Jump to content

149 Nibs At Work: Emblemata Apocrypha


fpupulin

Recommended Posts

In his novel, The Club Dumas, Spanish journalist and writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte committed the hero, the rare-book dealer Dean Corso (magisterially interpreted by Johnny Depp in Roman Polansky's movie loosely adapted from the novel, The Ninth Gate), to study the subtle differences among the only three extant copies of a mysterious book published in Venice in 1666 by Aristide Torchia, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, the supposed adaptation of an older book written by the Devil himself.

Corso' guide to discover and acquire the legitimate work (and, through it, invincibility and immortality) were minor details that made some of the engravings in each copy slightly different from their counterparts in the two other copies, as they were originally designed and cut by Lucifer himself. According to the story, the engravings form a kind of Satanic riddle and, if correctly interpreted with the aid of the original text and sufficient inside information, they are reputed to conjure up the Prince of Darkness in person.

The beautiful engravings for the fictional Torchia’s books, as they appeared in The Club Dumas, were prepared by Spanish illustrator Francisco Solé on the basis of Pérez-Reverte’s indications and perhaps inspired by older illustrations of the obscure “De Tenebrarum Regis Novem Portis”. In a sort of double – and perhaps involuntary – specular game, two sets of fictional engravings, with minor differences between them, were prepared by Solé, who adapted the illustrations of the original novel to the story presented in the movie, casting the figures in the engravings with the images of the actors in the picture.

The books of emblems flourished in 15th- and 16th-centuries, when the galleries of metaphors and “hieroglyphic” symbols were aimed at transmitting a legacy of ancient knowledge and morality. Andrea Alciato’s Emblematum liber (1531) stands out as the archetype of a literary genus that knew a great success in Europe during the Renaissance and until the late XVIII century. Interestingly, Solé’s illustrations for the fictional “De Tenebrarum Regis Novem Portis” seem characteristically woodcuts, as it was typical during the 16th century, and surely less typical of the fictional publication date of the book, the year 1666, when the xylographic engraving had largely been substituted by metal etching.

As emblems were traditionally charged of powerful significance, and often associated to escatologic rituals, they were somewhat codified as to their historical origin and legitimacy, of which Alciato’s book represent a sort of official compendium. This gave me the idea of producing an Emblematum plerumque apocryphorum liber. A collection of apocryphal emblems, which would freely mix “new” emblems and subtle semantic variations/transformations of older and acknowledged ones. And, to make the exercise less simple, I would also mix some plain “canonic” emblems, which would differ from their model just in some minor stylistic features.

Here are the first three emblemata: the first two illustrations and texts consist in a variation over the same emblem, while the third is taken from Alciato’s work. All of them have to do with the swan.

All were written and drawn with Montblanc pens, a WE Hemingway (F) and two 149s (EF and BB), using Toffee Brown and Collodi inks, my preferred colors in the last months. The paper is a delicious handmade vergata weighting some 110-120 gr/m2, bound into a leather-covered book by Scriptorium in Florence.

Sorry for the long digression, but people in this forum are the real pen friends to whom I like to speak...

 

fpn_1434937020__emblemata_apocrypha_12.j

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 27
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • fpupulin

    3

  • Frank C

    2

  • LeonW

    2

  • Sampanel

    2

Wow! that is beautiful work. I showed it to my Montblancs, including a Hemingway, and told them to shape up; they are capable of writing much better than they usually write.

"One can not waste time worrying about small minds . . . If we were normal, we'd still be using free ball point pens." —Bo Bo Olson

 

"I already own more ink than a rational person can use in a lifetime." —Waski_the_Squirrel

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to list all my pens down here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can be rather fun knowing about things that others don't.

Rationalizing pen and ink purchases since 1967.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why is everyone on here more cleverer and talented than meeeeeeeee :(

 

Great work and thanks for sharing

A wise man once said    " the best revenge is wealth "   but a wiser man answered back    " the best revenge is happiness "

 

The true definition of madness - Doing the same thing everyday and expecting different results......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely stunning, I'm in awe. And I'd love to have seen the Hemingway at work producing that .....

I chose my user name years ago - I have no links to BBS pens (other than owning one!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A masterpiece, including the photography technique !!!

 

Hi Sampanel: is that in your avatar a vintage pie-pan Omega Constellation? A great watch, of which I guess you should really proud! Congrats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fpupulin, I believe that you posted some stereo microscope photos of MB nibs a few years ago. are any of these those pens?

"One can not waste time worrying about small minds . . . If we were normal, we'd still be using free ball point pens." —Bo Bo Olson

 

"I already own more ink than a rational person can use in a lifetime." —Waski_the_Squirrel

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to list all my pens down here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fpupulin, I believe that you posted some stereo microscope photos of MB nibs a few years ago. are any of these those pens?

With the exception of the nib of my Hemingway, which I did not photographed at that time, all my 149 nibs were photographed with the microscope. Two if them, an EF and a BB, were used for this work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Hi Sampanel: is that in your avatar a vintage pie-pan Omega Constellation? A great watch, of which I guess you should really proud! Congrats.

Oh yes, it is.......and thank you!! I bought it 15 years ago in an antique watch shop. It matches perfectly with my MB barley !!!

Edited by Sampanel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dear friend,

 

Haven't logged in for a while. Now I see your new topic. All I want to say is WOW!

 

Thanks for taking the time to share it. Always a joy to read your background information and very nice pictures!

My preferred supplier (no affiliation just a very happy customer):

Appelboom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW!!!! Just WOW!!!!

The artwork is beyond compare.

 

Thank you for sharing you talents with us, my friend!!!!!

:):)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

Announcements


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...