I am now recovered from the virus that struck me down last week. Thank you everyone who prayed for me. I’ve spent the last few days preparing for a job interview with a new client. This required quite a bit of revision of my skills, for the inevitable technical test. But I was successful. Evidently the “other guy” bombed the technical test, for they got back to me in a couple of hours, before I had even got home. So gainful work beckons in a week’s time. Sadly I shall have to spend much of that week haggling over contractual terms, but such is the nature of the business. It is my dream to find a client one day who does not attempt to impose an unreasonable contract. But in twenty years this has yet to happen. It will be back to dwelling in a hotel for four nights a week.
In the limited time available, I’ve been OCRing the 1845 French translation of Serenus Sammonicus. It looks to me as if Google Translate would process this into English quite easily. Indeed the Latin itself is not difficult. So I will carry on with this.
An email today asked me if I knew where the “pine cone” in the Vatican courtyard came from. It was previously in the atrium before Old St Peter’s. Before that … I can’t say that I know. Something to think about one day!
I have a little list of blog post topics that has built up over the past few weeks. I shall get to them all one day!
Wikipedia entry for “Fontana della Pigna” says that it was taken from next to the Temple of Isis, close to the Pantheon.
Thank you. I’ve also seen a suggestion that it came from Hadrian’s mausoleum.
That’s a lot of giant pinecones!
Btw, looking forward to Serenus Sammonicus.
I’ve started on Serenus Sammonicus.