Status Updates From How to Fall for a Scoundrel...

Another lingering complaint is that Ellie had far too much of me thinks thou doest protest too much-of her own eligibility. It got old in the middle of the narrative and even older at the end. Bateman did not have to beat a dead horse

Another demerit for Ellie who to the earl of Cobham’s introduction to the ton refusing to wear her glasses. Does she chose to be blind because she believed it made her look like a blue stocking. That she didn’t have enough confidence in herself is a very sad thing, and has tinged the narrative with her cowardice.

Dolce far niente

Sweet idleness

Heteroglaucos

Thus far the book has been quite good with two tropes that I enjoy, investigation and rare books. A third now is entering with a gambling hall, so I’m very satisfied

Sir William Garrow introduced or popularized the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" (or "presumed innocent until proven guilty") during a trial at the Old Bailey in 1791

William Garrow (1760-184O) English barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations today

introduced the phrase "presumed innocent until proven guilty", insisting that defendants' accusers and their evidence be thoroughly tested in court

The gemstones that were used in the binding are also incorrectly stated in the book but I’m not gonna go into those particulars. Of interest is that certain jewels were used for healing and spiritual practices

the Louvre Museum successfully acquired the artifact for roughly €10 million. It returned permanently to Paris in 2018, where it is now on public display

In 2017, when the book was granted an export license to be sold out of the UK for £8 million, a massive national funding campaign was launched in France. Aided by a €5 million corporate sponsorship from luxury giant LVMH and over €1.4 million in public crowdfunding,

After Mazarin's death, the book left France around 1720 and spent nearly three centuries in private British collections—notably owned by the famous connoisseur Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill House and later the antique jewellers S.J. Phillips

Cardinal Mazarin: It later entered the legendary art collections of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the Chief Minister of France. Its presence was explicitly detailed in the meticulous inventory drawn up after Mazarin's death in 1661

1. King Francis I: Purchased the completed book from the jeweler Allart Plommyer in January 1538.
2. Jeanne d'Albret: The King gifted it to his niece, the Queen of Navarre (mother of the future King Henri IV).
3. King Henri IV: Upon her death in 1572, her son Henri IV inherited the precious artifact

• Precious Stones: The gold-enameled covers are heavily studded with 27 rubies and 24 turquoise cabochons.
• The Clasp: The binding features a delicate matching clasp adorned with a faceted rhodolite garnet (historically misidentified in some records as tourmaline). It also originally featured a separate jeweled bookmark

Carnelian Intaglios: The centerpiece of both the front and back covers features a large, oval, intaglio-engraved carnelian plaque, likely carved by the Italian master Matteo del Nassaro of Verona. One side depicts the Crucifixion of Christ, and the other features the Virgin and Child

The binding of this tiny handwritten prayer book (measuring only 8.5 x 6.5 cm) is essentially a piece of fine jewelry rather than traditional bookbinding

The book of ours that belong to Francis the first and eventually ended up with Cardinal Mazarin which had jewel covers is wrongly described. It’s covers were not beaten gold it was a sheet of carnelian surrounded by Gold
The front cover was Jesus on the cross and the back cover was the Virgin Mary and they were jewels everywhere but especially on the back strip and the clasp an enormous garnet

It’s page 112 and she has used the phrase he did her blood 18 times, heat of the blood 10 which means she’s using it an awful lot, that’s distressing, a literary weakness

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than Gold

Shakespeare, As You Like It

Plot are already determined, jeweled book of hours stolen from Bullock Museum to return to Napoleon. But an interesting premise and a more interesting Henri Bonheur

Extremis malis, extrema remedia

Desperate times call for desperate measures

A single magpie brings bad luck:
One for sorrow, two for joy

Callimachus was an influential ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian at the Library of Alexandria who revolutionized Hellenistic literature by championing short, highly polished works over traditional long epics.

“being a thief myself I recognized the tracks of a thief,"