colophon

Here ends the Handbook of Prayers, edited by Fr. Charles Belmonte, made into this reading edition by Edward Wijaya. Like the scribes before him, he worked with borrowed light: the text is the Church’s, the prayers are the saints’, and only the mistakes are his own.

The text was transcribed from the free EPUB that Fr. Belmonte himself set out at Faith Seeking Understanding, where all his books may be had for nothing. The printed book carries the Church’s nihil obstat and imprimatur; printed copies are available from Sinag-Tala Publishers, Makati.

The type is EB Garamond, with initials in Uncial Antiqua after the manner of the Insular hand. The colors are those of the old books: vellum and iron-gall ink, minium red for the rubrics, ochre and verdigris for the illumination. No calf was harmed for this vellum, and the verdigris will not eat through the page.

Where a monk had a scriptorium, this scribe had a machine that copies the book to the whole world in under a minute, and still he found ways to be slow about it.

And travel the world it does. The curious may see where it is read: a page of places and numbers that names no reader, only the cities the prayers have reached.

A manuscript was mended by the readers who found its faults, and this one asks the same kindness. An error in the text, a word of praise, or any word at all may be sent to the publisher at iumentumpress@gmail.com; every letter is read.

An Irish scribe once finished a manuscript and wrote in the margin: “Now I have written the whole thing; for Christ’s sake, give me a drink.” The sentiment is retained; the request is converted to its modern equivalent:

Edvardvs me fecit dum alia facere debebat. Pray for him, and for all who read here. ✠