigning from 1846 to 1878. His papacy is one...

read more
Cicero

Cicero

The assassination of Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest orators, statesmen, and philosophers, occurred on 7th December 43 BCE, during the turbulent period of the Roman Republic’s fall. I mentioned Cicero in my post about Petrarch whose study of Cicero’s...

read more
Philosophy – A Journey

Philosophy – A Journey

Thomas Aquinas’s divine vision refers to a mystical experience he reportedly had near the end of his life, which profoundly influenced his perspective on his theological work. This event occurred on 6th December 1273, while he was celebrating Mass in a chapel. During...

read more
Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance

Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance

I have written about Renaissance writers, artists, musicians, and scientists. But how did the Renaissance come about?  Francis Petrarch, often called the “Father of Humanism,” played a pivotal role in laying the intellectual and cultural groundwork for the...

read more
Breakspear

Breakspear

At time of writing there have been seven popes during my lifetime. The only other pope that I know much about was Pope Paul V, because he features in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But there was an English Pope and his relatives...

read more