| Vergil's
Aeneid Selections from Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12 Barbara Weiden Boyd |
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Standing on the Shoulders
of Giants:
Modern Illustrations of Barbara Weiden Boyd's New Bolchazy-Carducci Publisher's
Edition of Vergil
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Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has recently commissioned
from Thom Kapheim the six paintings shown here, to illustrate our new
publication, Barbara Weiden Boyd's new textbook, Vergil's Aeneid: Selections
from Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12. Thom Kapheim is a long-time friend
of our company, a local Wauconda artist whose brilliant illustrations
grace our Epic of Gilgamesh.
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In our opinion, Kapheim's illustrations are singularly appropriate for Boyd's new Vergil. Let us explain: |
| Boyd's book is in part an adaptation of (the selections from books 1, 2, 4, 6) and in part inspired by (the selections from books 10 and 12) a great classic in Latin pedagogy: Clyde Pharr's innovative and time-tested Vergil's Aeneid, Books I-VI (which Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers will keep in print for those wanting the entirety of the first six books of the Aeneid). Taking Pharr as her inspiration, Boyd has updated the notes, streamlining and expanding to suit modern needs and sensibilities. She has produced a new classic in its own right, but one inspired by other classics-Pharr's text, to be sure, but primarily Vergil's "great masterpiece," the source of Pharr's inspiration, too. |
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Thom Kapheim took his inspiration from English translations
of the selections in Boyd's textbook. Though this was Kapheim's first
reading of the Aeneid, he is well-versed in Dante's Inferno,
and recognized its great indebtedness to Vergil's text. Thom's drawings
are, we believe, inspired: they translate scenes from Vergil's great epic
into a visual medium, through the eyes of an artist who had, without knowing
it, long ago been touched by Vergil. Vergil, as we all know, was himself
inspired by Homer, whose poems he adapted-expanding and condensing them,
revising and echoing them as suited his vision and new purpose.
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| We at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers take as our inspiration the great poetry that forms the content of our new publication, and we likewise take as inspiration educator-scholars like Pharr and Boyd, and artists like Kapheim, whose inspiration leads them to teach, in their own ways, Vergil's great poem. With our publication of Boyd's new textbook, enhanced by Kapheim's new illustrations, we hope to make Vergil's poetry as accessible as possible to readers, so that they in turn may depart from the text with their own inspiration. |
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Thom Kapheim's paintings are available for purchase; arrangement may be made to purchase them as prints or in the original paintings (30 x 40", oil on canvas). Contact Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers for details. Click here for book ordering information. |