#christopher smart

[ma-pi-ma]

Non c’è nulla di più dolce del sentimento di pace che infonde quando riposa, e non c’è nulla di più vivace della sua natura quando è in movimento.

Christopher Smart

[elizabethsproctor]

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him

Jubilate Agno, Christopher Smart

[mezzyb0nb0n]

Forgot to post this

[littleliongirl16]

(tma spoilers to s5)

Melanie, Georgie, and Monster!the Admiral

Okay so I'm taking a poetry class this semester and I figured I would abuse the knowledge that I've gotten there to draw podcast fanart!

Season 5 Melanie and Georgie going to visit the Admiral with lines from the poem Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart. In particular you can look up the section called "Jeoffrey" which is about his cat and is where I got this line from.

I don't think Melanie per se thinks they're going to get hurt by the Admiral, but she knows he's not really aware they're there and she kinda wants Georgie to pull back just to not upset herself.

[manila-bean]

So there's this nerd who gets into a fight, right?

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Fine Press Friday!

For today’s Fine Press Friday post, we present yet another book from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick entitled Jubilate Agno, or Rejoice in the Lamb, with original color woodcut and linocut illustrations by English printmaker Angela Lemaire (b. 1944) and designed and printed between 2011 and 2012 by Nicolas McDowall (1937-2021) at The Old Stile Press in Llandogo, Wales, in an edition of 100 copies signed by the artist. The book consists of writings by Christopher Smart (1722-1771), an English poet who was not well received by his contemporaries, but is held in high esteem today. The text was probably written during Smart’s time in various mental hospitals and is rife with religious references, as his confinement in these hospitals was due to an intense religious fervor that occurred after a time of spiritual desolation in his life. This happened after he “awoke to the reality of Christ’s redemption and forgiveness… [and then] consecrated is life to the glorification of God” (from the Afterword by Angela Lemaire).

In producing the book, Nicolas McDowall was inspired by a viewing of the Gutenberg Bible and is meant to be a tribute Gutenberg and his “magic, moveable type.” Lemaire's images reference Christian biblical manuscripts, with "illuminated" initials containing intricate detailing and animals, along with larger prints that clearly reference biblical motifs, like the print of the letter Alpha with a lamb, referencing both the book’s title and Jesus’s role as the ‘Lamb of God’, and the Omega print at the end, linking back to the Alpha at the beginning and referencing another epithet for Jesus as the Alpha and Omega.

Lemaire, a self-taught woodcut artist and wood engraver, and a member of the venerable Society of Wood Engravers, worked for many years at the Old Stile Press with Nicolas McDowell and his wife Frances. The images in the book were printed directly the original blocks, and the text was printed in Truesdell type on Vélin Arches paper.

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

View more Fine Press Friday Posts.

-- Sarah S., Special Collections Graduate Intern.

[vifetoile]

For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffrey. For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him. For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

...

For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness. For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance. For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying. For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins. For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary. For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes. For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life. For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him. For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

...

For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a good Cat. For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon. For every house is incomplete without him and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

Christopher Smart, born April 11, 1722

[petermorwood]

I hope you have - or have had, depending on time - a good St Patrick’s Day.

Or Pawtrick’s, or Catrick’s, because the 17th of March is also the feast-day of St Gertrude of Nivelle who is supposedly * the patron saint of cats.

* A secular claim which first started in the early 1980s, so its authenticity is... Dubious.

But if St Patrick’s Day invokes a non-religious obligation to paint things green and drink a wee bit more than usual (cough), then St Getrude’s Day is just as valid a reason to crack open the kitty treats and give some extra stroking **.

** Who knows, you might even discover electricity... :->