Chapter 17 final curiosities.

Final appointment with the curiosities for chapter 17. Let's start with the aunties!

There are several different types of nuns and convents and each creed and order follows different rules.
In general a nun can be a novice for a maximum of 6 years, then she has to take solemn vows. Once they take solemn vows they are nuns for ever.

This tells us two things about the aunties: they are much younger than we thought them to be. They are definitely less religious than they wanted to appear.

What happened to the aunties was going to happen to the Papadopulos girls who didn't get married, eventually: Lio and Callista were in serious danger. Castalia was supposed to marry Pifo and God knows if Cassandra could have managed to get married by just following Pea's example. Now Lio was definitely going to become like her aunties: being a naughty naughty, groping nun!

Now clearly aren't there better things for girls to do than aspiring to marriage? Not in the XVII century. You stay as a spinster in your brother/uncle's house and you are not even considered a human being. You have no freedom, you don't have a say in anything and you are simply a burden too. Life passes before your eyes and before you know it you are dead and did not achieve a single thing.

You ought to praise the Spearmen  (Christopher, Will and Will - since Marco followed uncle Aristotle) for sticking around Aristotle all those years just to stay close to their beloved.

Maybe I should write a story about it.

By the way what's a Fraschetta? A Fraschetta is a peculiar type of Osteria with a peculiarity: it only serves wines. Nowadays fraschettas will serve cheese and dry meats with the wine but originally you were supposed to bring your own food there. So what Wes and Kes are having is a sort of... afternoon snack (and the aunties are providing snack from their own personal kitchen, their own food), it wasn't really a place where you would go and eat.

On the religious misunderstanding... clearly the dogma of Trinity belongs to Christian religions. It developed in the early stages of proto-christian religions to move away from accusation that stated that Christians were not monotheists. Eventually the council of Nicea (325 a.C.) established it as orthodoxy (as it did to many other things) and there it stayed.

The Holy Spirit, for Jews, is a different concept. It's linked to God's thought and it's seen as Divine Inspiration... it's not like the patriarchs of the Bible woke up one morning and stated: let's write the Book of Books!

No, they were inspired by God. (I am making it simple here, eh, it's a complicated concept to explain, because it's hard to grasp already!).

In this case Cassandra is thinking about the Holy Ghost (the One who got Mary pregnant) and Wes is thinking about the Divine Inspiration (the One who told Moses: go write five books!), hence the misunderstanding.

On Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit I received a few questions. Now... the stuff you find on the internet is rather confused and confusing. Go to the books. The way I have been taught, when  I was studying history of the English language was: some words entered English through Latin when the first monks arrived in Britain around the IV/V century (and around Saint Bede's times too). For example, when the first monks arrived and found the Saxons they tried to teach them the concept of Heaven. Now, Heofon in Old English/Saxon means Sky. The monks told them that Paradise is in the Heavens. So two words entered the language: Heaven and Paradise (one form Saxon and one from Latin). Then the folks found themselves without a word for sky... and that's where they borrowed the Scandinavian word for it. All words containing "k" in the English language come from the North. That's how Holy Spirit (from Latin) and Holy Ghost came to be together, but Holy Ghost was "official" and more used in higher level English. In a way when Holy Spirit entered officially the English language in the XVIII century (if I remember this correctly), it did not come from the outside, it came from below, from the poor people.

"A true gentleman always carries two kerchiefs, one for himself and one for the ladies in distress!"  it's good manners.

This gentleman carries his kerchief folded. How polite is that?
From one to ten... plus one hundred!

So far everything about Martin has been proper and gentleman-like.
His hankie makes no difference.

This is Allegra, the contest winner.

Finally, as promised, she makes her appearance in the comic and even say a line.

I hope Kanako is satisfied with the way I drew her.
Anyway for the rest of the contestants... stay tuned because I have a little surprise in store for you too in chapter 18. :D

Bologna (yes, play on words with the fact it was baloney too ha ha ha)... is the oldest University in the World! It was established in 1088 and is still considered one of the best Universities in the World.

(I did not go there to study though, mine is the tenth oldest University in the World: Siena; I still have my 750th anniversary t-shirt from 1990! *_*).

So from what Martin tells us he was there to study law (maybe hoping to become a priest, and a high hierarchy one!), Wes was studying medicine and Kane was studying art.

Martin, coming from a good family, definitely sounds in the right place... but how on Earth did the pirate Balthasar and his doctor get there?

I guess there will be a special about this too... ha ha ha. So stay tuned.

p.s. the guy Wes studied under, Malpighi, was a great botanist as well (hence the doc's interest in perfumes and other things) and was also accused quite often of not being... very orthodox.
I think by then Kane was jumping from bottega to bottega (artists shops) but mostly would study under the Guercino.

Il Pirata Baldassarre - capitolo 17 FINE

Stasera issuu non coopera ma noi ci proviamo lo stesso a mettere su l'update. Mi fornisce solo il codice generico per l'embed e non lo specifico per blogger. Mah, speriamo funzioni... magari stasera gli gira così e domani va.

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Scusate l'ultima pagina era in inglese, l'ho sistemata e grazie infinite per la segnalazione! :D

Chapter 17 curiosities

 Not that many curiosities this week as I did not receive any particular question.

Except for these two panels regarding: how comes Pea does not see Martin and Martin does not see Pea?

Well, as stated in the second panel it's a problem of eye level.

If somebody is taller then your eye level it's very difficult to spot just as much as if he/she were shorter.

 Because humans belong to predatorial species the eyes are right in the front (as a vegetarian I should have eyes to the side of my head like Rose hahahaah). Looking up or down is not something we do naturally.

So unless we do have a member of our family who is particularly tall or short we never get into the habit of looking outside of a certain cone of vision that would cover a total of 60 degrees per eye but you also have to calculate the distance which will establish as well the boundaries of your peripheral vision. In this case, for Martin, since he is looking above eye level the straight line also represent the bottom limit of his peripheral vision.

Now there is something like 30 to 32 cm difference between Pea and Martin and let me tell you, personal experience, tall guys are not easily spotted by very short people (I always get lost in crowds because I am easily distracted... you know how I find my friends? I look at feet).

Porchetta it's a typical Central Italian dish.
It's basically roasted boneless pork with black pepper.

Usually found in fairs, can be sliced off and used to make panini.

Some times, for display, you see the head of the pig still attached to it.

I was never very fond of it but diets in the past were more meat based than today and definitely more used to strong flavors.

I think somebody asked if fickle is on a leash. Yup, it has a little chain attached to Kane's wrist. When Kane leave him behind, like in the bagno's room, he would perch him up somewhere but tie his little silver chain to something heavy.

Il Pirata Baldassarre - capitolo 17 C

E' l'ultimo post per quest'anno, vi rendete conto? Ci rivedremo nuovamente nel 2012! Incredibbboli! Buona lettura! :D

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Chapter 17 curiosities food and love

Pea spent many hours getting ready for her date. She started the night before... curler her hair (has no irons so I think she is using ribbons) and pinches her cheeks for blush... now when it comes to gloss she either bought some or she borrowed from Kes.

 I tend to propend for this second option as, I noticed, Kes is wearing some lipgloss too. I doubt they look anything like the petroleum jelly thing we use today. But why a natural look instead of a real makeup?  Well, a complete make up was frowned upon in the XVII century, the natural look was in and an artificial look with lipstick might lead people to think that the lady... might not be a lady after all.

Sea urchins used to be easier to find when I was a kid (you had to be careful where you stepped when you went to the beach - and we are not talking sandy beach, we are talking those nice rocky places with lots of life and a reef where you either step down in the water or jump into it and it's already 6 meters deep).


 Well, when I was a kid sea horses used to come very close to the shore too.





Lots of that beautiful stuff is dead now and I eating seafood has become kinda dangerous. But when I was a kid, my auntie would dive in the waters and get me sea urchins, cut them open and feed them to me with a spoon: and that was my afternoon snack.

A common way to eat Sea urchins in Italy, nowadays, would be to eat them with pasta... making a tomato sauce with it.

But the most traditional places would still give you break and lemon and ask you to eat them up raw, on bread.  That's what Kane and Castalia are doing.

If in season they'd be nice and full, but since we are approaching fall in the story, Kane and Castalia are probably enjoying the last ones and same goes for the mantis shrimp... reason why what Kane is offering truly is a feast of food that is hard to find.

These are mantis shrimps and this is what they look like after you cook them. Yes, Italians can turn anything into a past dish.

Now Tiella and Lacryma Christi (this one is a wine) are easy to google but Wikipedia has it wrong this time around and list the tiella in the rice dishes (but it's not paella, that one's Spanish).

Tiella is actually a dip dish pizza made with either vegetables or seafood and it looks like this. 

Is it good? You have no idea! LOL 

Colors! What's going on here? Kes and Wes have switched again colors and have now entered Red Orange.

If at first Kes was yellow and Wes was purple... and this two colors met in ochre when they finally got together... now it's time to also move spiritually together to another level.

A lot of times you hear that red is the color of love and passion. Well in movies it's a color of power and it's merely an attention grabber... it is also quite cold as a color... but the addition of orange, that is used for spirituality, bring the concept of love back in the color.

Kes and Wes are undergoing a fundamental moment in their relationship. It's a rite of passage and transformation that's why they need a ritual color on them.

In case you were wondering why the marzipan eaten by Kes is shaped like a strawberry maybe it is time for you to meet la Frutta Martorana or Pasta Reale. Marzipan in the South of Italy is sculpted to look like little fruits or lambs (for easter) and they are quite cute to look at. Of course it is also good... in small quantity... because it's still almond paste, very very sweet.

Oooh, I could go on and on for ever on men and dogs in the XVII century!!! I took a course about it. It was amazing!

Now, when I decided to turn the doc into a dog person I knew, instantly that I was going to receive bad vibes from cat lovers. Nevertheless I decided to go with it (and let me tell you soon enough even Cat and Kane will tell a few things that will make animal lovers shiver)... because I don't believe in superficial depictions of character and I don't believe in absolutely positive characters. Everybody has good and bad sides to them.

Only stereotypical, flat characters present exclusively positive traits that makes them 100% likable.
A good character is not likable, though, a good character is loved no matter what because he is consistent and that should make it gratifying to read about him. Expecting for a character to be 100% always just, always right and not full of contradictions means... settling down for a lie. I won't lie to you: people are people.

Now... what's up with the doc and dogs? Well, he was born in the XVII century so, like all men, he likes dogs.
If you go through art history and check paintings throughout history you will notice how often the presence of a dog is shown particularly in family pictures.

A good man always had a good hunting dog. A good portrait of a good man/wife/family had to have a dog in it because a dog is a symbol of loyalty, fidelity, stability and familiar love.

What about cats? No, let's please forget about the odd association of cat with witches (witches loved roosters)... have you ever wondered why female genitalia is referred to with a synonym for the word cat?
Well, yes, for german languages there is simply the coincidence that the P word sounded very much with the original word for vagina: puss.

But not for English and also how did French switch from pucelle (girl) to chatte? At one point the word pussie was used to refer to a woman, in general. Girls were pussie (coming from pucelle definitely)... and it was very well established in the XVII century so much that it gave birth to a typical sentence: let's go get some pussie - and that wasn't nice! It meant free love... actually not so free, you had to pay for it! (do you see where this is going?)

Coincidentally a cat was also a prostitute's favorite pet or it was so represented in art, as a symbol of evil and a symbol of prostitution. Since the middle ages and for a very long time, I mean... look at Manet's Olympia (Manet inspired by Titian replaced the dog with a cat!)

So dog fidelity/cat infidelity lasted for about... mhhh... 6 centuries or so... can you really blame the doctor for being a man of his times? Can you blame him for wanting and ideal of fidelity in his life?
I think it's quite admirable that he wishes so hard for such a drastic change in life: being a woman's man. What he is saying to Kes, by stopping her catlike behavior is: you are not a prostitute, you don't have to bribe me or throw yourself at me. In short he is protecting his lady's dignity.

His reaction is no different from Kane's reaction to the "kiss for favors" accident in the treasure room. Only instead of slamming the fist to the floor, probably because he knows Kes is acting in earnest, he shivers and feed her. XD

Now what about Kane. Kane does not mind Castalia acting like a kitty... and his brother acting like a monkey... and his other brother keeping a cow... and... come on he is a man of acceptance, he likes to empower people and make them masters of their own destiny (plus he has a weird theory about humans, you'll see).

He doesn't mind cats, no, but he is not an animal lover (let's face it: fickle is there to taste his food). He must have seen plenty of cats too in his life, that's why he does not mind them, let's not forget he grew up in a brothel.
His brother though... surely never meant to use the phrase "skinny cat" in a nice way when referring to Castalia!

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List of websites I've taken the pictures from:

seaurchins

Shrimps

Pasta

Tiella

Tiella
Frutta martorana

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 17B

Non sono tante, solo 8, le nuove pagine... ma buona lettura! :D

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Chapter 17 curiosities

Bombs with cream or bomboloni (also known as Krapfen in other countries) is a deep fried dessert - remember what I told you about deep frying? Super fancy! - filled with cream or chocolate or jam according to liking. If you go to Sicily you'd find a variation with ricotta cheese and chocolate or chestnut cream.

Now for Castalia, who does not know how to cook a proper meal, to take the initiative to go to the kitchen and ask Pifo and Quoque for help in preparing such a complicated meal.... it means she truly believes Kane deserve a very special breakfast... or as Pifo stated: women like to reward men when they do something right, by giving them good food. It's like positive reinforcement to proper behavior! LOL

Bombe alla crema

Sicilian Iris

 If foxy is calculating a route on a map it means we are no longer navigating coastal. Navigation is the pilot's job (although, at times, the captain would calculate the route himself) and it requires accurate calculations. If Foxy did not "take" the meridian properly he messed up in the calculation of  the longitude. It was a common problem, though, before the chronometer was invented (1714 if I remember correctly) to be precise in the calculation of longitudes. So it's not like Foxy is stupid, he is quite a good pilot, but... there's always room for improvement, now, isn't there?

 Kane was... spacing out while spaced out because he was spaced out and so he said he was... he is... he was...

The guy is not there with his head and while he is about to say something: I was a bit.. engrossed in my thoughts...
Instead of finishing the sentence he announces that is about to space out... spacing out... and gone! (Just like Cassandra closed her bed)

I am sure everybody understood what went wrong here - they went all the way the wrong way and in the worse way for both a man and a woman - and it was a maaaaajor disaster. This is something pretty humiliating for Kane too (maybe girls don't understand this part, although they totally hate it when it happens to them: what? That was it? You are done?) and he definitely wasn't planning it. Thanks to Castalia this big accident is turned into a small one (although she should be more affected by it).

This is still not the reason why Kane kiss and doesn't tell.
If you think about it if she is making him bombs with cream (and almost die trying) he really must have kept his promise to make it better.

Kane is usually composed in his reactions, except when he is mad and goes ballistic on people, especially after Castalia's arrival. Because his scary reaction is seriously scary he has a very strong control over people. He can go from super calm to very angry in a split second but we saw him change a bit and starting staring people down, observe them sideways, give them a grin, controlling them with a grip or with a word.

So because most of the times he acts either composed or scary I really wanted to show his true colors for once... a bit of weakness too. He's gone softer, whether this is good or not we shall see... but is the Kane we see truly truly the real Kane? Or is it this guy we just saw shake and loose it in Castalia's arms?

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 17A

Buona lettura a tutti, ecco le nuove 14 pagine che ci introducono al nuovo capitolo (nonché al quinto volume)!

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Chapter 17 previews teaser

Alright, I had not shown you previews in ages so....

Today I'll post a few of the coming up soon I am already working on.

Some of it is not inked and rendered as you can see.

Anyways you can start the guessing game! :D

Remember never to trust a smiling pirate though... XDDD

Chapter 17 cover

Alright, let's take a break from the calendar sketched and the voice challenge... (that so far has only one entry).

And let's look at the cover for chapter 17 together. With this chapter we enter in the 5th volume and we approach the ending of the regular story.... after which will come all of the specials and spin offs.