16th Century

IN A DAY WHEN PEOPLE may know about Michael Hedges (New Age singer) but not Michael Torke (classical composer), it's unlikely names like Loys Bourgeois, Claudin de Sermisy, Frabritio Caroso and Daniel Bachelar will ring any bells.They were 16th Century French, Italian and English composer-players of songs, dance melodies, ballads and other tunes that took a giant leap in melody from the relatively staid plainchants and polyphonic religious singing of the Middle Ages.These were fine songs to be played, sung, danced to and talked to, some outside and some in church.

Earle Havens can almost hear their voices. Each time Havens steps inside the George Peabody Library, he senses the muted exclamations, the murmured back-and-forth of a conversation that's been going on now for more than two millennia. In one corner, there's a treatise from the third century B.C. in which Aristarchus of Samos estimated the distances between the sun, moon and earth. Across the room is an extremely rare unbound volume of Copernicus' "Revolution of the Celestial Spheres," in which the 15th-century astronomer advanced the then-heretical notion that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

WASHINGTON - Lavinia Fontana was a true working woman of the 16th century, whose services were in high demand - and handsomely rewarded.Her clientele included leading politicians, professors, clergymen, bankers, aristocrats and even two Popes, Gregory XIII and Clement VIII.What exactly was it that made her so popular?Her talented ability to produce exquisitely detailed portraits.Fontana (1552-1614) achieved both fame and financial independence in her hometown of Bologna during the late 1500s - a time when women generally did not work as professional artists, at least beyond the confines of a convent or within an aristocratic circle.

Dozens of people gather every Sunday morning in the Gothic sanctuary of St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church to pray for the future of a tradition that's deeply rooted in the past. Before the Latin prayers begin, they seek God's intercession for the future of the Tridentine Mass - a form of liturgy established in the 16th century but now celebrated only in churches with special permission. If the speculation around the Vatican is right, their prayers might be answered. Rumors have swirled for months that Pope Benedict XVI will formally grant permission to all Catholic churches to perform what's commonly - though incorrectly - known as the Latin Mass.

It's not Bermuda or Jamaica or the Virgin Islands. There's not a whole lot of Club Med about it. For many, when the time comes to plan an exotic island getaway, Puerto Rico gets short shrift.Maybe it's taken for granted by Americans; after all, it is a U.S. commonwealth, and to travelers, that means visiting the island is pretty much as easy as visiting Fort Lauderdale. And, no doubt, it suffers from comparison with its smaller cousins, the tiny points of land that are more in keeping with most Americans' idea of a Caribbean vacation.

NEW YORK -- As part of its investigation into the collapse of a 15th-century marble statue of Adam last weekend, the Metropolitan Museum has temporarily removed five other Renaissance statues that were nearby in the gallery, the Velez Blanco Patio. "All the sculptures have been removed from the patio except one, Temperance by Giovanni Caccini, which was on an older pedestal that has been examined and has passed muster," said Harold Holzer, chief spokesman for the museum. The museum's experts are examining the remains of Adam to understand how the statue fell and how to put it back together.

Tupac Amaru I in the 16th century and Tupac Amaru II in the 18th century were lost causes who caused mischief. It is fair to infer what Trey is about.Show no sympathy. The top FBI guy working for the Russians should have known a top KGB guy was helping our side.Mobutu Sese Seko heard of a part of Zaire he hadn't stolen and went back for it.So long, Ed-die, it was good to see you again.Pub Date: 12/20/96

"The Buergermeister's Daughter," by Steven Ozment. St. Martin's Press. 227 pages. $23.95 The author's sad and legally complicated history of a 16th-century woman thrust out of her house and denied her inheritance by a father furious at her sexual indiscretions shows that the impulse toward interminable litigation and the machinery for carrying it out existed long ago.The author has scrupulously examined the records of the case of Anna Bueschler, who fought outrageous fortune in the courts of late Renaissance Germany for several decades.

My husband and I will have one day in Lisbon in the spring. Can you suggest an itinerary?Lisbon is a fine city to walk in, and it has an accessible public transportation system. Cabs are also rather inexpensive, so, to begin, take a cab, for about $3.50, from the Praca do Comercio (Commerce Square) to the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle). The castle, atop a hill, was built by the Moors and retaken by the Portuguese in the 12th century. The site is now primarily a garden with a magnificent view.

BROWSING THROUGH an international print fair in New York several years ago, Susan Dackerman paused over a 16th century engraving personifying the virtue Patience. What struck the Baltimore Museum of Art curator was neither the image nor its inscription but the jeweled colors applied to the print. It was the fact of the color. Ms. Dackerman, a specialist in northern Renaissance prints, asked herself: Why had I never before seen or even expected to see engravings that were colored? That question sparked a six-year search for an answer, an inquiry that challenged the prevailing historical view that "to color prints is to spoil them."

A group of Century High School students has set out to prove that Shakespeare is, well, groovy, baby. This week, the school's student Shakespeare troupe, the Rude Mechanicals, is putting on its first full-length play: As You Like It. But amid 16th-century prose, the troupe has slipped in a taste of the 1960s and 1970s, complete with bell bottoms, James Taylor and peace signs. The result: A world where "fair princess" and "baby" - not the infant kind - are uttered in nearly the same breath.

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii -- Resorts, airports and much else about Hawaiian island life were back to normal this week, days after a magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck just off Hawaii Island. But for some of the Big Island's most historic - and fragile - structures, the quake's effects were not so quickly overcome. "We didn't fare well at all," said Fanny AuHoy, administrator of the two-story Hulihe'e Palace, built of coral, lava rock and native wood in 1838 for the Hawaiian royal family. "This building has withstood other earthquakes, hurricanes and big storms.

Gloriana, the Colonial Players' current production, is a fascinating new work that fulfills the organization's mission to educate and entertain. Its mature themes should delight the aficionado, but the play is not for the timid or casual theatergoer. Gloriana, playing through Sunday at the East Street Theater, won this year's Colonial Players' Promising Playwright Contest for its author, Goucher College lecturer Chuck Spoler. The contest began in 1973 as an effort to encourage playwrights to write for theater in the round.

From childhood, Majnum burned with passion for the beautiful Layla, and she returned his devotion. But because the couple could not marry, Majnum went mad and wandered through the wilderness clad only in rags. Then Majnum's friend, seeking to test Layla's love, told her Majnum was dead. This news broke Layla's heart, and she perished from grief. When Majnum arrived at her funeral, so overcome with remorse was he that he leapt into the grave beside his beloved and died on the spot. This tragic tale of star-crossed lovers forms the central chapter of the Khamsa -- or quintet of tales -- by Amir Khusraw, a 13th-century Persian-language poet known as "the Parrot of India."

NEW YORK -- As part of its investigation into the collapse of a 15th-century marble statue of Adam last weekend, the Metropolitan Museum has temporarily removed five other Renaissance statues that were nearby in the gallery, the Velez Blanco Patio. "All the sculptures have been removed from the patio except one, Temperance by Giovanni Caccini, which was on an older pedestal that has been examined and has passed muster," said Harold Holzer, chief spokesman for the museum. The museum's experts are examining the remains of Adam to understand how the statue fell and how to put it back together.

BROWSING THROUGH an international print fair in New York several years ago, Susan Dackerman paused over a 16th century engraving personifying the virtue Patience. What struck the Baltimore Museum of Art curator was neither the image nor its inscription but the jeweled colors applied to the print. It was the fact of the color. Ms. Dackerman, a specialist in northern Renaissance prints, asked herself: Why had I never before seen or even expected to see engravings that were colored? That question sparked a six-year search for an answer, an inquiry that challenged the prevailing historical view that "to color prints is to spoil them."

After 18 years of research and restoration by museum staff, the private apartments of Napoleon I at the Chateau de Fontainebleau opened to the public last month. The 800-year-old chateau reflects a variety of exterior styles, especially of the 16th century, and is famous for its 17th-century "horseshoe" exterior staircase.In contrast to the lush Renaissance and 18th-century magnificence displayed in other parts of the chateau, Napoleon's suite, six small rooms on the first floor, is a superb example of the early 19th-century Empire style.

Tobacco: A Cultural History of How An Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization, by Iain Gately. Grove Press, 400 pages. $25. Even nonsmokers will appreciate novelist Iain Gately's lively and engaging account of how the world -- most of which never knew about, much less consumed, tobacco until the mid 16th century -- came, so to speak, to need the weed. It is an astounding story. When you consider that originally, the plant was indigenous to South America alone, and only made its way across the globe relatively late in the history of human civilization, first as booty, then as bounty from the New World, it seems all the more amazing that it now so thoroughly suffuses almost every culture and nation on the planet.

Fred Nelson was sweating. He had 15 minutes to catch his breath, change into royal garb and prepare to make the biggest entrance of his life: as King Henry VIII at the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, which opened yesterday in Crownsville. "The only thing that has me nervous is my shoulder," he said. "It's twitching, and I have a sword fight later. " The festival, which started 25 years ago in Columbia and moved to Crownsville as it grew, is one of many such fairs throughout the country that pay homage to Shakespeare's era with costumes, shows, craft vendors and general revelry.

Tobacco: A Cultural History of How An Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization, by Iain Gately. Grove Press, 400 pages. $25. Even nonsmokers will appreciate novelist Iain Gately's lively and engaging account of how the world -- most of which never knew about, much less consumed, tobacco until the mid 16th century -- came, so to speak, to need the weed. It is an astounding story. When you consider that originally, the plant was indigenous to South America alone, and only made its way across the globe relatively late in the history of human civilization, first as booty, then as bounty from the New World, it seems all the more amazing that it now so thoroughly suffuses almost every culture and nation on the planet.