Saint Rose of Viterbo – anti-Frederick II propaganda alive and well

It seems that some people are still fighting the propaganda battle that once raged between Innocent IV and Frederick II, for instance this article about Saint Rose of Viterbo.

Little twelve year old Rose preached against the Imperial occupation of the Papal city of Viterbo. She even apparently predicted the death of Frederick II and kept the morale of the people going during the Imperial rule of the city, which lasted from 1240 to 1250.

I find it interesting that this article, which was posted earlier this year, is written in such partisan terms. For instance there is great shock that Frederick II wanted to occupy poor little Viterbo.

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Facebook page for Frederick II

*Frederick II and his falcon. *From his book D...
Image via Wikipedia

How strange is this! I just came across a Facebook page for Frederick II! Well I am now a fan. Some nice photos I hadn’t seen before on the page and he has 383 fans, which is probably more than he had in his lifetime! Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t allow you to indicate whether you think he is the Antichrist or not! 🙁

Has anyone seen any other cool Facebook pages for historical figures? Or perhaps there’s a few fictional pages out there? Does Severian the Torturer have a page for instance?

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Season of the Witch Website Updated

Some work seems to have been done on the previously threadbare website for Season of the Witch! Unfortunately the site still uses annoying flash players to slow down loading of content, but now there is more than just a brief synopsis and trailer video.

You also get sections on:

  • Story – the synopsis again with some weird sort of scrolling action going on – again not very user friendly!
  • Gallery – pictures each of which take about a minute to load because of the silly flash player!
  • Cast & Crew – also limited by the flash player
  • Downloads – wallpapers of different still photos and sizes

Doesn’t really add too much. I would be interested to see some sort of cast and crew interview or maybe a new trailer!

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New Gormenghast Book out in 2011

I hadn’t heard about this before, but there is to be a new book in the Gormenghast series published in 2011. The book was written by Mervyn’s widow Maeve Gilmore and is based on his notes. According to the Bookseller the manuscript was recently unearthed from a box in the attic of Peake’s granddaughter’s home.

Almost as exciting as the new novel is the news that it will also include previously unpublished drawings by Peake. I think I might read all the novels again soon in preparation!

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Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction 32 Now Published

Issue 32 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction is now available!

Here is the issue’s table of contents:

Editorial

  • New Friends and Old! Stephen Theaker

Newton Braddell and His Inconclusive Researches into the Unknown: the Conclusion!

John Greenwood

  • Miss Lavender Goes It Alone
  • A Diabolical Persistence in Error
  • A Hard Bargain
  • Sembawang

The Quarterly Review

Audio

  • Doctor Who 124: Patient Zero 31
  • Doctor Who 125: Paper Cuts

This issue also features on its flipside one of the final issues of Pantechnicon, a fellow zine that ran out of steam.

My story Bird Talk should be appearing in issue 33 of Theaker’s, which will be out in April!

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