WeRead
Powered by ReaderPub
A compact miscellany of short essays, anecdotes, prayers, poems, and biographical sketches that collects reflections on grief, maternal love, benevolence, virtue, taste, and historical episodes. The pieces alternate personal memories, moral aphorisms, humorous and touching anecdotes, and brief portraits of public figures, often framed as letters, epitaphs, or short narratives. Recurring themes include the effects of sorrow and joy, domestic affection, charity, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the consolations of faith and art. The tone moves between intimate recollection and light moralizing, presenting varied, self-contained vignettes meant to instruct, console, and amuse.
The first Clock seen in Europe was a present from Haroun Alraschid to Charlemagne; and in the fourteenth century, Dondi of Padua was raised to the peerage for making one of an improved construction. The title, “Marquis Dondi del Orologio,” descended to the eighteenth century, and probably still exists.