AbleLock

Monday, April 04, 2005

Pride, Sir Thomas

Pride's early life is obscure. Entering the Parliamentary army as a captain, he became a lieutenant

Trieste

Bathyscaphe (q.v.) launched by Auguste Piccard in 1953.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Aidan, Saint

Aidan was a monk at Iona, an island of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland, when King Oswald of Northumbria requested that he be made bishop of the newly converted Northumbrians. Consecrated in

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Fore-edge Painting

Technique of painting the edges of the leaves, or folios, of a book, employed in the European Middle Ages. Manuscript books with gold-tooled bindings often had the edges of their pages gilded with burnished gold. They were also frequently goffered with heated tools and were occasionally coloured. From 1650 onward a number of London binders practiced a new decorative method

Friday, April 01, 2005

Manchuria

Prior to the 17th century, the history of Manchuria was shaped by three converging ethnic groups: the Chinese, the people collectively known as the Tungus, and the Mongols and Proto-Mongols. The Tungus (from which several groups emerged) were forest and plain dwellers who had a mixed economy of primitive agriculture, fishing, hunting, and livestock breeding. Those in Manchuria