Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France

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The 02 November 1755 Marie Antoinette was born in Lorraine, wife of the King of France Louis XVI, known to history as one of the most capricious and frivolous Queens ever.
Marie Antoinette and her story still intrigue, as evidenced by receipts from the films of Coppola Marie Antoinette (2006), where the unbridled luxury and extravagance infinite are the main subjects.
Many curiosities and oddities in narrated films are not however entirely accurate and historically proven.
First, the most famous Queen of France was not fond of sweets and champagne, It states that Marie Antoinette was abstemious and a much more frugal than the husband; one of the favourite dishes of the first French woman was, In fact, cabbage soup.
Secondly, the famous phrase “If they have no more bread, Let them eat brioche!” that Marie Antoinette would have uttered about the starving people of Paris actually was never spoken. The origin of the phrase is uncertain: According to some historians it was uttered by a Lady of the wife of the Sun King, According to others, from one of the daughters of Louis XV. What is certain is that the unfortunate phrase was blamed for all the foreign sovereign arrived in France and was very in vogue even under the reign of Marie Antoinette.
Finally, in the movie space is reserved to the maternal qualities of Marie Antoinette. The Queen was a very present and loving mother; in the early years of marriage, When the couple couldn't have children of the heirs to the throne, the Queen adopted several children who had to live with her in court and educated as if they were real children.
The image that Marie Antoinette has left to posterity is that of a superficial and frivolous woman; the question we should ask, however, is whether this archetype of woman is not the result of an invention or if, most presumably, some characteristics of the young sovereign may have been magnified by detractors of the French monarchy.
The French monarchy she found her own term to coincide with the end of the ancien régime and the death of the Austrian woman, which took place on 21 September 1792.

Maria

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The commemoration of the dead

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The cult of the dead and visits to cemeteries became a habit common in the West in the second half of the 19th century. This new practice was facilitated by an arguably side, they believed the cult of the dead an element of civic-mindedness, the other by Catholics, that contrasts with what until previous century, experienced during visits to the cemetery a "rapprochement", a kind of meeting with their deceased loved ones.
In the 19th century was created the form of funeral rite is closest to what we know today: the introduction of rigid patterns of rites and rituals allowed him to accept the idea of death and create a sort of living with it, thus breaking the silence between the living and the dead which existed for centuries and exorcising the fear of death.
Demonstrating the demonization of death, Tomb architecture was modified: the graveyards as we know them today, just outside the city walls, were built in the 19th century, After the issuance of the edict of Saint Cloud (1804). l cemeteries had increasingly large and monumental spaces, rich of statues and buildings. Families began to visit graveyards together, and it is not uncommon for the monumental tombs were just the nuclear family as the main subject of the sculpture.
Another fundamental aspect that was created in the 19th century is the combination of death and female, that is the so-called death-female. This was identified with the "Angel woman", the one that accompanied the "good death" or dying herself for consumption; on the other, Instead, identified with the "femme fatale", the woman who did die, often for shameful diseases as syphilis.
The participation of women to death and burial has very ancient origins, but in the 19th century (and in some areas in Italy until the second half of the 20th century) It was very common figure of professional mourning, or the woman who was paid to cry and complain during the funeral of a stranger.
The omnipresence of the female figure reveals the bond between, more strongly than ever, Eros and Thanatos, the impulse to life and death: the nineteenth century was a century of transition with regard to the processing of death, and despite the "repression" by the Church, many rituals sprung or readapted in that time have survived until today.

Maria

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A pride all Italian: Elena Lucrezia, the first woman graduate in the world

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The first woman graduate in the world was an Italian woman who lived in the 17th century named Elena Lucrezia Cornaro.
Born in 1646, daughter of Venetian nobles, the parents encouraged in every way education since childhood, When Elena Lucrezia had already demonstrated considerable brainpower.
Nineteen year old, the girl decided to take vows but continued his studies in religious subjects and Humanities, with the aspiration to earn a degree in theology from the University — then "study" – of Padua. At that time it was not common for women make studies scholars, let alone pursue a. The case of Elena Lucrezia represented an unprecedented exception: in 1678 He managed to get, not with little effort, graduated in philosophy. Due to his condition of woman, However, He could never exercise the profession of teacher.
This extraordinary event could occur with the support of the father of Elena Lucrezia, real Maecenas of the era, but also and above all thanks to the keen intelligence and open-mindedness of the girl.
This woman, Italian pride and example for all scholars and not only, is the test of freedom and exquisitely feminine force: Although he was not able to overthrow all existing social rules (his degree was in philosophy and in theology not assigned, how she longed, but also the inability to practice the teaching etc.), Elena Lucrezia paved the way, until then never traveled, the recognition of the capacity of women to think and "intellegere".
Today the figure of Elena Lucrezia remains too little known, Although some have been dedicated Awards, plaques & squares; She was also given a crater on the planet Venus.

Maria

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The butterfly grenade flies higher

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Arrigo Sacchi has described football as the most important thing of less important things. This sport can stimulate blood and rationally inexplicable emotions but because those are sincere, tangible nell’ the human soul. There is a team that is broader and deeper emotional catalogue unequaled in the world and in the history of the game, the Turin. It is related one of the most delicate and poignant stories that cross boundaries grenade to settle in’ soul of all, or in no-time. The protagonist is a boy named Gigi Meroni, born on 24 February 1943 and died in 24 years on 15 October 1967. Did the designer of neckties and dabbled with paint, It was also much appreciated. But its popularity was mainly due to calcium. He played as a right winger, the number 7. He grew up in the youth system of Como, It was bought by Genoa where young established himself as the future in seria A. In 1964 It was bought for exorbitant by Torino coached by Nereo Rocco. Were spent 300 millions of lire. Wasted no time in proving his worth on the field. On his way to stay on the pitch was l’ essence of the pure game, fantasy, dribbling, shooting painted. He wore long hair for l’ epoch and that contrasted with the conformity of the coaches as Locksmiths. Loved to paint on canvas and design your own quirky dresses. His sense of nonconformity and rebellion led him to show up even with a chicken on a leash. He had a way of making that conquered, everyone loved him. Fell back to a beautiful young woman of Polish origin, Christian Uderstadt, who worked as harveycarter in Genoa. Unfortunately she was already betrothed to an Assistant Director of Rome. Don't lost sight and their relationship such scandal. L’ charges of concubinage accompanied them until her marriage was annulled. He lived first in an attic, then in an apartment of Corso Umberto I in the Centre of Turin. Beautiful and important goal marked like that all’ invincible Mazzola and Facchetti's Inter which still show on television. Also entered in the national. Sundays 15 October 1967 He played his last game against Sampdoria, won the grenade to 4-2. That day the striker Nestor Combin number 9 Torino had three goals. At the end of the race next Sunday in Gigi praise told him that during the derby would do three more goals. In the evening, in the rain, Nell’ Cross Corso Re Umberto with friend Fabrizio Poletti was run over by a car driven by Attilio Romero, among other supporter of Turin. Gigi died shortly after in hospital. He was dead the sportsman who had represented the years 60 with its sporting talent, art with his life only and upstream. In the history of Turin made of dramas and mysterious links things to mention the tragic homonym tying Gigi Meroni with Luigi Meroni the Commander of’ plane of the Grande Torino died at Superga on 4 may 1949. The boy in the 1967 invested Meroni, Attilio Romero, in 2000 He became President of the Turin. The following Sunday was played in an unreal atmosphere the derby between Juventus and Torino hot favourite. That Sunday the Turin won 4-0 with three goals just Nestor Combin, and the fourth goal marked the young Alberto Carelli that that Sunday wore the Jersey number 7. A final curiosity is a strange statistic, When the Turin plays 15 October or in a very narrow range at that time win or draw, never misses. The butterfly grenade, nickname dedicated to Gigi Meroni, fly. Just flies higher and higher into a different dimension purest allowed who was transfigured by the legend.

Hector Parker

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Winning the right to read

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Today it is almost a foregone conclusion that anyone can read and choose what you want to read. In truth, This social conquest is relatively recent, especially with regard to women.
In the Western world mass literacy was achieved only during the 19th century. However the percentage of female readers was very different among residents in town and country, and especially between capitals and the rest of countries.
The first readings that nineteenth-century women were encouraged to undertake were purely religious mold, what some lives of Saints and the Bible. Over time, however, women were attracted to types of reading so to speak more lay, and there arose new types of texts dedicated to women like cheap popular novels and cookbooks. The novels were exquisitely adapted to women, in turn seen as creatures with limited intellectual ability, frivolous and emotional. Therefore, the popular novel was soon associated with women of poor quality and of dubious morality, women who were carried away by the imagination and fantasies of passion of purely fictional characters, as, to name one only, the famous Madame Bovary by Flaubert.
This type of readings were therefore often, especially in rural areas, prohibited by the breadwinner.
With the advent of World War I the woman could change their social position largely because of the absence of the male figure, commitment on: many women had indeed the opportunity to change their lifestyle and the social environment, extended people exchanges and ritagliarono space to attend cultural clubs and libraries.
If you analyze the illiteracy rates today, There is still an alarming: According to data from the Institute for Statistics of UNESCO, the total number of illiterates is about 771 millions, of which 2/3 of women. This number makes you think and definitely puts an emphasis on gender, still present, and about the different possibilities of access to culture that have men and women.

Maria

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