Water Nymphs’ Preludes

III
You tossed a blanket from the bed,
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the bed’s edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.

IV
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

～from “Preludes,” by T. S. Eliot

“When she got out of the water, what a change was seen in her!”
(I am in love with this water nymph-esque beauty.)
*From Folk-Tales of Bengal, by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with 32 illustrations in colour by Warwick Goble, Macmillan & Co., Ltd, 1912, London.

“She rushed out of the palace... and came to the upper world.”
*From Folk-Tales of Bengal, by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with 32 illustrations in colour by Warwick Goble, Macmillan & Co., Ltd, 1912, London.

“A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings.”

— T.S.Eliot, The Wasteland.

“Coming up to the surface they climbed into the boat.”
*From Folk-Tales of Bengal, by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with 32 illustrations in colour by Warwick Goble, Macmillan & Co., Ltd, 1912, London.

A Frightening Angel

I was in high school when I read Rilke for the first time, in an underground “indie” bookstore (a real treasure trove for books) near the National University of Taiwan—an area full of “book caves” and “sequestered nooks for books”—catering for university students and academics alike. It was his Duino Elegies translated into Chinese by a famous poet, and my love affair with Rilke thus began. The verses were heartrendingly powerful in such a way that I was instantly blown away.

My senior high school years were a time I do not care much to remember: the first thing I would do after school everyday, was to go straight into a bookstore—only then would I feel able to breathe. But it was also during that time when I started writing poetry intensely, and my passion for poetry bloomed like wild roses as if they knew there were no tomorrow.

English translation by Stephen Mitchell (my personal favourite translator of Rilke’s works), from the First Elegy of Duino Elegies, 
Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1992.

ʻA Guardian of the Kingdom’ from a Persian version of Qazwini’s ʻAjāʼib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāʼib al-mawjūdāt,’ “The marvels of creation and the oddities of existence,” commonly known as “The cosmography of Qazwini,”
circa 1500-1550 CE. (image via)

A poem is to be developed from these musings and words which arrived this early evening, and something has been on the back of my mind for quite some time—to work on “Dialogue Poetry”—quite a special genre both in a literary and visual/aesthetic sense.

So, for now, to be continued...

♪

The fifty poems that were published by Albert Giraud (born Emile Albert Kayenbergh) as Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques in 1884 quickly attracted composers to set them to music, especially after they were translated, somewhat freely, into German (1892) by the poet and dramatist Otto Erich Hartleben. (Hartleben later went on to write his own Pierrot poems—"The Harp" and five rondels titled Pierrot, Married Man.) The best known of these settings is the atonal song-cycle derived from twenty-one of the poems (in Hartleben's translation) by Arnold Schoenberg in 1912: Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds Pierrot lunaire (Thrice-Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's Pierrot lunaire—Schoenberg was numerologically superstitious). But the poems have dense histories as songs and sets of songs both before and after Schoenberg's landmark Opus 21. The bullet-point that follows lists early twentieth-century musical settings chronologically and notes how many poems were set by each composer (all, except Prohaska's, are in the Hartleben translations) and for which instruments.

Pfohl, Ferdinand: 5 poems ("Moon-rondels, fantastic scenes from 'Pierrot Lunaire'") for voice and piano (1891); Marschalk, Max: 5 poems for voice and piano (1901); Vrieslander, Otto: 50 poems for voice and piano (46 in 1905, 4 more in 1911); Graener, Paul: 3 poems for voice and piano (c. 1908); Marx, Joseph: 4 poems for voice and piano (1909; 1 of 4, "Valse de Chopin", reset for voice, piano, and string quartet in 1917); Schoenberg, Arnold: 21 poems for speaking voice, piano, flute (also piccolo), clarinet (also bass clarinet), violin (also viola), and violoncello (1912); Kowalski, Max: 12 poems for voice and piano (1913); Prohaska, Carl: 6 poems for voice and piano (1920); Lothar, Mark: 1 poem for voice and piano (1921).

*extract of information on Pierrot Lunaire via Wikipedia

Antoine’s Women; Rosalba’s Muse

“Watteau’s women do not care to represent Womanhood or Love or Beauty, certainly not with a capital W or L or B. They are not the sort of women who want to be regarded as forces of nature. They are not interested in being idealized or idolized. They are too much at ease to be caught up in such fantasies.

They stand apart from their own beauty and their amorous adventures, as if they felt free to consider the value of love or beauty, but only the value it might have for them, for now—a private matter. They are in some sense natural aristocrats, with a freedom from social constraints that gives them the aura of supernatural beings, even of goddesses.

But Watteau’s women are not goddesses in any classical sense. They have none of the traditional responsibilities of goddesses. They do not personify some value or virtue. They do not have supernatural powers. And that is precisely their charm, the key to their comic exuberance. They are goddesses who are freed from all responsibility. They are goddesses who have resigned from their roles.

They are goddesses on the lam.”

～Jed Perl, Antoine’s Alphabet: Watteau and His World

A Muse, by Rosalba Carriera, Italian, about 1725,
pastel on laid blue paper, 12 3/16 x 10 1/4 in., via The Getty Museum.

Portrait of Archduchess Maria Isabella, from The History of Florence: From 59 B.C. to 1966: the two-thousand-year story of a unique city, whose way of life has influenced the world, by Marcello Vannucci.

Lady Beatrice, by George Clausen

Combing Hair, by Torii Kotondo (Japanese, 1900-1976). Japan, Oct 1929.
Prints; woodcuts. Color woodblock print; embossed.
Image: 16 1/8 x 10 5/16 in. (41 x 26.2cm);
Sheet: 18 9/16 x 11 3/4in. (47.2 x 29.8cm)

Mirror (Kagemi), by 恩地孝四郎 Onchi Koshiro (Japanese, 1891-1955), ca. 1930, 
woodblock print with gofun and mica, 33 x 23.1cm

“Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible
its multitudinous Charlatans—everything in short but
the Enchantress of Numbers.” 
～Charles Babbage to Ada Lovelace  

*Portrait (detail) of Ada by British painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1836).

Con la rosa tra le labbra, 1895, by Ettore Tito (Italian 1859-1941).

Portrait of Countess Elisa Dadiani, by Savelij Abramovich Sorin, 1919 (via)

Nayika Shringara: the romantic herione adorns herself, preparing her hair. 

Jodhpur, circa 1830 (artist unknown). Gouache & gold on paper. 15 x 10.3cm. 

*via Indian Miniature Paintings

Ideal Female Heads, French, 1769-1770,

by Jacques Augustin Pajou (1730-1809),

Terracotta on white marble socle, via The Getty Museum.

Detail of Bacchante tenant un tambour de basque, avec deux enfants 
(Bacchante holding a tambourine, with two children),
by Jacques Augustin Pajou (1730-1809); Marble, Musée du Louvre.

Three Studies of a Woman and a Study of Her Hand Holding a Fan, 
by Antoine Watteau c.1717

Detail of a Female Nude Study, by George Lawrence Bulleid (British 1858-1933).

Vioets, Sweet Violets (detail), 1906, by John William Godward

When the Heart is Young (detail), 1902, by John William Godward. 

Oil on canvas, private collection

Jacques-Louis David, Psyché Abandonnée (detail), 1795, Musée du Louvre

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1864, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Helene Caroline Therese, Duchess in Bavaria (4 April 1834 – 16 May 1890) 
of the House of Wittelsbach, nicknamed Néné, was a Bavarian princess and, 
through marriage, temporarily the head of the Thurn and Taxis family.

untitled musing

“Des Esseintes also derived a specious pleasure from handling this minuscule booklet, with its covers of Japanese felt as white as milk curds, fastened by two silk cords, one Chinese pink, the other black. Concealed behind the binding, the black braid met the pink braid which, like some licentious handmaid, added a whisper of powder, a suggestion of modern Japanese rouge, to the antique whiteness, the artless flesh-tints of the book; it would itself round the pink, intertwining its sombre colour with the light one in a dainty bow, and introducing a discreet hint of that regret, a vague threat of that sadness which follow in the wake of burnt-out passion and satiated sensual frenzy.” 

(Joris-Karl Huysmans, À rebours, trans. by Margaret Mauldon)

常玉畫作：雙裸女，1929年。
Sanyu, Two Pink Nudes, oil on canvas, 1929 (via Ravenel Art)

“However, by delving into his own mind, he first of all grasped that, to appeal to him, a work must possess that aura of strangeness which Edgar Allan Poe required; but he readily ventured further along that path, demanding over-subtle creations of the intellect and complex deliquescences of language; what he wanted was a disturbing ambivalence he could muse about, until he chose to make it either vaguer or more precise, according to his state of mind at that particular moment. In a word, he wanted a work of art both for what it intrinsically was and for what it potentially allowed him to impart to it; he wanted to go forward with it and because of it, as if aided by an acolyte, as if transported in a vehicle, into a sphere where sublimated feelings would induce in him a state of turmoil which was unexpected, and the causes of which he would, over a long period, try—though quite in vain—to analyse.” (ibid)

常玉畫作：鏡前母與子，1930年代。
Sanyu, Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, oil on canvas, 1930s (via Sotheby's HK)

我的生命中一無所有，我只是一個畫家。對於我的作品，我認為毋須賦予任何解釋，當觀賞我的作品時，應該清楚瞭解我所要表達的... 只是一個簡單的概念。～常玉
“I have nothing in my life, I am merely a painter. Regarding my works, I do not think explanations are necessary. When looking at my paintings, one should understand with clarity, what I am trying to express... is but a simple concept.” —Sanyu






Death and ecstasy... “[Art] is about connecting with human beings emotionally, not intellectually.” (Tamara Rojo)

幽蘭操

《幽蘭操》唐 韓愈

蘭之猗猗，揚揚其香。眾香拱之，幽幽其芳。
不采而佩，於蘭何傷？以日以年，我行四方。
文王夢熊，渭水泱泱。采而佩之，奕奕清芳。
雪霜茂茂，蕾蕾於冬，君子之守，子孫之昌。

~ 出自《全唐詩》

【墨蘭圖】——鄭思肖捲紙本水墨(日)大阪市立美術館藏

此圖以淡墨寫幽蘭一叢，蕭散清逸，風韻自標。無水土雜木，​​簡潔疏朗，高雅不群。畫家於宋亡後作蘭皆不寫土，人問何故，答日：“土為蕃人所奪，汝尚不知耶?”拳拳愛國之情，於此可見。

鄭思肖(1241 ～1318)，字億翁，號所南，連江(今屬福建)人。宋末曾以太學生應博學鴻詞試，授和靖書院山長。宋亡後，隱居平江(今江蘇蘇州)。坐臥必向南，誓不與北人交往，因號所南。擅畫墨蘭，兼工墨竹。畫蘭根不著土，以寄故國之思。

釋義

　　蘭花開時，在遠處仍能聞到它的幽幽清香；如果人們不去採摘蘭花卻好像它仍然佩戴在身上，對蘭花本身有什麽損傷呢？今日的變故,並非我的過錯。我常年行走四方，看到隆冬嚴寒時，荠麥卻正開始茂盛地生長，一派生機盎然，既然荠麥能無畏寒冬，那麽不利的環境對我又有什麽影響呢？一個君子是能處于不利的環境而保持他的志向和德行操守的啊。 

賞析

　　深谷幽蘭，清芳自足，甘于淡漠，正是象徵著一個人不管是做學問還是要成就事業，都要能夠承受寂寞和忍受別人的不理解，用達觀、平和的心境去面對風雨人生。然而，這並不只是某種孤芳自賞的清高，而是因爲學習君子之道的過程本身就是快樂和充實的。

　　【序釋】

　　蘭，在中國文化中，是“入我門中，能諫我心之草”是先祖留給後人的無字天書。

　　孔子酷愛蘭花，有“蘭為王者香”之語。此言含義一是蘭香為香中之王，一株好的蘭花開放的時候，整個山谷聞不到別的花香，這是蘭香香芬豐富的生物學特性。二是，蘭只為王者而香。蘭隱於幽深的山谷中，不開花時，與群草無異，只有王者，才能認識蘭所蘊含的思想價值，從而去深山中尋訪。

　　蘭獨特的生物學特性還有“春化”，就是蘭要經歷一個長期的低溫期(0℃-10℃)才能順利開花，保證花品和香品。野生的蘭花，秋天孕育花蕾，經歷整個冬天的休眠，第二年春天才開花，春分前後花期結束。

　　【總釋】

　　本詞分為上中下三闕。

　　上闕，中心是蘭香是王者之香。

　　譯文：蘭花的葉子，長長的，在風中搖曳，優雅而飄逸;蘭香，在風中升騰，向四方飄揚。蘭香所及之處，所有花香都黯淡無味，並成為蘭香的一部分，眾多的花香拱衛著蘭香，蘭花的芬芳，遠而不淡，近而不濃，幽幽的從中心向八方輸布。蘭是香中之王，如果沒有人認識到而不去采摘佩戴他，對蘭花而言，又有什麼妨害呢。

　　中闕，中心是蘭只為王者而香。
　　譯文：一天接一天，一年接一年，東南西北，四方都走遍，我雖然像香蘭一樣，不以無人而不芳，不過我也在積極地尋找實現自身社會價值的機會。周文王夜夢飛熊入帳，渭水之畔訪遇太公望(姜子牙，因周文王有“興周之業，先祖早寄希望於太公也”之說，故名太公望)，從而奠定周朝八百年基業，這是多麼讓人嚮往的啊。蘭一旦被王者采摘佩戴，定會讓其清雅的芬芳和其間蘊含的思想如日月般光耀。

　　下闋，中心是蘭歷苦寒而成其香。

　　譯文：雪霜鋪天蓋地，樹冠上厚厚的一層，雖是冬天，但看起來萬物都像更加茂盛了一樣。嚴寒中，蘭的花蕾，靜靜的孕育和等待，在忍耐中積累。蘭之所以有王者之香，是因為在寒冬中孕育了花蕾，如果人們能明白這是君子應該遵守的道理和法則，那麼後世子孫必定昌盛。

古琴曲《幽蘭操》又稱《猗蘭操》。“猗”字在古漢語中有四種解釋：一是歎詞，表示贊美，如《詩經·周頌·潛》“猗與漆沮”（漆、沮是河流名）；二是句末語氣詞，如《詩經·魏風·伐檀》“河水清且漣猗！”；三是通“倚”字，依靠，如《詩經·衛風·淇奧》“猗重較兮”（重較是古代卿士乘坐的車子）；四是柔順的樣子，如《史記·司馬相如傳》“猗柅從風”（猗柅又寫作“旖旎”）。 “操”，指琴曲名及演奏方法，如《箕子操》、《龜山操》。

原文

　　習習谷風，以陰以雨。之子于歸，遠送于野。

　　何彼蒼天，不得其所。逍遙九州，無所定處。

　　世人暗蔽，不知賢者。年紀逝邁，一身將老。

　　傷不逢時，寄蘭作操。

出處

　　樂府詩集（郭茂倩編）卷五十八 琴曲歌辭二

相傳爲孔子所作。

蔡邕（蔡文姬之父）在《琴操》中說：“《猗蘭操》者，孔子所作也。”“孔子歷聘諸侯，諸侯莫能任。自衛反魯，過隱谷之中，見香蘭獨茂，喟然歎曰，夫蘭爲王者香，今乃獨茂；與衆草爲伍，譬猶賢者不逢時，與鄙夫爲倫也。”“乃止車，援琴鼓之雲：習習谷風，以陰以雨；之子于歸，遠送于野；何彼蒼天，不得其所！逍遙九州，無所定處；時人諳蔽，不知賢者；年紀逝邁，一身將老！自傷不逢時，托辭于香蘭雲。”

　　《古今樂錄》曰：“孔子自衛反魯，見香蘭而作此歌。”
　　《琴集》曰：“《幽蘭操》，孔子所作也。”

　　古詩《幽蘭操》，是精擅琴藝的孔聖人自感生未逢時的絕世作品。唐代著名詩人韓愈曾作同名作品，以唱和孔子。《幽蘭操》只有短短的六十四個字，卻韻味十足，清冽之中隱含冷豔。汲取了史詩與英雄傳說的浩渺氣質，帶著蘭花冷漠的美豔，但又說著人生的變動和永恒。

The Poetic Dream Argument

This place is a dream.
Only a sleeper considers it real.

Then death comes like dawn,
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought was your grief.

But there's a difference with this dream.
Everything cruel and unconscious
done in the illusion of the present world,
all that does not fade away at the death-waking.

It stays,
and it must be interpreted.

And this groggy time we live,
this is what it's like:

A man goes to sleep in the town where he has always lived
and he dreams he's living in another town.
In the dream, he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in. He believes
the reality of the dream town.

The world is that kind of sleep.

The dust of many crumbled cities
settles over us like a forgetful doze,
but we are older than those cities.

We began as a mineral.
We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again.
That's how a young person turns
toward a teacher. That's how a baby leans
toward the breast, without knowing the secret
of its desire, yet turning instinctively.

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,

and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.

~ Mevlana Rumi; translation by Coleman Barks

Bucheinband, 18th century book cover

Coloured Baroque so-called paper rose, embossed papers,with stencils and gold.

Ex Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani (Hamburg)

{*image via The Book Aesthete}

Edmund Dulac's Orient

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Look to the Rose that blows about us—"Lo,
Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow:
At once the silken Tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw." (XIII.)

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head. (XVIII.)

Of threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain—This Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. (LXIII.)

*Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.

Chinese Fairy Tale: The Story of the Bird Feng

The flowers of the paeony
Will they ever bloom?
A day without her
Is like a hundred years.

The Adventures of Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess Badoura; From: Arabian Nights

Princess Badoura, 1913

Camaralzaman Cures Badoura, 1913

She ran forth, and threw herself into the arms of Camaralzaman

Princess Badoura and the King of China, 1913

The King came in haste, and found that which till now he had only pretended, concerning his daughter, apparently came true

Dahnash and Meymooneh, 1913

As she rose up through the clouds there passed one she knew by his tail to be Dahnash

Sinbad the Sailor; From: Arabian Nights

Japanese Fairy Tale: Urashima Tarō (浦島太郎)

Hans Christian Andersen's The Nightingale

A Million Kisses to My Skin

David and I went out this evening for a very lovely dinner date at the wonderful French restaurant/bistro Le Boudin Blanc. We had beautiful food including a divine chestnut crème gateau with spices and dark chocolate sorbet (my obsession with Indian chai these days has given me a penchant for everything exotically fragranced). In a way the ambiance in this little gem of a restaurant neatly tucked away on a cobble-stoned alley felt even a teeny bit more French than being in Paris (ah, the blasphemy!)...

On our drive back home Bach's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor was playing on the radio. I instantly turned up the volume as I've loved this gorgeous piece ever since I first heard it, and even more so after seeing David Dawson's ballet "A Million Kisses to My Skin" which he created for Dutch National Ballet in 2000. I went to the performance when Dutch National Ballet toured Sadler's Wells in London. The precision and athleticism does not wane its artistic and emotional quality in anyway, as far as I am concerned. Instead, I find a beautiful parallell between the dancer's movements and what attracts me so much to Bach's music (as well as numerous contemporary choreographers/musicians/composers). An emotional complexity and profundity achieved not through the least bit of sentimentalism, but via a channel that is controlled, balanced, subtle/implicit, at times intellectually challenging, or even 'digital' and rigid. Yet this communicative channel delivers something that is infinitely timeless, glowing intrinsically with qualities that are transcendent. How Bach's music moves me.

David mentioned one of his favourite books dealing with a similar subject, which he thinks I will love - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book described as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll." It is to be included in my ever growing book list, and I am not a fast reader at all!

As Random Dance Artistic Director and Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor eloquently puts it, “I think there’s something wonderful about these dancers, how they’re able to take dislocating, disorienting physical language and imbue it with emotional resonance. I’m a great believer, as was Merce Cunningham, in that the human body can never be without meaning, that the body can never be abstract. The body is inherently literal.”

*Since embedding is disabled, please click here to watch the first movement of David Dawson's A Million Kisses to My Skin, performed by Dresden Semperoper Ballett in 2008, starring Natalia Sologub, Jiri Bubenicek, Olga Melnikova, Maximilian Genow, Elena Vostrotina, Claudio Cangialosi, Julia Carnicer, Giselle Doepker and Arika Togawa. Also visit the gallery for some excellent photographs of this ballet.




Glenn Gould plays Bach Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052

Pandora's Boxes

Beware, once these Pandora's Boxes are opened, the contents come into their own lives and it requires a great deal to remove oneself from the borderline hysterical/ecstatic state of endless perusal (provided that you are also part of this group of bibliophiles, vintage aficionados, aesthetes with an addictive personality, and ardent devotees to all the artistic or visual delights).

New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Flickr: The Commons
Mortimer Rare Book Exhibitions, at the Smith College Libraries & Collections
Staley+Wise Gallery: The Collection

Baika jô = The plum blossom album. (1808);
Artist: Okada, Baikan, 1773-1849

Ehon (Picture Books): The Artist and the Book in Japan
More than 1,000 images encompassing 1,200 years of Japanese book art, including Buddhist sutras, painted manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, calligraphic verse, and photographic books, with related drawings and woodblock prints. [From: NYPL Digital Gallery]

Smörkullen at Gullmarsberg at Gullmarsfjorden (Gullmar Fjord).
Smörkullen på Gullmarsberg vid Gullmarsfjorden.
Parish (socken): Skredsvik
Province (landskap): Bohuslän
Municipality (kommun): Uddevalla
County (län): Västra Götaland
Photograph by: Carl Curman/ Date: 1880s/ Format: Albumen print
Persistent URL; Read more about the photo database (in English)
From The Swedish National Heritage Board's photostream, at Flickr: The Commons.

View on the Tokaido beyond Odowara, Hakoni Mountains in the distance ([187-]).
Photographer: Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825
From: Asia and the Pacific Rim in Early Prints and Photographs, NYPL Digital Gallery.

Matsushima Inland Sea (Three View) (189-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

Chrysanthemum (189-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

A Forest (187-?-188-?)
From: Album of photographs of Japan, NYPL Digital Gallery.

[Habitus Foeminarum Sinensium.] (1667);
alternative name: China monumentis
Author: Kircher, Athanasius, 1602-1680
From: Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis,... [NYPL Digital Gallery]