Tony.

Anyways, I like Good Omens. It also happens to be the perfect context to examine different art styles from Renaissance to Victorian times. I started this little historical Good Omens art series last month. Let’s begin with Golgotha Aziraphale and Crowley as Rembrandt style oil portraits :)

Colophon: a statement at the end of a book containing the scribe or owner’s name, date of completion, or bitching about how hard it is to write a book in the dark ages

Oh, my hand

The parchment is very hairy

Thank God it will soon be dark

St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing

Now I’ve written the whole thing; for Christ’s sake give me a drink

Oh d fuckin abbot

Massive hangover

Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job

Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night

If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up in Paris, across from the Notre Dame cathedral

I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today

Do not reproach me concerning the letters, the ink is bad and the parchment scanty and the day is dark

11 golden letters, 8 shilling each; 700 letters with double shafts, 7 shilling for each hundred; and 35 quires of text, each 16 leaves, at 3 shilling each. For such an amount I won’t write again

Here ends the second part of the title work of Brother Thomas Aquinas of the Dominican Order; very long, very verbose; and very tedious for the scribe; thank God, thank God, and again thank God

This remarkable letter of unknown provenance surfaced recently in the cuneiform collection of the University of West Wessex.  Addressed to Azirapil from a Mr. “Crawly,” it appears to be begging for the other’s return to Ur from a western journey with another individual, Abiraham.  The relationship between the two (brothers? business partners? friends?) is unknown, and all three names are quite unusual.  The letter also mentions a Mr. Ea-naṣir in Ur; if this is the same Ea-naṣir as the merchant mentioned in UET V 22, 29, 71, and 81, then the original letter would be dated to the Larsa period, around 1800 BCE.  However, this particular copy appears to be a scribal exercise; the writing is relatively unskilled, and the cuneiform is Neo-Assyrian in form.  It is unclear whether the text is based on a historical letter, or if its unusual names and content were invented for scribal practice.

Text:

Tell Azirapil [1]:

Thus says “Crawly” [2]:

When will your time in the West be finished?  Abiraham [3] seems very dirty, and I am weary [4] in Ur.  [There is] a talented mirsu-maker [5] on Wide Street!

Watch out, for I have acquired a new friend.  His name is Ea-Naṣir [6], and I may play wickedly with him if you do not return.  

Come quickly!

massacred innocents

prayer book, Upper Swabia 1476

Terry wrote to me and he said  ”You have to do this ”- he began this email, I went back and looked at it the other day -  ”I know how busy you are, but you are the only person who has the same understanding of and passion for the old girl that I do, so you got to do it ‘cause I want to see it.” And I said yes. And very shortly after, Terry died. So now he couldn’t see it.

So I had to make the thing that he wanted, which meant it became kind of a mad passion project. The things that if it was a me-project I would’ve given away on, things I wouldn’t have held the line on like some kind of a mad-eyed prophet.

Suddenly I’m going ”No, you cannot take this out. This is going to be in there. Because Terry wrote that scene and he would have wanted to see it, so it’s in there.” And they’re like ”Oh, but do you know how much money we could save if you don’t actually see Agnes Nutter being blown up and arrested and dragged to the stake, we got this idea,” said an early bunch of producers who later left, ”that we could have woodcuts and the narrator explaining what happened. Isn’t that just as good?”

req’d by @kyraneko