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jim@ostenta.net

 

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Updated
Dec 19, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

Welcome to OSTENTA.NET ~ Semper Factotal

The Spanish verb ostentar means "to display or flaunt". Ostenta is the third person indicative or informal second person imperative of the verb.  English derivatives include "ostentatious" and "ostensible".  The verb is also used in Italian the same way as in Spanish.

The origins of the word ostenta are ancient. The Etruscan civilization (1200-550 BCE) predates the Romans on the Italian peninsula.  The Etruscan concept of the world and of life lay in the certainty of a permanent communication with the gods. The observation of omens, which were called ostenta, and their interpretation were the domain of the augur priests who accepted what were taken to be exceptional phenomena as signs and explanations, possibly of the future.  When the usual order of the world seems disturbed, when an abnormal event occurs, it is not a matter of ordinary chance for a people who attribute all things to the gods.  It is a sign.

Omens as exceptional phenomena had to be distinguished from merely unusual signs that could recur.  The guidebook for such discrimination was the ostentaria.

Celestial event displays such as comets and eclipses, the flight of birds, births of unusual animals or children, appearance of certain plants and trees among many other phenomena were to be interpreted as signs that could have positive or negative implications in the context of Etruscan culture.

Thus is the fascinating ancient pre-Latin basis of everyday words such as "ostentation" in English, related usages in Spanish and Italian, and the domain name "ostenta.net".  Please visit this website and its links often -- Jim Duncan

Here are some interesting websites created by Ostenta Fine Arts for viewing here:

+ OpenMystic YouTube + Ostenta Fine Arts YouTube
   
 + Greatround Poetry Pages + Ernest Hartmann Boundaries in the Mind
   
+ Esalen Photo Gallery - Big Sur, California + Richard Holden Biography
   
+ James Duncan Photo Gallery + Enjoy Music of the Renaissance Period
   
+ Norman Corwin Presents + KCFR 90.1 Denver 1970 with airchecks
   
+ Photo/Video Gallery + KFAT 94.5 FM Radio page with airchecks
   
+ Paul Thackery "House of BooBoo remembrance + KSFR 94.9 San Francisco 1958-1968
   
 + The Life of Mary Bond Duncan + Los Gatos High School Class of 1965
   
   

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