Napoleon- the 2023 movie by R.Scott - 2 reviews in English & Polish etc

 Salvete Omnes,

today a little about the new Napoleon-themed film production directed by Ridley Scott.
so we waited for this latest attempt at the famous French Corsican who waged war, was a law giver and modernized the world around him.
For us, Polish people around the world, Napoleon also may represent our forlorn hope of restoring the Polish statehood - paradoxically this hope was realized by his enemy, tsar Alexander of Russia, who in fact created the Polish state, the so called Congress Kingdom of Poland, and crowned himself as our king  in 1815, in spite of the resistance from our friends -  Great Britain, Prussia and Austrian Empire. 

Ad rem, Mr. Scott directed a feature film, supposedly based on Napoleon's life and times, bu this motion picture is a real biopic? 

So I offer you two reviews for your pleasure:
First review is in English - from HistoryLegends of Yt channel of the same name. Among many things,  the author, History Legends, analyzes the historic battles, from Toulon to Waterloo,  allegedly 'portrayed' in  his feature film.

The second one is the more scholarly review, via interview, by prof. Dariusz Nawrot of Silesian University,  a Polish professional historian and Napoleonic period reencator, author of many scholarly articles and books, done for the Polish National Radio. You can translate the review via Google translate, which does quite decent translating job from English to Polish. 

Like historians Helena Schrader et al in their learned opinions about the other film by Mr. Scott,  Kingdom of Heaven via Real Crusade History-YT (part 1-one & 2-two on R C H  channel ) ,  here prof. Nawrot is critical and precise in his review.

so could a horse laugh here - it does seem so... 
ps, 

now, if you wanna see & read an interesting take on the Napoleonic wars you could obtain a French comic novel - The Battle (eg from Amazon) which is a story drawn by Spanish artist Gill after being adapted from a novel by Rambaud.

Napoleonic soldier and author of this painting, the battle of Pyramids, Louis-Francois Lejeune is the protagonist of the mentioned French comics 

enjoy

Valete

Caravan travel - J.S. Buckingham - circa 1816

 Salvete Omnes,

with the post today I would like to bring to your attention the writings of James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) who in the 1810s made a longish, because it was divided into longer and shorter side trips and excursions, journey starting by ship from Cairo, Egypt, arriving in Ottoman Palestine and then across Western Asia on horseback to Calcutta et al., in British-occupied India. 

Master James was a polyglot, fine horseman and  brave man, curious about the country and people, and for our purpose also a prolific & willing  writer, and thus he wrote numerous pages about his long and adventurous journey across the Western Asia, and had them published in many volumes (all available on Archive world library). So the volume these excerpts come from it titled Travels in Mesopotamia et al, in two volumes, published in 1827. 

I decided to bring you, fellow net traveler, to this book first as it contains interesting fragments about the timeless caravan journey across the land we all know as the Fertile Crescent or Mesopotamia. 
In the Spring of 1816 our 'Traveller' (original spelling in the book) was in Aleppo, then part of Ottoman Syria, having traveled across Palestine and  visited the Arab Bedouin tribes of the Syrian desert,  when he decided to join a  caravan from Aleppo going southerly to Mosul on the Tigris River  in Ottoman Iraq and further down into the Persian realms. In that Spring there was but one 'small' caravan going there, as the big annual caravan was scheduled to leave in September of that year. 

So our 'Traveller' was introduced to a merchant from Mosul one Hadjee Abd-el-Rakham, freshly in Aleppo from a pilgrimage cum trading to Mecca. Master Hadjee admitted our James into his party, on one condition that 'he should conform himself, in very respect, to Hadhee's advice and direction, and to take no servant,' just one horse and necessities: like money, arms, personal  native costume & other needful things - see below:

James had to pay a sum certain to the chief camel-driver of the Hadjee's party, 'who would put his small portion of baggage among the merchandize of his master, to be free from examination and prying curiosity.' So James had only his horse and arms to look after himself. 

fountain near Aleppo 

On the morning of May 28th the caravan camp moved away on their journey across Ottoman lands from Syria to Iraq, with Mount Taurus range visible on their left, to the north-west. According to James -  'perhaps  of four hundred camels, which was thought rather a small caravan: the asses, mules, and horses that accompanied it, might amount to another hundred; the whole number of persons, including men, women, and children, were about three hundred at least.'
In this passage James explained why he joined the caravan mode of travel across the Ottoman country, instead of going individually.

Ten to fifteen miles per day, 4-6 hours a day or so, two miles per hour speed must have been difficult, but Mr Buckingham went on explaining his mode of coping with the slowness, - 

and in such manner they went on day after day, allowing James Buckingham to observe, take notesand have adventures along the way.

to be continued ..

Valete

Edward Ed Borein - American master

 Salvete Omnes,

a short entry on this Sunday evening - 

I would like to point your horses towards this book on Archive -  Edward Borein, cowboy artist; the life and works of John Edward Borein, 1872-1945 by Harold G. Davidson, The book is a fine biography and visual presentation of some of the magnificent work of Edward Ed Borein (1872-1945) had created during his life.

The same Archive has this video presentation - Santa Barbara Historical Museum, Ep. 26: Etched by the West, the Life and Art of Edward Borein.

Santa Barbara Museum has a gallery and biographical sketch about Ed Borein. 

sketches published in Ventura County Historical Society

Works by Ed Borein are subject of interest of many collectors, and are sought after  on the art collectors market eg this 'Scouting Party' - a   watercolor with gouache and pencil - sold by  Christie's auction house - 

enjoy

Valete

Happy Thanksgiving - wild turkey et al

 Salvete Omnes,

Happy and joyful Thanksgiving, may very evil stay away far and far and.

today is our much loved Thanksgiving  and we do eat turkeys in a family feast-like gathering; usually we enjoy one large bird  either baked, grilled, roasted and broiled or fried at al, with much cranberry sauce, gravy, and staffing, some mash potatoes (another  native American food ), and a pumpkin or pecan  pie to top off. enjoy your feast. 

 So let me share some old and new writings about the America's turkey as it is connected with the native people of the continent..

Indians of North America domesticated, in Central Mexico and Southwest, the wild turkey. Here there  is a link to Academia article on the Maya turkey husbandry. Upon the conquest of Mesoamerica the the Spanish conquistadors brought the turkey with them while sailing  back to their 'Old World' kingdoms,  hence all modern turkeys originate from those brought from Mexico.

Fast forward  to the 18770s colonel Richard I. Doge described wild turkey and its habits and hunting  in his book on the hunting in great West.

Valete

Charley Russell as illustrator - from The Uphill Climb

 Salvete Omnes,

as I have been saying over the years I am a fan of maestro Russell's brushes through and through (and inks and pencils etc).
I peruse the Archive World Library pretty often and with much 'mucho gusto.' 
So today a little entry about his plates from the book title The Uphill Climb- a western novel by a 'real westerner' Bertha Muzzy Sinclair aka B. M. Bower (one of the most prolific writers of the Old West ) published in 1918.

I have not read the book (I may listen to it, nota bene there is a large Librivox library of Ms Bower's novels) , I just enjoy the plates in their black and white (and their variety of  grays) glory - :) 

Russell's illustrations are full of authenticity and minute details representing the life of the cowboys and ranchers of the era. I wonder if the color paintings of these plates exist? 

Valete

Bog powiezyl mi honor Polakow, Bogu go tylko oddam - o ostatnich chwila polskiego Bayarda

 Salvete Omnes,

[in Polish]

w pazdzierniku, z okazji 210 rocznicy smierci wielkiego syna Polski, mialo miejsce spotkanie na Zamku Krolewskim w Warszawie pt „Jak naprawdę zginął książę Józef Poniatowski?" - debata.
Oto link ze strony polskiego radio z linkiem do nagrania ze spotkania na YT-   otoz jest to bardzo ciekawa prezentacja, pod katem badan medycznych i swiadkow-uczestnikow bitwy lipskiej,  owych chwil ostatnich wielkiego polskiego zolnierza i wodza armii Ksiestwa Warszawskiego ksiecia Jozefa Poniatowskiego (i juz wtedy marszalka Frencji, w czasie bitwy pod Lipskiem 19.X.1813.

 
Debatuja prof. Dariusz Nawrot, historyk i rekonstruktor epoki Ksiestwa Warszawskiego, i dr. Maria Turos, lekarz medycyny i rekonstruktor chirurgii et medycyny epoki napoleonskiej, a w ostatniej godzinie debaty mamy pytania i obserwacje od uczestnikow-widzow. 

Z pamietnika Bialkowskiego - o onym masztalerzu ksiecia i koniu, ktorym byl rumakiem ksiecia kiedy dosiegnal go Tanatos .

Nota bene wieczna chwala i honor dla oficera sztabowego Hipolita Beschamps'a, ktory wspomagal w czasie odwrotu rannego herosa i w ostatniej tragicznej chwili rowniez zginal od kul wrogow probujac ratowac smiertelnie rannego ksiecia.

Valete!

Page, esquire & knight - a little poetry from a chivalry book

 Salvete Omnes,

 

The Archive World Library has millions of book and materials -
I was browsing the topic of chivalry, and one of the books I encountered was this one - Page, Esquire and Knight - a book of chivalry.

 

inside the book, authored by Marion Florence Lansing and published by Ginn & Company  in 1910, there is the whole world of chivalric tales and stories, including this poem -

and original poem from XIV century French poet - Eustache Deschamps

and the troubadour

..

all illustrations are by Charles Copeland
valete