Tag Archives: Giovanni Boccaccio

estrangement abroad to reunion at home

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Dave

La forza di natura, the force of nature will always prevail. Comedy is always the triumph of instinct over intellect. By whatever name, instinct is not only a will to live, but to produce life; comedy is essentially erotic… And … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged Boccaccio Decameron, Catullus poems, Charles Darwin, Giovanni Boccaccio, Homer The Iliad, Homer The Odyssey, Jan van Noordt, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Sigmund Freud Comedy, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, The Beatles Two of Us | Leave a comment

“give me life”

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Dave

Living for what is livelier in the flesh. Saint Thomas Aquinas’s law of the Church: suppress all sensual feelings by force of reason. It is the antithesis of comedy which is the triumph of la forza di natura, the force … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged Ambrose Bierce The Devoted Widow, Boccaccio Decameron, Fellini Satyricon, Gaius Petronius, Giovanni Boccaccio, Jean de la Fontaine, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Petronius Satyricon, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Widow of Ephesus | Leave a comment

essence of comedy: the geese

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Dave

The essence of comedy is the triumph of nature over intellect; where hedonism replaces heroism, and the thirst for glory is seen as the repair of the fool. The tragic hero dies for what is nobler in the mind, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged Boccaccio Decameron, Dante Alighieri, Dante Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio, Homer The Iliad, Homer The Odyssey, John Everett Millais, John William Waterhouse, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Sandro Botticelli | Leave a comment

precarious papyrus: written proofticus

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Dave

Outliving storm, fire, savagery and greed. Books have had a hard time of it.They are found. They are lost. They are stolen and sold. Absurdly then, the greatest hazard to which books have had to pass has been the barrier … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged A.S. Hunt, bernard p. grenfell, Cassiodorus, codex sinaiticus, Codex Sinaiticus project, codex vaticanus, Giovanni Boccaccio, John Rylands Library Papyrus, Konstantin von Tischendorf, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Monte Cassino Monastery, Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine monastery Mount Sinai, Symmachus, The Septuagint | Leave a comment

people of the book

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Dave

Stupidity; censorship; changes in format and changes in taste; war; and of course the inevitable accidents, especially flood and fire. Such are the hazards to the frail life of books. Ultimately, there is power in an ancient book both as … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word | Tagged Apuleius The Golden Ass, Apuleius The Metamorphoses, Bodleian Library Oxford, Claudius and Nero, David Browning CBS, Giovanni Boccaccio, Histories of Tacitus, Laurentian Library Florence, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Monte Cassino Monastery, Morley Safer 60 minutes, Niccolo Niccoli, Tacitus The Annals, Ulrich Richental, Vatican Library | Leave a comment

black plague & neurotic gloom: no belief no deny

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Dave

Skepticism and timorous uncertainty marked the second half of the fourteenth century.The generation that survived the plague could not believe, but did not dare deny. It groped toward the future, with one nervous eye always peering over its shoulder toward … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word, Miscellaneous | Tagged Daniel Defoe, E.L. Skip Knox, Giovanni Boccaccio, Hans Holbein the younger, Jean Froissart, Jean Froissart Chronicles, John Wycliffe, Melissa Snell, Pieter Bruegel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Sick House movie, Wat Tyler Uprising | Leave a comment

the black plague: groaning in sympathy

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Dave

The Black Death came out of Central Asia killing one third of the European population. And among the survivors a new skepticism arose about life and God and human authority. Most fourteenth-century people regarded their doctor with tolerance and respect … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word, Miscellaneous | Tagged Duc de Berry, E.L. Skip Knox, Giovanni Boccaccio, Hans Holbein, Holbein, Jean Duc de Berry, Josse Lieferinxe, Limbourg Brothers, Skip Knox, Tres Riches Heures, William Langer | Leave a comment

“bring out your dead”

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Dave

In 1346 a Tartar army picked a quarrel with Genoese merchants who traded in the Crimea, chased them into their coastal redoubt at Feodosiya, and laid siege to the town. The usual campaign of attrition was developing when the plans … Continue reading →