#1533

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. De Occulta Philosophia. 1533.

Sigils of the fixed stars and constellations. In the Hermetic tradition — which holds that hidden correspondences link celestial bodies to earthly phenomena — sigils were signs constructed from geomantic figures. These were patterns generated by making random marks and reducing them to rows of dots. Connecting them in various ways produced a unique shape assigned to a star or constellation and used in talismans and rituals to invoke those bodies' power.

Pictured top to bottom: Caput Algol, Pleiades, Aldebaran, Hircus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Cor Leonis, Cauda Ursae, Ala Corui, Spica, Alchameth, Elpheia, Cor Scorpii, Vultur Cadens, and Cauda Capricorni.

The Kazan Crown, Crafted in 1533,

Though often associated with Ivan the Terrible, a historically accurate source states that the Kazan Crown is not the same as Monomakh's Cap, which is considered the first Russian crown worn by the first Tsar. 

Made of gold, pearls, turquoise, and garnet stones, with a yellow sapphire topping the cap. 

Siegfried from Limbus Company

The Immaculate Conception.

Horae ad usum Romanum (Paris: 1533), f. I 5.

Hans Holbein (Ger 1497-1543)

Portrait of Richard Mabott (1533)

Atahualpa

Atahualpa (Atawallpa) was the last ruler of the Inca Empire. He reigned from 1532 until his capture and execution by the invading Spanish forces led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533. The troubled Incas had suffered six years of damaging civil war and Atahualpa was only just enjoying his ascendancy to the throne when the Spanish arrived to turn the Inca world upside down.

Further weakened by European-introduced diseases, which wiped out millions, the Incas could do nothing against the better-armed invaders, even if there were only 168 of them. The Conquistadors were utterly ruthless and they would stop at nothing to gain the fabulous riches of the Americas' largest-ever empire.

Civil War & Succession

Atahualpa's father Wayna Qhapaq died in 1528 of smallpox, the most distinguished victim of the epidemic of European diseases which had spread from central America even faster than the foreign invaders themselves could manage. This epidemic killed a staggering 65-90% of the native population. When Wayna Qhapaq died without choosing a second heir (his first choice Ninan Cuyuchi also died of smallpox) Atahualpa battled for the throne with his half-brother Waskar (or Huascar) in a hugely damaging civil war which the Spanish would be only too glad to take advantage of when they arrived on Inca territory in 1532. Atahualpa was based in the northern capital at Quito while Waskar was at the Inca capital at Cuzco. After diplomatic relations soured between the two brothers, open warfare broke out in the north. There followed a series of battles between the Inca nobility which was costly to both sides until, after six years of fighting, Atahualpa finally prevailed.

By the time Spanish arrived, Atahualpa had managed to capture Waskar but the factions which had deeply split the empire remained. Waskar was imprisoned and his kin-group was killed, as were those who had supported him. Atahualpa even killed historians and destroyed the Inca quipu records. This was to be a total renewal, what the Incas called a pachakuti or 'turning over of time and space', an epoch-changing event which the Incas believed periodically occurred through the ages. What Atahualpa did not know was that another pachakuti was less than a year away, and this time he would be its victim.

Atahualpa's reign may have been brief but, as the Sapa ('Unique') Inca, he lived a life of extreme luxury. Drinking from gold cups, wearing silver-soled sandals and treated as a manifestation of the Sun god Inti on earth, Atahualpa was the head of the largest and richest empire the Americas had ever seen. His taste for opulence was chronicled by the Spanish who said that he once ordered a cloak made only from bat skins. As the Inca king and member of the royal blood line, he had the right to wear even more gold jewellery than the already over-laden nobility. His regalia included a feather headband (Ilauto), a golden mace (champi), and king-size golden ear-spools. The monarch travelled on a gold and silver litter further embellished with parrot feathers. He was fed food by a servant, and anything the royal person touched was collected and burnt in an annual ceremony to ward off witchcraft. If ever there was a pampered ruler it was the Sapa Inca of ancient Peru.