Jean-Paul Marat and Pietro Querini

Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician and scientist, and, during the French Revolution, a journalist and politician. Initially an advocate of basic human rights for the poor, he became increasingly uncompromising in his stance against the new leaders of the revolution. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday while taking a medicinal bath, as depicted in the painting The Death of Marat.

Pietro Querini was the Italian captain of a merchant ship bound for Bruges, when forced to abandon ship during a storm in 1431. After drifting for weeks in winter weather, the survivors find themselves stranded on an island off of Norway in January of 1432. The eleven men, of the original 68, ended up spending three months in Røst, and in turn originated trade between Italy and Norway. To this day Italy is the largest consumer of Norwegian stockfish.

The French Revolution

Jean-Paul Marat
Charlotte Corday
September Massacres

Pietro Querini
The Shipwrecked Sailors & the Wandering Cod
The Tale of Pietro Querini