Konstantin 312

Dear Friends
last Sunday I found the time to visit Konstantin 312 at the Staatliche Münzesammlung in the Residence of the Bavarian kings here in Munich. It is mainly directed to experts in Numismatics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numismatics that certainly appreciate the quality and the characteristics of the coins presented. But, in any case, the effort of the organisers to provide the visitor, through the coins and other objects of his epoch, with information about the life of Constantine the Great and the complicated reality of the epoch in which he lived is remarkable. More information about Konstantin under:
http://www.staatliche-muenzsammlung.de/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
http://ixoyc.net/data/fathers/502.pdf
Any comment from your side is welcomed.
Salutations
Giancarlo

Konstruierte Wirklichkeit - Philpp Lenard

Dear Friends
in speacking about radioactivity, the mind go immediately to known phisicists like Rutherford: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford ,  Bequerel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel
to the Mme and Mr Curie : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie and Fermi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi but practically nobody knows Phillipp Lenard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Lenard although he was Nobel prize in 1905 for his works on the fluorescence and radioactivity.
The exhibition Konstruierte Wirklichkeit - Philipp Lenard 1862 - 1947 Biographie - Physik - Ideologie at the Bibliothek of the Deutsches Museum helps to fill up this gap of knowledge.
The idea of the exhibition arrived to the organisers because of the discovery in the caves of the Deutsches Museum of an old forgotten box containing Lenard's original papers and devices invented and used by him in his experiments. Any comment on your side is welcomed.
Salutations
Giancarlo

Constantin coin

Dear Friends

I have not yet found the time to visit the exhibition: Constantin 312:
http://www.staatliche-muenzsammlung.de/sonderausstellung.html
at the Staatliche Münzsammlung here in Munich:
http://www.staatliche-muenzsammlung.de/museum.html .
However, it is with pleasure that I can report a private debate between
Alexei and me which has brought to the interpretation of the symbols
on the backside of one of the coins shown at the exhibition.

The naked person in the middle of the coin is surely a representation of
the god Solis Invictus (unconquered Sun) worshipped in the late Roman
Empire and identified by the crown from which emanate solar rays. Inte-
resting in his right hand a ball (the Earth ?) symbolic representing his
power.

The meaning of the star near the god is rather obscure. It seems that it
could represent the star Syrius or Canopus which probably would indi-
cate the cicle of the saisons.

The word COMITI, on the left of the god, according to the link indicated
by Alexei, identifies Constantine as Minister on Earth of the Solis Invictus:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=COMITI

The word PLN, under the god, according to the link indicated by Alexei,
identify the roman mint in Londinum (London - England) in which the coin
was manufactured and the date of the manufacturing 383 - 388 C.E.:
http://tjbuggey.ancients.info/mints.html

The word AV GG NN, on the right of the god, according to the link
indicated by Alexei, indicate the arrival of Constantine as emperor:
http://www.bitsofhistory.com/info/roman_inscriptions.html .

Any comment from your side is welcomed.

Salutations
Giancarlo

Verona - new Venetian lion discovered

Dear Friends
walking in Verona, near the bords of the river Adige, last Saturday, my attention was attracted by a bas-relief showing a Venetian lion I never seen before. The lion is shown in the usual or classical representation, i.e. with the book elevated and open. On the both side of the lion a coat of arms not longer readable. I remind you that the Venetian lions is a subject of interest of our M.Polo Club. If in your town or during your journeys you remarked Venetian lions, please let me know and if possible send me images. Any comment from your side is welcomed.
Saluti
Giancarlo

Verona - Statuary

Dear Friends
in one of my past visit in Verona I was amased to remarked how many statues are concentrated in the restricted space formed by Piazza Erbe and Piazza Dante. As can be seen in Piazza Dante, on the roof of the Lodge of Frà Giocondo o Loggia del Consiglio:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loggia_del_Consiglio  (in Italian)
are present five characters not easily identifiable. On an arc at an entrance of the place the statue of Girolamo Fracastoro with a stone ball in one hand. According to the tradition Girolamo let the ball to fall on the head of the first wise person passing under the arc. In Piazza delle Erbe the Roman staue popularly called Madonna Verona, the Venetian lion and the statues on the roof of palazzo Maffei representing pagan deities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Maffei   (in Italian).
If in your town exists something of similar, please let me know. It would be interesting to make comparisons.
Saluti
Giancarlo

 

San Zeno MInore (Verona - IT)

Dear Friends
It is not possible to mention the religious center of San Zeno Maggiore without mentioning San Zeno Minore. Differently from San Zeno Maggiore, San Zeno Minore o San Zeneto is a small church, practically ignored by the guides, still in Romanesque architectural style. In the interior of interest is the frescoes and the big stone, on a roman funerary ara, on which, according to the legend, San Zeno, first bishoph of Verona, used to sit and fisching during his meditations and religious preparations. Any comment from your side is welcomed.
Saluti
Giancarlo

San Zeno Maggiore (Verona - IT) - interior

Dear Friends
the magnificent  interior of the Cathedral proposes many subjects of interest. The frescoes, sometimes superposed one to another, with scenes and characters of the Old and New Testaments, the decoration of the altars (the lion symbolic represent the evangelist Marc and the bull the evangelist Luc), the iconostasis, the Trittico (three pictures) of the great Venetian painter Mantegna, the cripta with the petrified forest of columns each with different capital and the decoration of the main door. The statue of San Zeno, the first Bishoph of Verona arrived from Mauretania, shows a fish attached to his pastoral, this because, according to the legend, San Zeno:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_di_Verona  (in Italian)
used to sit on a big stone on the bord of the not far river Adige and fishing during his meditations and religious preparations. The images represent to you said subjects of interests. Any remark from your side is welcomed.
Saluti
Giancarlo

San Zeno Maggiore (Verona - IT) - exterior

Dear Friends
I am back from Verona where I visited the Middle Age religious center of San Zeno Maggiore. As can be seen from the images, the center is formed by the Basilica, probably the best example of the Romanesque religious architectural style in Italy, the bell tower and the Abbey. Of the Abbey today remains the tower in bricks with the rests of the balcon of the emperors, in which several German emperors of the Holy Roman Empire lodged during their wars in Italy against the free Italian towns ("Comuni") and the frescoed cloister resembling the cloister of the Abbey of Daoulas (Brittany - FR). Interesting the insertions in an external wall of the bell tower of a bas-relief of the pagan god Pan and of a sculpted Roman head. This time of particular interest was the presentation of the graffiti of the Universal Judgement found in the Basilica during restauration works and probably representing a work of wall preparation for a fresco never painted. Here are some images of the exterior of the religious center of San Zeno Maggiore and said graffiti. Any comment from your side is welcomed.
Saluti
Giancarlo