A MONK'S TALE

 

 

This tale is part of a project we did at school after studying the importance of monasteries in the middle ages, the rule of St Benedict and monastic life, including the history of the Benedectine monasteries we have in our hometown, Subiaco. Divided in groups, one of our tasks was to write a story in English about monastic life,  set in the past, present or future,  with fantasy elements of our choice. 

The following story was written by Eleonora Campi with the support and help of Alexandru Balan, Christian Micozzi, Federico Mosetti, Riccardo Rossi. They also designed a pop-up book to illustrate the  story as well as a video in which they read it. We really hope you'll enjoy reading it!

A CATASTROPHIC, POST APOCALYPTIC TALE

 

This story is part of a project we did at school after studying the importance of monasteries in the middle ages, the rule of St Benedict and monastic life, including the history of the Benedectine monasteries we have in our hometown, Subiaco. Divided in groups, one of our tasks was to write a story in English about monastic life,  set in the past, present or future,  with fantasy elements of our choice. 

The following story was written by Francesco Elviretti with the help of Sophia Corsini, Isabel Baiocchi,  Danylo Valleri and Federico Mosetti. It is set in a post apolyptic future,  the protagonists are Benedictine monks,  who were among the few survivors to a nuclear explosion. They have been turned into warriors with very little patience who have to cope with the stubborness of nuns. Scroll down and enjoy reading! 

5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE EIFFEL TOWER

 

This year we studied the construction of the Eiffel Tower. I've always liked it and I wanted to look for more information about it. This is what I found :

Since the Eiffel Tower’s 1889 inauguration in Paris, over 300 million visitors have visited the iconic attraction. It is designed to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution. The construction of this tower was not easy. 60 tons of paint, 7,300 tons of iron, and 2.5 million rivets were used. It took two years, two months and five days for the structure to be completed.

THE TITANIC IS READY TO RETURN TO THE SEA

 

      

The Titanic is ready to go back sailing! Well, truth is that in 2022, a replica of the world’s most famous ocean liner will make its maiden voyage, exactly 110 years after the now legendary sinking.    

MARZABOTTO: LOOKING BACK AT THE HORRORS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

One of the most ferocious massacres of civilians of the entire Second World War took place in the small village of Marzabotto.

Between 29 September and 5 October the march led by Marshal Kesselring crossed the hills and mountains around Marzabotto, butchering about 800 civilians. It was a premeditated massacre, which did not spare women, invalids, children; only the intention to destroy and kill. The aim of the SS was to crush the partisan formations that fought for liberation, with the logic of equating civilians to armed formations. Considering, therefore, also women, children and the elderly, as enemies to be exterminated.

THE ENDLESS RIVALRY BETWEEN THE RUSSIANS AND THE JAPANESE OVER THE KURILS

 

 

 

Hello guys ! Today I’d like to talk to you about the Kuril islands. Have you ever heard about them? If not, scroll down and I’ve got a lot of interesting information for you.

5 FAKE NEWS ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES

Hi, I’m Francesco. As you may have noticed in my previous posts, I love history and today I will tell you about five fake news about a very long period of time which is considered a dark and desolate period: the Middle Age.

THE FIVE SUNS OF AZTEC MYTHOLOGY

                                                                                         

Every mythology has its own “creation myths”, myths centered on how the world came to existence. In some cases a deity creates it on purpose, other times it was born by chance. Sometimes its inhabitants end up causing some kind of apocalypse that reshapes it. Other times the world has never changed since the beginning of time. Aztec mythology takes all the weirdest possible combinations and uses them to create one of the strangest yet most interesting creation myths.

AN ATOMIC TRIAL

The other day, while surfing the Net, I read an article about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s trial and this is what I want to tell you about in my post.

For those who don’t know who the Rosenbergs were, they were potential Soviet spies during the Cold War.

I decided to write an article about them because nowadays many people are still wondering whether their sentence was fair and correct. In fact, they are the only spies executed during the Cold War.

THE TURK, THE BIZARRE STORY OF THE CHESS CHAMPION AUTOMATON

 

Automaton is a Greek word, meaning “acting of one’s own free will”. Today it’s used to refer to some kind of mechanism or machine that does something automatically. The concept of a self-operating machine is actually fairly ancient: in Greek mythology, the god Hephaestus often created living machines, like the giant defender of Crete, Talos. In China the legendary artificer Yan Shi is said to have created flying mechanical reproductions of birds for the Emperor.

But there’s one particular, much more recent automaton that deserves to be discussed. The so-called Turk.

GUERRILLA

You must  have noticed I’m truly interested in history and among historical events, wars and conflicts have always fascinated me. Today  I would like to tell you about  a form of warfare used by small armies to destroy big ones:  Guerrilla.

Guerrilla is a kind of warfare consisting in small skirmishes between a big army and a small, mobile and often non-professional army which harass his opponent using his  knowledge of the territory  to make the other unable to fight. It is also called “hit and run” warfare.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER ... GUY FAWKES NIGHT

 

We all have happened to see the mask below: pale skin, goatee, a thin moustache. But do you know where it comes from? That is Guy Fawkes’s mask.

·     WHO  WAS GUY FAWKES?

Guy Fawkes was originally from Yorkshire, he was born in 1570 and he was raised by his catholic stepfather. In the period in which he was born ,  Queen Elizabeth I consolidated the autonomy of the Anglican church from the Catholic Church of Rome and with her Britain became one of the most important powers in Europe.

CHINA: REEDUCATION CAMPS OR CONCENTRATION CAMPS? THE PERSECUTION OF THE UYGHUR MINORITY

The other day  while I was scrolling the home page  of YouTube, I came across a video that struck me. It was about some facilities discovered in China thanks to satellite images. The surprising thing is that from above you can see the shadows of fences , a surrounding wall and some watchtowers . But what are exactly these facilities? To understand it we have to know  first the history of the Uyghurs .

The  Uyghurs  are a Turkic ethnic minority which lives mainly in Xingjian province of northwestern China.They are closer to the capital of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan than to Beijing. They are also closer culturally to those Turkic groups than they are to the Han ( China's ethnic majority ) .

5 (+1) CURIOSITIES ABOUT NAPOLEON “BONAPARTE”

On this day in 1815 Napoleon was defeated by the British at Waterloo.  Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the cheekiest and most reckless emperors in history. He rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars, becoming in short time so powerful as to crown himself emperor of France, and so important as to condition the whole of Europe even after its fall. However, also such a charismatic figure hid  more or less bizarre facts.

UCHRONIA

Now everyone who’s reading this post would be thinking: “What does Uchronia mean?

                Uchronia is a parallel course of history different from the original one only for a single event which takes a different course.

                This word comes from the Greek words  “ou” (no) and “kronos” (time).

                There are a lot of examples of these parallel universes: the most famous is the one in which Nazi Germany wins the second World War. The famous novel “The Man in the High Castle” imagines this specific Uchronia.

THE NINE LIVES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

                                                                          

Alexander the Great is undoubtedly  one of the greatest generals in history. In a ten years’ time he was able to create one of the biggest empires of ancient times, unifying thousands of people under his rule.  He was incredibly skilled. Even his enemies recognized his superior abilities. We all know that. And we all also know he was suddenly killed by a fever at the age of 32. But many people don’t know that during his life, Alexander succeeded in avoiding death many times. Today, we will talk about his “Nine Lives”.

THE BIGGEST EPIDEMICS IN HISTORY

Given this time when there is a lot of talk about coronavirus, this month I would like to talk about the biggest epidemics in history.

Epidemics have always accompanied Man's history. Some of these such as plague, smallpox or Spanish flu have changed the history of humanity for their demographic, social and economic effects.

Before I start talking about epidemics, I have to say that epidemic deseases can be divided into four families:

THE SIEGE OF MASADA

Hi everybody, I’m Francesco G. ; I love history and you must have noticed from my previous posts. Now, today I will tell you a story, it’s set during the famous Siege of Masada. I’ve written the story from the eyes of Faustus Hortensius Laevinus, a Roman legionary.  Enjoy reading!

THE WITCHES OF SALEM

                                                                         

Witch is a word that has been used in history  to refer to various kind of sorceresses, with various meanings,  depending on the time period and the cultural sphere it was used in. Today we usually use it to refer to a generic evil female magician, like the female antagonists in many fairy tales.

This way of seeing the witches come from the Middle Ages when, because of the centrality of the Christian religion in Europe, those who were considered capable of doing impossible things were called witches (or wizards if they were men) and considered followers of the Devil and, usually, sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Today we use the expression witch trials to refer to the enormous number of trials led against the ones who were supposed to practice witchcraft over the course of time.

THE HISTORY OF WEAPONS

I love ancient history. What about you?

Hi everyone! You know, I love history a lot and today I’d like to tell you about a side of history I find really fascinating: the evolution of weapons through the years, from the Prehistoric Era to the Middle Age. My interest in ancient history is also  due  to my favourite videogame, do you remember my previous post?