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Life is full of symbols, either in a literal sense – as in Van Eyck’s famous painting – or because certain events or personalities have acquired historical significance. What is not symbolic at all is the interest that is imposed on those who have to pay a loan, although it is a consolation that in ancient times rates of up to 20% were paid.

The Van Eyck Mystery. In the first half of the 15th century, Jan van Eyck broke some of the canons of painting of his time, both for the type of scenes he recreated and for his style. Today the life of this artist is shown to be surrounded by mystery, an impression contributed by his taste for symbols, as in his well-known The Arnolfini Marriage, a work full of enigmas.

The last load. A Polish army cavalry charge against Nazi armor in 1939 became an example of desperate resistance in the face of a superior enemy. Although the attack actually took place in Krojanty on the first day of World War II, the facts do not fully correspond to the myth that has been built from them. Those were times when the German machinery devastated everything, but in November 1942 everything changed.

The other ‘Iron Lady’. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir personified in her time the strength that a ruler is supposed to have. Considered a true Iron Lady years before Thatcher, Ella Meir led the country during the Yom Kippur War, a conflict in which, however, her management was contested. That confrontation was another chapter of the instability in the region of which the Suez Canal has been a witness and victim.

Reindeer and mistakes. The modern representation of Santa Claus, one of the great symbols of Christmas in the West, has often been attributed to the first creatives at Coca-Cola. However, the reality has little to do with the American brand. What is not symbolic at all are the binge eating these days – be careful, there are still some designated holidays -, in the face of which the preventive strategies of Edward VII or the Grand Duke of Saxony may be useful.

Normandy, weather report. There are thousands of anonymous people on whom it depends whether history takes one path or another. Maureen Sweeney, she is not completely anonymous (the Irish Meteorological Service dedicated this obituary to her a few weeks ago), but almost. In June 1944 she was in charge of collecting data from a station in the northwest of her country that was key to military operations. An error or omission would have led the Normandy landings to disaster. (in English)

The eternal and virtual city. This video published by the Ancient Rome Live YouTube channel offers a virtual tour of the capital of the empire with a high level of detail. The recreated images are compared with real photographs of the forum today, so that the vestiges and their original function can be identified.

The price of money. There are certain topics where it is not easy to have a historical perspective, such as interest rates. The rise in the last two years as part of the strategy to stop inflation has harmed thousands of people who have seen their loans and mortgages become more expensive, after years in which interest rates were very little above zero. Obviously it is no consolation, but current levels (4.5% those of the ECB) are not very far from the figures of the last three centuries, with exceptions such as the inflationary explosion of the 70s.

This infographic, which dates back to the mid-14th century, shows, despite important but specific increases, a sustained downward trend, from levels of 8 or 10% in the late Middle Ages to today, despite which Very cheap money from the 2010s can be considered a rarity. This other one goes even further back in time and shows a similar trend, since the time of Hammurabi, when the interest that a lender could apply was 20%. In imperial Rome the figures ranged up to a maximum of 12%.

The history of interest rates holds interesting surprises. In the Middle Ages, for example, the Church frowned upon charging interest for lending money. The Jewish communities in European cities were denied access to guilds to carry out certain trades, which guided them towards other economic activities, such as that of moneylenders, a trade that Christians did not perform. It is likely that certain topics derive from there.