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Recently Completed Custom Bookplates:
St. Columba of Iona
Image size: 8 1/2" x 11 1/9"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-6) giclee art print
$120 + shipping
I have issued a print of my drawing of St. Columba. This drawing was made with colored inks and gouaches, in the style of early mediaeval illuminated manuscripts from Northumbria and Ireland. A detailed explanation of its imagery can be read here. The edition is limited to only six prints, one of which has already been sold.
Crucifixion
Image size: 8" x 11"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-100) giclee art print
$120 + shipping
I consider this Crucifixion drawing my finest work to date. A detailed explanation of its imagery can be read here.
Tree of Life and Death
Image size: 5 1/4" x 7"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-50) giclee art print
$96 + shipping
This drawing of the Tree of Life and Death is based on an illumination in a 15th century Missal owned by Archbishop Bernhard von Rohr of Salzburg.
Christmas Cards
See this page for more custom bookplates.
Printed Universal Bookplates
Tree of Jesse
Card size: 5" x 7"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included
Minimum order of 10
Annunciation to the Shepherds
Card size: 4" x 5"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included
Minimum order of 10
See this page for more information.
Luthiers' Labels
Olives
Critters
Maze
Size of printed bookplates: 3" x 4"
Digital prints on white acid-free paper
50 cents each + shipping
Minimum order of 20
A Luthiers' Label is a small print pasted inside a stringed instrument to identify its maker. Traditionally, a luthier would demonstrate his dexterity by pasting the label into the instrument after it was built - in the case of a violin, through the f holes.Visit my main web site to see more of my artwork and e-mail me (danmitsui [at] hotmail [dot] com) if you are interested in buying or commissioning anything.
I designed this label in 2008. I would like to design more, and ask that anyone who knows an instrument-maker who may be interested in custom labels to inform him of my work.
1660: Bristol apprentices revolt, demanding a free Parliament and the restoration of the Monarchy. On 5 March 1660, the bellman of Bristol makes the usual Puritan proclamation banning cock-throwing and dog-tossing. The rowdy apprentices attack him and the next day (Shrove Tuesday), squail a goose and toss cats and dogs into the air outside the Mayor’s Mansion House. To squail a goose is to throw sticks, weighted with lead at one end, at it. The object is to maim the bird without killing it.The authorities are able to quickly bring the apprentices under control and halt all tossing and squailing.
The Washington Window, containing the Heraldic arms of the Washington family, is to be found in the south clerestory window of the choir and is the original fourteenth century glass. When Glover the Herald visited Selby in 1584-5 he described the escutcheon as argent, two bars and in chief three mullets pierced, gules.
The shield is white with two red bars across and three red mullets (spur-rowels) in chief each with a hole in the centre. This piercing is necessary to the true representation of the Washington mullets. At Great Brington in Northamptonshire, where the first President's ancestors formerly dwelt, the Arms are also represented with pierced mullets, the colours being identical with Selby though the shield is much smaller.
In 1891 Harpers magazine showed two seals and a book-plate used by Washington which are virtually exact replicas of the Wessington family coat of arms.
The Washington shield at Selby probably represents some kind of benefaction made to the Abbey to commemorate John Wessington, Prior of Durham (1416-1446), the most distinguished collateral ancestor of George Washington. John Wessington made important additions to Hemmingborough church which was a collegiate under Durham. Beneath the battlement of the tower at Hemmingborough is a succession of washing tuns (tubs) - a rebus of the prior's name.
We have received your [Emperor Leo III's] letter which you sent us by your ambassador Ruffinus. We are deeply grieved that you should persist in your error, that you should refuse to recognize the things which are Christ’s, and to accept the teaching and follow the example of the holy Fathers, the saintly Miracle Workers and learned Doctors. I refer not only to foreign Doctors, but also to those of your own country. For what men are more learned than Gregory the Miracle Worker, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theologian, Basil of Cappadocia, or John Chrysotom - not to mention thousands of others of our holy Fathers and Doctors, who, like these, were filled with the spirit of God? But you have followed the guidance of your own wayward spirit and have allowed the exigencies of the political situation at your own court to lead you astray.[Source Book for Mediæval History, edited by Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal. New York: Scribners, 1905]
You say: I am both Emperor and Bishop. But the Emperors who were before you, Constantine the Great, Theodosius the Great, Valentinian the Great, and Constantine the father of Justinian, who attended the sixth synod proved themselves to be both Emperors and Bishops by following the true faith, by founding and fostering churches, and by displaying the same zeal for the faith as the Popes. These Emperors ruled righteously; they held synods in harmony with the Popes, they tried to establish true doctrines, they founded and adorned churches. Those who claim to be both Emperors and priests should demonstrate it by their works; you, since the beginning of your rule, have constantly failed to observe the decrees of the Fathers.
Wherever you found churches adorned and enriched with hangings you despoiled them. For what are our churches? Are they not made by hand of stones, timbers, straw, plaster, and lime? But they are also adorned with pictures and representations of the miracles of the Saints, of the sufferings of Christ, of the holy Mother herself, and of the Saints and Apostles; and men expend their wealth on such images. Moreover, men and women make use of these pictures to instruct in the faith their little children and young men and maidens in bloom of youth and those from heathen nations; by means of these pictures the hearts and minds of men are directed to God. But you have ordered the people to abstain from the pictures, and have attempted to satisfy them with idle sermons, trivialities, music of pipe and zither, rattles and toys, turning them from the giving of thanks to the hearing of idle tales. You shall have your part with them, and with those who invent useless fables and babble of their ignorance.
Hearken to us, Emperor: abandon your present course and accept the holy Church as you found her, for matters of faith and practice concern not the Emperor, but the Pope, since we have the mind of Christ. The making of laws for the Church is one thing and the governing of the Empire another; the ordinary intelligence which is used in administering worldly affairs is not adequate to the settlement of spiritual matters. Behold, I will show you now the difference between the Palace and the Church, between the Emperor and the Pope; learn and be saved; be no longer contentious. If anyone should take from you the adornments of royalty, your purple robes, diadem, scepter, and your ranks of servants, you would be regarded by men as base, hateful and abject; but to this condition you have reduced the churches, for you have deprived them of their ornaments and made them unsightly. Just as the Pope has not the right to interfere in the palace or to infringe upon the royal prerogatives, so the Emperor has not the right to interfere in the churches, or to conduct elections among the clergy, or to consecrate, or to administer the sacraments or even to participate in the sacraments without the aid of a priest; let each one of us abide in the same calling wherein he is called of God.
Do you see, Emperor, the difference between Popes and Emperors? If anyone has offended you, you confiscate his house and take everything from him but his life, or you hang him or cut off his head, or you banish him, sending him far from his children and from all his relatives and friends. But Popes do not so; when anyone has sinned and has confessed, in place of hanging him or cutting off his head, they put the Gospel and Cross around his neck, and imprison him, as it were, in the sacristy or treasure chamber of the sacred vessels; they put him into the part of the church reserved for the deacons and the catechumens; they prescribe for him fasting, vigils, and praise. And after they have chastened him and punished him with fasting, then they give him of the precious Body of the Lord and of the holy Blood. And when they have restored him as a chosen vessel, free from sin, they hand him over to the Lord pure and unspotted. Do you see now, Emperor, the difference between the church and the empire? Those Emperors who have lived piously in Christ have obeyed the Popes, and not vexed them.
But you, Emperor, since you have transgressed and gone astray, and since you have written with your own hand and confessed that he who attacks the father is to be execrated, have hereby condemned yourself by your own sentence and have driven from you the Holy Spirit. You persecute us and vex us tyrannically with violent and carnal hand. We, unarmed and defenseless, possessing no earthly armies, call now upon the Prince of all the armies of creation, Christ seated in the heavens, commanding all the hosts of celestial beings, to send a demon upon you; as the Apostle says: to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. Do you see now, Emperor, to what a pitch of impudence and inhumanity you have gone? You have driven your soul headlong into the abyss, because you would not humble yourself and bend your stubborn neck. When a Pope is able by his teaching and admonition to bring the Emperor of his time before God, guiltless and cleansed from all sin, he gains great glory from Him on the holy day of resurrection, when all our secrets and all our works are brought to light to our confusion in the presence of His Angels.
But we shall blush for shame, because you will have lost your soul by your disobedience, while the Popes that proceeded us have won over to God the Emperors of their life times. How ashamed we will be on that day, that the Emperor of our time is false and ignominious, instead of great and glorious. Now, therefore, we exhort you to do penance; be converted and turn to the truth; obey the truth as you found and received it. Honor and glorify our holy and glorious Fathers and Doctors who dispelled the blindness from our eyes and restored us to sight. You ask: How was it that was said about images in six Councils? What then? Nothing was said about bread and water, whether that should be eaten or not; yet these things have been accepted from the beginning for the presence of human life. So also have images been accepted; the Popes themselves brought them to Councils, and no Christian would set out on a journey without images, because they were possessed of virtue and approved of God.
We exhort you to be both Emperor and Bishop, as you have called yourself in your letter. But if you are ashamed to take this upon yourself as Emperor, then write to all the regions to which you have given offence, that Gregory the Pope and Germanus the Patriarch of Constantinople are at fault in the matter of the images, and we will take upon ourselves the responsibility for the sin, as we have authority from God to loose and to bind all things, earthly and celestial; and we will free you from responsibility in this matter. But no, you will not do this! Knowing that we would have to render account to Christ the Lord for our office, we have done our best to convert you from your error, by admonition and warning, but you have drawn back, you have refused to obey us or Germanus or our Fathers, the holy and glorious Miracle Workers and Doctors, and you have followed the teaching of perverse and wicked men who wander from the truth. You shall have your lot with them.
As we have already informed you, we shall proceed on our way to the extreme western regions, where those who are earnestly seeking to be baptized are waiting for us. For although we have then Bishops and clergymen from our Church, their princes have not yet been induced to bow their heads and be baptized, because they hope to be received into the Church by us in person. Therefore we gird ourselves for the journey in the goodness of God, lest perchance we should have to render account for their condemnation and for our faithfulness. May God give you prudence and patience, that you may be turned to the truth from which you have departed; may he again restore the people to their one Shepherd, Christ, and to the one fold of the Orthodox Churches and prelates, and may the Lord our God give peace to all the earth now and forever to all generations. Amen.
What seems certainly to exceed all human ingenuity, and inasmuch as it will be no less new than rare to the other nations of the world, so much more should be admired and esteemed, is the craft and art which those Mexican people know so well and perfectly, of making out of natural feathers with their own natural colors all that they and any other excellent and skillful painters whatsoever can paint with their brushes. They were accustomed to make many things of feathers, such as animals and birds and men, capes and shawls to cover themselves, vestments for the priests and crowns and mitres, shields and moscadores and a thousand other sorts of things that they fancied. The feathers were green, red or ruby, purple, flesh color, yellow, blue or blue-green, black and white, and all the other colors, mixed or pure, not dyed by any human effort - but all natural, taken and had from different birds.
The idea of using a maze to portray an image was first suggested in the sixteenth century by the Paduan architect Francesco Segala, who created woodcut images in maze form in his book Libro de Laberinti de Franc. Segalla Padoano Scultore et Architettore, a copy of which can be found in the Vatican Library. His maze images included a man, horseman, jester, dog, dolphin, snail, crab, and sailing ship; implied by its title, the book probably contains many more images. He used the internal lines of each maze to reinforce its image in an illustrative way. There is no record of any of these ever being created in the landscape; their intricate designs would have involved path lengths of over a mile, too large for formal gardens.[The Amazing Book of Mazes by Adrian Fisher. New York: Abrams, 2006]
In Asia animal nascitur quod bonnacon dicunt. Cui taurinum capud, ac deinceps corpus omne tantum iuba equina. Cornua autem ita multiplici flexu in se recurrentia, ut si quis in eo offendat non vulneretur, sed quicquid presidii monstro illi frons negat, alvus sufficit. Nam cum in fugam vertit proluvie citi ventris fumum egerit per longitudinem trium iugerum, cuius ardor quicquid attigerit adurit. Ita egerie noxia submovet insequentes.English translation:
In Asia an animal is found which men call bonnacon. It has the head of a bull, and thereafter its whole body is of the size of a bull's with the maned neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted, curling back on themselves in such a way that if anyone comes up against it, he is not harmed. But the protection which its forehead denies this monster is furnished by its bowels. For when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat of which sets fire to anything it touches. In this way, it drives off its pursuers with its harmful excrement.
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