This essay presents some excerpts from the letters sent by Queen Maria Carolina to her daughter Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, and now kept at the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, with ...special reference to the comments on music and theatre performances held in Naples. The Queen's attitude towards theatrical life and practitioners reflects her inner feelings about the tragic events at the time of the Revolution and the first Restoration. Theatre serves as a metaphor, and a mirror to dramatic social changes (and even decadence).Keywords: Theatre, Music, 18th century, Archives, Letters.
Kult ličnosti vladara, veličanje monarhijske moći, uzdizanje istaknutih pojedinaca na herojski i božanski pijedestal socijalni su fenomeni prisutni kod razvijenih civilizacija još od davnih vremena. ...Rimski carski kult, religijsko-politička institucija utemeljena na identificiranju i štovanju cara kao božanstva te propagiranju carske moći, služio je kao instrument za jačanje rimske vlasti te romanizaciju novoosvojenih područja Rimskog Carstva. Dok su u središtu štovanja prije svega bili rimski carevi, važan element u propagiranju carske ideologije činile su i njihove supruge, ali i drugi članovi vladajuće obitelji. Unatoč tomu što nisu uživale jednaka prava kao njihovi muževi, rimske su carice ipak aktivno, ali i indirektno, sudjelovale u javnim i političkim događanjima te se koristile privilegijama svojeg društvenog statusa kako bi doprinjele oblikovanju carske vlasti i rimskog društva. Time će se ovaj rad na temelju dosadašnjih spoznaja o sociopolitičkim i religijskim karakteristikama carskog kulta ukratko osvrnuti na društvenu i političku moć najutjecajnijih rimskih carica i princeza s naglaskom na štovanje njihova kulta na tlu provincije Dalmacije od vremena julijevsko-klaudijevske dinastije do 315. godine.
In November 1752, a performance of Othello at Williamsburg's newly refurbished theater served as a diversion from unresolved trade negotiations between Virginia's lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie ...and Cherokee dignitaries. The Virginia Gazette reported that the empress of the Cherokees interrupted the play because she thought actors engaged in a swordfight truly intended to kill each other. This event has never been considered in light of a spate of newspaper reports on gullible Indian spectators at British Atlantic playhouses. Yet for the British, Indian errors at the theater predicted the latter's inability to deal with other mediations, such as paper treaties and abstract economic value. The reported interruption of Othello invites an interpretation that considers both the British desire to restage scenarios involving Indian dupes and the empress's intrusion in a political sphere from which the British were trying to exclude native women. The implications for early American history and for the larger history of race are significant.
Queen Alexandra used clothes to fashion images of herself as a wife, a mother and a royal: a woman who both led Britain alongside her husband Edward VII and lived her life through fashion. Inside the ...Royal Wardrobe overturns the popular portrait of a vapid and neglected queen, examining the surviving garments of Alexandra, Princess of Wales – who later became Queen Consort – to unlock a rich tapestry of royal dress and society in the second half of the 19th century. More than 130 extraordinary garments from Alexandra's wardrobe survive, from sumptuous court dress and politicised fancy dress to mourning attire and elegant coronation gowns, and can be found in various collections around the world, from London, Oslo and Denmark to New York, Toronto and Tokyo. Curator and fashion scholar Kate Strasdin places these garments at the heart of this in-depth study, examining their relationships to issues such as body politics, power, celebrity, social identity and performance, and interpreting Alexandra's world from the objects out. Adopting an object-based methodology, the book features a range of original sources from letters, travel journals and newspaper editorials, to wardrobe accounts, memoirs, tailors' ledgers and business records. Revealing a shrewd and socially aware woman attuned to the popular power of royal dress, the work will appeal to students and scholars of costume, fashion and dress history, as well as of material culture and 19th century history.
Drawing from distinctly African source materials and methods, Achebe's groundbreaking historical account examines the shared power, influence, and authority that uniquely African, female-gendered ...entities--people, diviners, and deities--exert across Africa's interconnected physical and spiritual worlds.
Accurate unambiguous identification of ancient or historical specimens can potentially be achieved by DNA analysis. The controversy surrounding the fate of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, and ...his family has persisted, in part, because the bodies of 2 children, Prince Alexei and 1 of his sisters, have not been found. A grave discovered in 1991 contained remains putatively identified as those of the Russian Royal family. However, not all family members were represented. Here, we report the results of genomic analyses of new specimens, the human remains of 2 burned skeletons exhumed from a grave discovered in July 2007, and the results of a comprehensive genomic analysis of remains from the 1991 discovery. Additionally, almost equal to117 years old archival blood specimens from Nicholas II were obtained and genotyped, which provided critical material for the specific determination of individual identities and kinship identifications. Results of genotypic analyses of damaged historical specimens were evaluated alongside samples from descendants of both paternal and maternal lineages of the European Royal families, and the results conclusively demonstrate that the recently found remains belong to children of Nicholas II: Prince Alexei and his sister. The results of our studies provide unequivocal evidence that the remains of Nicholas II and his entire family, including all 5 children, have been identified. We demonstrate that convergent analysis of complete mitochondrial genome sequences combined with nuclear DNA profiles is an efficient and conclusive method for individual and kinship identification of specimens obtained from old historic relics.
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