16th Century

We are eating dinner with friends at a Charles Street pub. Several of us are drinking wine, another Coca Cola. One woman leaves to have a cigarette over at the bar. My husband orders a coffee. All in all, a thoroughly ordinary scene repeated millions of times all over America, nay, all over the world. Elsewhere in Baltimore, teen-agers are hawking and smoking blunts, thick marijuana cigarettes, while older addicts are smoking cocaine or injecting heroin. Alas, an ordinary scene repeated millions of times all over America, nay, all over the world.

What: Maryland Renaissance Festival Where: The festival grounds at 1821 Crownsville Road in Crownsville When: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and weekends until Oct. 23 Why: Because you can't resist stepping back in time to 16th- century England. The annual festival, which takes over 25 acres, offers a re-creation of an old English village and has 10 stages of entertainment, a jousting arena, games, crafts, magic, juggling, music, artisan demonstrations, kids' activities, food and lots more.

The Metal Masters Tour Heavy metal band Judas Priest released its 16th studio album in June. Nostradamus, focused on the life of the famed 16th-century French prophet of the same name, features new symphonic sounds, including keyboards and choirs, in addition to the heavy rock that made the British band legendary. The rockers play with Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament as a part of the Metal Masters Tour, which comes to Nissan Pavilion tonight. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Nissan Pavilion is at 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow, Va. Tickets are $23.50-$125.

Fell's Point Corner Theatre, whose 1996 production of David Ives' "All in the Timing" was one of the highlights of the season, brings another offbeat Ives comedy to Baltimore tomorrow when "Don Juan in Chicago" makes its local premiere.Re-interpreting the legend of Don Juan, Ives sets the first act of his comedy in 16th century Spain and the second in modern-day Chicago. Lili Liang directs a cast headed by Richard Dean Stover as Don Juan and Richard Peck as his sidekick, Leporello. Kara Jackson and Allyson Rosen will alternate in the role of Don Juan's devoted Dona Elvira.

Renaissance Europe's fascination with the Middle East and the budding science of cartography is the subject of the Mitchell Gallery's "Ancient Maps and Views of the Holy Land from the Rothman Collection," an exhibition of 52 maps and 17 books made to guide Western travelers on pilgrimages.To examine these remarkable creations, compiled by former Annapolitans Leonard and Juliet Rothman, is to enter the mind of the Middle Ages and the vastly different spirit of the Renaissance that followed.

Archaeologists have found buried traces of a 16th century fort in St. Augustine, Fla., and are confident that this establishes for the first time the exact site where the Spanish planted the earliest permanent European settlement in what is now the United States.Excavations this summer have exposed part of the moat and other artifacts of a structure that archaeologists say was almost certainly the first fort built by Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. He arrived that year with 1,500 soldiers and settlers to found the Spanish colony he called St. Augustine, decades before the English established the Virginia Colony at Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

The book of prayers, made in Rome about 1550, measures only about 1-by- 3/4 inches, but its cover is made of gold and enamel set with tiny rubies. The lady who owned it may have worn it as a pendant hanging from her neck, or from her waist, for the binding makes it really a piece of jewelry as much as a book.This is the smallest and perhaps the most dazzling object in the Walters Art Gallery's "The Art of Fine Binding in the Renaissance"; but that's not to say it's the best looking or most interesting, because there are many candidates for those honors.

Two venerable households united in the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana: The royal House of Windsor and the Spencer family.The Spencers are the older family.Diana's ancestors settled in the sheep farming village called Althorp in 1506; by the end of the 16th century, they had taken roles at the royal court. At the beginning of the 20th century, one of Diana's great-grandfathers was Lord Chamberlain, or head of the household, to Edward VII and George V. Her father was an attendant to George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. She could trace her ancestry to two 17th century English kings, Charles II and James II.In comparison, the Windsors are almost newcomers.

PARIS (AP) - The first American soldier to enter Paris during the liberation in World War II - Roger Provencher, 67, a retired diplomat who lives in Chevy Chase - has received the city's Medal of Honor.Mr. Provenches was awarded the medal in a ceremony Friday in Paris at the 16th century Hotel de Ville. Calling himself a "simple soldier," he said he was sharing the award with all Allied forces.As a 21-year-old corporal of the 1st Infantry Division, Mr. Provencher was part of a 12-man Franco-American reconnaissance team that entered the city Aug. 27, 1944, ahead of the main Allied force.

How changeable is taste. In the mid-19th century, when aluminum was rare and fantastically expensive, Napoleon III served his most honored guests' meals on aluminum plates, while the B-list had to be content with gold or silver ones. Well into the 20th century, chicken was a luxury meat because of the labor involved in plucking its feathers. Those were the days when chicken was a dish for Sunday dinner, and Henri IV proudly promised the 16th-century French "a chicken in every ... pot." Rice was also expensive (in Europe, at any rate)