Tag: Venice
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An almost unknown painter
The paintings of Gabriel Bella are well-known and often used, but very little is known about Gabriel Bella.
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Beheading bulls
During carnival, on Fat Thursday, the Venetians executed a bull in front of the Doge’s Palace. It was beheaded by sword.
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Episode 24 — Festa delle Marie
A tale of pirates, maidens, box-makers, oranges, and ancient promises being kept for centuries, but others not so much.
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Miracle cure or snake oil?
When the English gentleman John Evelyn left Venice in 1646, after almost a year in Venice and Padua, he had more stuff than when he had arrived.
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Episode 23 — Venice treacle — the cure-all remedy
Venice produced and exported Theriac, an ancient wonder medicine for just about every ailment imaginable. It was a flourishing business for centuries, and an important part of the Venetian economy.
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Thomas Philologus Ravennas
The statue on the façade of the San Zulian church is not of a saint. It is of a physician who got rich selling remedies for syphilis.
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Episode 21 — The Plague Doctor
The well-known image of the plague doctor with the beaked mask doesn’t really have a lot of support in our sources. Did he even exist?
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Episode 20 — Venice and the plague – part 4
The plague slowly diminished during the 1700s, even if it didn’t disappear, and Venice reorganised the Lazzaretti.