It’s no coincidence that the word sumptuary sounds like sumptuous and consumption. Those words sum up the intent of most sumptuary laws: regulating what people could consume, for instance, by limiting ...

The Chief Rabbi is calling for a reappraisal of the way we behave as a community. He is absolutely right in view of the constraints caused by the pandemic, but the problem is it means change and there ...

There is an attempt to pass a law limiting the spending at Indian weddings being presented to the Lok Sabha. This is really not a sensible thing to be doing and is a harkening back to the rather ...

You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. Roberta Rich is the author of the novels The Midwife of Venice and The Harem Midwife, which was recently ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...