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Mikhail of Tver

Mikhail Yaroslavich (Михаил Ярославич) (1271 – 22 November 1318), also known as Michael or Mikhail of Tver, was a Prince of Tver (from 1285) who ruled as Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1304 until 1314 and again from 1315 to 1318. He was canonized and counted among the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Mikhail Yaroslavich was the second son of Yaroslav III (Yaroslav Yaroslavich), the younger brother of Aleksandr Nevsky; he succeeded his elder brother Yaroslav as Prince of Tver in 1285. His mother Xenia was the second spouse to Yaroslav III and is known as the saint Xenia of Tarusa. Upon the death of Andrei Aleksandrovich (Aleksandr Nevsky's son and Yaroslav's nephew), Mikhail became the Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1304, as was consistent with the rota system of collateral succession that had been practised in Rus since the time of Yaroslav the Wise. He was confirmed in office by Tokhta, Khan of the Golden Horde.

Troubles as Grand Prince and Rivalry with Moscow
While he seemed secure in the throne, being the legitimate heir and having been confirmed by the Khan in Sarai, Grand Prince Mikhail suffered a series of setbacks as grand prince which led to him losing the grand princely office for both himself and, in some ways, ultimately for his descendants. He was, like most Grand Princes of Vladimir, accepted as Prince of Novgorod the Great in 1309, but fought with Novgorod, going so far as to withdraw his lieutenants (namestniki) and cut off grain shipments into the city in 1312. While he was on decent terms with Tokhta Khan, and initially with his successor, Uzbeg Khan (Mikhail paid homage on Uzbeg's accession to the throne in 1313 and remained in Sarai until 1315), he eventually lost influence to Yury of Moscow, who gained influence in Novgorod while the grand prince was away in Sarai. Mikhail did manage to finally take control of the city in 1316 with Mongol aid, but the following year Uzbeg Khan gave the yarlik or patent of office of the Grand Prince of Vladimir to Yury, who also married Uzbeg's sister.

After granting Yury the iarlyk or patent of office, the Khan sent his army under the Mongol general Kavgadii to help Yuri in his struggle with Mikhail Yaroslavich. On 22 December 1317 Mikhail defeated Yuri at a village called Bortenevo (40 km from Tver). Mikhail captured Yuri's wife, who was the Khan's sister. When she died in Mikhail's custody, he was blamed for her death, although it seems unlikely that he would have killed her knowing how much it would hurt him politically for such little gain. He released Kavgadii, who returned to Sarai and accused Mikhail of murdering the Khan's sister, withholding tribute, and warring against his Mongol overlord. As a result, Mikhail was summoned to the Horde by the Khan and executed on 22 November 1318.

Mikhail and the Church
Mikhail also alienated the Church, particularly Metropolitan Petr (ruled 1308–1326). When Metropolitan Maksim died in 1305, Mikhail nominated another candidate, but Petr was consecrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Petr sided with Moscow and opposed Mikhail on several occasions. In 1309, he appointed David as Archbishop of Novgorod and David was instrumental in the argument that led Mikhail to withdraw his lieutenants and cut the grain supplies to the city. In 1314, Novgorod called on Yury to be named grand prince and for Mikhail to be deposed. Thus the support of the Church aided Yury to Mikhail's detriment. Despite his having been unfavored by the Russian Orthodox Church during his lifetime, the Church later declared Mikhail a saint because of his piousness during his summons by the Khan which he knew was to certain death and because his relics, when transported to his hometown, were discovered to be incorrupt.

Family and children
In 1294 Mikhail married Princess Anna of Rostov, daughter of Dimitry of Rostov. They had five children:
 * 1) Prince Dmitry of Tver (1299–1326)
 * 2) Prince Alexander of Tver (1301–1339)
 * 3) Prince Konstantin of Tver (1306–1346)
 * 4) Prince Vasily of Kashin (d. after 1368)
 * 5) Feodora of Tver

Mikhail's sons and successors Dmitry the Terrible Eyes and Alexander were both also loved in the Horde, as was Alexander's elder son, Mikhail. Both Aleksandr Mikhailovich, and Mikhail Aleksandrovich briefly held the Grand Princely office (in 1326-1327 and 1371-1372 respectively) but Mikhail's failure to defeat Yury of Moscow, followed by Aleksandr's role (real or perceived) in the Tver Uprising of 1327, led the Tver branch to lose the favor of the Khans, and the Danilovich - the Muscovite princes, held the title for all but two years after 1317.

Mikhail's wife took the veil in Kashin's nunnery and died there on 2 October 1368. She is commemorated as Anna of Kashin by the Russian Orthodox Church and was canonized in 1677.

title: Mikhail of Tver


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Cephalotus

Cephalotus ( or ; Greek: κεφαλή "head", and οὔς/ὠτός "ear", to describe the head of the anthers) is a genus which contains one species, Cephalotus follicularis the Albany pitcher plant, a small carnivorous pitcher plant. The pit-fall traps of the modified leaves have inspired the common names for this plant, which also include Western Australian pitcher plant, Australian pitcher plant, or fly-catcher plant. It is an evergreen herb that is endemic to peaty swamps in the southwestern corner of Western Australia. As with the unrelated Nepenthes, it catches its victims with pitfall traps.

Description
Cephalotus follicularis is a small, low growing, herbaceous species. Evergreen leaves appear from underground rhizomes, are simple with an entire leaf blade, and lie close to the ground. The insectivorous leaves are small and have the appearance of moccasins, forming the 'pitcher' of the common name. The pitchers develop a dark red colour in high light levels but stay green in shadier conditions. The foliage is a basal arrangement that is closely arranged with outward facing adapted leaf blades. These leaves give the main form of the species a height around 20 cm.

The 'pitcher' trap of the species is similar to other pitcher plants. The peristome at the entrance of the trap has a spiked arrangement that allows the prey to enter, but hinders its escape. The lid over the entrance, the operculum, prevents rainwater entering the pitcher and thus diluting the digestive enzymes inside. Insects trapped in this digestive fluid are consumed by the plant. The operculum has translucent cells which confuse its insect prey as they appear to be patches of sky.

The inflorescence is groupings of small, hermaphroditic, six-parted, regular flowers, which are creamy, or whitish.

In the cooler months of winter (down to about 5 degrees Celsius), they have a natural dormancy period of about 3–4 months, triggered by the temperature drop and reduced light levels.

Habitus
The Australian pitcher plant is a wintergreen, long lasting, herbaceous plant, which grows autochthonous rosettes and grows up to a height of 10 centimetres.

The rhizome is bulky, nodose with numerous scaly leaves and many offshoots. New rosettes grow at its stolon so that it forms large tussocks with increasing age. The rhizome grows numerous fibrous roots. Younger plants also have a taproot, which dies when they grow older.

Leaves
The Australian pitcher plant grows two kinds of leaves with the change of seasons: simple flat leaves as well as strongly modified trap leaves. Occasionally, there are intermediate forms of leaves with only partially developed traps, lacking the front part. All leaves grow alternating, they are petiolate, with single-celled fine hairs and beset with numerous sessile nectaries.

The form of the flat leaves range from spatulate to reverse ovoid. Additionally, they are pointed and up to 15 centimetres long. Approximately, half of the length of the leaves is allotted to the petiole. They are thick and coriaceaous, the edges are fringed while the leaf surface is smooth and glossy.

Trap leaves
The trap leaves are up to 5 centimeters long, egg-shaped and liquid-filled pitfall traps that are open at the top. They lie on the substrate at an angle of 45° or they are sunk into it in the case of mossy substrates. The petiole is cylindrical and fused to the back of the upper edge of the trap.

Four very hairy ridges on the outside of the traps make it easier for crawling animals to reach the trap opening. The outer skin is completely covered with glands that secrete a liquid, presumably nectar.

A lid over the opening, an outgrowth of the petiole, spans the interior and protects it from rain, which could cause the pitcher fluid to overflow and wash out dead prey. It is curved, notched and ciliated at the edge, lacking a midrib. The inside is covered with short, downward-pointing hairs. The lid is alternately divided into white-translucent and dark red sections without chlorophyll. The translucent sections appear window-like, through which trapped flying insects try to escape, only to fall back into the pitchers afterwards.

The inwardly overhanging, thickened edge of the trap is surrounded by large, inward-pointing, claw-like teeth in between nectar glands. Immediately adjacent to this is an area of short, downward-facing papillae that make it difficult to climb back up. The rest of the inner wall of the cauldron is smooth, so that the prey slips into the trap and cannot climb out of it.

The upper third, or the upper half of the trap leaf, is finely beset with glands. In the lower part of the trap there are two kidney-shaped, red-coloured spots that are densely covered with larger glands. These glands most likely produce the liquid in the can, as well as the digestive enzymes and also absorb the nutrients from the prey.

Blossoms, fruit and seeds
Stipules are missing. The single flower stalk appears at the beginning of the Australian summer (flowering time: January–February) and is up to 60 centimetres long, with a panicle at its end. Each of the secondary axes bears up to four or five white, upright, six-cornered flowers, which are up to 7 millimeters in diameter. There are missing petals and the six carpels are not fused. Flowers sag when they are fertilized. The spadiciform leathery, hairy follicle fruits and contain one or two brown, ovoid seeds with a membranous testa and rich, granular endosperm. The seeds are 0.8 millimetres long and 0.4 millimetres wide. The germination only occurs if the seed remains in the fruit.

Cytology and constituents
The chromosome number is 2n = 20. Tannin cells are present as well as myricetin, quercetin, ellagic acid,gallic acid. However, iridoids are absent.

Taxonomy
The genus as well as the family Cephalotaceae include only this one species, which means they are monotypic. The Cunoniaceae are their nearest relations. Brocchinia reducta and the Australian pitcher plant are the only carnivorous plants that are not part of the orders of Lamiales, Caryophyllales or Ericales and therefore not even indirectly related to other carnivorous plants.

Taxonomic history
Botanical specimens were first collected during the visit of HMS Investigator (1798) to King George Sound in December 1801 and January 1802. On 2 January 1802 the expedition's botanist, Robert Brown, wrote in his diary:

""Remaind on board. Described a few plants. Mr Good went in search of the pitcher plant wch Messrs Bauer & Westall had found yesterday in flower. He returned with it in the evening.""

This represents the earliest documentary reference to this species; and although not entirely unambiguous as to the first collection, it is usually taken as evidence that the plant was discovered by Ferdinand Bauer and William Westall on 1 January 1802. Whether or not there was an earlier collection is largely immaterial, however, as all collections were incorporated into Brown's collection without attribution, so Brown is treated as the collector in botanical contexts.

Brown initially gave this species the manuscript name "'Cantharifera paludosa' KG III Sound", but this name was not published, and it would not be Brown who published the first description.

The following year, further specimens were collected by Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, botanist to Nicolas Baudin's expedition. In 1806, Jacques Labillardière used these specimens as the basis of his publication of the species in Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen. Labillardière did not attribute Leschenault as the collector, and it was long thought that Labillardière had collected the plant himself during his visit to the area in the 1790s; in particular, Brown wrongly acknowledged Labillardière as the discoverer of this plant.

Leschenault's specimen was a fruiting plant, but the fruit was in poor condition, and as a result Labillardière erroneously placed it in the family Rosaceae. This error was not corrected until better fruiting specimens were collected by William Baxter in the 1820s. These were examined by Brown, who concluded that the plant merited its own family, and accordingly erected Cephalotaceae. It has remained in this monogeneric family ever since.

Current placement
The Australian pitcher plant is an advanced rosid, and thus closer related to apples and oaks than to other pitcher plants like Nepenthaceae (basal core eudicots) and Sarraceniaceae (basal asterids). The placement of its monotypic family Cephalotaceae in the order Saxifragales has been abandoned. It is now placed within the order of Oxalidales where it is most closely related to Brunelliaceae, Cunoniaceae, and Elaeocarpaceae. The monotypic arrangement of the family and genus is indicative of a high degree of endemism, one of four such species of the region.

Ecology
The plant occurs in southern coastal districts of the Southwest botanical province in Australia; it has been recorded in the Warren, southern Jarrah Forest, and Esperance Plains regions. Its habitat is on moist peaty sands found in swamps or along creeks and streams, but it is tolerant of less damp situations. Its population in the wild has been reduced by habitat destruction and overcollecting; it is therefore classified as vulnerable species (VU A2ac; C2a(i)) by the IUCN. However, this classification is not in unison with Australia's national EPBC Act List of Threatened Species or Western Australia's Wildlife Conservation Act 1950, which both list the species as Not Threatened.

The larvae of Badisis ambulans, an ant-like wingless micropezid fly, develop inside the pitchers. They have never been found anywhere else.

The plants survive occasional bush fires in the undergrowth by sprouting again from the rhizome. However, the seeds are not pyrophytes.

Carnivore
After the pitcher is formed, the lid lifts from the peristome and the pitcher is ready to catch. Digestive fluid is already in the pitcher. The prey is attracted by nectar secretions on the bottom of the pitcher lid and between the grooves of the pitcher rim. This causes the prey to fall in and drown. The liquid contains enzymes that break down the nutrients, including esterases, phosphatases and proteases. In the majority of cases, ants are caught.

Traps as biotopes
As with all other carnivorous plant species with sliding traps, the trap fluid is also a biotope for other organisms. A study published in 1985 counted 166 different species, including 82% protozoa, 4% oligochaeta and nematodes, 4% arthropods (copepods, diptera and mites), 2% rotifers, 1% tardigrades and 7% others (bacteria, fungi, algae). Bacteria and fungi in particular also secrete digestive enzymes and thus support the plant's digestive process. It is particularly noticeable that the traps are the "nursery" of two species of diptera. In addition to the larvae of a Dasyhelea species, the larvae of the micropezidae Badisis ambulans also live in the cans.

Distribution and Endangerment
The plant is endemic to the southwest of Australia, in the coastal area northeast of Albany in a zone of around 400 kilometres between Augusta and Cape Riche. It is mainly found in cushions of Sphagnum on consistently moist but well-drained, acidic peat soils over granite, in seeping areas, along riverbanks or under so-called tussocks, grasses that grow in clumps (z. B. from Restionaceae).

The Australian pitcher plant is categorised as endangered by the IUCN due to its restricted distribution. However, there is no acute threat. Because parts of its distribution area are protected and the plants are common within this, they have been removed from CITES-Appendix II.

Uses
The Australian pitcher plant is popular with enthusiasts of carnivorous plants and cultivated worldwide – however, its cultivation is considered challenging.

Cultivation
Cephalotus are cultivated worldwide. In the wild, they prefer warm day-time temperatures of up to 25 degrees Celsius during the growing season, coupled with cool night-time temperatures. It is commonly grown in a mixture of sphagnum peat moss, perlite, and sand, a reasonable humidity (60–80%) is also preferred. It is successfully propagated from root and leaf cuttings, usually non-carnivorous leaves although pitchers can also be used. A dormancy period is probably crucial to long-term health of the plant.

The plants become colourful and grow vigorously when kept in direct sunlight, while plants cultivated in bright shade remain green.

Living plants were delivered to Kew Gardens by Phillip Parker King in 1823. A specimen flowered in 1827 and provided one source for an illustration in Curtis's Botanical Magazine.

This plant is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. There are several dozen Cephalotus clones that exist in cultivation; nine have been officially registered as cultivars. One of the most well-known is 'Eden Black', a cultivar with unusually dark-coloured pitchers.

Genomics
The genome of the pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis has been sequenced. Its carnivorous and non-carnivorous leaves have been compared to identify genetic differences associated with key features relating to the attraction of prey and their capture, digestion and nutrient absorption. Results support the independent convergent evolution of Cephalotus and other carnivorous plant lineages. but also suggest that different lineages co-opted similar genes in developing digestive functions. This implies that the ways in which carnivory can be developed are limited.

Botanical History
The Australian pitcher plant was possibly already discovered in 1791 on the expedition by the botanist Archibald Menzies. The plant was first described in 1806 by Jacques Julien Houtton de La Billardière. In 1800 Robert Brown had already observed the species while catching insects. Since 1823 specimens of the plant have been cultivated in the botanic garden Kew Gardens. In 1829 Dumortier categorised the species in its own monotypic family, which is still valid today.

Due to the form of the anther La Billardière uses the Greek term kefalotus ("to have a head") for the genus. Follicularis derives from follicus, meaning "small sack", and refers to the form of the jars. The Australian pitcher plant is also called Albany Pitcher Plant or Western Australian Pitcher Plant.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cephalotus


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Girolamo del Pacchia

Girolamo del Pacchia (c. 1477 – after 1533), was an Italian painter.

Life
He was born, probably in Siena, son of a Hungarian cannon-founder.

Having joined a turbulent club named the Bardotti he disappeared from Siena in 1535, when the club was dispersed, and nothing of a later date is known about him. His most celebrated work is a fresco of the Nativity of the Virgin, in the Oratory of San Bernardino, Siena, a work cited as graceful and tender, with a certain artificiality.

Another renowned fresco, in the church of Santa Caterina, Siena, represents that saint on her visit to St Agnes of Montepulciano, who, having just expired, raises her foot by miracle. In the National Gallery, London there is a "Virgin and Child."

The forms of G. del Pacchia are fuller than those of Perugino (his principal model of style appears to have been in reality Franciabigio); the drawing is not always unexceptionable; the female heads have sweetness and beauty of feature, and some of the colouring has noticeable force.

title: Girolamo del Pacchia


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List of best-selling singles by year in the United Kingdom

This is a list of the best-selling singles on the UK Singles Chart for each year. Note that the Number sold section denotes the number sold within the year, not in total, as very often the single continues to sell more in later years (and sometimes other singles released within a particular year will go on to outsell the year-end winner (e.g. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan's "Especially for You" (from 1988) ultimately outsold "Mistletoe and Wine")).

The best-selling UK single of all time is "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight" by Elton John, which sold 4,770,000 copies.


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Symphonic Game Music Concerts

The Symphonic Game Music Concerts (shortened to: Game Concerts) are a series of award-winning orchestral video game music concerts first performed in 2003 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, notable for being the longest running and the first of their kind outside Japan. They are produced by Thomas Böcker and performed by various orchestras conducted by Andy Brick (2003–2007), Arnie Roth (2008, 2009 and 2011), Niklas Willén (2010, 2012) and Eckehard Stier (from 2012).

In Leipzig, the Game Concerts series was held as GC in Concert from 2003 to 2007 as the official, annual opening ceremony of the GC - Games Convention. From 2008 to 2012, a cooperation with the WDR and its in-house orchestra, the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, was established, with concerts primarily held at the Kölner Philharmonie. Since 2013, the events have been presented internationally, including performances with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London.

Development
Inspired by Far Eastern concerts with music from video games, in particular the Orchestral Game Music Concerts from the nineties, Thomas Böcker developed the concept for the first event of its kind outside Japan. Wanting to reach as many people in the demographic as possible, he planned the concert alongside an established industry event. In 2002, he submitted his idea to the Leipzig Trade Fair, and they agreed to present a video game music concert during the GC - Games Convention, the first video game fair in Europe. The Leipzig Trade Fair promoted GC in Concert, while Böcker acted as creative director and producer. This involved creating a concert programme and obtaining the permission of individual publishers to perform music from their game releases.

GC in Concert
On 20 August 2003, the first GC in Concert took place as part of the official opening ceremony of the GC - Games Convention, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Four annual concerts with different programmes followed until 2007, from then on featuring the FILMharmonic Orchestra Prague. Böcker decided not to limit the selection of compositions for the GC in Concert series to European games and instead chose Asian, American and European titles, resulting in a variety of musical styles. The focus of the first concert was on music from publishers that had been recorded previously with live orchestras, which reduced the development phase to four months, starting in mid-April 2003.

After evaluating feedback from the audience, more music from classic games eventually found its way into the programmes. The following concerts had Böcker busy with the planning for one year each and increasingly included newly written and more experimental arrangements that were not merely orchestral versions of the original compositions, but personal interpretations by the arrangers. The pioneering work done by Böcker and his team paved the way for many comparable events.

All five concerts in Leipzig took place in front of sold-out audiences of around 2000 people each. In their role as official opening ceremonies of the GC - Games Convention, they also included various speeches by industry representatives and politicians such as Wolfgang Tiefensee. In addition, numerous composers took part, including Nobuo Uematsu, Yuzo Koshiro, Chris Hülsbeck, Rob Hubbard and Allister Brimble.

Concerts in Cologne (2008-2012)
Following an invitation by Thomas Böcker, Winfried Fechner, the manager of the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, attended the fifth GC in Concert in Leipzig in the hope of introducing a new genre of music to his own ensemble. Impressed by the response of the audience there, he saw an opportunity to inspire young people with orchestral music and entered into a collaboration with Böcker's Merregnon Studios, which soon led to the CD release drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura-, the first in-house concert including video game music titled PROMS That's Sound, that's Rhythm and, a little later, Symphonic Shades - Hülsbeck in Concert.

Symphonic Shades – Hülsbeck in Concert

In late 2007, Thomas Böcker announced his role as producer of Symphonic Shades, two concerts held on 23 August 2008 dedicated to the music of German composer Chris Hülsbeck. The premiere performance with the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln at the Funkhaus Wallrafplatz was the first game music concert to be broadcast live on the radio, WDR4.

On 4 August 2009, pieces from Symphonic Shades were performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. They were part of the concert Sinfonia Drammatica at the Stockholm Concert Hall, which additionally featured tracks from drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura. The Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra's 3rd Family Concert also featured arrangements from Symphonic Shades.

Symphonic Fantasies – music from Square Enix
Symphonic Fantasies - music from Square Enix took place on 12 September 2009 at the Kölner Philharmonie. Tickets for the event quickly sold out, necessitating a second concert on 11 September 2009 at the Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen. The concert at the Philharmonie was broadcast on WDR4 and for the first time available via video streaming on the Internet. This was to be the case for all Game Concerts until 2011.

Symphonic Fantasies is dedicated to Japanese game developer Square Enix and includes arrangements of pieces from Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and Kingdom Hearts.

In 2012, five more concerts were performed in Tokyo, Stockholm and again in Cologne, with an additional performance in 2016 at the Barbican Centre in London with the London Symphony Orchestra. Albums have been released of concert recordings from both Cologne (via Decca Records) and Tokyo (via X5Music/Merregnon Records).

Symphonic Legends – Music from Nintendo
After the positive feedback from attendees of Symphonic Fantasies, the WDR announced another game concert titled Symphonic Legends, which took place at the Kölner Philharmonie on 23 September 2010. The event featured music from Japanese game developer Nintendo, with titles such as Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Metroid, F-Zero and The Legend of Zelda being performed. The symphonic poem of The Legend of Zelda made up the entire second half of Symphonic Legends.

The LEGENDS performance on 1 June 2011, presented by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, was partly based on arrangements from Symphonic Legends. On 13 July 2014, the London Symphony Orchestra performed the symphonic poem for The Legend of Zelda from this programme.

Symphonic Odysseys – Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu
With the reveal of Symphonic Legends, Winfried Fechner opened up in an interview that audiences could expect two game music concerts a year and announced Symphonic Odysseys - Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu, a homage to the Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu. The programme, featuring arrangements from titles such as Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy Legend, Blue Dragon and the Final Fantasy series, was performed twice at the Kölner Philharmonie on 9 July 2011.

Symphonic Odysseys was also performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in June 2017, on 18 June at the Philharmonie de Paris and on 20 June at the Barbican Centre. A recording of the concerts in Cologne was released as a double album on 28 December 2011 by Dog Ear Records, Uematsu's own label.

Final Symphony – Music from Final Fantasy VI, VII and X
In May 2012, Thomas Böcker announced his tenth concert production titled Final Symphony, comprising music from Final Fantasy VI, VII and X, composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu. The world premiere took place on 11 May 2013 and was performed by the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal at the Stadthalle Wuppertal. Another performance took place on 30 May 2013 with the London Symphony Orchestra, the first concert of game music for the orchestra. The Final Symphony programme then went on a world tour with performances in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, the USA, New Zealand, China, Austria, Australia and Poland.

A studio recording of Final Symphony was released on 23 February 2015 (via X5Music/Merregnon Records), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

Final Symphony II – Music from Final Fantasy V, VIII, IX and XIII
Plans for Final Symphony II were announced in March 2015. The world premiere with music from Final Fantasy V, VIII, IX, and XIII took place on 29 August 2015 at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, performed by the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, followed by four performances in September and October 2015 by the London Symphony Orchestra in London, Osaka and twice in Yokohama. These performances marked the first time that a foreign orchestra gave concerts of game music in Japan. In addition to the events in Germany, the UK and Japan, Final Symphony II was also presented in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

A studio recording of Final Symphony II was released on 4 August 2023 (via Merregnon Records), performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at Konserthuset Stockholm.

Symphonic Memories – music from Square Enix
Symphonic Memories - Music from Square Enix was premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 9 June 2018. The concept of the production is to present popular scores from previous programmes such as Symphonic Fantasies, Final Symphony and Final Symphony II, and to combine some of them with new arrangements. In addition to music from Final Fantasy VI, VIII and the Chronos series, a suite of music from Final Fantasy XV was heard for the first time in Stockholm. Further events took place in Finland, Switzerland, Japan and Germany.

The concerts in Japan were recorded and published as a double album by Square Enix 's music label. In addition to arrangements from Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy XV, the world premieres of Octopath Traveler and Xenogears are part of the release.

Skyrim 10th Anniversary Concert
In 2021, for the tenth anniversary of Bethesda Softworks' action role-playing game Skyrim, Thomas Böcker produced a concert film featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices at Alexandra Palace in London.

The video was released on YouTube on 11 November 2021, shortly followed by a music album.

Starfield - A Night with the London Symphony Orchestra
In September 2023, Thomas Böcker produced another concert film, again for Bethesda Softworks, for the action role-playing game Starfield, which had just been released at the time. The recording took place with the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's. The video was published on YouTube on 13 September 2023.

Chamber music and school concerts
The Chamber Music Game Concerts performed by a string ensemble as well as the school concerts Heroes of Our Imagination and Super Mario Galaxy - A Musical Adventure were three sub-series of events also produced by Böcker.

A Chamber Music Game Concert in 2005 was held in conjunction with the gaming tournament GC-Cup at Augustusplatz in Leipzig, while two more of these performances were given in the context of a GC - Games Convention press conference and the exhibition Nintendo - Vom Kartenspiel zum Game Boy at the Landesmuseum Koblenz.

The four school concerts Heroes of our Imagination by the Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen in 2006 were conceived to demonstrate the differences and similarities between classical music and game music and to make orchestral concerts more accessible to a younger audience. Five more school concerts took place in January 2010. The Super Mario Galaxy - A Musical Adventure series was the spiritual successor to Heroes of Our Imagination. The concerts were officially licensed and sponsored by Nintendo. The music was accompanied with short narrations of the Super Mario Galaxy story.

Awards

 * 2020 Best Album - Official Arranged Album: Symphonic Memories Concert – music from Square Enix, Annual Game Music Awards 2020
 * 2015 Best Album - Arranged Album: Final Symphony - music from Final Fantasy, Annual Game Music Awards 2015
 * 2013 Outstanding Production - Concert: Final Symphony London - music from Final Fantasy, Annual Game Music Awards 2013
 * 2012 Outstanding Production - Concert: Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo - music from Square Enix, Annual Game Music Awards 2012
 * 2011 Outstanding Production – Concert: Symphonic Odysseys – Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu, Annual Game Music Awards 2011
 * 2011 Best Live Concert: Symphonic Odysseys – Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu, Annual Original Sound Version Awards 2011
 * 2011 Best Live Concert: Symphonic Legends – music from Nintendo, Annual Original Sound Version Awards 2010
 * 2010 Best Arranged Album - Solo / Ensemble: Symphonic Fantasies - music from Square Enix, Annual Game Music Awards 2010
 * 2010 Best Concert: Symphonic Legends - music from Nintendo, Swedish LEVEL magazine

title: Symphonic Game Music Concerts


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Franciabigio

Franciabigio (1482 – 24 January 1525) was an Italian painter of the Florentine Renaissance. His true name may have been Francesco di Cristofano; he is also referred to as either Marcantonio Franciabigio or Francia Bigio.

Life and career
He was born in Florence, and initially worked under Albertinelli until about 1506. In 1505 he befriended Andrea del Sarto; and by the next year, the two painters set up common shop in the Piazza del Grano. Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the proportions of his figures, though these are often squat in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first noted for diligence. He was proficient in fresco and Vasari claimed that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method. It is in his portraits, and not his religious paintings and frescoes, that his painting gathers naturalistic power.

As years went on, and he received frequent commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his diligence seemed to wane.

In 1513, in the cloister of the Annunziata he frescoed the Marriage of the Virgin, part of a larger series mainly directed by Andrea del Sarto, and overshadowed by the latter's masterpiece of Birth of the Virgin. Other artists working under Sarto at the cloister included Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Francesco Indaco, and Baccio Bandinelli.

In 1514, he frescoed a Mantegnesque Last Supper for the Convento della Calza in Florence. In 1518-19, at the Convento della Salzo, in another series of frescoes on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed the Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert, and the Meeting of the Baptist with Jesus.

In 1520–21, at the villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano he frescoed a turgid Triumph of Cicero on the walls of the salon, but again he is overshadowed by Potormo's naturalistic lunette of Vertumnus and Pomona. The array of figures appears distraught rather than celebratory, the antique details are a melange of quotations, and the architect a fancy of Quattrocento style. He painted a St Job altarpiece (1516, Uffizi).

In the early 1520s, Franciabigio also painted Madonna and Christ Child, a composition that highlights Raphael Sanzio's influence. Scholars note this painting's significance in illustrating naturalism.

Various works which have been ascribed to Raphael are reasonably deemed to be by Franciabigio. Such as the Madonna del Pozzo, with its awkwardly muscular John the Baptist; and some of his portraits, including the half figure of a Young Man. These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a Youth at a Window, and to some others—which bear this painter's recognized monogram.

For a number of years, Franciabigio maintained the studio with Andrea. Together with Andrea’s student, Jacopo da Pontormo, they decorated the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, where Franciabigio’s Triumph of Caesar displays his talent for narrative painting. Andrea’s influence on Franciabigio may be seen in the dark, smoky background and the soft, dramatic lighting of the St. Job Altar (1516).

The series of portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute the eminent and idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some celebrity, are the Calumny of Apelles, in the Pitti Palace, and the Bath of Bathsheba (painted in 1523), in the Dresden gallery.

Critical assessment and legacy
When compared to his younger contemporary colleague, del Sarto, Franciabigio appears more sculptural and less forward-looking. The Quattrocento monumentality (or stiffness) of posing is evident in his figures. Franciabigio attends more to linearity and balance in fresco recalling Massacio, while Sarto's paintings reflect an understanding that characterizes Venetian work, and the development of sway that will "mannerize" art in the decades to come.

title: Franciabigio


text:
Talk:Edward Gibson

Science fiction
Edward Gibson is listed in List of science fiction authors, but this article does not mention any such writings. Is that a different Edward Gibson, or was that merely left out? --ssd 16:13, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Apparently was not included in 2004. It's there now. I added references to make more clear.TJRC (talk) 01:33, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Leaving NASA
According to the article, Gibson resigned from NASA in 1974, but then appears to have come back in 1977 ("In March 1977, Dr. Gibson returned to the Astronaut Office Astronaut candidate selection and training as Chief of the Scientist-Astronaut Candidates.") The section ends at that point, and the next section talks about his post-NASA career. What was his role as "Chief of the Scientist-Astronaut Candidates"? Did he select astronauts to fly on the Shuttle, or was he in the running himself, and when did he officially leave NASA for the last time? -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 10:41, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Be specific about engineering and the sciences.
Subjects like "engineering", "physics", "astronautics", "history", and "psychology" are common nouns, and they are NOT capitalized. Also, engineering is such a HUGE field of endeavor that it is manditory to specify a person's specific field of engineering. These include the following: aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, electronics engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, safety engineering, construction engineering, and more, especially including the subfields like agricultural engineering, hydraulic engineering, traffic engineerng, computer engineering, aeronautical engineering, and marine engineering. Sorry, but if you are not more specific about engineering, then you risk coming across as dimwits. It is just like "teacher". What kind of a teacher? 98.67.171.176 (talk) 14:10, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Fixed the common nouns. Every citation I can find on his degree simply says it was 'engineering', and since that is all the information we have, that is what must stay in the article.  Kees08  (Talk)   06:10, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

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Elsewhen

Elsewhen (1941) is a science fiction novella by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, concerning time travel and parallel universes. It was first published as Elsewhere in the September 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, under the pen name Caleb Saunders, and was reprinted in the 1953 book Assignment in Eternity, with some minor changes, and an additional character and that character's journey.

Story
The story concerns five (originally four) diverse students who attend a philosophy seminar. The professor, Arthur Frost, explains that he learned how to use his mind to go back in time and correct a bad mistake in his life. Using hypnosis he lets them travel to alternate worlds of their choice. All the students disappear except one, Howard Jenkins. The hypnotic suggestions had no effect on him, because he could not at all believe that it was possible. He is distraught at the disappearances, but the professor assures him that they all received a hypnotic suggestion to come back in two hours.

After two hours the students start coming back, and they tell their stories. In each case, the subjective time elapsed was much longer than two hours. Some of them spent a whole lifetime in the alternate world.

The first one back is Martha Ross. She comes back as an angel. She lived as a missionary in the parallel world, died for her cause, and went to heaven. After telling her story, she disappears. (This section was not part of the original story.)

Next arrives Helen Fisher. She has traveled multiple, very improbable timelines. One of them was in prehistory, where she lived with an old Neanderthal. He was treating her fatherly, and she enjoyed the place, until she was assaulted by a young Neanderthal. Another timeline was in modern time New York City, but she entered the timeline backwards. For a short while there she moved backwards in time, until she fainted and got moved into a different timeline. Eventually she arrived in a place with an extra spatial dimension; there she realized she could see inside solid objects. She studied her own body, and performed appendectomy on herself with her nails.

After Helen finishes her story, Robert Monroe arrives. He has changed physically, having a shorter, stockier body; with this, and with his peaked hood, he calls to mind a gnome. He is seriously injured: his arm has been badly burned. He perceives his new timeline as his home. His name there is Igor and he has a sister. His world is at war with space invaders, and his sister is a military leader. The situation is dire and their side is losing. He refuses to go to hospital for his injury, so Fisher uses her knowledge of first aid to treat him. Fisher then chooses to return with him, and she helps him carry books and tools. They become a couple, though the story does not show any emotional buildup.

After a long wait it becomes apparent that Estelle Martin is not coming back. Frost attempts to find her by listening to the same hypnotic-suggestion recording that she had used and by thinking about her. Jenkins watches him disappear, so that he would start believing in this possibility, and be eventually able to travel between timelines. Frost arrives on a Flash Gordon–like planet, and finds Estelle to be a priestess with the name Star Light. She refuses to go back, because she considers her new reality to be real and the old one to be a dream. Frost goes back and returns with Jenkins. As they arrive, Jenkins has turned into a native. He is a soldier with a blaster, and he knows Estelle as Star Light.

Frost returns to the original timeline and is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and possibly murdering his students. He knows that the authorities would not believe the truth, so he disappears into Robert Monroe's timeline. He stays there for a while and discovers that his theoretical knowledge is not helpful with the war efforts. The books and tools that Fisher brought were helpful, but not enough, so he travels to Estelle's and Jenkins' timeline, returning with Jenkins and his blaster. Jenkins explains the blaster's functionality and leaves his as a model. Igor is certain that the blaster technology will enable them to win the war.

Frost escorts Jenkins back to Estelle's timeline, and he decides to settle there. He plans to spend his time tutoring children and trying to develop a time theory that would explain the experiences of all five students.

Characters

 * Dr. Arthur Frost: University professor; instructor for Speculative Metaphysics course.
 * Students taking Speculative Metaphysics course:
 * Howard Jenkins: Engineering student. He is taking the class solely because of his feelings for Estelle.
 * Helen Fisher: Adventurous; interested in gender equality.
 * Robert Monroe/Igor:
 * Estelle Martin/Star Light:
 * Martha Ross: Very religious student. (Missing in the original version.)
 * People in the main timeline:
 * Izowski: Police sergeant guarding Dr. Frost
 * Chief of police
 * Prehistory (Helen Fisher's travel):
 * Old Man: A Neanderthal man who found Helen and took care of her
 * The war world (Robert Monroe's travel):
 * Igor's sister Margri, a group commander in the war against aliens

title: Elsewhen


text:
Sylheti

Sylheti may refer to:

 * Sylhetis, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group in the Sylhet division and South Assam
 * Sylheti language, a language of the Sylheti region
 * Sylheti Nagri, a writing system of the Sylheti region

title: Sylheti


text:
Gulf (novella)

"Gulf" is a science fiction novella by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally published as a serial in the November and December 1949 issues of Astounding Science Fiction and later collected in Assignment in Eternity. It concerns a secret society of geniuses who act to protect humanity. The novel Friday, written in 1982, was loosely a sequel.

Story
The story postulates that humans of superior intelligence band together, and keeping themselves genetically separate, create a new species. In the process they develop into a hidden and benevolent "ruling" class. The story invokes the notions of the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski and the work of Samuel Renshaw to explain the nature of thought and how people could be trained to think more rapidly and accurately. The material on human intelligence and self-guided evolution is intermixed with a more standard "secret agent" adventure story.

The "nova effect" can initiate a chain reaction that can consume an entire planet. Mrs. Keithley, one of the richest people in the Solar System, wants to use it to blackmail humanity, so she can rule from her home on the Moon.

"Joe" is a secret agent who is tasked with getting the microfilm containing the only documentation of the effect. Returning to Earth, he is captured and finds himself confined with a man who calls himself "Kettle Belly" Baldwin. Using only two packs of playing cards to encode words, they communicate while under observation and plot their escape. Afterward, Baldwin introduces Joe to his group of intellectually superior individuals and trains him in their advanced techniques of thought, even attempting telepathy. Baldwin reveals that he and his group work to keep dangerous science and technology out of the hands of normal humans. The nova effect was discovered by Baldwin and implemented by his own people as part of an attempt to prove it could not be done.

Joe meets Gail, another agent, with whom he falls in love. Baldwin receives a warning that the nova effect is set to be triggered on Earth, but the triggering device is on the Moon. Joe and Gail are sent to disable the trigger so the device on Earth can be neutralized. Gail has to get the remote control from Mrs. Keithley while Joe is charged with disabling the transmitter. The situation becomes desperate. Joe and Gail unexpectedly achieve telepathic rapport. Gail kills Mrs. Keithley, but is trapped with no escape route, while Joe is certain the transmitter is booby trapped. Knowing that they are both about to die, they telepathically recite their own private marriage vows.

Characters
One of the story's key characters, Gregory "Kettle Belly" Baldwin (also known as Doctor Hartley M. Baldwin), appears as a much older man in the later novel Friday, there known mostly as "Boss." (Boss briefly mentions Gulf's protagonists Joe and Gail as examples of "honorable hatchet men.") While the earlier version of the character had strongly argued that smarter people are, and ought to be, separate from the human race in general, Boss appears to categorically deny this premise. However, he prohibits Friday, in his Will, from receiving any inheritance from him if she chooses to emigrate to the planet "Olympia", which the novel informs us is where the "supermen" went, indicating Baldwin broke from them at some point between the two stories.

The dialogue between the male and female leads, Joe and Gail, is reminiscent of the exchanges between the characters in Heinlein's last five novels from 1980-1987. Gail is strongly evocative of the powerful, free-spirited female characters from these novels. Joe is quite similar to the more taciturn male heroes such as Zebadiah Carter and Richard Ames from, respectively, The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

Origins
This story was written for the "time travel" or "prophecy" issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The issue was prompted by a letter from a reader (Richard A. Hoen of the University Club in Buffalo, New York) commenting on the stories in an issue, referring to the stories by author and title, and offering his respective praise and derision for those works. The magazine frequently received letters of this kind; however, in this case, the reader described an issue whose cover date was more than a year in the future, November, 1949. Editor John W. Campbell printed the letter in the November, 1948 issue, then set about making the predictions come true by arranging with the authors mentioned to write and submit stories with the given titles. Gulf, by Anson MacDonald (a Heinlein pseudonym), was one of the stories involved.

Heinlein has written that he had a different idea for the story originally, but decided that it was too large for a novella and could not be written in the time he had available. The idea later became one of the inspirations for his novel Stranger in a Strange Land. For the magazine, he decided that the gulf between man and superman would provide an adequate basis for the title. Since Heinlein was no longer using the MacDonald pseudonym by the time the story was published, it was published under his own name.

title: Gulf (novella)


text:
Talk:Lady Davina Windsor

Untitled
Lady Davina Lewis now, surely? Proteus (Talk) 16:19, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I wonder will she be named a godmother to her nephew, Xan Windsor, Lord Culloden?

Tāne Mahuta's name.
I question whether Lady Davina's son was named after the tree, or if this was an assumption on the part of the NZ Herald journalist who wrote the article that is the source for this information. The tree itself is named after the Māori god, and the god seems a likelier source of the child's name, as the Māori gods are also ancestors, and the use of ancestral names is common in traditional Māori society. Koro Neil (talk) 22:15, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

Requested move 28 March 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Page moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) --  Dane talk  23:02, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Lady Davina Lewis → Lady Davina Windsor – It is now publicly known that Lady Davina and Gary Lewis have divorced last year, so I think the article should be renamed back to her maiden name. All news articles I checked about this refer to Lady Davina Windsor. What do you think? Anotherwikipedianuser (talk) 22:03, 28 March 2019 (UTC) --Relisting. KCVelaga (talk) 01:21, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Support. Looks like the common name and the name she uses herself. Celia Homeford (talk) 11:18, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Support as it appears to be her common name. -- Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 20:46, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Comment I think the discussion may be closed with approval for moving, as it is now on the elapsed listing and there seems to be no controversy on this. Anotherwikipedianuser (talk) 11:29, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Notability
This article says nothing to explain how she is notable. If it is due to her place in the line of succession or as granddaughter of a senior duke, why is there no article about her older brother Alexander? Yitz711 (talk) 22:24, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Both articles were nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed as keep for this article and redirect for Alexander. Celia Homeford (talk) 07:51, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Lady Davina Windsor


text:
Talk:AD 777

This page does not say what is being linked from binah. I am guessing it is a book by Aleister Crowley? User:PhatJew

Getting Rid of 7s
Removed from the See Also section the phone number for the Toronto Star - there are many phone numbers that consist largely of the number 7, and it doesn't seem relevant here - and a Biblical numeric reference without a Wikilink. And, in a slightly prior edit, the Flaming Sword of Eden. - Corporal Tunnel 00:00, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

777
Isn't this also some sort of russian wine? I treid it years ago and would'nt mind finding it again Elcaballooscuro (talk) 18:41, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

God's number?
I know many religious people consider 777 a religiously significant number, but is there any historical, cultural or scriptural basis for this? To me it seems like a recent, artificial substitution of the digits of the "number of the beast", 666, mentioned in Revelation, with the numeral 7, which is a symbolically significant number commonly found in the Bible. There are mention of 7, 70, "seventy times seven" and other combinations in the Bible, but none of 777. 203.73.239.185 (talk) 09:48, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm moving the section about computer science
It's not related to the year 777. It should be on the disambiguation page. Twistor96 (talk) 09:44, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:777 (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 17:48, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:AD 777


text:
Michelozzo

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi (1396 – 7 October 1472) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the great pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance, Michelozzo was a favored Medici architect who was extensively employed by Cosimo de' Medici. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years, and later collaborated with Donatello.

Known primarily for designing Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, he is often overshadowed by his contemporaries Donatello in sculpture and Brunelleschi in architecture.

Early life
Michelozzo was born in Florence in 1396. He was the son of Bartolomeo di Gherardo Borgognone and Antonia. Borgognone was of French origin and arrived in Florence from Burgundy at an unknown date. Borgognone lived and worked in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence as a tailor, and was made a Florentine citizen on 9 April 1376. Michelozzo had three brothers named Leonardo (b. 1389/90), Zanobi (b. 1391), and Giovanni (b. 1403). By 1391, Michelozzo's family had moved to the San Giovanni quarter, where they continued to live throughout his life.

Little is known about Michelozzo's childhood, other than that he received a comprehensive education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that he began working as a die-engraver for the Florentine mint in 1410. As an engraver, Michelozzo learned how to cast, chase, and gild copper and bronze, two of the metals in which the Medieval and Renaissance goldsmith most commonly worked. He also gained immense precision of hand and a mastery of sculptural design in miniature.

Beginning in the early 1420s, Michelozzo became a member of the Arte dei Maestri di Pietra e Legname, one of the Guilds of Florence that represented the master stonemasons, wood-carvers, and sculptors. He later served as one of the consuls of the Guild in 1430.

Michelozzo's father died sometime before 1427, and his mother passed sometime between 1433 and 1442. Michelozzo retained the family residence on Via Larga, which was near the Medici Palace and next door to the humanist Bartolomeo Scala. In addition, Michelozzo possessed a house and garden in S. Domino a Brozzi.

Apprenticeships
Beginning in 1420, Michelozzo studied under Lorenzo Ghiberti. Michelozzo's first projects with Ghiberti was the North Door of the Baptistry between the years 1417 and 1423/4, in which Michelozzo's responsibilities "could only have been in the chasing and gilding of the panels, possibly in casting the four late reliefs...and in the frame....Most of his work on the doors is submerged, like that of the other assistants, in the force of Ghiberti's design and personality." From this, Michelozzo learned how to run a closely supervised shop, how to organize it efficiently, how to train and control assistants, and how to deal shrewdly in business and financial affairs. "He was exposed to Ghiberti's use of antique motifs, he absorbed Ghiberti's ability in juxtaposing antique and Gothic elements, and he was undoubtedly influenced by Ghiberti's style and artistic concepts." While working under Ghiberti, Michelozzo created the statue of the young St. John over the door of the Duomo in Florence, opposite the Baptistery, along with the silver statuette of John the Baptist on the altar-frontal of San Giovanni. In his tax declaration of 1427 Michelozzo calls himself as "in partnership" with Ghiberti.

Under Donatello, Michelozzo assisted in the building of the sacristy of Santa Trinita, where "Ghiberti [had] started to fuse together late-Gothic and antique forms." Both Donatello and Michelozzo began as sculptors with an uncompromising dedication to antiquity, and this was evident when Donatello enlisted Michelozzo's help in the decoration of the tabernacle of St. Louis of Toulouse. Michelozzo also became the partner responsible for the architectural frames of Donatello's sculptures such as the funerary monument of Antipope John XXIII. In 1428, together with Donatello, Michelozzo erected an open-air pulpit at an angle of the Cathedral of St. Stephen at Prato, designed for the regular public displays of their famous relic, the Girdle of Thomas (Sacra Cintola). Though Donatello is the more well-known of the two, "it would be a mistake to underrate Michelozzo's share in the work, for where Donatello appears as the sole designer of architectural ornament his style is quite different. He completely subordinates the architectural setting to his sculpture and makes architecture, so to speak, its handmaid. The beautiful ornamental sculpture in Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia shows how far Donatello would go with his sculpture in order to provide it with an effective frame in the extraordinarily vigorous modelling of the broad, slanting surrounds of his overdoors and medallions."

Cosimo dei Medici
Few historians have disputed Cosimo's close relationship to Michelozzo, who was the Medici architect for nearly forty years. "Michelozzo was more agreeable and accessible to the advice and desires of Cosimo than the turbulent Brunelleschi, and was willing to follow the strong personal tastes of his patron." Their relationship was best described by Angelo Fabroni in 1789, who said: "Cosimo loved Michelozzo dearly and relied on him, not only because of his natural talents (he considered nobody, not even Brunelleschi, superior in all architectural judgments), but also because of his good qualities and worthy character."

Michelozzo enjoyed a close relationship to Cosimo dei Medici throughout his life, and according to Giorgio Vasari in The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, was motivated by his great love and fidelity for Cosimo to accompany him into exile in Venice from 1433 to 1434. Historians have cited this as an unparalleled example of esteem between artist and patron. Vasari also claimed that Michelozzo built the library of San Giorgio Monastery in 1434 for Cosimo, though this claim contradicts the original description and documents of the library, which indicate that although the library's construction was started by Cosimo, it was largely built under the direction of Medici bank manager Giovanni d'Orino Lanfredini between 1467 and 1478, which was well after Michelozzo's departure from Venice.

The large Palazzo Medici in Florence, built by Cosimo, was designed by him; it is one of the noblest specimens of Italian fifteenth-century architecture, in which the great taste and skill of the architect has combined the delicate lightness of the earlier Italian Gothic with the massive stateliness of the classical style. With great engineering skill Michelozzo shored up, and partly rebuilt, the Palazzo Vecchio, then in a ruinous condition, and added to it many important rooms and staircases. When, in 1437, through Cosimo's liberality, the monastery of San Marco at Florence was handed over to the Dominicans of Fiesole, Michelozzo was employed to rebuild the domestic part and remodel the church. For Cosimo he designed numerous other buildings, most of them of noteworthy importance. Among these were a guest-house at Jerusalem for the use of Florentine pilgrims, Cosimo's summer villa at Careggi, and the fortified castello that he rebuilt from 1452 as the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo in Mugello. For Giovanni de' Medici, Cosimo's son, he also built a very large villa at Fiesole. Between 1445 and 1451, he also expanded Villa San Girolamo next to Villa Medici at the behest of Cosimo.

Filippo Brunelleschi
According to "Architecture in Italy, 1400-1500, Volume 53", Michelozzo's architecture contrasts with Brunelleschi in its closer adherence to the "immediately preceding Gothic tradition, the Gothic classicism which appears in the Loggia dei Lanzi or the monastery of S. Matteo." Ludwig Heydenreich and Paul Davies argue that all of Michelozzo's buildings are "works of considerable standing...the most independent architect after Brunelleschi."

Personal life
Michelozzo married Francesca, daughter of Piero di Ambrogio Galligari, in late January or February 1441. At the time of their marriage, she was 20 years old, and he was 45. Francesca's dowry of 425 florins was about average for an upper-middle-class family at that time. The size of her dowry indicates a considerable rise in Michelozzo's social position.

In 1441, Michelozzo launched a legal complaint to remove himself from the responsibility of his two older brothers' debts. Andrea di Benozo, representative for Giovanni, Zanobi, and Michelozzo, elected arbitrators to weigh the complaints. After studying documents and proofs for six weeks, the arbitrators found that the two brothers were the cause behind most of Michelozzo's debts, and they were required to relinquish their inheritance in partial compensation for the amounts they owed.

Children
Four boys and three girls resulted from Michelozzo's marriage to Francesca, of whom five survived their father. Bartolomeo, who became a sculptor, was born in 1442; Piero in 1443; Antonia in 1445; Niccolo in 1447; Marietta in 1453; Bernardo in 1455; and Lisabetta in 1459.

Two of his sons, Niccolò and Bernardo, were partially educated by the Medici and may have lived in the Palazzo Medici during their youth. They later achieved success in the highest humanistic circles of Florence.

Bernardo became a member of the household of Lorenzo il Magnifico as the tutor of Piero de Medici. In 1500, he was made a Florentine canon and was employed by Giovanni de Medici, first as his Chamberlain and then as his Secretary and Referendary.

Like Bernardo, Niccolò studied with Ficino from a young age and took part in the Platonic Academy, where he formed friendships with other Florentine humanists who shared his love for antiquity. He excelled in literature and philosophy, and he later became secretary to Piero di Cosimo and continued in the post under Piero di Lorenzo. In 1469, Niccolò began his political career as a notary in the Florentine Cancelleria, and he was often sent on important missions as ambassador for the Florentine Republic between 1489 and 1494. Following the downfall of the Medici, he was imprisoned for a brief time before clearing his name in 1496 and becoming the precounsel of the Arte dei Giucidi e notai and later succeeded Niccolò Machiavelli as the Second Chancellor of the Republic in 1513.

Palazzo Medici
When Cosimo began building the Palazzo Medici in 1444, he passed over Brunelleschi and gave his preference to Michelozzo. Like the exterior of the Palazzo Comunale in Montefiascone, that of the Palazzo Medici follows the tradition of the Tuscan late-medieval palazzo, but without the more eye-catching symbols of civic power, which would have been incompatible with Cosimo's role as primus inter pares and pater patriae. The palazzo's exterior is not articulated by Vitruvian orders, and its big arches of its ground floor are not aligned with the windows of the upper stories. Instead, Michelozzo focused on the contrast between surface textures, such as the contrast between "the natural rustication of the ground floor, the flat ashlared courses of the piano nobile and the smooth masonry of the upper storey." The exterior also differs from the palazzo in Montepulciano in its size, its more urbane character, and its massive classicizing cornice. "In its succession of dentils, egg-and-dart and consoles, Michelozzo directly followed the Temple of Serapis in Rome."

Brunelleschi's influence on Michelozzo is evident in the palazzo's design, especially in the late-medieval bifora windows, the symmetry and the dominance of the entrance axis, and the combination of traditional and progressive elements. The arcades and entablature of the palazzo's courtyard also follows the model of the loggia of the Spedale degli Innocenti, which is symptomatically Brunelleschi's earliest and most un-Vitruvian building.

One of Michelozzo's most well-known architectural projects, the palace led to the development of a new architectural type: the Florentine Renaissance palace. Among the many Michelozzo innovations on the facade, the most notable include: "the use of bugnato digradante (large unevenly-cut stones which grow lighter as they ascend on the upper stories), the classical columns and fluted capitals in the bifore windows, the great classical cornice crowning the building and the small ones dividing the stories, the massive rectangular proportions of the block of square, and the regularity of the disposition of the windows, which, however, are asymmetrical in regard to the doors."

San Marco
The fundamental basis of all monastic compounds built by architects during the Renaissance, this was one of Michelozzo's first and most influential architectural projects in Florence. Constructed at the expense of Cosimo dei Medici, the project began sometime between the years 1437 and 1438. Reconstruction included the church, sacristy, cloister, monastic living quarters, and the library. San Marco has been called the first Renaissance church, though it seems to be a compromise between the Trecento tradition and the Renaissance spirit. The plain white walls without frescos differ from the coloristic tradition of the Trecento and were essential to Michelozzo's architectural concepts and preference for large, unadorned surfaces, subtly articulated by necessary structural members in grey pietra serena. Like many of his projects, San Marco was constructed with incredible rapidity. Unlike Brunelleschi, Michelozzo was able to finish what he started, largely due to Michelozzo's efficiency and due to the availability of adequate financing from Cosimo throughout the campaign.

The first part undertaken by Michelozzo was "the rebuilding of the old refectory, where a low vault, supported by consoles much like those in the sacristy at S. Trinita, was built to sustain the cells above. Work began on the church in 1438 and was probably completed three years later, though certainly by 1443 when it was consecrated by Pope Eugene. Using the perimeter of the former Trecento church, Michelozzo added a polygonal apse, similar in form to that at Bosco ai Frati; it was lighted by three long round arch pietra serena windows which can still be seen in the upper story of the convent. The pointed entrance arch rested on two pilasters with large, classical Corinthian capitals surmounted by a dado decorated with the Medici balls (also still visible). In front of the apse was the Capella Maggiore, covered with groin vaulting. The nave was a single open space without aisles, adorned with ediculas or altars (three on each side), and covered with a wooden beamed ceiling. Separating the nave and the Cappella Maggiore was a high wall (tramezzo) with two doors. In the later remodelling of the church, the wall was removed and the doors were transferred to the polygonal apse where they are now located. Their fluted pilasters are crowned with composite capitals identical to those in the Barbadori Chapel in S. Felicita by Brunelleschi, and above the architrave with classical mouldings, the frieze is decorated, like the capitals at Bosco ai Frati, with the Medici balls."

Choir of the Santissima Annunziata
Commissioned by Lodovico Gonzaga, lord of Mantua and general of the Florentine troops, the choir was created in commemoration of Gonzaga's father and "for the celebration of masses for his soul." Cosimo had already commissioned Michelozzo with the construction of the church's vestibulum and atrium in order to continue Brunelleschi's idea of a forum all'antica. In designing the Santissima Annunziata, Michelozzo followed the model of the Minerva Medica in Rome, making the inner plan round, creating a dome that was as hemispheric the Pantheon, and detailing it with a ten-sided exterior with deep, over-semicircular chapels. He also opted for a drum and a dome without ribs. Though the Santissima Annunziata was Michelozzo's attempt to surpass Brunelleschi on his ground, "a comparison of the two ground plans suffices to show how utterly superior Brunelleschi's is."

Santa Croce
In the May 1966 issue of The Burlington Magazine, Howard Saalman wrote that "the language of the details of the Ex-Dormitory and the Ex-Library wing points to Michelozzo. If Vasari is right and Michelozzo did work at Santa Croce (and there is no reason to doubt it in spite of the lack of documentation) then Michelozzo and his circle probably handled the entire operation as at San Marco, SS. Annunziata and elsewhere."

Michelozzo added various parts to the church and cloister of Santa Croce, including "the loggia in front of the Ex-Dormitory and Library (octagonal columns with foglie d'acqua capitals) which originally extended across the cloister to the elevated loggia on the south side of the church, running along the eastern flank of the San Giuliano (Mellini) Chapel...which divided the first cloister into two parts before its destruction in the nineteenth century." Additionally, the Cerchi Chapel on "the ground floor of the Ex-Library wing at the end adjacent to the Ex-Refectory is evidently inserted into older peripheral walls which survived the 1423 fire. The language of the details (pilasters flanking the opening into the little square choir, capitals of the lunette vaults of the hall in front of the choir - which overlap older windows in the side walls) is that of the Michelozzo circle."

Other notable works
From 1461 through 1464, he constructed the Walls of Ston in Ragusa, the largest medieval wall in Europe.

Death and legacy
In spite of Vasari's statement that he died at the age of sixty-eight, he appears to have lived until 1472. He is buried in the monastery of San Marco, Florence.

One of the most influential, yet unknown, architects of the Early Renaissance, Michelozzo's designs paved the way for the rapid development of the Central Italian Palazzo type. He developed the aisleless church and became the pioneer of a plan-type of sacred building, which is the most important in modern times. He transformed secular building and his adaptability in use of traditional forms enabled him to evolve good compromise solutions for distant regions, such as Lombardy and Dalmatia.

In his careful treatment of architectural ornament, "Michelozzo was able to adopt ideas and turn them to good account as well as to transmit new ones. The styles of Manetti, Bernardo Rossellino, Giuliano da Maiano, and even of Giuliano da Sangallo are unimaginable without the support and influence of Michelozzo's artistic idiom in addition to that of Brunelleschi, and later, of Donatello."

title: Michelozzo


text:
Ronald McNeill, 1st Baron Cushendun

Ronald John McNeill, 1st Baron Cushendun, PC (30 April 1861 – 12 October 1934), was a British Conservative politician and writer.

Background and education
McNeill was born in Torquay. He was the son of Edmund McNeill, DL, JP and Sheriff of County Antrim, and his wife Mary (née Miller). He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1886. McNeill was called to the bar in 1888 and started work as editor of The St James's Gazette (1900–04), as well as assistant editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1906–10).

Political career
Having unsuccessfully contested the seats of West Aberdeenshire (1906), Aberdeen South (1907 and Jan. 1910) and Kirkcudbrightshire (Dec. 1910), McNeill was elected as Unionist Member of Parliament for the St Augustine's division of Kent in 1911. Seven years later he became representative for Canterbury and in 1922 was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a post he held, with a short interval for the first Labour Government of 1924, until 1925.

After serving as Financial Secretary to the Treasury for two years, McNeill was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the cabinet in 1927. The same year he was also sworn of the Privy Council and, in November 1927, raised to the peerage as Baron Cushendun of Cushendun in the County of Antrim. Acting Foreign Secretary in 1928 and twice chief British representative to the League of Nations, Lord Cushendun signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in August that year. He retired from office in 1929.

Cushendun and Glenmona House
From 1910, McNeill resided, when not in London, at Glenmona House in Cushendun, the coastal village in the Glens of Antrim in County Antrim from which he later took his title. He was burnt out of the house in 1922, having a replacement built that was designed by Clough Williams-Ellis. The village also contains buildings designed by Williams-Ellis, built in memory of Lord Cushendun's Cornish wife, Maud, who died in 1925.

Family
In 1884, the future Lord Cushendun married Elizabeth Maud Bolitho (sister of William Bolitho), a Cornishwoman and Christian Scientist. They had three daughters: Esther Rose, Loveday Violet, and Mary Morvenna Bolitho (who married Major Philip Le Grand Gribble, military correspondent and memoirist). After Elizabeth's death in 1925 he married Catherine Sydney Louisa Margesson in 1930. She survived him, dying in 1939. Lord Cushendun died in Cushendun in October 1934, aged 73, when the barony became extinct.

title: Ronald McNeill, 1st Baron Cushendun


text:
Lost Legacy

Lost Legacy (1941) is a novella by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein. Originally published in the November 1941 issue of Super Science Stories, it was collected in the book Assignment in Eternity (1953).

The novella is an exploration of the possibilities that humans, with the proper training, have the potential to make use of a wide range of telepathic and telekinetic abilities. It is based on the presumption that most, if not all, humans have innate psychic abilities, but simply do not know it and therefore do not make use of them. This ignorance is encouraged by a mysterious and powerful cabal which benefits from keeping people unaware of their abilities.

Plot summary
No date is given for the events, but they are in "a near future America" from the publishing date of 1941. Europe and Asia have suffered a "collapse" and the only significant technological advances mentioned are Picturephones and a "pocketphone".

The story begins with the rediscovery of innate human psychic powers by three friends, all from a California university: Joan a grad student; Ben, a Surgeon and instructor at the medical school; and Phil a Psychology professor. There are attempts by a corrupt elite to silence their discoveries, so they take a road trip to cool off and talk things over.

The road trip lands them near Mount Shasta around nightfall. In their tent, Joan declares that she wants to hike around the mountain the following day. Ben and Phil gallantly refuse to let her do so alone. After a good day hiking, Phil falls over a fern and breaks his fibula. He is rescued by Ambrose Bierce, the famous writer who disappeared and was declared dead in 1913 at age 71–72. This fictional Bierce is now over 100 years old but is as strong and robust as an outdoorsy fortysomething. This story's Bierce says he dropped out of society because he saw WWI and other troubles coming. Bierce causes Phil's fibula to heal overnight via hypnosis.

Bierce is revealed as one of a group of individuals who have developed their telepathic powers and all now live in secrecy on Mount Shasta in an elaborate cave structure. The caves are over 100 meters long with generous side rooms including a library filled with powerful ancient knowledge. The caves were discovered in modern times around 1782 by Junípero Serra two years before Serra "surrendered his soul to rest". The caves were then known to local First Nations people who showed them to Serra only after he swore an oath that he was a medicine man.

The current residents of the caves have learned to tap into an inner power that is a lot like The Force in Star Wars with less focus on fighting and more focus on art. Unlike Luke Skywalker whose talent with The Force seems to be a family trait, the abilities suggested in Lost Legacy are supposed to be in every human, needing only instruction and practice to master.

The people living in the cave claim that Mark Twain was one of them, as well as Walt Whitman and Oliver Wendell Holmes. As part of their program to protect America as a bastion of freedom they also invited Abraham Lincoln to join. According to records found by the good adepts, humanity reached a high level of development in a Golden Age, but when their leaders decide to move on to a new plane of existence, a sub group decided to stay behind and use their skills to become dominant. After a great war humanity was thrown back to a Stone Age, there to start over.

After rescue by Bierce the three main characters are introduced to the residents of the cave and after a few weeks are invited to stay and receive further training. They accept. They then begin to spread information on how to use these psychic powers, particularly training Boy Scouts. After the evil cabal tries to stop them, battles occur between the two groups with the good adepts emerging victorious.

The story ends with a lyrical description of an empty Earth, since the human race has now evolved to a new plane of existence. An ape is beginning the long climb of his species to intelligence and psychic ability.

Characters

 * Dr. Philip Huxley: Professor of Psychology at Western University.
 * Dr. Ben Coburn: Neurosurgeon at Western University.
 * Joan Freeman: Student of Psychology at Western University.
 * Dr. Brinckley: President of Western University.
 * Residents of Mt. Shasta
 * Ambrose Bierce: Based on the writer Ambrose Bierce.
 * Charles: Painter.
 * Mrs. Draper: Mood composer.
 * Ephraim Howe: "Senior" of the council of elders.
 * Master Ling
 * Ferguson: D.A. office representative.
 * Senator Moulton
 * Arthurson
 * Agnes: Televangelist.
 * Weems
 * Hanson
 * Chief
 * Brother Artemis: Televangelist.

title: Lost Legacy