La Vita Nuova (The New Life) (page 2/4)

123.—Beatrice is gone up into high heaven

“Beatrice is gone up into high heaven,
The kingdom where the angels are at peace;
And lives with them; and to her friends is dead.
Not by the frost of winter was she driven
Away, like others; nor by summer-heats;
But through a perfect gentleness, instead.
For from the lamp of her meek lowlihead
Such an exceeding glory went up hence
    That it woke wonder in the Eternal Sire,
    Until a sweet desire
Entererd Him for that lovely excellence,
  So that He bade her to Himself aspire:
counting this weary and most evil place
Unworthy of a thing so full of grace. [more...]

Front Cover from La Vita Nuova

There is also a rather plain dust jacket, not shown here.

37.—Writing My Master’s Words

The poet sits at a writing desk let by a candle. The image is printed in black and gold. [more...]

37.—Writing My Master’s Words (detail)

The central part of the picture on page 37 showing the mediaeval scholar writing a manuscript at his desk with his quill pen (a feather trimmed, slitted and used for writing) in his hand. [more...]

Untitled image, Mediaeval tower

Untitled image; a man (the protagonist) sits outside a mediæval castle tower. He wears red boots and a long robe, a medieval scholar’s dress perhaps, and in the background a lady spares him a glance. In the foreground, green grass with yellow and white flowers. The upper left is printed [...] [more...]

Osanna in Excelsis

The phrase, Osanna in Excelsis (moer commonly written in English, Hosanna in Excelsis) in the form of a giant “E” with a decorative initial letter “O” containing angels, and a smaller E-within-the-e in a Mediaeval Uncial style. Printed in dark [...] [more...]

103. Sonnet Introduction Page

Full page image. In the decoration, the angel, presumably representing love, is beckoning towards the writer. The text reads as follows: [more...]

Sonnet Introduction Border

The border and decoration from page 103. An angel, wearing a toga, but with bare feet and bare-legged, beckons to the writer, depicted as a monk with a robe and medieval pointed shoes. I included fairly high resolution copies in case people [...] [more...]