Helena von Halsstern here before Us.
The great task of being Royalty is comprehending the nature of Our people through a direct
sensory experience. The focus of concrete things, which can at any time, be clearly known and proved by experience, thus reminds Us to understand that Our eyes function with such certainty as to see Helena and what they have done for Us.
Further We wish to express this gratitude in a concrete form that can be arranged and announced before the whole expanse of the East and beyond.
All knowledge has its origins in perception and thus King Culann and Queen Honig in such space found in The Barony of Settmour Swamp during this Sixty First Year of Our Society at Ducal Challenge, would see Their opportunity to present unto the aforesaid Helena von Halsstern the title of Baroness of Our Court, with these arms: Sable semy of roses Or, a fox passant reguardant contourny argent. As witnessed by Our eyes.
Illumination and Calligraphy by Hugoline the Delicate
-The Beatles
(more or less)
This scroll came about between the scribe and myself and led to a discovery! In our initial discussion they mentioned a previous work that featured the backwards writing of Leonardo Da Vinci. My first impression of Da Vinci was that of a painter,an architect, and an innovator. The idea of investigating his own writing had never occurred to me.
After the machinations of online searching, I found: The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete, by da Vinci Leonardo
I selected several of his notes regarding the eye and his ponderings on sight in comparison to other animals and humans.Given that the award is a court barony, they developed a theme of vision and seeing what the recipient had done for Their Majesties.
About 3/4 of the way into the composition, the scribe discovered that the recipient adored foxes. Further searching led to Leonardo da Vinci’s Animal Anatomy: Bear and Horse Drawings Revisited and Leonardo’s Animals. Which did not focus on foxes, but its influence was still felt in the composition.
Behold here, O the East!
Leonardo starts his Introduction to Perspective: That is of the function of the eye by addressing the reader of his diary. “Behold here O reader!”
This perspective actually made using his words as inspiration straightforward to adapt. They were already written directed outward to an unseen audience.
Helena von Halsstern here before Us.
Since the original source did not feature an individual, this seemed the appropriate place to introduce the recipient.
The great task of being Royalty is comprehending the nature of Our people through a direct
sensory experience.
Initial focus was set towards The sentence “forefathers, the ancients, who tried to define what the Soul and Life are” as inspiration. After many iterations, including some internal debate between using soul vs spirit, the reference was omitted entirely. Or in the words of Arthur Quiller-Couch, and often ascribed to William Faulkner, “Murder your darlings.”
Instead it became an amalgamation of the notes concerning the eye from Leonardo’s Anomals “the great task of being human is comprehending nature through direct sensory experience, but human senses are poor.”
The focus of concrete things, which can at any time, be clearly known and proved by experience, thus reminds Us to understand that Our eyes function with such certainty as to see Helena and what they have done for Us.
And here goes directly back to the Notebooks where the original language is tweaked to suit the Royalty and the recipient.
Further We wish to express this gratitude in a concrete form that can be arranged and announced before the whole expanse of the East and beyond.
At this point having dealt with his turn of phrase for quite a while this sentence was created while simply letting Da Vinci ‘s influence come through when creating the SCA specific turns of phrase.
All knowledge has its origins in perception and thus King Culann and Queen Honig in such space found in The Barony of Settmour Swamp during this Sixty First Year of Our Society at Ducal Challenge, would see Their opportunity to present unto the aforesaid Helena von Halsstern the title of Baroness of Our Court, with these arms: Sable semy of roses Or, a fox passant reguardant contourny argent. As witnessed by Our eyes.
The bulk of the required information is put in this ending section. Even so the vision and sight theme continues throughout the last paragraph with the cumulation in the final line of, “As seen by Our eyes."
The final work was not a direct one to one rearranging of a single text; these words are based on several of Da Vinci’s diary entries. This was a patchwork of phrases and words that were coalesced into a viable theme with progressive steps that described the recipient and their award.
