The Western Canon / A room for reflection
Make room for the enduring.
Poetry. Scripture. Prayer. Art.
Works to return to, with their sources
close at hand.
Read slowly.
Return often.
A contemporary visual meditation
An invitation to attend
A homecoming. A blessing. A question about the soul.
A prayer for rest. A path through the dark.
These works speak from different centuries and traditions. We keep their names, their translations, and their sources beside them. The invitation is simple: give the words time.
01 / Homecoming
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
The invocation begins with a traveller and a perilous return. Our sheet holds an extract from the opening, with the translator named. Read it slowly; the wider story remains there to be entered.
02 / Mercy
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
The Beatitudes belong to the opening of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse is one of the blessings; the broadside carries Matthew 5:3–12 together, with verse numbers beside the words.
03 / The soul
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Two questions, kept together. The passage asks about the soul and the cost of worldly gain. Its weight belongs to the Gospel itself; the sheet gives it a place to be read and considered.
04 / Rest
Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.
Augustine addresses God in the opening of the Confessions. The restless heart is held within that prayer. We preserve that address, and name the translation beneath the passage.
05 / The way
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
The Divine Comedy opens with a lost path. These three lines mark the beginning of a much larger journey. The sheet keeps Longfellow’s line breaks, and gives the source its own line.
The conversation in images
Rembrandt’s ministry scene, his philosopher with Homer, and Blake’s reading of Dante. Three works from the collection, reproduced from museum open-access images. Follow each image back to its record.
From the page to your place
Eight works in the Western Canon room. Contemporary broadsides and art reproductions, printed by Thomas Graphics in Austin, Texas. Find the source, paper, size, and available formats on each sheet’s page.
GALILEE · AUTHORIZED VERSION, 1611
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ST MATTHEW 16:26
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HOMER · TRANS. BUTLER, 1900
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CONFESSIONS · C. 397
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INFERNO, CANTO I · TRANS. LONGFELLOW
Explore the formats ↗REMBRANDT · C. 1649
Explore the formats ↗REMBRANDT · 1653
Explore the formats ↗BLAKE · INFERNO V · 1827
Explore the formats ↗Five texts / One considered collection
The Odyssey, The Beatitudes, What is a man profited?, Our heart is restless, and Midway upon the journey. The three art reproductions are available separately.
The record stays with the work
Homer / translated by Samuel Butler, 1900. The sheet presents an extract from the invocation, ending at “safely home”; the source sentence continues.
Authorized Version (King James Version). Matthew 5:3–12 and 16:26. Modern-spelling KJV transcription; 1611 identifies the translation, not a facsimile of its original spelling.
Augustine / translated by E. B. Pusey. The opening prayer addresses God. The broadside extracts the clause beginning “Thou madest us”.
Dante / translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1867. The first tercet. Line breaks and the capital “For” follow the text file used to typeset the existing sheet.
Rembrandt van Rijn / c. 1649 / National Gallery of Art. Object 9969. Open-access image in the public domain. The work is an etching, drypoint and burin on Japan paper.
Rembrandt van Rijn / 1653 / The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Object 437394. Public-domain image. Aristotle rests his hand on a bust of Homer.
William Blake / 1827 / National Gallery of Art. Object 797. Open-access image in the public domain. An engraving after Dante’s Inferno, Canto V.
The Gospel passages are presented as scripture, and Augustine’s words as a prayer addressed to God. The art reproductions preserve the historical artworks. Our broadside compositions are contemporary editions of these texts and images.
The room and landscapes are contemporary visual meditations, imagined for this campaign. They do not document historical places or events. Miriam provides a modern narration; the script identifies the reading from Matthew. No voice is presented as a recording of a historical or sacred figure. The musical score is contemporary.
Transcript. Some words ask us to slow down. To read again. To make room. Homer opens with a traveller, far from home. An old story, still asking for our attention. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus teaches: Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Elsewhere in Matthew, a question weighs the whole world against the soul. Augustine brings his restless heart to God. A prayer, still held on the page. Dante begins in a dark wood, with the way ahead lost. Poetry. Scripture. Prayer. Art. Distinct works, each with its own source. From our press in Austin, words to live with. Explore the Western Canon at Thomas Broadside Company.
The quoted blessing is Matthew 5:7, Authorized Version. English captions are available in the player and start switched off.
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