Change

Thought it was time I changed my banner. A new year, a new beginning.

I seem to be tumbling through a web of information that's getting further and further from modern design (the original subject of my blog). The new banner allows me to branch out!

What I've been reading (about 15/16th Century Italy) is starting to run away from me. I learn about one thing, and find I need to learn about another, and so goes the endless trail.

The good traveller knows his destination, though, (as some ancient Greek, or another, said) so I decided to attempt a fairly huge task . . partly so I can remember the aforementioned ancient Greek guy.

My little plan is to create another book. Something to hold everything I'm learning in one place. I read a quote along the lines of 'people tend to think history happened over a long period, when, in fact, it occurs very quickly'. I think the writer meant that, where we see 10 years as a very long time (and we probably don't remember much that happened more than 3/4 years previous to any given time) we seem to think of it as a much shorter period if discussed in a history book.

The content of my new book will be based, roughly, on the era between 1400 and 1600, and mainly in Tuscany. It'll take the reader through, chronologically, the events that unfolded. Even if this means referring to past/future events where necessary, I want to stick to the timeline because I think time and context are very important in understanding history.

Not everything in the book can be recorded to a date though. The description of the word 'sfumato', for instance, must occur somewhere but it can't be left in the main text alone. A 'secondary' level of information is therefore necessary. It should be presented in a different way to the main text and each subject being described needs to stand alone. A description of the roots of a family, as another example, will need to stand alone as a few paragraphs away from the main text.

As the book will essentially be a timeline – page to page – there can be a visual entity running throughout, that may, for instance, tell us who the pope was at any time in the book. Why? Because it builds the context around what is said in the main text.

What also needs to go in is pictorial information. This requires an infographics approach – a clear and concise way of telling readers, for instance, who was in power in Florence throughout the 200 years in question. Representation of artworks should be straightforward inasmuch as images can be presented independently of the text. Referencing etc will be necessary though.

While I put this stupidly complex book together, I'll hope to share the information I pick up along the way and get my blog moving again.