Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 7-14) Norpois

p 7 | Ernest LEGOUVÉ  (Secretary of the Académie Française, 1807–1903)

p 7 | Maxime du Camp – Academician, a founder of the Revue de Paris (suppressed in 1858), and a frequent page 7contributor to the Revue des deux mondes. Monarchist, opposed politically to Hugo, but required to give eulogies… He found himself too ill to go.  

Nicolas BOILEAU-DESPRÉAUX  (French poet & critic, 1636–1711). 

p 7 | Paul CLAUDEL (French poet & diplomat, 1868–1955). 

p 7 | Maurice Barrès, French member of parliament & writer. 

Phèdre. Jean Racine  (December 1639 – April 21, 1699): French dramatist, one of the "Big 3" of the 17th century (along with Molière and Corneille); one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition.

La Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of the Two Worlds): French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. Website here.

Andromaque (1667 RACINE play): tragedy based on the legend of Troy. Andromaque, widow of the slain Trojan hero Hector, is the beloved captive of King Pyrrhus. (Hmmm, did you say "captive?"...) page 362

Alfred de MUSSET (French poet & playwright, 1810–57). The Moods of Marianne (Les Caprices de Marianne), is his 1833 play, which later was the basis for Jean Renoir's 1939 film, The Rules of the Game.

p 14 | Assumption of the Virgin [“Frari Titian”] (1516-18 TITIAN painting) 

p 14 | Paintings by Carpaccio in San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (Venice)

Anatole FRANCE (French writer, 1844–1924).

Tombs of the Medici (Michelangelo) 

Who Was King Theodosius?

The first Theodosius (Roman Emperor) outlawed homosexuality in CE 390, punishable by death.
The second Theodosius (Eastern Roman Emperor) in CE 438 codified all existing law into the Theodosian Code, which also expanded proscriptions against homosexuality.

In 342 (Codex Theodosianus, 9, 7, 3,) the first law was enacted in Milan regarding passive homosexuals. Harsher penalties were introduced by Theodosius I in a law addressed to the prefect of Rome in 390, with execution by burning for "those given to the infamy of condemning the male body, transformed into the female, to the toleration of practices reserved for the other sex" (Coll. Legum Mos. et Rom., 5.3). This law was inserted in the Theodosian Code of 438 (9, 7, 6), but substantially modified and with a wider scope. The new compilation condemned to burning all passive homosexuals without distinction. With the Emperor Justinian the legislation was broadened; every kind of homosexuality was repeatedly condemned with the death penalty. Theodosius gave as his reason the desire to rid Rome, "the mother of all virtues," from all contamination. Justinian also added religious reasons. The Theodosian laws, followed by those of Justinian in the Corpus Iuris, represent the heritage which late Roman law was to leave to posterity.( Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, 19 March 1997, p.10)

La Berma

Bernhardt as Phèdre in Racine's Phèdre. From the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Photograph: Paul Nadar, negative about 1874, print about 1880s, albumen silver print (cabinet card), 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. Introduced in the 1860s, cabinet cards were studio photos mounted on card stock for public sale. Widely collected, they often featured portraits of celebrities of the day (writers, musicians, actors). This Nadar photo of The Divine Sarah is from a collector's album of cabinet cards. The New York Times reviewed this in 1905.