José Guadalupe Posada, the Mexican cartoonist, was born today in 1852. Among his highly influential, satirical cartoons is La Calavera Catrina (‘The Elegant Skull’, pictured above) which has become a widely used illustration for the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico on All Saints Day at the beginning of November.
Pope Clement XIII died today in 1769. A modest man, during his pontificate he had the naughty bits of the Vatican’s classical statues covered up with specially manufactured fig leaves.
Alfred Delp, Jesuit priest and member of the German resistance, was hanged today in 1945, after being falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Hitler. On his way to be executed, he joked to the chaplain walking alongside him, ‘In half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.’
Giovanni Palestrina died today in 1594. One of the biggest noises in Renaissance Church music, he was also its saviour. Counter-Reformation Rome was on the verge of banning the use of harmony in church music, as mass had become so overblown. With so many tunes going on at once, no one stood a chance of making out the words. Palestrina wrote ‘Missa Aeterna Christi Munera’ to convince the authorities that it was possible to produce glorious polyphonic music and still articulate the lyrics.
Today in 962, Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in Old St Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The Pope had previously refused to do this, but after going out to war against the Lombard tribe, getting out of his depth and needing a rescuer, he had to cut Otto a deal.
Image: Wikipedia