Scope and Contents

This twenty fifth page of the Dante Diary is numbered 25 on the right center edge. This page is stamped 18 Oct 1980 and Phillips writes, "Humument Publication Day: which certainly went quietly enough though went with Jill to Arts Coucil Bookshop to presign some books." The page contains several fragmented collage elemenst including a broken leaf, a cigar band, ticket and torn newsprint with the word Inferno. A rubber stamping at the bottom reads, "With a little help from my Fri..." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This twenty sixth page of the Dante Diary is collaged with the torn elements of the letter of rejection of Phillips' application for the Visual Arts Awards and the lists of sucessful receipients. There appears to be coffee stains over sections of the page. The number 26 is faintly written in pencil in the upper right hand side of the page. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This twenty seventh page of the Dante Diary is collaged with a printed page that mentions Dante's Divine Comedy, a Varig plane ticket, a scrape of rust colored paper with writing and drawings and a rubberstamping on the top of the page that reads "Dante in Portugal Etc." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Although this page is numbered XXIX in the lower right corner, Phillips has written 28 on the top right corner.This twenty eighth page of the Dante Diary is collaged with a round shinny sphere in the lower right. There is a large sketch in green ink of two men wrestling and over that drawing is a hand printed text which seems to be frrom Dante. Neither of these elements seem to be by Phillips. He has drawn small sketches of page structures. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

On page 30 Phillips writes "Back from Milan." The border of this page consists of rubberstampings of Dante's profile each of whic has been altered by Phillips. The interior part of the page contains small ink drawings with ideas for the Dante work. Phillips also lists subscribers for the work. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Page 31 is Dante in Milano.The drawings of several heads of Pella reflect his love for her. Most of the handwritten text concerns Phillips' visits and strolls around Milan. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Page 321 is titled "Dante in New York. and a Dedication." Tom writes ,"It feels good to dedicate my best work to my best love...In the Algonquin Hotel I gave Pella my dedication which I can't make public yet and the design for her card." On the center of the page, in the midst of large white stencilled letters, can be found the name of Pella in bright yellow. Internet: Usura in Italian means threadbare. The next part of Phillips text relates to the following. "The rich banker Enrico Scrovegni in Padua he built a private chapel between 1302 and 1303, for the decoration was called Giotto, who set to work only nl 1303 concluding work after 850 days of work, it 1305. The intent of the construction of the Scrovegni Chapel had an atoning character, in fact, the rich banker wanted liberal soul of the father from the pains of purgatory for the sins he had committed in life: wear and tear. The only wing of the chapel is longitudinal and covered by a barrel vault, natural light illuminates...

Scope and Contents

Page 33 is stamped 23 Apr 1981. The page consists of fragments from A Humument. There are also several ripped papers in Italian describing Phillips' exhibition of pages from his Dante's Inferno at the Libreria Einaudi in Milan. Phillips writes , "First showing of Dante pages in Italy at a bookshop run by Sr. Aldovrandi whose ancestor Tegghenio Aldorandi was one of the dancing soldiers in Canto XVI." To illustrate this fact Phillips has drawn 10 small illustrations of dancing male forms on this page. Included on the top center is a small collage print of Phillips' Dante in his study. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This page 34 is titled Dante in Chinese and contains six small calligraphic drawings made by members of a Chinese cultural delegation to Tom's studio. Described as a "complete mental painting for the Sackner archive, the bottom center contains a sketch for Tom's painting with a small portrait sketch of Marvin. Several small sketches are made for the Dante workn and Tom writes of other developements with the work.The page is stamped with the date 23 Apr1981. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Page 39 is titled Dante in Italy and Phillips writes, "Italy again in search of Dante with Beatrice.First to Milan to deliver Cantos to Henry and Alison Meyric Hughes & Massimo Valsecchi, Thence to Venice where my Virgil (W. H. Mallock) had lingered in A Human Document. thence to Manoria ..and to Raverna where D died and where his bones are now concealed..." Travels continued in Italy with a photograph by Pella of Tom in the doorway of Dante's tomb. The left side of the page contains several architectural drawings of chapel facades. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

On page 35 Philllps describes Dante in Columbia. He writes that on May10, 1980, "In Bogata giving lectures/film...First trace of Dante is this worst of all covers for the comedy." The paperback cover is collaged onto this page and it also contains a photograph of Tom wearing a sweater knitted by Astrid Furnival showing a head of Dante. Other collaged elements are an "el Diablo" match book cover and a photo from the Medellin newspapaer of a burnt figure. Phillips also writes that a street in Bogata is called Calle de Purgaturio. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

On page 36 Philllps has many small drawings of ideas for future works.iIn the upper left corner are two grid-like ideas for the Sackner Archive painting. Phillips also writes of plans for exhibitions of his work and disappointments. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Page 37 titled "Thinking of Dante in Miami" Tom writes. " From Medelin via Bogata to Miami where I was met by thhe Sackners and taken to Venice (!). Marvin and I checked through his files: he now has a set of the pre-fire Dante proofs and is the first in the USA to receive his cantos XIII, XIX, XV, VII. Left an extra set with them .I will be powerfully represented in the Marvin & Ruth Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry. Tom also describes a flashy Miami Beach party that he attended with the Sackners. The center large image on the page is a computer portrait rendition of Tom from a t-shirt purchased in a Miami mall. "Left on the 18th and back to Peckham and reality." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Page 38 consists of a large collaged comic book image seemingly from Dante with two large nude winged super-heroes flyng into each other over the word SHOOOM. The border around this collage is painted in large stencilled letters and reads, "vandalised art work received from Nicks' vandalized and stolen vehicle" Around this border are double lines of Phillips' micrographic writing describing his work on the Divine Comedy project. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents This book constitutes a recording of the Dante's Inferno layout, the paper to be used for the printed text, a listing of subscribers, and initial comments on the iconography for each canto. The lists of subscribers to the publication and financial payments are charted for each canto as the galleys were completed. A description of the illustrations for each canto and Justification de Tirage are written in two versions. In July 1982, in his prelude to this text, Phillips recalled finding a lavish, red, gilded edition of Dante's Inferno illustrated by Gustave Dore while collecting books for pulping for the World War II effort. It was one of the grandest books he had ever seen and stayed in his house for a while before it was taken to the depot. Phillips writes, "I learned how early one's destiny can be sealed or at least signposted...Actually before I knew this [story] I had already from reprints recycled many of Dore's illustrations in quite another way." Enclosed between several...

Scope and Contents

This notebook is the design plan for Phillips Dante's Inferno on a page by page basis. It consists of images drawn in their proper sequence and detailed descriptive notes. For each canto, one page is filled with ink and ink colored sketches, instructions and diagrams that face the ink drawn structural design of the pages for the limited edition. For some cantos, an additional page of drawings and instructions is present on an adjacent page. There are hundreds of sketches in this book. On page iii, Phillips writes, "Sacrifice either Gateway image or stag & head image or bitter boating." The Sackner Archive contains a Gateway print from the Editions Alecto set with the word NO written on it; this image did not appear in the Talfourd Press Edition. These preliminary drawings and descriptions by Phillips are a rich study in the evolving imagery and background information leading to the finished prints. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Phillips' introduction gives the reasons for undertaking his translation and publication of the Dante"Inferno." The Sackner Archive holds the following works shown in this exhibition: 1) A Dante Diary, 2) one of two Archive copies containing the stage and color proof prints of Dante's Inferno, 3) the 15 Notebooks dealing with the translation and illustrations of the Inferno, 4) the limited edition Inferno, and 5) proofs which survived the fire at Editions Alecto. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

There are two other cards by Finlay with the same title, held by the Sackner Archive. In this print, the image is a calligraphic rendering of the title by Nash. Finlay remarks, "A permissable (mis)translation expands the suggestiveness of the German and evokes a range of associations with classical antiquity." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.