4.29.2004

PENTECOST IN AN INITIAL A


Stefano da Verona, ca. 1430-35




These old piles of leathery parchment
fused all the arts – the odd square notes
in plainsong for the choir, the Latin
poetry, and, crowning everything,
such illustrations!

– this letter A
formed by a pair of rainbow-colored
dragons, whose entwined tongues
sprout leaves. In the upper swirl,
God the Father sits aloft on wavy
cloud, from which descends
a blue dove, floating over twelve
disciples curled in a circle (within
the hulking serpent’s tail) around
a taller Virgin Mary.

So everything
begins again – this time everyone
pregnant with the dove’s bright
fire. And now the choir begins
to sing:

antequam Abraham fieret
ego sum


[the Latin reads: "Before Abraham was, I am"]

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