"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."
Sisygambis was the daughter of king Artaxerxes II Mnemon and, following an ancient Achaemenid tradition, she was made to wed her own brother Arsames. Her first-born, Darius, became king of Persia in 336 b.C., following an obscure plot in which the court eunuch and chiliarch had...
Mariamne the Hasmonean Mariamne l'Hasmonéenne Mariamne I was a Hasmonean Princess, known for her extraordinary beauty just like her brother, Aristobulus III of Judea. She was the second wife of Herod the Great, a marriage arranged by her mother Alexandra in 41 b.C. They were married in Samaria...
Francesco Furini (born around 1600, died on August 19th, 1646) was a painter active in Florence during the Baroque period. He was brother to Alessandra, another renowned painter, and Angelica, a singer in the court of Cosimo II de' Medici. With his sensual, dark style, he...
Artemisia II of Caria Ἀρτεμισία Artemisia was a commander and naval strategist, sister and wife of Mausolus, ruler of Caria in the Achaemenid Empire. She ruled Caria for two years after his death, succeeding him as satrap, before some of the coastal cities and islands in the Achaemenid...
One of the most important French writers of the XVII Century was Madeleine de Scudéry, often simply known as Mademoiselle de Scudéry. She was a learned and accomplished woman, born on November, 15th 1607 at Le Havre, Normandy, from the Captain of the port. Both he...
I recently became the patron of an amazing bard I met on Instagram, Dawn Nelson a.k.a. DD storyteller, whose main gig is - in her own words - «connecting people with nature, history and the landscape that surrounds them, through storytelling». She's amazing. The website...
Qualche giorno fa, ho scritto un paio di considerazioni sulla parte 1 del Integrating HBIM Framework Report, un documento britannico sull'implementazione del BIM per la conservazione e l'intervento sul patrimonio storico, sviluppato nel 2016 dal Council on Training in Architectural Conservation (COTAC). La seconda parte...
Ogni lunedì un libro per iniziare la settimana. Ho recentemente parlato di questo libro all’appuntamento di BIM Arena, organizzato dalla Fondazione Architetti di Firenze, dedicato alla sostenibilità ambientale. Mi avete chiesto qualcosa di più e quindi eccolo qui. Il titolo del libro, che non potrebbe essere più...
My stay in Los Angeles was brief but fantastic. I had the privilege of being showed around by a local guide (and what a guide!) so that's the good news. The bad news is that I don't take lots of pictures when I'm around with...
On my second day in San Francisco (first day here) I realized something really important. The fog is almost always there, but not really always. That means that if you don't dress in layers you can die both of cold and sweat, pretty much at the...
