Plenty of Nothing

Magna Carta

The text of Magna Carta was issued on this date in 1215, but Penguin didn't get the paperback rights until 800 years later.

La Décapole: Kaysersberg

Kayserberg in 1916. Source.

John VII

John VII, born in Greece, son of Plato, held the see 2 years 7 months 17 days. He was bishop in the time of emperor Tiberius and the second reign of Justinian II. He was a man of great learning and eloquence.

Inside St Peter's church he built an oratory of the holy mother of God, coloured its walls with mosaic, expended there a large amount of gold and silver, and set up images of the venerable Fathers on right and left.

He restored the basilica of St Eugenia which had for a long time been roofless and damaged.

He also worked on the cemetery of the martyrs Saints Marcellian and Mark, and that of the pontiff St Damasus.

He also provided images in various churches; whoever wants to know what he looked like will find his face depicted on them.

The Book of Pontiffs (trans. Davis), page 86. Source.

La Décapole: Sélestat

Sélestat Cathedral. Source.

La Décapole: Obernai

Source.

La Décapole: Rosheim

Dietrich and the dragon on the Church of Peter and Paul in Rosheim. Source.

La Décapole: Wissembourg

Maison de Sel, Wissembourg.

Source.

Joust by Sylvia Hahn

Source.

The Angel Stone

The Angel Stone is thought to be a remnant of the Anglo-Saxon St. Mary's Church that once stood on the site of the present-day Manchester Cathedral, and as such is regarded as the oldest thing in the cathedral. It was also the subject of the first half-tone photograph ever published in the Manchester Guardian, on February 15th, 1905. Source.

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government

Detail from the fresco The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena. Source.