August 12, 2026

An Unexpected Guest from Wallachia

A friend returned from Romania with this miniature Vlad the Impaler, and he looks surprisingly at home in a library devoted to Southern Italy. Maybe it is because of the enduring tradition that the Voivode of Wallachia may have found his final resting place in the small cloister of Santa Maria la Nova in Naples. Or perhaps he is simply one of those ghosts who reminds us that the histories of Southern Italy and Eastern Europe intertwine in ways few ever imagine.