BOOKS: Extract by Freya Stark on Syria

In its urban life, Syria was probably the most civilised of the Roman provinces.

There were schools everywhere and Syrian doctors were invited by Shapur to his medical school in Susiana.  The great jurists, Ulpian and Papinian, were Syrians, and the law-school of Berytus (Beirut) drew scholars from all over the East.  Antioch was renowned for philosophy and poetry, Emesa, Damascus and Chalcis for rhetoric, Apamea and Laodiceia (Latakia) for medicine, Palmyra for art, Sidon for astronomy; the list could be enriched and prolonged.  The best workers in bronze were in Sidon; a guild of gold-and silversmiths in Palmyra; and Diocletian's armament factories in Antioch even in Caesar's day, and Ascalon and Gaza wines continued to reach Gaul under the Merovingians: the international span of Syrian commerce was very long indeed.

The spread of philosophy too was largely Syrian at this time. The greatness of Plotinus (A.D. 205-262) was preceded by the Posidonius of Apamea, and followed by Porphyry of Tyre and Iamblichus of Chalcis; and after Origen---an Alexandrian settled in Acre---and the Greek fathers, and the School of Cappadocia, Syrian theology reached the farthest west with a Syrian first archbishop of Canterbury, and produced a series of Syrian popes for Rome.

Tempus erat

CLEARING OUT OF POSTCARDS... with apologies to my friends

TRAVEL / ART: Venice

The iconic church by Palladio on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore has Venice's most handsome campanile - a monastery of Benedictine monks, it is home to the Fondazione Georgio Cini, and has exhibition halls, which this summer, showed Marc Quinn.

His sculptures of people with missing limbs, paintings of great emotional impact.  On the quay, giant bronze shells - glowing golden - and some huge, very disturbing carvings of embryos carved in massive blocks of stone.

A quieter note is struck by an exhibition of Napoleone Martinuzzi's work in glass, executed by Venini 1925-1931 - wondrous, beautiful, immensly decorative, some huge and lustrous.

An installation by 
Not Vital: 700 Snowballs created by Alma Zevi is extraordinary - last chance to catch it this weekend - until September 29. 

To quote: ''700 Snowballs is an installation consisting of 700 individually blown glass balls which bear striking resemblance to snowballs suspended in the air...The installation creates a place of meditation, evoking the metamorphic, transformative and cyclical processes of nature".  

COMMENT: Medecins Sans Frontieres

Unless you do so already, please support Medecins Sans Frontieres....
a life-saving and terrific charity.

ARCHITECTURE: Kjetil Thorsen and Craig Dykers of the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta

The Oslo Opera House

 Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion

LIVING BY DESIGN: Claridges Hotel, London

When asked to refurbish some two hundred rooms, it seemed propitious to keep to the Art Deco style that predominated. Furniture of the period was scattered throughout the 200 or so rooms.  The tradition of lighting a log fire was encouraged, the original Art Deco bathroom fittings were kept intact or restored appropriately. 

Following are images from a small suite

FABRICS: John Stefanidis Archive: Strawberries

PEOPLE: Three Anglo-Sicilian siblings stepping out to a party

POETRY: Mr Apollinax by T.S. Eliot

When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States
His laughter tinkled among the teacups.
I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,
And of Priapus in the shrubbery
Gaping at the lady in the swing.
In the palace of Mrs. Phlaccus, at Professor Channing-Cheetah’s
He laughed like an irresponsible foetus.
His laughter was submarine and profound
Like the old man of the sea’s
Hidden under coral islands
Where worried bodies of drowned men drift down in the green silence,
Dropping from fingers of surf.
I looked for the head of Mr. Apollinax rolling under a chair

Or grinning over a screen
With seaweed in its hair.
I heard the beat of centaur’s hoofs over the hard turf
As his dry and passionate talk devoured the afternoon.
“He is a charming man”—“But after all what did he mean?”—
“His pointed ears... He must be unbalanced."

TRAVEL: Latvia

A Baltic beach

Pilgrimage to a Great Great Grandmother's grave in Latvia... romantic and mysterious.

Photography by NW / SP / CP

MUSIC: Glyndebourne

A coveted invitation to Glyndebourne - yet again - the last week of its glorious Festival of 2013.

I saw 'Don Pasquale' by Donizetti, lovely singing, a great conductor, the tunes a ravishment.

Founded in 1934, Glyndebourne is a unique national treasure and a triumph to this day.  Eviva the Christies père et fils and their consorts!