Rare books, manuscripts, music, ephemera…
13th December 2013
On the morning of 14 December 1825, a group of reformist Russian army officers led a group of about 3000 soldiers onto Senate Square in St Petersburg in an attempt to force the Senate to veto the accession of Nicholas I and proclaim a constitutional monarchy. But the senators had already sworn allegiance to Nicholas, […]
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28th August 2012
Just back from holiday, so I thought I’d write about a trip made by the Russian Imperial family in 1845–6, to Sicily. This beautiful printed tribute to mark the occasion, produced in Palermo in 1846 and combining words, images, and music (including an unpublished song by Bellini), was commissioned by Domenico Lo Faso Pietrasanta, Duke of […]
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