Deo Gracias

It is a truly splendid object, one whose 
glorious presence, perched upon my
table, offers pleasured awe.  It is, in fact,
a book, a treasury of writing offering 
complementary facsimile plates of 
Medieval art.  There appear on its
smooth, silky, gilded pages poetry
by that famous wordsmith, Anonymous.
But others also, whose names are
familiar, like Malory, Chaucer, Boccaccio.
They have been illustriously paired with
exquisite art of the period; Books of
Hours, virginal Madonnas, glowing
miniatures recalling Raphael, Bosch, 
van Eyck, van de Weyden, Bruegel the 
Elder.  Sumptuous and utterly sublime, 
this treasury is mine to wonder at the 
genius of human art and invention, an 
wonderfully inspired compendium taking 
its inspiration from legend interpreted by 
Lucas Cranach with Anonymous expressing 
deep gratitude for humankind's blessed
fortunes finding wisdom, speech, invention, 
learning and alas, base emotions as well: 
Adam lay y-bounden in a bond, 
Four thousand winters thought he not too long. 
And all was for an apple, an apple that he took, 
As learned men find written in their Book.  
Had not the apple taken been, 
Never would our Lady have been Heaven's Queen. 
Blessed be the time the apple taken was, 
Therefore we may sing, 'Deo gracias'.