Posts made in December, 2008

Revisions and Flames

Posted by elizabeth on Dec 26, 2008 in History, Writing | 1 comment

“You write,” notes editor, publisher and author Arthur Plotnik, “to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

Let the fire show through the smoke. That’s it, exactly. That’s what I’m doing right now. Barbara and Alfonso and all my other characters have fire burning inside. I have fire burning inside. Now what I have to do is clear away the smoke and let the fire show through.

Alfonso’s historical device was a flame with the motto Ardet Aeternum—“Burning Forever.” Could anything be more appropriate?

A Renaissance Christmas

Posted by elizabeth on Dec 25, 2008 in History | Comments Off

The Boston Camarata is a wonderful ensemble based in (of course) Boston and dedicated to preserving and performing European and American music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras. Here, from their breathtaking CD entitled A Renaissance Christmas, is a tiny taste of what people in the Renaissance might have listened to at one of their Christmas festivities:

Nouvelles, Nouvelles

Nouvelles. News. Tidings. “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

Good tidings and great joy to everyone on Christmas Day.

Historical Adventures

Posted by elizabeth on Dec 24, 2008 in History, Writing | 1 comment

From the Associated Press:

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) – A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt’s top archaeologist said Monday. The rock-cut tombs were built for high officials – one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and another for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.

A woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharoahs, 4,300 years ago! Wouldn’t you love to know more about her? How did she become the, er, procuress? What kind of entertainers? How did she become a “high official” and how did she die? It’s almost enough to make me abandon sixteenth-century Ferrara and dive into ancient Egypt. (Almost, but not quite. I have new work to do on The Second Duchess, and I’m excited about it.)

So much fabulous history, so little time.

Christmas Music

Posted by elizabeth on Dec 23, 2008 in Music | Comments Off

I love Pandora. Right now as I work I’m listening to a shuffle of “Classical Christmas,” “Peaceful Holidays,” “Folk Holidays,” and my own Christmas channel.

I love Christmas carols, from the Renaissance-y ones like The Holly and the Ivy, I Saw Three Ships, and Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella to the traditional favorites I sang in a dozen childhood Christmas pageants. It’s amazing how the music brings back the words—a little while ago I found myself singing (lustily) all five verses of We Three Kings without missing a word. Shades of Proust and his madeleine!

Winter Stars

Posted by elizabeth on Dec 22, 2008 in Stargazing | Comments Off

One of my lifelong avocations is stargazing—not in a serious astronomical sense, but just to see the pictures in the sky and learn their fascinating historical lore (I’m always a sucker for historical lore). This week’s constellation is Auriga, the Charioteer or Wainman. At the left we see him as he appeared in Urania’s Mirror, a set of hand-painted cards published in London around 1825. (The scan is courtesy Ian Ridpath.) The constellation was first described in ancient times along the Euphrates River, in much the same form as we imagine it today.

Auriga appears in the sky as a pentagon shape, which represents the Charioteer himself. Alpha Aurigae, or Capella, is a first-magnitude (very bright) white star representing a she-goat the Charioteer is carrying in the crook of his left arm, and the three smaller stars forming a long triangular shape beneath Capella are the she-goat’s kids.

Why is a Charioteer carring a goat and her kids? There’s no one explanation. Some say that the unusual formation of bright Capella with her three kids beside her came first, and the Charioteer was later imagined around them. In any case, if you look directly overhead around midnight on a winter evening (if you are in the US—in other parts of the world the positions of the constellations will vary) it will be easy to pick out bright Capella and her triangular cluster of three kids, and consider the fact that you are seeing the same stars the Babylonians saw, and the same picture they imagined.