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[untitled under the auspices} by sturnus vulgaris / White, Derek., 2012

 Item
Identifier: CC-54789-990218

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Scope and Contents

sturnus vulgaris is the scientific name for the English Starling bird.Internet: This is a book of auguring, or divination codex, where birds are the words, in particular the common starling (with a few cameos by seagulls & crows). The sequenced set of flight patterns, or murmurations, were captured over the course of the past few years in the skies over Rome, where the starlings winter in the months of October & November. In the ancient Greek, Egyptian & Roman empires, the will of the gods was determined by "taking the auspices,' or interpreting the flight patterns of birds. In fact, Romulus & Remus, the infamous twin brothers raised by a she-wolf, were both augurs. To settle a dispute about where the city of Rome should be founded (Romulus preferred the Palatine hill & Remus preferred the Aventine), they both took auspices & Romulus "won,' hence Rome is named for him. The murmurating cross-sections in this book were captured mostly from the loser's Aventine perspective & from along the banks of the Tiber, where Remus & Romulus were born. To preserve the integrity of interpretation, for those "reading' the book, no words or characters were used in the compiling & editing of the birds, only punctuation & numbers. The book itself also contains no title or author, though they are referenced here to meet the metadata demands of this modern world. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 2012

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (1 soft cover book (128 pages)) ; 20.3 x 14 x .8 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

shelf alphabetical

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

General: Title provided by cataloger or by Marvin or Ruth Sackner. Published: Rome, Italy : Caliban Press. Signed by: Derek White (c.- inside front cover). Nationality of creator: American. General: Added by: MARVIN; updated by: MARVIN.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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