While the Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries was a time when science blossomed and revolutions in the United States and France occurred, it was also a time when millions of people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere.

It can be helpful "to think about the Enlightenment as a series of interlocking, and sometimes warring problems and debates" wrote Dorinda Outram, a history professor at the University of Rochester, in her book "The Enlightenment: Third Edition" (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

"The English term Enlightenment is itself a translation, coined in the late 19th century, of two distinct terms, both in use in the 18th century: the French term lumires and the German Aufklrung. The two have in common the idea of 'light,'" wrote John Robertson, a professor of the history of political thought at the University of Cambridge in his book "The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford University Press, 2015).

In this so-called time of light, several major ideas became popular. There was growing skepticism toward monarchs, particularly the idea of an absolute monarch one who could make laws on a whim. There was also growing support for individual liberties and freedoms. "The palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise," wrote Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in his pamphlet "Common Sense" (published in 1776).

These ideas helped spur the French Revolution (1789-1793), during which French King Louis XVI was beheaded and a republic was founded in France. Louis XVI and his ancestors had ruled France as absolute kings from the opulent Palace of Versailles, which served as an emblem of the French monarch's power. Skepticism of the monarchy also grew in the United States, which resulted in it becoming a republic after driving out the British during the U.S. Revolutionary War (1775-1783).

Early in this period people were also growing weary of religious authorities having strong political power, and the idea of religious freedom was becoming more and more popular. The Peace of Westphalia, the series of peace treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, saw a reduction in the pope's power across Europe. This reduction in religious power continued into the 18th century, particularly during the French Revolution. Additionally, when the U.S. became independent, it refused to adopt a national religion, instead stating in the constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This time period also saw a burgeoning interest in understanding and using science rather than religion to explain natural phenomena. Isaac Newton, Daniel Fahrenheit, Benjamin Franklin and Alessandro Volta are but a few of the scientists and inventors who flourished during the Enlightenment. Their discoveries such as advances in understanding electricity helped pave the way for the industrial revolution and the technologies used in the world we live in today.

The development of new institutions dedicated to the advancement of science fueled the spread of knowledge throughout Europe. And with novel, more efficient techniques for printing, disseminating information was easier and cheaper than ever before. For instance, volumes of the Encyclopdie published in France between 1751 and 1772 contained a vast amount of information and attracted thousands of subscribers in France and beyond. Coffee houses became trendy in Europe and, for the price of a cup of coffee, a person visiting a coffee house could read what material was available, such as newspapers and fictional novels making written material more accessible to all members of society.

There was also a greater interest in economics. Most notably, the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published his work "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" in 1776. In this pivotal book, Smith examined how markets work and was critical of mercantilism an economic system in use in much of Europe that tended to create high tariffs, therefore stifling trade between countries. Some experts consider Smith to be the founder of modern economics.

More people were also becoming critical of warfare and torture. The French writer Voltaire (1694-1778) spoke out against these evils in his famous novel "Candide," which was published in 1759. The novel's protagonist, Candide, experienced love and romance early in his life, then is forced to take part in a war in which he learns firsthand about the cruelty and torture it engenders.

While the Enlightenment was a period in which coffee houses, scientific advancements and skepticism toward monarchs and religion burgeoned, it was also a time when the slave trade flourished. Millions of people were enslaved and forcibly transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Many of them didn't survive the journey in the cramped conditions of slave ships, and many more died in the harsh working conditions they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. Voyages of slave ships continued well into the 19th century.

Even Thomas Jefferson, the former U.S. president and main author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, owned slaves, despite the fact that he was influenced by the Enlightenment and wrote that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence.

Outram wrote that part of the reason why slavery flourished was because of the vast amount of money that could be made from it. Plantation owners in the southern United States, the Caribbean and South America used slave labor to rake in the profits. Those in the shipbuilding industry responsible for constructing and maintaining slave ships also benefited financially, as did the financial companies that loaned money to finance the transport of slaves.

The First French Republic also had policies that contradicted the ideas of the Enlightenment. Between 1793 and 1794, a period called the "terror" occurred in France.

During this time, France's fledgling government was afraid that it was going to be toppled and therefore arrested and executed as many of its perceived enemies as it could find, which resulted in the execution of thousands of people. The episode put a blight on the government and helped pave the way for the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who would eventually become emperor of France.

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What Was the Enlightenment? | Live Science

What was the Enlightenment? According to a recent PragerU video featuring Israeli author Yoram Hazony, it was an era that ushered in two centuries of disaster from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars to the horrors of twentieth-century Marxism and Nazi eugenics by inordinate reliance on reason. As for the wonders often attributed to Enlightenment reason modern science, medicine, political freedom and market economies they are, Hazony claims, actually a legacy from religious conservatives who venerated history, tradition, and experience.

But is Hazony right? Does he accurately paint a picture of what the Enlightenment was, how it came about, or what it rests on? In a word, no. According to analysis by Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate and Greg Salmieri in a recent episode of the The Yaron Brook Show, Hazonys presentation fails to capture the essence of the Enlightenment and its development. Instead, Hazony distorts the achievements of Enlightenment thinkers by offering a parade of straw men, false alternatives and package deals.

READ ALSO: The Vice of Nationalism

The commentators urge viewers not to take their word on this topic or any other for that matter but rather to acquire a first-handed view of the subject by reading from the several recommended sources mentioned in the episode. For anyone interested in how to analyze complex historical movements, this discussion is a must-watch. You can access the full discussion on your favorite podcast platform or listen on YouTube:

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PragerU's Dishonest Explanation of the Enlightenment - New Ideal

We are living in an age where it seems almost as if someone moves the goalposts with every new day. Its like the reverse of Groundhog Day. You wake up and everything feels exactly the same but out there, in the digiverse, things have somehow changed. Theres smart this, smart that, smart something we havent even thought of yet. And somehow our brains are supposed to instantly process this exponential mayhem. Its mind-boggling. Literally. And everything is wireless and brain-rewiring can happen and lead to many things, including career enlightenment.

And yet, theres one thing that isnt wireless. And its still the smartest thing on the planet. Our brains. Our brains contain some100 billion neurons according to Medical News Today. That is some serious wiring. Those neurons are connected to every single aspect of our bodies. They make us work.

Like any system, overuse, new information, can get those wires crossed. So, how do we get ourselves refocused? Well, some very smart, untangled brains, have come up with a plan based on Neuroplasticity. In its simplest terms, its about utilizing the brains natural ability to evolve by getting back to the source. And when we decide to explore this, we can achieve career enlightenment.

Dr. Tara Swart, a world-renowned neuroscientist, medical doctor, and executive coach has published two books that enlighten us as to the possibilities of re-wiring our brains.Neuroscience for Leadership was her first book and details scientific analyses. Her more recent bookThe Source suggests that the things we all want in life; health, happiness, wealth, love are governed by our ability to think, feel and act. And if we can train our brains, and master our minds, we can be successful at whatever we want.

Some of the re-wiring steps at first seem incredibly simple. But if they work for you, you could find your life and career immeasurably enhanced with relatively little effort.

The Source, in essence, is your brain working as a whole. Your emotions, your creativity, your intuition all working together towards one objective, (or several). Its knowing how to make the most of things. Dr. Swart has suggested that unlocking the brains potential makes use of the law of attraction whereby positive thinking inspires positive results.

In Dr. Swarts thinking, a belief in abundance is a mindset that can shape our lives. We can choose to believe those good outcomes are probable or choose instead to fear the negative possibilities. Tailoring our mindset to the optimistic outcomes has the potential to attract greater success and happiness. A belief in abundance, can be infectious and regenerating.

This step is basically about wiring the brain to almost believe or accept that the dream or goal that you have in your life has, at least in your own head, already happened. In simple terms, by constantly, affirming to yourself that you have already succeeded, you are more likely to succeed.

We all understand the potential power of positive thinking but Dr. Swart takes this a step further with the idea that positive nurturing of our ambitions builds up our self-confidence and therefore makes the fruition of those goals more likely.

We live in a world of instant gratification. If we dont see instant results in terms of our success goals, we fume and get disheartened. Instead, we should keep re-visualizing our dreams and have faith in their eventual success. In a sense its simply accepting setbacks in life and not allowing them to turn us from our path.

We can re-wire our brains to the extent that we are able to align our rational desires with our emotional wants. Rationally, we want a job promotion, recognition, more money. We want career enlightenment. But what are the emotional goals here that work together; stability, protection of the family, safeguarding the future? When we feel the rational desire for more money, how much greater is our focus when we link that more money to daughters education fees, for example.

We all have the ability to better understand that we are not singular beings but are affected by the thoughts and feelings and behaviors of others, whether they are friends of family or work colleagues.

The above six re-wiring principles are based loosely on Dr. Swarts bookThe Sourcewhich goes into much more in-depth analyses of how we can start making those 100 billion neurons start working for us in a different way. Its worth remembering though, that, training our brains isnt limited to career enlightenmentbut can enhance our health, relationships, and moods in a very beneficial way.

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Six brain-rewiring principles that lead to career enlightenment - Ladders

Ken Baker, Ph.D., Columnist Published 11:14 a.m. ET Feb. 11, 2020

Ken Baker and Cocoa(Photo: Submitted)

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused. Baruch Spinoza

As mid-seventeenth century Dutch Enlightenment philosophers go, Spinoza would have to be considered something of a rebel. Expelled from Jewish society by age 23 for heretical views on the Hebraic Bible, his writings would soon enough also make the Catholic Churchs Index of Forbidden Books.

But an interesting guy. His writings on God, nature and human ethics would influence philosophical discussion for generations to come. A rabble-rouser to be sure he once refused a prestigious professorship saying, I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace he nevertheless lived a quiet personal life, making do on a modest income as a lens grinder for microscopes and telescopes.

And yet, I suspect Spinozas no inherent beauty or deformity in nature axiom would, for many, be sorely tested by a first encounter with the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata). Sporting a face that only a mother could love, the 22 tentacle-like rays adorning the tip of its nose constitute one of natures most curious, if not exactly beautiful to our eyes, solutions to the perennial problem of, Whats for dinner?

The Star-nosed Mole is a one of nature's oddities.(Photo: Submitted)

The rays of the star are covered with some 25,000 tactile Eimers organs, each of which is innervated by fourto eightnerve fibers. No more than two-fifths of an inch in diameter, the star is nonetheless much more sensitive to pressure and vibration than the human hand, which is only served by a total of about 17,000 touch fibers.

Neuroscientist Ken Catania of Vanderbilt University has played a pivotal role in uncovering many of the astonishing features of this small (about 7.5 inch) animals unique sensory system, which appears to be dialed in to finding and consuming minute prey like insect larvae better than any other North American mammal.

In addition to addressing how the moles brain processes the massive amount of information coming in from all those thousands of nerve fibers as the rays flail about brushing over every stone, root and potential prey item, Catanias lab has also shown the star-nosed to be the likely mammalian world champion at speed-eating.

From the time a ray first sweeps across a beetle grub, the brain distinguishes it from surrounding soil particles as edible and triggers the tweezer-like incisors to pick the grub out of the dirt for ingestion, as little as 120 milliseconds (one-twelfth of a second) has elapsed. This ability to devote so little time and energy to identifying and handling tiny prey items means the star-nosed can focus on minuscule but potentially abundant food items other moles would ignore as simply not worth the effort.

Moles may look superficially mouse-like, but they are not closely related to the rodents. (It probably doesnt help that the word mole sounds a lot like vole, which is another name for the field mouse.) There are only 42 species of moles in the world, three of which live in our areathe Eastern (Scalopus aquaticus), hairy-tailed (Parascalops breweri) and star-nosed moles.

Although all three species dig foraging tunnels just below the soil surface, it will be the Eastern mole that raises those maddening networks of ridged tunnels in your lawn. The star-nosed prefers wet areas along the borders of swamps, lakes and streams, while the hairy-tailed mole commonly frequents the soils of moderately moist forested areas

In "Mammals of the Great Lakes Region," Allen Kurta reports the Eastern mole can create its shallow tunnels at a rate of about 15 feetper hour. It first loosens the soil with sideways sweeps of its broad, heavily clawed front feet and then turns on its side to push the soil upward. Once made, it patrols the tunnels for earthworms and insects that may have burrowed through their walls.

In the colder months, all three moles typically revert to deeper tunnels, 10 to 30 inches down. But as of this writing, our winter has been so warm that the brown dog and I have been seeing a lot of new surface tunnels on our daily walks.

Back to the star-nosed mole for one last intriguing tidbit. Unlike the Eastern and hairy-tailed, the star-nosed mole commonly forages for invertebrates on the bottoms of streams and ponds. Amazingly, Catanias lab has shown the nearly blind mole hunts underwater by smell, first exhaling an air bubble over a substrate to be sniffed for possible prey and then re-inhaling the same bubble.

If youve got 3 minutes, I highly recommend the quirky but wonderfully filmed video True Facts about the Star Nosed Mole (with Ze Frank) on YouTube. You should check it out.

Really.

Ken Baker is a retired professor of biology and environmental studies. If you have a natural history topic you would like Dr. Baker to consider for an upcoming column, please email your idea to fre-newsdesk@gannett.com.

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Classical, OAE/Fischer, The Anvil, Basingstoke

Much about Mozarts final trilogy of symphonies remains shrouded in mystery, but we do know that they were composed in a concentrated, six-week burst of creativity in summer 1788. Although he could not have known these that these sublime masterpieces would be his farewell to symphonic form, the coda to the last of them, the Jupiter, does have a feeling of last words, its counterpoint functioning a little like the fugue in Verdis operatic swansong, Falstaff.

Conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Ivn Fischer had a point, then, when he invited the audience to think of these symphonies not as three works of four movements each, but as one canvas divided into 12 movements. Putting the evenings interval in the middle of the Symphony No. 40 in G minor might almost have worked, but only if Fischer hadnt diluted musical tension by encouraging the audience also to applaud each of the twelve movements separately. How many times in one evening should a conductor turn around to grin at the listeners?

The concert started well with the Symphony No 39 in E flat major, the least often heard of the three. Sharing a warmth with other Mozart works in the same key, and its richness enhanced by prominent clarinets, it swept along spaciously. The OAEs natural horns and trumpets had bite, and in the excellent acoustics of The Anvil in Basingstoke just three double basses underpinned everything with a firmly present bass line.

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An idiosyncractic approach to Mozart from Ivn Fischer and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Telegraph.co.uk

Does a practical joke differ from a hoax? It could be a matter of scale. Anyone can deploy a whoopee cushion, but it takes rather more as Virginia Woolf and others did, long before Ali G to kit oneself out as Abyssinian royalty for a 1910 state visit by train to the deck of a dreadnought in Weymouth harbour. There was nothing in it for them, but that hoax brought questions in the Commons. Monetary gain, as with the Hitler Diaries, certainly sours claims for hoaxes as a pure art form.

Where does this leave the humble,twentysomething mother-of-three Mary Toft, and those around her? The question is raised by Karen Harveys brief but amply detailed study of a woman who, in 1726, brought the Surrey market town of Godalming publicity it had not known before. Her story occasioned numerous contemporary publications, several unflinching engravings by Hogarth, a ballad by Alexander Pope and even aroused the curiosity of George I. Yet nowadays most are unfamiliar with the case. The details invariably bring a horrified yelp.

Put simply, Mary, a field labourer, gave birth to rabbits 17 times. Naturally, none survived. Word spread locally. A doctor, John Howard, witnessed and even induced some of these extraordinary productions, and attested to their monstrous veracity. The Royal Households surgeon visited, as did the Prince of Waless secretary. The King requested Mary be brought to London, where she was installed at a bagnio in Leicester Fields (as was). There, recumbent, she was studied sedulously by eminent doctors. Pamphlets and articles proliferated; of rabbits there were no more.

With Marys humiliating installation at the bagnio, the scandal really blew up. The publicity helped the owner with his cash-flow problem, while the city was torn by faction, and the press thousands of newspapers across England seethed with speculation and vituperation.

That December she confessed to concealing parts of various animals (including a hogshead) about her person before heaving them into the world. For this she was sent to the Bridewell and, pending trial, suffered hard toil and grim health before release without charge, return to Godal-ming and obscurity. This books title is the parish registers entry when she died in 1763. She had not committed a criminal act. But that anybody should have believed her story at all is extraordinary. Still, as Popes ballad put it: Eer since Days of Eve,/ The weakest Woman sometimes may/ The wisest Man deceive.

Harvey fills out the case fascinatingly, to create a view of the country and city in a shifting era. The local scene entails such matters as the decline in clothing work, the siting of the town clock to ensure that workers were not late, and the sandy soils being ideal for rabbits, a creature no longer considered wild but part of a landowners property, which here included commercial warrens. The consequence of this change in rules on rabbit ownership was bad feeling and court cases.

Everything took place against fears for the social order, and the Whigs and Tories would wrestle each other for control of the constituency for decades. Was Mary subverting the natural order? Was she perpetuating witchcraft in the face of the Enlightenment? Tall orders for somebody described by one doctor as of a very stupid and sullen temper. Pope claimed of one rabbit that a surgeon slyly thrust it up. Harvey convincingly portrays Marys mother-in-law as a main player in the hoax.

Mary had suffered a miscarriage shortly before the rabbit brouhaha, so her lactating breasts gave the hoax plausibility. And this was when the 18th-century body whether male or female, young or old did not give up its truths easily. The internal workings of the live human body were impossible to observe. Many still believed a pregnant womans wild imaginings could become imprinted upon her foetus.

Harveys prose is dry, but so is a good martini; and her extraordinary narrative will surely be savoured by a wide audience.

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How could enlightened 18th-century Britain have believed that a woman could give birth to rabbits? - Spectator.co.uk

Forget reappearances from the Master, the Cybermen and Captain Jack the latest episode of Doctor Who opted for a more deep-cut reference to the long-running shows past.

Can You Hear Me? by showrunner Chris Chibnall and a writer new to the series Charlene James saw the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends lured into a trap by Zellin (Ian Gelder), an immortal god who was haunting the dreams of humans, all to feed his beloved Rakaya (Clare-Hope Ashitey).

The Doctor remarks that Zellin isa mythical name, [from] way beyond this universe, with Gelders villain confirming that he and Rakaya are both all-powerful, ever-living beings, pitting two planets against each other purely to pass the time.

We immortals need our games, Doctor, Zellin says. Eternity is long and we are cursed to see it all.

He continued: The Eternals have their games, the Guardians have their power struggles. For me this dimension is a beautiful board for a game the Toymaker would approve.

Confused? If those references to Doctor Who history are lost on you, heres a handy explainer

Doctor Who Enlightenment BBC

Making their debut in the 1983 story Enlightenment, the Eternals are a race of elemental beings of immense power, capable of manipulating matter and creating objects out of thin air.

These amoral creatures, like Zellin, act purely for their own amusement, manipulating Ephemerals (read: mortal beings) for fun.

Though their origins are uncertain, the Eternals are said to live outside of time, in the realm of eternity and, in their first Doctor Who appearance, they participated in a race through space arranged by the Guardians of Time (more on them below).

The prize would be enlightenment the granting of their hearts desire brought to life, symbolised by a crystal. The Eternals copied ships from Earth history, fitted them with ion drives and sails to catch solar winds and used kidnapped humans to crew the crafts.

Though Eternals cannot be destroyed, the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion Turlough (Mark Strickson) were able to defeat Captain Wrack (Lynda Baron), an Eternal in league with the Black Guardian, by throwing her overboard into space.

Though they didnt appear in Doctor Who again, the tenth Doctor (David Tennant) referenced the Eternals in 2006s Army of Ghosts, while the witch-like aliens the Carrionites mentioned how the Eternals had banished them into deep darkness soon after the dawn of the universe in 2007s The Shakespeare Code.

The aforementioned Guardians first appeared in Doctor Whos 16th season in 1978, a series of interlinked stories which saw the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) on a quest to find the legendary Key to Time.

Transcendental beings who embodied aspects of the universe, immortal and indestructible, we met the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham) who represented light, order and structure and his eternal opponent the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall) the personification of darkness, entropy and chaos.

The White Guardian sent the Doctor and his companion Romana on a mission to find the Key to Time, its pieces disguised and scattered across the universe, warning them that the Black Guardian planned to use the key as a weapon. Though the Doctor was able to reassemble the key, he eventually scattered the pieces back through time in order to prevent it falling into the Black Guardians clutches.

The Black Guardian sought revenge five years later (our time), recruiting the exiled alien Turlough to kill the Doctor in 1983s Mawdryn Undead. Turlough began travelling with the Time Lord and grew fond of him, turning against his master. He threw the enlightenment crystal at the Black Guardian, who vanished in a burst of flame, though the White Guardian warned that his nemesis could never be truly killed.

So how does the Toymaker fit into all this? Well, retroactively

Before Doctor Who canon was all that convoluted, the first Doctor (William Hartnell) encountered the Celestial Toymaker (Michael Gough) in a 1966 story bearing the villains name.

Here, the Doctor and his companions arrive in an otherworldly domain overseen by the Toymaker another immortal entity, who forces them to play a series of games, with the outcome deciding whether they will remain his playthings for all eternity.

The Doctor was of course able to outwit the Toymaker and escape, with the character never making an encore plans for a comeback in the 1980s fell by the wayside when Doctor Who was put on hiatus by the BBC during the Colin Baker era.

The Toymakers origins were never explained then-Doctor Who script editor Donald Tosh later revealed that, years before the Time Lords were established in canon, the Toymaker was supposed to be a member of the Doctors own race.

2001 spin-off novel The Quantum Archangel suggests that he is instead another Guardian a la White and Black the Crystal Guardian. This has never been verified on television, though Zellins comments in Can You Hear Me? do appear to confirm a link of some kind between all three beings

Doctor Who continues on BBC One at 7:10pm on Sundays

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Doctor Who: Who are the Eternals, the Guardians and the Toymaker? - RadioTimes

An intricately inlaid table made for Madame Infante, the daughter of Louis XV for the ducal Palace at Colorno will be offered for between US$100,000 and US$200,000 Courtesy of Christie's

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In April, Christies will host a sale of more than 250 pieces from a collection of Dalva Brothers, a New York-based art dealer that has been the go-to source for 18th-century French furniture and decorative arts for 87 years. The dealer is closing shop.

The sale, including European furniture, Svres porcelain, Chinese works of art, clocks, and sculpture, is expected to fetch approximately US$5 million.

The sale, titled Dalva Brothers: Parisian Taste In New York, has a strong representation of works of royal and aristocratic provenance, led by a Svres porcelain gold-ground teapot and cover (thire bouillotte) circa 1779, likely made for Marie Antoinette or Louis XV I. It has an estimate of between US$30,000 and US$50,000.

Additionally, an intricately inlaid table made for Madame Infante, the daughter of Louis XV for the ducal Palace at Colorno will be offered for between US$100,000 and US$200,000, as will a Consulat ormolu-mounted mahogany and Angoulme porcelain clock, circa 1800, supplied to the Chteau de Saint-Leu for Napoleons brother, Louis Bonaparte and his wife Hortense de Beauharnais, later the King and Queen of the Netherlands. It is estimated to fetch between US$60,000 and US$100,000.

Highlighting the 18th-century French furniture from the collection is a Louis XVI pietra dura and ormolu-mounted ebony secrtaire en cabinet by Adam Weisweiler and supplied by Dominique Daguerre, circa 1785-90. The cabinet has a presale estimate of between US$600,000 and US$1 million.

For the past eight decades, Dalva Brothers has worked with such institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Palace of Versailles, and the Louvre. Private clients included Greta Garbo, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and John Dorrance, the former president of Campbells Soup.

While my family has been privileged to work with these objects from the Age of Enlightenment, this auction heralds a new chapter for Dalva Brothers, Leon Dalva, whose parents founded the business in 1933, said in a statement. It is our wish that these works of art will bring happiness to their new owners just as they have to my family and our clients over the years.

The family is closing the dealing business due to a variety of reasons, according to Jody Wilkie, co-chairman of decorative art at Christies New York.

Although the Dalva Brothers gallery in a six-story townhouse on East 77th Street is a warm, fascinating place to showcase their collection of antiques, the world in which they are operating has changed a great deal, Wilkie says.

Dalva Brothers used to be located on East 57th Street in Manhattan at a strip of major antiques stores, many of which already went out of business. The closing of the great treasure house is very much a New York story, Wilkie adds.

Highlights of the sale will be open to public view at Christies Rockefeller Galleries in New York starting on March 27 until the auction day, April 2. A second sale of the Dalva Brothers collection will take place at Christies Paris in November.

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Christies to Offer 18th-Century French Decorative Arts From Dalva Brothers - Barron's

One normally wouldnt consider North York a place where riches lie beneath the ground, but David Birnbaums basement tells another story.

Neatly arrayed, floor-to-ceiling, in crammed bookcases, filing cabinets, metal shelves, bankers boxes, document cases and bulging manila envelopes is a veritable treasure trove that libraries around the world would love to get their hands on.

Theres an Indiana Jones-ish vibe to pulling a dusty tome from a shelf, its leather binding cracked and decaying, or peering at fragments of a centuries-old Hebrew manuscript in a dim light.

Its hard and seems crass to put a dollar value on a collection this remarkable. Its worth millions, Birnbaum told The CJN. Were looking for a good home where it will be properly catalogued and digitized.

Thats easier said than done given the collections sheer size. But of late, two local scholars have embarked on a campaign to convince the University of Torontos Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library to acquire the storied Birnbaum Archives.

The collection centres almost wholly on two giants of 20th century Jewish thought and scholarship: Nathan Birnbaum (Davids grandfather), a hugely influential figure in European Jewry who died in 1937, and Solomon Birnbaum (Nathans son and Davids father), a world-renowned scholar of Yiddish and Hebrew who died in 1989 in Toronto at age 98.

The archives also hold the writings and artworks of two more of Nathan Birnbaums sons: Menachem, an artist who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944, and Uriel, a writer and artist who died in 1956.

A stones throw from David Birnbaums house lie the papers and vast writings of his late brother Eleazar Birnbaum, an expert in Arabic, Persian and Turkish who taught at the University of Toronto and died last October at the age of 89.

Theres more: Eleazars and Davids brother, Jacob, was a key founder of the movement struggling on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the 1960s.

By any measure, this was a productive family.

Yes, they were all very prolific, understated David, who trained as an architect and worked as an environmental planner for the Ontario government. Hes curated the archives for 31 years, and now, at age 86, agrees its time for a permanent home where their contents could be preserved and studied.

Asked the size of the archive, which is spread out on two floors of his unassuming house, David sits back in his kitchen chair and thinks. It amounts, he said, to 5,200 letters, between 50,000 and 60,000 papers, documents and manuscripts, and some 3,000 books, which have been meticulously catalogued by whether they are by Nathan, Solomon, Uriel or Menachem, about them, or mention them.

A further 2,000 scholarly books, some of them rare, are in Solomons library.

Among the letters are 18 carefully preserved, handwritten missives from Theodor Herzl to Nathan Birnbaum (the two would have a falling out), and an invitation to speak co-signed by Albert Einstein. The correspondence alone represents a whos who of 20th century Jewish history: Letters to Birnbaum from Sholem Aleichem, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Max Nordau, Martin Buber, and I.L. Peretz, to name a few.

Scribblings, photographs, newspaper clippings, poems, personal notes, its all here.

The material would interest scholars for years to come, wrote Prof. Naomi Seidman, of U of Ts religion department, to the Fisher Library recently. We would love to see the Birnbaum Archive housed on the University of Toronto campus, not only for our own research, but also for the opportunities it presents to showcase the remarkable lives of this singular family.

Remarkable barely begins to describe Nathan Birnbaum. Born in Vienna in 1864, he championed a spectrum of radically opposed movements, according to Kalman Weiser, a professor of Modern Jewish Studies at York University.

Birnbaums life was a series of progressions some might say a trajectory first, as a leading figure in the Zionist movement well before Herzl (Birnbaum is credited with coining the term Zionism), then as an architect of Yiddish-based cultural autonomy for Eastern European Jews (he organized the landmark 1908 Yiddish language conference in Czernowitz, modern day Chernivtsi, now in Ukraine), and finally, as a leader in the staunchly anti-secular, anti-Zionist Agudath Israel party. He died in Holland.

Nathan Birnbaum was a pivotal figure in Jewish nationalist thought and Orthodoxy, whose chameleon-like transformations mirrored European Jewrys responses to the challenges posed by post-Enlightenment forces, noted Weiser.

His whole life consisted of what a Jew was, David Birnbaum said.

Solomon Birnbaum was also a maverick intellectual: An Orthodox Jew who authored the first modern grammar of Yiddish, written in the trenches of the First World War, and who devised an ingenious Yiddish spelling system that was introduced in Orthodox schools in Poland in the 1930s.

After fleeing to England in 1933, he became an expert in Hebrew paleography (the study of ancient writing systems and deciphering historical manuscripts) and epigraphy (the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions.)

In 1947, he was able to date the Dead Sea Scrolls accurately by studying their scripts well before radiocarbon dating.

He came to Toronto to join his sons in 1970 and spent his remaining decades continuing his research into the evolution of the Hebrew alphabet, and lesser-known Jewish languages, such as Ladino, Bukharic (spoken in central Asia) and Yevanic (in Greece).

The output of father and son was staggering; it seems as though they saved every scrap of paper in their lives. How it all survived the Holocaust is another conversation.

The depth and importance of this archive cannot be easily exaggerated, noted the American scholar Jess Olson in his 2013 biography of Nathan Birnbaum.

The archives are indeed a big deal, said Weiser, who also favours their acquisition by U of Ts Fisher Library. Its the ideal place.

But essentially, it all comes down to money. A benefactor is needed to purchase the collection and donate it.

For Birnbaum, the treasure obviously strikes close to home. Rather than a dry impersonal historical record of well over 100 years of European Jewish history, he said, the archive reflects the experiences of those who actually lived that history.

Read more here:
A treasure trove of Jewish history is sitting in a North York basement - Canadian Jewish News

Beethovens music has a knack for embedding itself in our DNA. If the human brain came hardwired with a pre-set music library, his greatest hits likely loom atop that short list. With a limitless legacy and a persona bolstered by melodic achievements of legends echelons, it makes sense why the University of Houston is observing the 250th anniversary of the composers birth. Set to begin on February 17, UHs Moores School of Music will welcome internationally acclaimed guest artists, scholars, and panelists to Beethoven 250 UH 2020, a two week long festival devoted to Beethovens sestercentennial.

I think these moments give us a chance to come together as a community and to celebrate the greatness of human achievements, says Dr. Courtney Crappell, Director of the Moores School and Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at UH.

For the Houston community, we want people to be on our campus to experience it with us. Of course at [Moores] we are focused on our students experience. So for us to put this together on our campus, especially for the students who are with us right now at this moment in history...it gives us a chance to curate an experience for our students thats going to change them forever, says Crappell.

The festival will house residencies from the internationally heralded ensemble Formosa Quartet, and Hungarian violinist Kristf Barti, whose performances of Beethovens Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 61, in which he simultaneously plays the piece while conducting the orchestra from his violin (a feat he will repeat at his February 29 UH concert appearance) have garnered critical praise. Each week-long residency will include open rehearsals, masterclasses, and concerts open to both Moores students and the general public.

Im working to bring top musicians from all over the world to the school of music anytime we can do it, and every time we have the opportunity to do it, says Dr. Andrew Davis, Founding Dean of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts (home to the Moores School). He says that when he reached out to these artists, it was with only the festivals concept; the artists, in turn, chose the pieces to be programmed at the event, a decision Davis says helped maintain a collaborative spirit.

Im kind of a fan of letting the artist be the artist and not totally dictating what theyre going to do. So I give them the concept and let them go to work and theyve been really responsive. I think they put together a super exciting series of programs, says Davis of the performance calendar stacked with sonatas, chamber music, and the composers third symphony, the Eroica. Its enough to make any Houstonians Beethoven-loving heart skip a beat.

In curating the festivals lineup of guest artists, Davis prioritized the students musical needs, stressing the importance of these artists interacting with some of UHs most musically inclined Coogs.

We would not bring them to the school if we weren't confident that they would impact the students in a positive way. We're not going to bring people to the school who just have no interest in teaching and no interest in interacting with students and making an impact. We're going to invite people we know love students and love the teaching aspect of what they do. These big events are an opportunity to bring people like that to the school of music and simultaneously make a wider impact in the community because there's something here for everyone whether you're a scholar, a musician, a professional, an amateur, or just a fan of the music of Beethoven, it'll be a great two weeks for every one of those audiences, says Davis.

As UH maintains its influence as a research university, Davis wanted to add dimensions of history, philosophy, scholarship, and humanities to the festival - something, he says, he deeply values.

I'm really interested in working across disciplines and I really believe that its not all about the music; it's about the study of the music, the interpretation of the music, and all of the ways that you can connect the music to the other disciplines in the university.

Beethoven 250 UH 2020 welcomes Formosa Quartet to the Moores School of Music for a week long residency open to students and the public beginning February 17.

Photo by Sam Zauscher

Beethoven 250 UH 2020 will host some of the worlds top Beethoven scholars, including UCLAs William Kinderman, in a series of academic conferences and lectures designed to appeal to both scholarly audiences and the wider public. Guest speaker Kinderman will be speaking about the political aspects of Beethoven.

Beethoven was struggling politically in a way that resonates not only in our era, but you can probably find resonance in any era politically about the freedom of the individual, and how does the individual express oneself with freedom of speech, the freedom of emotion, and the freedom to be who you are?, says Davis.

I think there's a lot of resonance and a lot that we can take from Beethoven and his struggles as an artist and his solution to these struggles as an artist. I think there's a lot we can take from that that's informative for the way we live our lives, the way we deal with politics, and these issues today. Honestly, that's why I think we all study history, that's why we all go to the university - so you can get an education. You don't study history because its some artifact. You study it because it's real, it repeats itself, it goes in cycles, you learn from it, and it influences the way you make decisions. That's why you're studying this stuff; that's why we're doing that at the teachers level; that's why we bring Beethoven back and we really study him hard, says Davis, noting the composers status as a great intellectual figure in the history of the Western world.

Hes the first one that interrogates it really hard and goes beyond the 18th century Enlightenment to explore what's inside of you. What's going on with all these inner voices inside your head? What's going on on an emotional level, or a psychological level, and how do I express that in music? The enlightenment is all about ration, reason, and logic; if you can't explain it, then you don't need to be talking about it. Well, Beethoven is interested in [that]. Everything that happens on a real, human, emotional psychological level - how do I get at that in music? He's really the first one in music, I think, who really systematically explores that at a really deep level. That's what makes him the first romantic, and I think that's the essence of what makes him important.

Dr. Courtney Crappell echoes Davis perspective.

There are some figures in human history that loom large, and Beethoven's one of them. I know that sounds very grandiose but I don't think it is too much when we talk about Beethoven. You think of how significant his works are, and you think of even the most popular piece, maybe the most recognized piece in the world - the 5th Symphony. You can sit and listen to that work over and over. Every time you hear it, youre changed. You think about what humanity has accomplished together, and that's a signal that you've got a great piece of art. Something that can be revisited over a lifetime without growing stale, says Crappell, calling Beethovens music a touchstone.

If you're looking at something that explores beyond or breaks boundaries, well, you need a reference point to see how they're doing that. Beethoven provides that for us.

Crappell shines light on Beethovens cross generational influence, informing genres like musical theater and musicians such as Billy Joel and Elton John.

The musical aesthetics of Beethoven are present in all of them. You think about the core aesthetics he plays with, whether that's metric placements, the rhythmic syncopation, the longer durations of harmonies, or the harmonic progressions themselves; you can look at a piece of modern music and almost compare it directly to the music of Beethoven and find sometimes, you just change the piano - you can just change the left hand accompaniment patterns - and it sounds like Beethoven instead of Journey.

Dont stop believing in Beethoven at Beethoven 250 UH 2020. The festival runs from February 17 through February 29. For a full calendar of events visit uh.edu/kgmca/events/beethoven-250/.

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UH To Honor Beethoven with Two Week Music Festival - Houston Press