Leslie Kenton

I was very fortunate last night to have a telephone conversation with the wonderful writer and natural health expert, Leslie Kenton.
After a few years of retreat from the public eye, she has come back with several new and exciting projects. Our conversation was about Cura Romana - the amazing natural weight loss and body transforming protocol. Leslie will be my personal mentor throughout my own Cura Romana journey.

Leslie's new projects also include the upcoming publication of her memoir - Love Affair - due out in February 2010.

And another book - Creativity - due out in May 2010.

Learn more about Leslie at LeslieKenton.com

I will post regularly about my journey as I travel.

Isabella de Medici

I finished Isabella de Medici: The Glorious Life and Tragic End of a Renaissance Princess by Caroline P Murphy a couple of months ago but the book has stayed with me.

Ms. Murphy has written an outstanding biography. It is full of first hand sources, contemporary letters, historical facts, educated theory and historical speculation yet it never once reads as dry or pontificating.


I enjoyed the book immensely and will read it again for many reasons.

One - Isabella herself is a truly fascinating character.
Two - The Medici need to be investigated properly in order to gain any kind of perspective on them. Their reputation precedes them.
Three - I've been caught, like a few others, by a Google images search for Marie de Medici. Type in Marie de Medici and you will find this beautiful image.....

Only it is not Louis XIII's mother. It is Leonora di Toledo de Medici, only daughter of Don Garzia di Toledo and Vittoria d’Ascanio Colonna and cousin to Isabella and her brother Francesco -- who was Marie de Medici's father.

Leonora and Isabella became close friends and both ended their lives at the hands of their husbands...one a Medici, one an Orsini.

Read the book. It is dark but enlightening.

Francesco eventually admits to his sister in law Leonora's honour killing...

'Although in the letter I had told you of Donna Eleonora’s accident, I have nevertheless to say to His Catholic Majesty that Lord Pietro our brother had taken her life himself because of the treason she had committed through behavior unbecoming to a lady...'

He also gave his tacit approval to Paolo Giordano I Orsini's murder of the glorious Isabella.

Marie de Medici married Henri IV of France and gave birth to Louis XIII, thereby securing the throne of France.But her French subjects never forgot who she really was.

By Blood and By Birth - Always A Medici.

~

Louis XIII

In a post made below on Louis XIII, I've been fortunate enough to have been helped by LL who pointed me towards another stunning portrait done by Louis XIII.

It is of Charles comte des Cars and was painted in 1615 ~ the year Louis turned 14 and married Anne of Austria.

My thanks to both LL and Didier Rykner at L'Art Tribune who have shown me a side of Louis XIII that I had not truly appreciated before.

~

Ninon de Lenclos Quote

Yes, Yes. No apologies for...

Another quote from Ninon.

She was so very brilliant!!




“Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.”

~

17th Century Garden Pots

I adore....

17th century, France, gardens, garden ornaments.

And today I have all four in one place

French Garden Style by Ines Heugel

In her chapter about Terracotta pots and urns Ms Heugel talks about how in 1610 a group of potters came to Anduze near Cevannes and began to produce frost proof terracotta pots for use outside. They traded with Lugaria in Italy where the Italian art form influenced several of the French pot designs.

For almost 400 yeards Anduze potters have passed their secrets from generation to generation. Today they still produce the most beautiful terracotta garden pots.

Also - In 1620 another set of potters set up in Aubagne outside Marseilles where they used the exceptional local clay to make storage vessels for olive oil, wine and water.

Once again, Aubagne potters still produce highly prized terracotta ware to this day.

~

What Did They Smell Like?

An excerpt of historical fragrances used by the more famous of our ancestors.

ALEXANDER - Used frankincense and myrrh in incense. Violets. Had tunics soaked in saffron
AMYTES - Wife of Nebuchanezzer. Favourite spot in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was a bower of roses and lilies
APOLLONIUS OF HEROPHILIA - Best buys of ancient Greece. 'The iris is best at Elis and at Cyzicus: the perfume made from roses is most excellent at Pharselis and that made in Naples and Capua is also very fine. That made from crocus is most perfect from Soli in Cilicia and at Rhodes. The essence of spikenard is best at Tarsus and of vine leaves at Cyprus and Adramyttium.
The best perfume from marjoram and from apples comes from Cos.'
MADAME DU BARRY - Farina's eau de Cologne
CHARLES V OF FRANCE - Had lavender planted in the Louvre so that he could have lavender water made whenever he wanted. Eau de beaute...1370, first alcohol perfume. 4x30 oz brandy and 30oz rosemary flowers. Put in closed vat for 50 hours, distil in a boiler and give as oily bath for face every morning.
CHARLES VI OF FRANCE - Also loved lavender water. Had baskets of lavender hung in all his palaces to sweeten the air
CLEOPATRA - Anointed her hands with kyphi which contained 16 ingredients including oil of roses, crocus, violets. Scented her feet with aegyptium...a lotion of almond oil, honey, cinnamon, orange blossoms and henna. Ship made of cedarwood. One and a half feet depth of roses on her floors.
ALEISTER CROWLEY - The Beast - Perfume of Immortality...3 parts civet, 2 parts musk, 1 part ambergris
DIOGENES - Scented feet and legs only. Above would benefit the birds
EDWARD IV OF ENGLAND - Orris root. Several roots tied to string and dipped in boiling water to wash linen. Swete cloth
ELIZABETH I OF ENGLAND - Rose and musk. Gloves, cloak, shoes soaked in ambergris. 1. Rose and Musk perfume.....'Take 8 grains of musk and put in rosewater 8 spoonfuls, 3 spoonfuls of damask water and quarter of an ounce of sugar. Boil for 5 hours and strain it.' 2. 'Take 8 spoonfuls of compound water, the weight of two pence in fine powder of sugar and boil it on hot ember s and coals softly, add half oz of sweet marjoram dried in the sun and the weight of two pence of the powder of benjamin' Ralph Rabbards, her perfumer recommended water of violets and gillyflower water.
ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY - Hungary Water - 1370. Lavender and rosemary
ESTHER - As ordained by Jewish law, she was purified for one year. Oil of myrrh for 1st 6 months, other oils for next
EMPRESS EUGENIE - Wife of Napoleon III. Guerlain made toilet water for her with a lavender base. Named eau de Cologne Imperiale because she loved it so much
HENRY III OF FRANCE - Covered himself head to foot in amber. Also loved violet powder
HENRY IV OF FRANCE - Didn't use scent. Said to have smelt like a rotting corpse
EMPRESS JOSEPHINE - Loved rose, patchouli, musk. Violet. Napoleon hated musk - after divorce she saturated his apartments in it! Napoleon would only let her wear orange water, lavender water and eau de Cologne. She liked mignotte, reminded her of violets. He sent her mignonette seeds from Egypt.
JULIUIS CAESAR - Hated scent. Said 'I'd rather smell of garlic'
LILY LANGTRY - Pears soap
LISELOTTE OF FRANCE - Hated scent. When found husbands love letters to his boyfriends, so strongly scented that she fainted
LOUIS XIV - Perfumed his rooms with marjoram and rosewater. Washed shirts in stew of cloves, nutmeg, aloe, jasmine, orange water and musk for 24 hours. (or with storax, benzoin, rosewater and musk)
MARIE ANTOINETTE - Rosewater, violet water. Hated spicy eastern perfumes and animal scents
NAPOLEON - Used Windsor soap(bergamot, clove, lavender) Rose or violet lotions. Eau de Cologne
MADAME DE POMPADOUR - Powder for hair....orris root and odour of violets. Gloves perfumed with neroli, lavender soap. Pomade for hair...jasmine, violet, carnation, or hyacinth or orange blossom macerated in hot fat. Always had hyacinth flowers in rooms winter and spring. Pot pourris of rose, lavender, clove, nutmeg, silvery oakmoss and powdered orris root.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH - drank mix of wild strawberry leaves. Placed pot pourri of orris root powder and roses in his rooms. Used strawberry scent
SOCRATES - disapproved of scent
MADAME TALLIEN - Marie Antoinette's lady. Bathed in crushed strawberry and perfumed milk
HENRIETTA MARIA - white lavender. lavender water