"Life in a Love" by Robert Browning

"Life in a Love" by Robert Browning

 "Life in a Love" is a poem by Robert Browning, published in 1855 in his collection "Men and Women". Browning was a prominent Victorian poet, and the husband of Elizabeth Barret Browning, known for his dramatic monologues and exploration of complex psychological themes in his poetry.

In "Life in a Love," Browning reflects on the enduring pursuit of love despite obstacles and challenges. The speaker expresses a determination to continue seeking love, even if it means facing rejection or disappointment.

The poem conveys a sense of resilience and persistence in the face of adversity, suggesting that the pursuit of love is an integral part of life's journey. Despite the potential for failure, the speaker is resolved to keep striving for love, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resilience in the pursuit of one's desires.

"In addendum, the poem depicts the selfless act of promise to be always in love and be loving, and lovable. Though the winds of life may blow to wear out one's purpose and focus in life, still raising up ever and ever again is certain. Seven falls, eight rise." Sanafflatus.

Life in a Love

Escape me?

Never—

Beloved!

While I am I, and you are you,

So long as the world contains us both,

Me the loving and you the loth,

While the one eludes, must the other pursue.

My life is a fault at last, I fear:

It seems too much like a fate, indeed!

Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.

But what if I fail of my purpose here?

It is but to keep the nerves at strain,

To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,

And, baffled, get up and begin again,—

So the chase takes up one's life, that's all.

While, look but once from your farthest bound

At me so deep in the dust and dark,

No sooner the old hope goes to ground

Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,

I shape me—

Ever

Removed!

Credit: 

#LovePoetry

#happyvalentinesday

Courtesy Academy

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THE UNIVERSITY OF SANKORE, TIMBUKTU

 THE UNIVERSITY OF SANKORE, TIMBUKTU

The historic city of Timbuktu in Mali, recognised for its profound scholarly heritage, harbours the remnants of one of the world's earliest centres of learning, the University of Sankore. Established in the 1200s AD, this university was a beacon of knowledge, housing an extensive collection of manuscripts. These manuscripts, predominantly inscribed in Ajami—a writing system that employs Arabic script to transcribe African languages, with Hausa being a notable example—serve as a testament to the rich intellectual traditions of the region.

As the centuries progressed, from the 1300s through to the 1800s AD, Timbuktu experienced the arrival and, in some cases, the colonisation by Europeans and West Asians. This period marked a turning point for the preservation of the manuscripts. The Malian custodians of this knowledge, acutely aware of the potential risk of destruction or expropriation by foreign invaders—a fate that befell numerous other texts across the African continent, notably in Kemet (ancient Egypt)—took decisive action to safeguard their heritage. They concealed these invaluable documents in various hidden locations, including basements, attics, and underground vaults, thereby shielding them from potential harm.

Among the concealed treasures were manuscripts that covered a broad spectrum of knowledge, including significant works on mathematics and astronomy. These documents are pivotal in understanding the historical depth of mathematical and scientific inquiry in Africa, predating European colonial influence. They reveal a sophisticated grasp of complex concepts and contribute to debunking the myth of a pre-colonial Africa devoid of advanced scholarly pursuits.

In recent decades, the rediscovery of up to 700,000 of these manuscripts has illuminated the enduring legacy of African scholarship. The Timbuktu manuscripts, particularly those related to mathematics and astronomy, underscore Africa's role as a contributor to the global repository of knowledge well before the advent of European colonisation. This resurgence of interest in Africa's intellectual history not only enriches our understanding of the past but also inspires a reevaluation of the continent's place in the history of science and education....

#Timbuktu

#PanAfricanism

#Africanhistory

#blackhistory

#muslim

#fulani

#blackhistorymonth

Credit: Pan-africanism on Facebook.

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Brief History of Leonardo Da Vinci

/ Brief History of Leonardo da Vinci /

"Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble."

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"Leonardo da Vinci, (born April 15, 1452, Anchiano, Republic of Florence—died May 2, 1519, Cloux, France), Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, draftsman, architect, engineer, and scientist.

The son of a landowner and a peasant, Leonardo received training in painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts as an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1482 he entered the service of the duke of Milan as “painter and engineer.” During his 17 years in Milan, Leonardo completed six artworks, including The Virgin of the Rocks (1483–86) and one of his most famous works, the monumental wall painting Last Supper (1495–98) in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. About 1490 Leonardo began a project of writing treatises on the “science of painting,” architecture, mechanics, and anatomy. His numerous surviving manuscripts are noted for being written in a backward script that requires a mirror to be read.

In 1502–03, as military architect and engineer for Cesare Borgia, Leonardo helped lay the groundwork for modern cartography. During the next five years in Florence (1503–08) he began another famous piece, the Mona Lisa (c. 1503–19). Leonardo then returned to Milan, where he created very little as a painter—but his scientific work flourished. In 1516, after an interlude under Medici patronage in Rome, he entered the service of Francis I of France; he never returned to Italy.

Though only some 17 completed paintings survive, they are universally seen as masterpieces. The power of The Last Supper comes in part from its masterly composition. In the Mona Lisa the features and symbolic overtones of the subject achieve a complete synthesis. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained largely intact to the present day rests on his unlimited desire for knowledge, a trait that guided all his thinking and behaviour." (Britannica)

Painting of Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Indeed, the Mona Lisa is a very realistic portrait. The subject's softly sculptural face shows Leonardo's skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to model form, and shows his understanding of the skull beneath the skin.

Last Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci

Last Supper, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26:21–28, in which Jesus declares that one of the Apostles will betray him and later institutes the Eucharist. (Britannica)

Source:"As Above So Below" on Facebook: Leonardodo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.442, GENERAL PRESS. 

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Early Church: Lightening of Candle

Early Church: Lightening of Candle. 

 A Christian church was not a proper church unless there were lights burning on the altar of God. A council of 721 extended papal protection to Olive Groves because keeping the lights on - in the Mediterranean - depended on a steady stream of olive oil.  

In Northern Europe, tallow candles were the norm. This horrified Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious when he discovered that the monks of Fulda (the burial place of the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface, often described as the Apostle of Germany) were lighting their church with pork fat. The Emperor promised them an olive grove in Italy instead.

The Christian kings of Northern Europe didn’t have any olive groves to offer, but they could send money to the holiest sites of Christendom for them to buy their own oil. 

Lighting up Rome itself was the duty of kings. Late in the 8th-Century, the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia sent an annual 365 gold ‘mancuses’ (a type of coin) in order to support the poor and for lights. When he died, the pope petitioned his successor to continue the offering. Similarly, Alfred the Great’s father, Æthelwulf of Wessex bequeathed 300 mancuses a year to buy oil for the lamps of the main churches of Rome.

By the 11th-Century, English thanes (the noble class) were required by law to light their local churches, and they did this with candles instead of the oil lamps of the Mediterranean world.  

The photo shows three candles from an Alamannic grave in Oberflacht in Germany: these are possibly the oldest surviving beeswax candles north of the Alps, complete with their wicks of spun flax. 

They date to the 6th or early 7th-Century.

Today in the Landesmuseum in Stuttgart. 

Photo at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Candles_Oberflacht.jpg

Early Christian Church. 

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