Tell me wikipedia: how long did Titian live?

Titian, of course, was the great 16th century Venetian painter.

He is in the news of late because the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently compared himself to Titian. Brown was apparently just trying to say that one can keep learning throughout life, and one can end up doing one's best work late -- even perhaps as old as ninety. As a comparison, though, it sounds like Brown was a bit full-of-himself, and it isn't surprising that the head of the Tories, David Cameron, pounced.

Cameron may have hurt himself in the process. Here's a link to what a 1970s American radio personality would have called "the rest of the story".

As you'll see if you follow that link, the good name of wikipedia has become entangled in the brawl over Titian.

This weekend's issue of the Financial Times runs a huffy editorial on the subject of wikipedia. "Any attempt to turn mob opinion into the test for truth is pernicious. That a thought might be popularly believed does not make it true," and so forth.

Valid enough, but still huffy. As for Titian's age at his death, it doesn't seem that anyone is quite sure.

Deal with it.