Disolución: Revelaciones • Dissolving: Revelations

“Wanderer, come nearer to see, what hides in the shadow. For though he lies buried,
the letters indicated by the combination of numbers will clearly reveal
who rests in this coffin, who Memphis is preparing
a new celestial sphere for.” *

Lágrimas amantes de la excelentísima Ciudad de Barcelona [...] en las Magníficas Exequias que celebró a las Amadas y Venerables Memorias de su difunto Rey y Señor don Carlos II [...] Descríbelas Joseph Rocaberti. Barcelona: Juan Pablo Martí, 1701, p. 263. El texto debe completarse siguiendo la secuencia numérica. Para la muerte de Carlos II, sin descendencia y desencadenadora de la larga guerra mundial conocida como Guerra de Sucesión, la generalidad de las imprentas hispanas ofrecieron de manera exagerada —reveladora de una necesidad de saturar, de colmatar la superficie gráfica cuando tan poco bueno se podía augurar— todo tipo de muestras de poesía visual, enigmática o «metamétrica».

Tears of Love, shed by the eminent City of Barcelona […] in the magnificent mourning rituals dedicated to the beloved and venerated memory of her deceased King and Lord, don Carlos II […] Described by Joseph Rocaberti. Barcelona: Juan Pablo Martí, 1701, p. 263. The text is to be supplemented according to the numeric combinations. Charles II died without a heir, and his death ignitd the long world war known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Most of the Spanish printers paid a tribute to the memory of the deceased ruler with a variety of exaggerated visual, enigmatic and “metametric” poems, which clearly reveal, what an effort it was to fill the blank pages when there was so little good to say.

Letra A (alfa). Folio 6 del Comentario del Apocalipsis, encargado por el rey Fernando I al beato Facundo. Lo acabó en 1047 (Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid). Cristo, de pie bajo la inicial y apuntando hacia ella, tiene la letra Omega en la mano: «Yo soy el Alfa y Omega, el Principio y el Fin, dice el Señor» (Ap 1:8)

Initial A (alfa) on fol. 6 of the Commentary to John’s Revelations, illuminated by Beatus Facundus (see the history of these codex) for Ferdinand I of Castille and León (completed in 1047, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional). Christ, standing under the initial and pointing to it, holds the letter omega in His hand: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord” (Rev 1:8)