Homo Bulla Vanitas

Marcus Terentius Varro, in 50 BCish, revised Cato's DE RE RUSTICA. The first sentence of the book includes the earliest literary reference to bubbles I've found. "...quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex." Translation—

"...for if, as they say, man is a bubble, all the more so is an old man."

(Of course it isn't much possible that he was writing about soap bubbles. Rather, he was writing about naturally forming bubbles you see in rivers and puddles. But we'll forgive him.)

Centuries later, artists returned to this Homo Bulla theme but to my mind, Varro got it right. Hard won knowledge and life experience needs to be shared before your bubble pops.

DE RE RUSTICA shares what one man learned about farming & agriculture.

Here, after nearly two decades of research, I'm sharing much of what I learned about the 600ish year history of soap bubbles.

Tempus fugit my friends. Time flies. Whatever it is you hope to do with bubbles it's time to get started. Right now.

Be well & do good.

KMJ