WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.080 Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio I and today I 2 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:07.799 will be reading National Geographic History Magazine. As reminder, RADIOI 3 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.960 is a reading service intendient for people who are blind 4 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.439 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 5 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:16.800 printed material. Please join me now for the first article, 6 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:22.320 titled The Tragic End of Hypatia of Alexandria by Clelia 7 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:27.600 Martinez Maza. In eight fourteen four fifty one, a mob 8 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:31.839 of Christian fanatics attacked and murdered the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria. 9 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.119 That at least is the traditional story. But taking a 10 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:40.280 closer look, does a strictly religious motive hold up. Hypatia 11 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.079 reigned as not only the greatest philosopher of her native 12 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:46.200 Alexandria in the late fourth and early fifth centuries a d. 13 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.520 But also as one of late Antiquity's greatest thinkers. These 14 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:54.159 feats alone would merit sufficient preservation of her name through 15 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.840 the ages, yet this is not history's account. Instead, Hypatia 16 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:01.240 is remembered mostly for her earth murder in eighty four 17 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:05.799 fifteen at the hands of a fanatical Christian mob. Contemporaneous 18 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:11.040 sources recount the murder and detail the Christian authors Socrates, Scholasticus, 19 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:15.560 and John of Nikiu, as well as pagan authors including 20 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:21.079 the Greek neoplatonist philosopher Damascius, agree in their descriptions of 21 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:24.079 her death. She was forcibly dragged from her chariot in 22 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:28.400 Alexandria and brought to a church called Caesareum. There she 23 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:33.200 was stripped, naked, flayed, and brutally murdered. After dismembering her body, 24 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:36.959 the mob burned her remains. Other accounts state she was 25 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.560 giving a lecture when the mob found her, and after 26 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:43.959 taking her to the church, she was dragged through the streets. Cyril, Patriarch, 27 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:48.079 archbishop of Alexandria, plotted her murder and ordered it carried out. 28 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.560 Whichever version is more accurate, it has long been believed 29 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:55.159 she was assassinated by the rabble of Christian fanatics for 30 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:59.280 her philosophical beliefs, that is, she didn't support Christianity in 31 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:02.319 a world in world which Christians and Pagans were at odds. 32 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:06.599 But there's more to the story. Ancient Alexandria at the 33 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:10.560 time of Hypatia's birth around eighty three sixty, the important 34 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:15.159 cultural intellectual center of her native Alexandria was Waning, founded 35 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.240 by Alexander the Great in three thirty one BC. This 36 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:21.560 great city was the site of the Pharaoh's Lighthouse, one 37 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:26.159 of the ancient world's Seven Wonders, and the Musayan, which 38 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:29.520 included the famous Library of Alexandria, said to have served 39 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.000 as a training ground for the ancient world's best writers, doctors, scientists, 40 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.120 and philosophers. After Julius Caesar conquered Alexandria in forty eight 41 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:42.919 BC and burned part of the city's great library, Alexandria 42 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:47.039 began a slow decline. In AD three sixty four, the 43 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:51.759 Roman Empires split into and Alexandria remained in the eastern portion, 44 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:57.719 controlled by Constantinople modern Istanbul. Around this time, disputes erupted 45 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:02.840 between the cities. Christian Denys, one ancient writer, noted that 46 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:05.039 there were no people who loved to fight more than 47 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:10.240 those of Alexandria. Then, in AD three eighty, Emperor Theodosius 48 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:14.039 the First declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, 49 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:20.240 including Alexandria, mandating punishment to non believers. Tensions rose between 50 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:25.439 Christians and non Christians. Against this backdrop of religious and 51 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:29.599 political strife, Hypatia received an excellent education under the guidance 52 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:34.240 of her father, the renowned mathematician and astronomer Theon, who 53 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:37.520 taught at the Mousayon. He introduced her to a wide 54 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:43.120 range of subjects, including mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and literature. Early on, 55 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:48.199 Hypatia demonstrated exceptional intellectual abilities and a passion for learning. 56 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:52.240 She delivered detailed commentaries on the great works of mathematics 57 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:56.120 and astronomy that had been produced in the Alexandria centuries 58 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:59.560 earlier in the times of the Ptolemies three o five 59 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.879 PC to eighty thirty. However, it wasn't Hypatia's talent for 60 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.280 mathematics and astronomy, or even her inventions that had the 61 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:11.680 greatest impact. She would earn renown. Primarily as a philosopher, 62 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:16.439 Hypatia espoused a school of thought known as Neoplatonism, re 63 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:20.920 interpreting the ideas of ancient Greek philosopher Plato. This teaching 64 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:25.399 emerged in the third century a d combining spirituality in science. 65 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:29.360 It applied mathematics and astronomy to philosophy as a way 66 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:32.720 to understand the universe and the individual's place in it. 67 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:37.519 These scientific disciplines were all roots to knowledge of the One, 68 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:41.800 the supreme being from which all things emanate. While Hypatia's 69 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:46.160 philosophy was seen as pagan, Christians identified the One with 70 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:49.480 their God, and as such both Pagans and Christians could 71 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:55.120 abide this philosophical framework. Hypatia taught at the Neoplatonist's School 72 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:58.639 of Philosophy and drew large crowds of Pagans and Christians 73 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:01.519 to her lectures. She didn't appear to have been a 74 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.519 devout pagan ann didn't practice theogy, the use of magic 75 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.000 and oracles that many Neoplatonists saw as another path to 76 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.160 the One. While all around here Christians and Pagans were 77 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.959 involved in clashes that were tearing the city of Alexandria part, 78 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:23.480 she seemingly maintained a neutral position. Hypatia certainly remained distance 79 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.759 from the events that in AD three ninety one culminated 80 00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:31.600 in the ancient Serapium Temple of Alexandria being destroyed by Christians. 81 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:35.519 Other pagan intellectuals, meanwhile, were active in defending the great 82 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:38.959 Temple dedicated to the god Serapis, and even boasted of 83 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:43.519 murdering Christians. So the traditional view that Hypatia's violent death 84 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.279 was the result of ideological conflict between Pagans and Christians, 85 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:53.199 doesn't tell the whole story. Instead, there's another angle that 86 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:57.079 makes more sense. One clear thing stands out in regard 87 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.639 to Hypatia's murder. The act was highly ritualized, a feature 88 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.399 it has in common with the violent deaths of two 89 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:09.480 Alexandrian patriarchs, the extreme Arion George of Cappadocia, who was 90 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:13.120 killed in AD three sixty one, and Protarius, who was 91 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.879 killed in A D four five seven. Although the circumstances 92 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:20.519 surrounding each of the deaths of these bishops differ from Hypatius, 93 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:24.879 all three murders do fit similar patterns. The patriarch's corpses were, 94 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:29.279 like Hypatias, paraded by their murderers along the Canopic Way, 95 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.920 Alexandria's main thoroughfare. The victim's bodies were dismembered in portions 96 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:37.120 of their remains transferred to each of the city's districts 97 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.839 for subsequent cremation. It's interesting to note that in AD 98 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.319 three ninety one, after the assault on the ancient Serapium Temple, 99 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:49.279 the statue of the Greco Egyptian deity Serrapus itself was 100 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:53.480 subjected to the same ritualized violence seen in this context, 101 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:58.360 hypatius death could be interpreted as a premeditated assassination rather 102 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:02.399 than a spontaneous act by a bloodthirsty mob. It's possible 103 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:04.720 she was used as a pawn in the political maneuvering 104 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:07.800 of the moment, and there is one very clear political 105 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:11.879 standoff that fits. Hypatia became involved in the showdown between 106 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:16.120 two men who were both Christians, Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, 107 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:21.560 and Orestes, Alexandrius, Roman governor. Their motives at the time, 108 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:25.920 Cyril engaged in ruthless power politics to stamp out pagan 109 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:29.560 influences in Alexandria. He wasn't afraid to use violence to 110 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.800 achieve his goals. Hilso was involved in the expulsion of 111 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:37.040 the Jews from Alexandria following their attacks on Christians. Entered 112 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:41.639 the Roman prefect Orestes, who, in the Imperial administration's efforts 113 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:46.639 to preserve Alexandria's stability, had to count on support from 114 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:52.720 the municipal aristocracy, who mostly worshiped pagan gods. Orestes also 115 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:56.519 needed to avoid sparking opposition from the Jews, while garnering 116 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.800 support from the Christians who opposed Cyril and his violent 117 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:03.360 lias methods Arrestes, Unlike Cyril, needed to appeal to a 118 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:07.680 diverse group of people, Orestes turned to his friend Hypatia. 119 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:10.800 She was a suitable intermediary because of her status as 120 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:13.959 a philosopher and because she had stayed at arm's length 121 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:18.480 from actively defending Holytheism. She was well regarded by those 122 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:23.079 across the Alexandrian elite, who were neither agitators for one 123 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.800 side or the other, nor favored violence. Another aspect that 124 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:29.920 made Hypatia stand out was that over many years, she 125 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:33.960 had cultivated a network. Her contacts included former students within 126 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:39.159 powerful Christian circles, both in Constantinople, seat of the Roman Empire, 127 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.480 and in Alexandria. Cyril thus viewed Hypatia as a possible 128 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:47.240 threat to his hold over the city's Christians. The plot 129 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:51.679 to neutralize Hypatia, it seems that Cyril mounted a smear campaign, 130 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.919 accusing Hypatia of black magic and describing her as a 131 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.639 dangerous witch using spells to lure people to her lectures. 132 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:03.639 It was claimed she had enstared arrestees into skipping masts 133 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:09.080 and allowing non Christians into his house. Socrates Scolasticus notes 134 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:13.440 that as she Hypatia had frequent interviews with Orestes, it 135 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:18.159 was calominously reported among the Christian populace that it was 136 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:22.639 by her influence he was prevented from being reconciled to Cyril. 137 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:26.080 All these cliches, which have been used through the ages 138 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:29.879 to discredit women who occupy positions other than the traditional 139 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:33.639 ones of wife and mother, were intended to frame Hypatia 140 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.399 as a dangerous public enemy. Cyril couldn't commit the murder himself, 141 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:44.039 nor did he have to. He instead relied on his prabalani. Originally, 142 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:47.279 this group of lay Christians acted as a charitable organization 143 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:50.320 caring for the city's neediest people, but by the time 144 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:54.200 Cyril was in charge, the pirabalani had become more like 145 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.480 an armed militia in the patriarch's service. Although there is 146 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:01.159 no proof that Cyril ordered Hypatia's murder, everything suggests that 147 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:03.919 Cyril had much to gain from her death, and that 148 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:08.519 the peribalani did the deed on his behalf. Her assassination 149 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.679 ended the threat she posed to Cyril through her support 150 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:15.279 for orestes policy of tolerance. Her death served as the 151 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:20.159 breaking point between religious authority embedded by Patriarch Cyril and 152 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:24.720 civil authority embodied by Prefect Orestes. It was Cyril who 153 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:29.960 run the day. Hypatia's death, however, was not a defeat 154 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:33.399 for the Pagans. Christians and Pagans continued to coexist in 155 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:38.320 Alexandria for more than a century. Eoplatonism thrived until the 156 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:41.759 Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, encountered both 157 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:45.519 Christians and Pagans among its adherents. In the sixth century, 158 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:50.320 the director of the school was a Pagan Ammonius Hermi Hermia, 159 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:53.600 while his deputy and the editor of his works was 160 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:58.480 a Christian John Philipponos. After Hypatia's killing, no more was 161 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:02.759 heard of Orestes. Though the Christian leaders didn't eradicate pagan 162 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:07.440 philosophy from the city, they did crack down on secular authorities. 163 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:11.639 Hypacious story lived on. Her character and intellect were noted 164 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:15.519 even by hostile Christian writers. In the eighteenth century. Voltaire 165 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:19.080 wrote about her to condemn an over zealous church. The 166 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:23.559 Christian clergyman Charles Kingsley and of Victorian romance about her. 167 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:26.399 She is the heroine of the two thousand nine Spanish 168 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:31.759 movie Agoras, whose fictitious plot has her saving the Alexandria 169 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.960 Library from Christian fanatics. Her endurance in a patriarchal society 170 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:38.519 makes her a feminist hero up to the present day, 171 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.799 and she merits more recognition in history beyond the sensation 172 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:47.360 of her horrific murder hiding in plain sight. When Raphael 173 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:50.759 showed a draft drawing of his school of Athens Fresco 174 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:53.600 to the Church fathers in the sixteenth century, the bishop 175 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:56.759 allegedly asked him to remove Hypatia in the front and center. 176 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.919 Knowledge of her runs counter to the belief of the faithful, 177 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:04.279 he said. Rafael obliged, but in an act of unflinching deception, 178 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:07.519 he covertly moved her to the left, disguising her face 179 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:11.039 to resemble that of the ruling pope's nephew. But there 180 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.360 she sits, the only figure among fifty of the greatest minds, 181 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:17.720 staring straight out at the viewer, as if beseeching you 182 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:21.039 not to forget that she too belongs in this venerable 183 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.879 gathering of scholars, Or does she. Rafael never admitted he 184 00:12:24.919 --> 00:12:28.399 did this. Others claimed the figure as actually Marguerita Luti 185 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:33.080 Rafael's mistress, Francesco Maria de la Rovert, Duke of Urbino, 186 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:37.799 or even Rafael himself. Death of a God. The chain 187 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:41.159 of attacks that culminated in the Serapium's destruction in AD 188 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:44.799 three ninety one started when Christians began erecting a church 189 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:50.200 on an abandoned sight. According to theologian and monk Tyranius Rufinus, 190 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:54.080 workers unearthed the remains of Grotto's and ritual objects linked 191 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:58.200 to the Mithras cult. When they treated the artifacts disrespectfully, 192 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:03.639 Pagans became infuriating infuriated, sparking a clash that killed several people. 193 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:07.960 The Polytheius sought refuge in the Serapium and to prevent 194 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:12.159 an escalation of violence. The authorities showed clemency to both sides, 195 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.519 but the Christians launched an assault on the temple, beheading, 196 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:21.399 smashing and burning the statue Cyril of Alexandria. The appointment 197 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:24.960 of Cyril as patriarch of Alexandria in eighteen for a d. 198 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.919 Four twelve was controversial. He had not been expected to 199 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:31.879 succeed his uncle, so he made a show of his 200 00:13:31.960 --> 00:13:34.919 authority in an attempt to gain the loyalty of the 201 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:38.919 city's Christian community. Despite the opposition of some Christians, he 202 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.159 attacked Polytheius and Jews in the city, expelling or massacring 203 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:46.759 the latter in a d four fourteen Cyril was initially 204 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.039 backed by a band of monks from the Nirian desert, 205 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.159 where he had trained in an isolated monastic community. He 206 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.879 then used the Carabalani, who originally cared for the sick, 207 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:00.960 to carry out his acts of violence. He was declared 208 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:05.360 a doctor of the Church in eighteen eighty three. Alexandria's 209 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.200 greatest mind, Hypatia, lived at a time when women were 210 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:11.159 not given status equal to men, no matter how brilliant 211 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:14.519 they were. Yet this largely unsung scholar is considered one 212 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:18.679 of Antiquity's last great philosophers before the Middle Ages. She 213 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:21.840 is the first known woman to study and teach mathematics, astronomy, 214 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.840 and philosophy, and she drew students from far and wide 215 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:28.200 across the Roman Empire. Many scholars believe she edited the 216 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:32.600 surviving text of Ptolemy's Armaguest, based on the title of 217 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:37.200 her father's commentary on Book three of the Armaguest. She 218 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:40.279 even donned the robes of the academic elite, even though 219 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:43.960 men only were allowed this honor at the time. Michael Dieton, 220 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.559 in his two thousand seven book Hypatia of Alexandria, wrote, 221 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:52.440 almost alone, virtually the last academic she stood for intellectual values, 222 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.360 for rigorous mathematics, ascetic neoplatonism, the crucial role of the 223 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:00.320 mind and the voice of temperance and moderation, and in 224 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:05.799 civic life. Next, the poisonous price of beauty. Blonde hair, 225 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:09.559 of pale complexion and outrageously red cheeks made the fashionable 226 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.039 look that Spanish women saw it in the sixteen hundreds, 227 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:16.919 despite the dangers hidden in their cosmetics. Writing her travels 228 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:21.080 into Spain in sixteen seventy nine, French author Marie Catharine 229 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:26.440 de Humein de Barneville, known as Madame d'Al noi, recorded 230 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.840 her less than flattering impressions of the complexions of Spanish women. 231 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.360 I've never seen boiled crayfish of a more beautiful color. 232 00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:37.360 The effect of redness that startled Madame d'l noi was 233 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:42.480 produced by rouge blush, applied in staggering quantities elsewhere. Madame 234 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:47.159 d'l noi requotes how a Spanish lady took a cupful 235 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:49.799 of rouge, and with a big paintbrush. She put it 236 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.919 on not only her cheeks, her chin, under her nose, 237 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:56.080 under her eyebrows, and under ears, but she also re 238 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:59.360 daubed the inside of her hands, her fingers, and her shoulders. 239 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:03.240 But Madame del Nois was looking back on her experiences 240 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.159 of living in Spain. In the sixteen seventies, the final 241 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:10.639 years of what historians traditionally called Spain's dad do Oral 242 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:14.759 or Golden Age, beginning with Spain's rise as a European 243 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:18.240 superpower and its colonization of swaths of Central and South 244 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:22.080 America from fourteen ninety two, the Golden Age waned as 245 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:26.159 Spain's economic problems worsened in the late sixteen hundreds, While 246 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.399 the last in many aspects of Spanish culture, including literature 247 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:33.559 and theater, were lavishly celebrated. Traveler's accounts note how the 248 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:37.480 country's great wealth and power were reflected in women's appearances. 249 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:41.120 Richard Wynn, a politician who accompanied Prince Charles the First 250 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:44.440 of England on a trip to Spain in sixteen twenty three, 251 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:47.879 wrote that of all these women, I dare take my oath, 252 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.440 there was not one unpainted so visibly that you would 253 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:57.639 think they rather wore wizard's masks than their own faces 254 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:03.919 extreme makeopers. According to ural historian Amanda Vunder, author of 255 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.400 the book Spanish Fashion in the Age of Lusca's Yale 256 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:11.240 University Press, in terms of fashion and beauty, Spain was 257 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:13.160 going in a different direction than the rest of the 258 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:17.599 European continent. Whereas the French and English leaned toward natural complexions, 259 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:20.599 Spanish beauty was all about being the fanciest and most 260 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:24.240 elaborately made up. She explained, the Spanish court set the 261 00:17:24.279 --> 00:17:27.119 standard for the rest of society. By then, the wealthy 262 00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:29.359 were much more visible in public than they had been 263 00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:33.319 in the Middle Ages. Nobility and royalty appeared regularly at 264 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:36.640 the theater or hung their likenesses in portraits in public 265 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:41.279 spaces during festivals. The ideas of beauty they projected spread 266 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:44.920 down through the different levels of society. Everyone was putting 267 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:47.839 on layers of make up, from the queen downward. This 268 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.559 was a cross class phenomenon, explained Wunder. To achieve the 269 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.200 sought after appearance in Spain's Golden Age, ladies would put 270 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:59.680 themselves through a long and complex grooming process. They even 271 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.680 had special room set aside for this purpose. A kind 272 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:07.079 of boudoir known in Spanish as a togador. The term 273 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.200 was originally used to designate the cap that men and 274 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:12.720 women wore to bed, but it later came to refer 275 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:16.039 to the room itself. The togador was where ladies would 276 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:17.839 dress and take care of their hair and make up. 277 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:21.000 It was here that ladies kept their skin and hair treatments, 278 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:25.599 make up, and beauty paraphernalia. The box used to store 279 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:29.279 this beauty kit was also called a togador. Some of 280 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:33.000 these boxes were beautifully crafted. Inside, cosmetics were kept in 281 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.880 pots and bottles, and in the center was a small mirror. 282 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:38.680 Depending on a lady's wealth, the mirrors might come in 283 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:42.880 lavish frames of Indian ebony, stained wood, or even silver. 284 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:47.160 Beyond the pale In seventeenth century Spain and beyond the 285 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:50.720 ideal of feminine beauty was blonde hair and a deathly paler. 286 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:53.839 In Spain, it was a relatively common practice for women 287 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:59.720 to bleach their faces. Suleiman, a cosmetic made from mercury preparations, 288 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:03.079 was used for this purpose. Its chemical composition could do 289 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.240 lasting damage to the skin. Meanwhile, bleaches diluted to varying 290 00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:11.519 strengths were used to lighten hair, as Madame Delnois had 291 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:15.160 so memorably observed. The staple in the Spanish tuggador at 292 00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:18.799 the time was rouge, known in Spanish as color de 293 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:23.359 granada pomegranate color. It was sold wrapped in sheets of 294 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:28.839 paper that were kept in small cuffs called sarsaias. Having 295 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:32.079 made their faces very pale, women then painted their lips 296 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:34.920 and cheeks with this rouge and darkened their eyebrows with 297 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.759 a mix of alcohol and black minerals. To keep their 298 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:41.720 hands white and soft, they would apply a paste made 299 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:46.440 from almonds, mustard, and honey, Among other chemicals used in products, 300 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:50.160 Sulfur was perhaps the most widespread. Some of these components 301 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:55.160 were harmful. Women occasionally whitened their faces with bismuth oxychloride, 302 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:58.920 sometimes known as Spanish white, a skin and eye irritant, 303 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:04.119 or they used lead precipitates, which are toxic. The composition 304 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.160 of ruse rouge has changed over the centuries, but in 305 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:12.720 Spain's Golden Age it was often made from charred sulfur, mercury, lead, minium, 306 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:17.920 a lead compound, and other substances. These preparations could cause headaches, 307 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:22.039 permanently alter the skin and damage eyesight because of their toxicity, 308 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:25.920 dangerous effects that were noted at the time. Commentators saw 309 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:29.759 that saw other toxic effects in beauty products. To the 310 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:32.720 mainly male writers of the period, make up was tantamount 311 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.559 to deceit. A literary trope of the time was to 312 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:39.519 reproach a women who artificially embellished herself. When the time 313 00:20:39.559 --> 00:20:42.119 came for her to be seen without a doormance, her 314 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:47.599 lover would be disappointed. The moralist Juan de Zabaleta, in 315 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:54.839 his book Eldea de fes fiesta purromagnana ipuracarde, published in 316 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:58.519 sixteen fifty four, attack these of cosmetics on religious grounds. 317 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.119 He said, the action in the Tugadore of a lady 318 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:03.839 getting ready on the morning of a holiday, she places 319 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.720 at her right hand side the box of beauty medicines 320 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:09.400 and begins to improve her face with them. This woman 321 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:11.759 does not consider that if God wanted her to be 322 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:14.720 as she paints herself, he would have painted her first. 323 00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:17.640 God gave her the face that suited her, and she 324 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.759 takes on the face that does not suit her. Saboletta's 325 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:23.960 work is part of the history of misogynous literature that 326 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:28.839 condemns women's beauty rituals as tampering with God's creation. Some 327 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.759 women agreed that such rituals were fatuous, but for very 328 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:37.400 different reasons. Maria Desiaus, a golden aged Spanish writer today 329 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:41.559 considered a proto feminist, viewed the social pressures on women 330 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:44.039 to apply make up as a means to prevent them 331 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:47.960 from emancipating themselves. In a novel from the sixteen thirties, 332 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:50.640 she has one of her characters say that if women 333 00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:54.640 applied themselves to training with weapons and studying the sciences 334 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:57.759 instead of growing their hair and shading their faces, they 335 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:02.039 could already have surpassed men in menay things. As Spain's 336 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:05.160 imperial fortunes waned in the late sixteen hundreds in the 337 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:07.920 Golden Age ended, the heavy use of make up in 338 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:11.839 Spain also diminished. With the French Revolution in seventeen eighty nine, 339 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:15.839 a more natural look swept through Europe, and elaborate wings 340 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:19.279 and make up were shunned. Attitudes towards make up, however, 341 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:24.359 are often cyclical. Safer zinc oxide based powders later replaced 342 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:29.160 toxic lead based recipes, and make up's usage rebounded in Europe. 343 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.839 Then in the mid eighteen hundreds, heavy make up fell 344 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:36.559 out of fashion, associated with actresses and prostitutes facial artifice. 345 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.160 Artifice came back to the forefront with the advance of 346 00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:44.160 theatrical cosmetics and became widely commercialized in Europe and North 347 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:47.400 America in the nineteen twenties. Since then, its use in 348 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:51.559 the context of femininity and feminism has been as heatedly 349 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:54.920 discussed as it was in the Golden Age of Spain. 350 00:22:55.400 --> 00:23:01.720 This article by Barbara Roussillo. The Spanish Infanta, the eldest 351 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:06.119 princess of King Philip four Maria Theresa, is depicted in 352 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:11.400 Diego Velasquez's sixteen fifty one to fifty four portrait. She 353 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:14.839 is in her early teens. The viewer's gaze is arrested 354 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.680 both by her elaborate headdress, as adorned with butterflies, and 355 00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:22.200 the heavy amounts of rouge applied to her whitened face. 356 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:26.640 Participating in the royal delegation to Spain in sixteen twenty three, 357 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:31.720 English courtier Richard Wynne commented on very young women at 358 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:34.680 the Spanish court being made up. They were painted more 359 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:37.240 than the ordinary women, though some of them were not 360 00:23:37.319 --> 00:23:41.279 thirteen years old. The purpose of Velaska's famous portrait was 361 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:45.920 to attract a future husband. In sixteen sixteen sixteen sixty, 362 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.519 at age twenty two, Maria Theresa married Louis the fourteenth 363 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:53.279 of France. The dressing table gets a makeover. The room 364 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:56.880 where Spanish ladies beautified themselves was called the tocador, as 365 00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.960 was the box in which they kept their products and accessory. 366 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:03.319 Another key piece of furniture was the table where ladies 367 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:05.720 sat for their toilette, the act of getting ready for 368 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:10.480 the day. In the seventeenth century Dutch interior, the woman 369 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:13.960 is being dressed and beautified at a normal table. Soon 370 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.279 after this piece of furniture became a status symbol in Europe, 371 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:21.680 the wealthy began to commission luxurious, specialized furniture, and dressing 372 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:26.119 tables started looking like the more vertical units familiar today. 373 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:30.400 New features included folding tops, basins to wash off makeup, 374 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:34.079 and of course, a built in mirror. In the twentieth century, 375 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:37.559 the dressing tables, glamour and luxury were often reflected in 376 00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:40.440 the movies of the nineteen twenties and thirties. Later, the 377 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:44.920 use of dressing tables waned as beautifying shifted to the bathroom. Today, 378 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:49.039 social influencers have brought the dressing table back, albeit in 379 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:54.039 a compact form. Next, Percy fawcett tragic search for the 380 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:57.559 Lost City of Z. Convinced by old documents that a 381 00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:01.920 lost civilization lay in the Amazon Rainfall, Percy Fawcet set 382 00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:05.200 out to find it in nineteen twenty five. His disappearance 383 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:08.640 sparked a century of speculation as to his fate. When 384 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:11.519 the Spanish first ventured into the Amazon Basin in the 385 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:15.319 fifteen forties, they recorded indigenous accounts of a lost city 386 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:19.720 of fantastic wealth that they called El Dorado, the Golden 387 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:23.039 Over the centuries, many vain attempts were made to locate 388 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:27.240 a lost civilization in the Amazon forest. The last significant 389 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:30.480 attempt to find such a culture was undertaken by British 390 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:34.680 explorer Percy Fawcet. Between nineteen o six and nineteen twenty four, 391 00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:39.279 Fawcet made seven expeditions across the Amazon Basin, concluding with 392 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:41.759 this doomed quest to find the city he called Z. 393 00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:46.720 Fawcet was inspired by his extensive reading of historical sources, 394 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:51.759 including a mysterious document known as Manuscript five twelve. A 395 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:55.599 man of extraordinary mental and physical stamina. Fawcett was working 396 00:25:55.640 --> 00:25:58.559 at a time when the Amazon region was still largely 397 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:03.160 undocumented by Europeans who sought to explore its jungles and waterways, 398 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:07.279 seeking ancient cities and riches. His disappearance during his search 399 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.000 for z in nineteen twenty five in the Matto Grosso 400 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:16.400 region of Brazil continues to intrigue writers and filmmakers. Perzy 401 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:20.559