History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

Go check out The Renaissance Connection, courtesy of the Allentown Art Museum. It's a fun educational site. The timeline is really cool.

I'm currently writing a book about Catherine de' Medici. Catherine was a brilliant mathematician and avid astrologer; she and Nostradamus, aka Michel de Nostredame, were pretty tight. A self-reliant sort, Catherine learned to cast her own charts -- obliging me to learn about astrology as it was practiced in her day.

A beautiful, informative, impressive and fascinating site dealing with the subject is Christopher Warnock's Renaissance Astrology. If this is your cup of tea, please check it out.

Today the Posse Kalogridis is headed off to beautiful Santa Barbara for a medical and grocery-shopping extravaganza.

In the interim, please content yourselves with the glorious and educational smARThistory.org, which features two art historians giving audio/video lectures on masterpieces by the great painters. Current entries include famed Italian Renaissance dude Giotto's Lamentation and the delectable northern Renaissance confection, Campin, Merode Altarpiece.

Enjoy.

My current work-in-progress, THE BLOODIEST QUEEN, is based around the key event of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France. More than 70,000 French Protestants (known as Huguenots) were slain by Catholics in mob violence.

It all began on August 24, 1572. August is beastly hot, even in the City of Lights, and most Parisians have the good sense to hightail it out of the city for the better part of the month.

No one thought to do that back in 1572; they'd all been invited to the wedding of Catherine de' Medici's daughter. Paris was a tinderbox that year, brutally hot, a fact which no doubt fueled the sectarian violence.

By coincidence, as I've been studying up on the details of that vicious summer, my little corner of paradise has heated up to 105 degrees today. And it's only noon. Let's just say I'm glad I don't keep weapons in the house. And that I have a don't-discuss-religion-when-it's-over-eighty-degrees rule, too.

At least I can kill people digitally. I'm off to slay a Huguenot or two as soon as I finish typing these words...

The picture? Ah, that's Django the Wonder Pup, the newest resident of the Palazzo Kalogridis. Sure, he looks all cute and innocent now, but give him a few minutes outside in the heat, and he'll turn into a slavering monster.

...I'm no match for Elizabeth of Bathory. Who was she? Just a woman who liked to kill virgins and bathe in their blood. Seriously. She was a consummate sadist and serial murderer.

According to News for Medievalists, two new movies about Bathory are in the works.

Bathory is accused of indulging in year-round atrocities - in winter, punishing servant girls by dousing them with cold water in the courtyard until they froze to death; in summer, stripping and smearing them with honey to be attacked by insects, and often searing the breasts and genitals of staff with red hot pokers.

Nice.

For those of you who haven't indulged in THE DIARIES OF THE FAMILY DRACUL trilogy, Elisabeth of Bathory is featured as a main character in the second and third novels. For some reason, I felt she and Vlad the Impaler would have gotten on well...

Just to give you an idea of what my characters are wearing: here's a link to Grand Ladies of the 1500s, an album of images posted by the mysterious gogm1. This particular selection pertains to my area of interest -- Italian and French dress in the mid-1500s. Above is an image of a Florentine noblewoman circa 1540, an important period in my work-in-progress THE BLOODIEST QUEEN.

It's tricky trying to describe what characters are wearing without sounding overly expository, or modern. Take a look at the costumes being worn -- now quickly! Describe them in ten words or less, and make it sound natural and 1500ish.

Such are the challenges faced by the intrepid writer of historical fiction. I'm not complaining, mind; I'm just grateful that I can get away with wearing sweats and my husband's old t-shirt to work instead of the get-ups these ladies are wearing...