MELBOURNE:
14 October
2013
-- A
Salesian Family combined tour from the Australia-Pacific
Province is
just back from visiting the Francis de Sales and Don Bosco
'haunts',
aka holy places in and around Annecy and Turin, Chieri, Colle,
not to
forget Mornese, Rome.... but more on that at another time. The
group
was led by Fr Peter Carroll, currently Rector at Engadine, NSW
(think
Sydney, if you are unsure of local geography), and this is the
right
time to draw attention to a wonderful piece of work by Peter
that would
be a worthwhile gift for anybody in the English-speaking world
to have:
indeed, it goes under the title "The Gift of Don Bosco."
This
solid, hard-cover 15cm x15cm item is intended to inspire in
every
aspect: the text, written by Peter, draws from, but is not
bound to,
the Memoirs of the Oratory.
Not being a translation of any kind, it is freed from the
inevitable
signs of 'source language' that can bedevil Salesian
literature; the
reader will find it a fluent and attractive prose style in
every
respect. Peter has chosen to reword the historical details
under the
concept of 'the dream' - a fairly obvious choice really, but
it is
certainly an excellent choice as 'The Dream Begins', followed
by
'Focusing the Dream', 'Enlarging and Perpetuating the Dream',
'Dreaming
to the Ends of the Earth'.
The other
delightful feature of this small book (though it runs to 128
pages) is
provided by his collaborator Lynne Muir. Here is an
outstanding
illustrator, calligrapher and book-designer at work. A
Melbourne-based
award-winning artist, she has a particular interest in
medieval and
Celtic design, but has had no difficulty in capturing the best
of Don
Bosco in a series of vignettes that accompany the text - and
she is
also responsible for the calligraphic fonts used for whole
page
citations from various works by Don Bosco which Peter has
aptly chosen.
These are 18th century versions of Baskerville font. The
feature
headings are 16th century Humanist Italic script which she
believes is
"similar to Don Bosco's own handwriting style"! As someone who
has had
to deal with that directly, this is one point with which I am
not in
agreement! Humanist, yes, 'Italic' - if that includes sloping
in both
directions!! Nevertheless, it is worth citing a comment made
on her website:
‘I see myself as a communicator, not just being an artist.
It’s often
the text that is the inspiration for that.’ She clearly
found that in
Peter's text.
