Summer is finally here! Along with the coming of the summer season, the world celebrates today the Fête de la Musique (or, in English, "World Music Day" or "Make Music Day"). The Fête, as the name suggests, was…
How could we not open our Women’s Wednesday column if not with the very first woman, Eve? The myth of Eve was surely a heavy one for women through history, especially in Catholic medieval Europe; the First…
Folia Magazine presents a new, all-female weekly column: Women’s Wednesday! Every Wednesday we will be bringing your attention to an illumination taken from one of the many copies of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris: 106 women,…
Today marks the feast day of one of the most popular Saints, Saint Anthony of Padua. Born in Lisbon as Fernando Martins de Bulhões in 1195, the Saint took the name Anthony as he entered…
“Josiah celebrating Easter”, illumination from a Bible destinated to Georges d’Egmond, abbot of Saint-Amand, ms. 0006 (002), f. 272r, 16th century, Bibliothèque Municipale, Valenciennes. This illumination depicts a royal banquet as part of the Passover celebrations during the rule of…
Illumination from a book of chess problems, ms. Ludwig XV 15, fol. 30v, late 14th century, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
June 5 is World Environment Day, the annual celebration created by the United Nations in order to highlight the vital importance of environmental protection and the themes dealing with such issues - from pollution to…
The Catholic Church celebrates today the solemnity of the Corpus Christi (or Corpus Domini), a feast celebrating the real presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. According to the Catholic doctrine, in…
May 30, 1431: after being captured and sold to the English, Joan of Arc is finally burned at the stake for heresy. Although being rehabilitated by Pope Callixtus III as soon as in 1456, Joan is only…
Today marks the 565th anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople, the event that officially put an end to the Byzantine Empire, thus being considered today as one of the main dates in the transition from…