Buondì. Episode 22 of our FREE Summer Series of articles with audio, on the medieval period in the Italian peninsula, is now ready. Below are the links, to that one, and to the club’s History page, where you’ll find the previous 21 along with all thirty articles from last year’s Summer Series on the Romans: […]
Archives for August 2021
The Antichrist is dead, long live the communists!
Buondì. A short one today, as I messed up and spent ages proofreading (and listening to) the wrong episode of our FREE Summer Series, then had to go do the correct one as well. Also, we got up late this morning, after a disturbed night of vomiting, diarrhoea – what a horrible word to spell […]
Wonder of the World (an emperor who knew six languages!)
Buondì. I quite often hear from club members that they’re not, or weren’t before they started hanging with us, ‘good at languages’. It’s common that people in Britain think this, though hardly surprising given that they live on an island and that if they mistakenly venture off it, their native tongue is used just about […]
Back to normal in Northern Italy (no place to park!)
Buondì. Here we are, the final week of August! And the hot weather is supposed to break today, at least in Bologna, where I live. We’re looking forward to a storm, plenty of rain, and a welcome drop in temperature – from the mid-thirties to the mid-twenties! The final week of August in Italy, besides […]
The adventures of the Genovese, Drunk William Chainmail Head
Buondì. You’ve probably never heard of Drunk William Chainmail Head (my translation) but, according to the writer of our FREE 30-part series of texts with audio on the middle ages in the Italian peninsula, he was an imaginative Genovese merchant who sought his fortune in the Crusades, and ended up capturing the Sarcen-held city of […]
Trouble at the top
Buondì. Episode 17 of our FREE 30-part Summer Series of articles with audio on the medieval period in the Italian peninsula is ready for you to read and listen to! Which should help pass the time if you’re locked down in New Zealand, or Australia. Here in Europe, it looks like we’re having a few […]
Name some famous vikings, can you?
Buondì. Yet again I am confronted by the vast gaps in my knowledge of history (despite having half-heartedly studied the subject at college…) Name some famous vikings, can you? I came up with Erik the Red, and that was about it. Perhaps you’ll do better? If not, you can Google it, as I did, and […]
What comes around, goes around
Buondì. With today’s episode in our FREE series on the Medieval period in the Italian peninsula, we’re halfway! And while it’s a long one, it’s very interesting, and as a fine example of historical ‘karma‘ as you might find! E poi, reading and listening practice is always useful, I say. Talking of listening, Edwin wrote […]
The beginning of the end of a monopoly
Buondì. Arguably, one of the most important reasons for the Catholic church’s wealth and power (reference the period from the end of the Roman Empire in 476 to circa 1100-1200 CE, so 600-700 years of largely undisputed dominance) was not that they controlled access to the afterlife, but that they were the only source of […]
Lots of good stuff in today’s FREE episode!
Buondì. There’s lots of good stuff in today’s FREE episode! I won’t tell you exactly what it’s about, but if you’re interested in the origins of certain ‘Italian’ words, or like to know why typical ‘Italian’ crops are cultivated in particular areas, then you should definitely take a look. We’re in the eighth and ninth […]