Spotlight
Painting by Hans Memling: Madonna with Child, 1487
Beautiful Portraits
Flemish painter Hans Memling (1430 - 1494) is famous for his portraits. Commissioned by religious and secular patrons he tirelessly paints beautiful pictures in which his customers are depicted to their satisfaction.
To his distress he is commissioned by the count of Flanders to join him in war in order to preserve for posterity his exploits on the battlefield. A cold and wet affair. Not in the line of townsman Memling who rathers works in a nicely heated room. Fortunately it turns out to be of short duration: no victories are forthcoming and the count is killed. He can return home to more lucrative and more enjoyable assignments.
Although averse to cold he starts each day with a dip into the water. In Bruges with its abundance of canals that means to him a dip into his backyard. Visitors from England are amazed by the cleanness of the city's water. In London swimming in the Thames is not to be recommended because of the pollution.
Memling comes into contact with quite a few English who - for political reasons - travel up and down between France, Flanders and England.
Beautiful picture of the painter's life by English writer Terence Morgan in the fine novel 'The Master of Bruges'.
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The Semper Augustus.The grand deception
“Good grace, a Semper August bulb – those are the most beautiful and the most valuable – last week, a single bulb was sold for six magnificent horses, three hogsheads of wine, a dozen sheep, two dozens of silver wine decanters and a sea panting of Esaias van de Velde!”With a voice shrill from excitement, the merchant from the novel Tulip Fever describes this remarkable transaction.
In 1636, the Netherlands were under the spell of the tulip trade.
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Cover of the book 'The Blood Doctor' by Barbara Vine.Ancestors from Switzerland
Lord Martin Nanther is a member of the British House of Lords during the years in which it debates its own existence. He very much enjoys all the rituals and traditions that the house adheres to, but also understands that the inherited right to become a member is utterly old fashioned. So he wistfully votes for abolition.Aside from his allowance as a Lord, he earns a living by writing books. His latest topic is his great-grandfather to whom he owes his seat in the House of Lords.
The first Lord Nanther ( 1836-1909) was ennobled by Queen Victoria in appreciation of his skilful treatment of her children for hemophilia.
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In Dutch / In het Nederlands
Bezoek www.historische-romans.nl voor een overzicht van Nederlandse romans.
Highest rating
Star ChildrenClara Asscher-Pinkhof, 1946
The Cloister and the Hearth
Charles Reade, 1861
Lust for Life
Irving Stone, 1934
The Cocaine Salesman
Conny Braam, 2009
The Man Who Found the Missing Link
Pat Shipman, 2001
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