It’s nearly Mardi Gras already, so it’s high time that I gave a nod to the Venetian masquers of old, who eerily drift through Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. For over half the year, from early October through Lent, the nobles of that city wore masks during the early 1700s. Cloaked, hooded and capering around in [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1179
French silk merchant Jaques le Saige was scandalized by the sight of men taking up forks to eat their dinner when visiting Venice in 1518. Forks were a symbol of decadence for centuries, used in the 10th century in Byzantium, and later adopted in Venice when the 11th century Doge Domenico Selvo married Constantine Ducas, [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=462
