News & Notes
San Marco news, hot off the presses.
June 15th—Festa di San Vio (St Vitus, as in Dance).
On this day, or rather night, 700 years ago in dim and distant 1310, an attempted coup against the Republic was foiled by a combination of treachery, lack of mobile phones, bad weather and a well-aimed mortar (with which an ancient markswoman, Giustina Rossi, felled...
June 11th — Feast of San Barnaba
In the later days of the Republic, impoverished nobles were (modestly) lodged at the public expense in this parish, and were known consequently as 'barnabotti'. "Too proud to work - and lose their patent of nobility - too stupid to play any part in the Government,...
Oxford Poetry Chair
I know you will all have been waiting for an official San Marco pronouncement on the Oxford Poetry Chair. The thing about this piece of furniture is that it needs to be occupied by some pretty weighty buttocks, which being so, Geoffrey Hill was as things turned out...
Lucy Being Serious (for once)
It's a sad truth to enunciate in these liberated times, but the fact is that even, perhaps especially, educated chaps are liable to think of a blonde as a couple of protuberancies in a t-shirt, or out of one, if they are hot (I use the word advisedly) from Damiano...
Renaissance Society of America jamboree
A good week since April Fool's Day, so no leg-pulling here. 2,500 polite and quietly dressed academics in town for a Renaissance Society of America jamboree, lectures and round tables in every hall and hostelry. Now a nicely-spoken tenured Renaissance Man could be...
March 25th—Feast of the Annunciation
Lady Day, but, more importantly, the traditional day on which Venice was founded, in 421, at midday, supposedly a Friday, as this year. Here is Horatio Brown apropos: 'The Venetian official account always assigned the 25th March 421 as the day on which Venice was...
Centri Commerciali
Went out Saturday with SMP paladins Chris Wayman and John Francis Phillimore to do the Centri Commerciali (shopping centres). Our motive: a bulky order for Isole Abbandonate/Abandoned Islands from Feltronelli, the retail-editorial giant founded in 1954 by Giangiacomo...
February 2nd—Candlemas / Festa della Purificazione.
In Roman Catholic churches, all the candles which will be needed during the coming year are consecrated. In 492 St. Gelasius changed the Roman Pagan festival the Lupercalia to The Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. The origin of the Festa delle Marie. At...
Michael Glover reading.
On 14th December 2008, 18.30 at St Paul's Church, Clapham SW4, MICHAEL GLOVER will give a reading in memory of Honor Dupre. Free admission, refreshments after the event.
Michael Glover at the Circolo.
Michael Glover will speaking at the Circolo Ital-Britannico at Palazzo Papafava, which is the University of Warwick in Venice, in Calle de le Rachete. The talk will start at 18.00 hours, a glass of prosecco will offered after the event. Free admission.
