Category Archives: St. Augustine’s Day

Aug 28 2019
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St. Augustine's Day, Wayzgoose

Huzzah & Cheers!

Fast on the heels of the Bartlemas Wayzgoose on this 28th of August comes the feast day of St. Augustine, a patron saint of printers and of brewers. Two celebrations in one week? That’s a lot for anyone, but we printers have been managing this lot cast upon us for centuries now. Good old St. Augustine of Hippo was born in Northern Africa, in what is now Tunisia, in 354. He became a patron saint of printers thanks to his prolific writing. Books like his Confessions probably kept a lot of early printers in business. The confessions were easy to come by for Augustine: he was a fellow who liked a good time, at least early on in life, and this is the root of his patronage for brewers. His mother, who is also canonized as a saint (St. Monica) prayed for his conversion. Eventually he did convert and when he did, he began to write. He was canonized at the turn of the 14th century, about 150 years before Johannes Gutenberg perfected the idea of moveable type. He is also a patron saint of people with sore eyes… which perhaps comes from reading too many books. Be that as it may, today we lift our glasses and toast a hearty Huzzah and Cheers! to the brewers and the printers.

Image: “Typesetter at Enschede Haarlem” by Charles Frederick Ulrich. Oil on panel. 1884 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons. We don’t know what’s in the typesetter’s cup… but back then, beer was probably safer than water.

 

Aug 28 2018
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St. Augustine's Day

Here We Do Not Speak Evil of Anyone

Today’s Convivio Book of Days chapter begins with an apology, for giving you some inaccurate information in the previous chapter (The Printer’s Devil’s Wayzgoose)… which is a bit ironic, considering that I touched on the topic of “fake news” and rumor and misinformation. In that chapter, I told you that St. Bartholomew, whose feast day on the 24th of August is the source of the traditional printers’ Wayzgoose celebration, is a patron saint of printers, papermakers, and bookbinders. That’s not quite right, and I apologize for misleading you. He is a patron saint of bookbinders, but not of the other two branches of the Book Arts trades. He is, however, so wrapped up in all things related to the Book Arts, that I will beg your understanding for my error.

Today, however, we do have a feast day of a patron saint of printers. It is the Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, patron saint not just of printers, but also of brewers. As a letterpress printer who has dabbled in brewing, this is a holiday I can really get behind. My plan for the day, since I have wrangled a day off from work, is to fire up the Vandercook No. 4 and print at least one run of the type forme I composed and set in the bed of the press last January. And, obviously, Seth and I will have to pop the cork on some special brew or other. We have just one bottle left of our Convivio Stout, and maybe this is the night to empty it.

As for St. Augustine himself, he was born in Northern Africa, in what is now Tunisia, in 354, the son of St. Monica. He became a patron saint of printers thanks to his prolific writing. Books like his Confessions probably kept a lot of early printers in business. The confessions were easy to come by for Augustine: he was a fellow who liked a good time, at least early on in life, and this is the root of his patronage for brewers. His mother prayed for his conversion. Eventually he did convert and he began to write. He was long considered a Doctor of the Church and was canonized at the turn of the 14th century, about 150 years before Johannes Gutenberg perfected the idea of moveable type and ushered in the information and literacy revolution that came with the proliferation of printing. It is said that on a wall of his room St. Augustine had written these words, in large letters: “Here we do not speak evil of anyone.” Words of wisdom, worthy of writing on our walls or printing on our presses or sending to our elected officials, and words to live by in this week of celebrations print and book related––this week of Wayzgooses and related celebrations of papermaking, printing, bookbinding, brewing. All crafts of the human hand and heart, all, in their way and in proper doses, portals bridging earth and heaven, assisting us mere mortals to attain that graceful state of happiness in flow. I’ll take that.

 

Image: Our own Convivio Stout. Alas, but one bottle left. It’s the Convivio Stout Seth Thompson and I brewed some time ago, getting no better with age, I’m sure, but still, we’ve always hesitated to open the very last bottle. Perhaps this St. Augustine’s Night is the time to do it. The good news is I printed plenty of labels. They are letterpress printed by hand in three print runs: a subtle background of wood type printed in transparent white on white, plus the orange and black runs. Back to the brewing, then!

Thanks to all who came to the Library Wayzgoose Festival on Saturday. It was a blast! And don’t forget: today is primary election day here in Florida. Get to the polls! You have until 7 PM here in Palm Beach County.

 

Aug 28 2016
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St. Augustine's Day

For the Brewers & the Printers

Convivio Stout

The printing trade has a long and venerable history, and I imagine that for most of it, printers did not get much work done each year this last week of August; one’s Wayzgoose hangover from St. Bartholomew’s Day on the 24th was perhaps just passing in time for today, St. Augustine’s Day. The Bartlemas Wayzoose was the big celebration, but while St. Bart is a patron saint of bookbinders and book artists and his feast is a red letter day for printers, he is no patron saint of the craft. St. Augustine, however, is… and he is, as well, a patron saint of brewers. That’s a heady combination. As a printer myself, I have known many printers in my life; most of them are quite fond of beer. To have a day bestowed upon us that celebrates both of these things, well… it is clear that printers have long had two reasons to celebrate these waning days of summer. (And it is probably not a good time to take a delicate job to your local print shop.)

St. Augustine is also the patron saint of Aviles, the city in Spain that was home to explorer Pedro Menéndez, who sailed to the New World in 1565. The day his ships arrived here at this continent also happened to be St. Augustine’s Day, the 28th of August. He and his crew sailed into the area around Matanzas Bay, up in the northeast corner of Florida, and he named the new Spanish settlement there San Agustín, in honor of the day he first spotted land and in honor of his hometown’s patron saint. That town is St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States.

As for St. Augustine of Hippo, he was born in Northern Africa, in what is now Tunisia, in 354, the son of St. Monica. He became a patron saint of printers thanks to his prolific writing. Books like his Confessions probably kept a lot of early printers in business. The confessions were easy to come by for Augustine: he was a fellow who liked a good time, at least early on in life, and this is the root of his patronage for brewers. His mother prayed for his conversion. Eventually he did convert and he began to write. He was canonized at the turn of the 14th century, about 150 years before Johannes Gutenberg perfected the idea of moveable type.

For St. Augustine’s Day this year, Seth and I will be quaffing a pint of our own brew and thanking the good saint for his patronage both of brewers and of printers. We brewed the beer ourselves with a little help from our friends at a local brewery, and we printed the labels for the bottles here at home from historic wood and metal types from our collection. It may be too subtle to see in the photo, but it took three print runs to print each label: there’s a base layer of wood type in transparent white, and upon that we printed the black text and orange sunburst. The “22” refers to the the 22 ounces contained in each bottle.

If we’ve bestowed some Convivio Stout upon you, this is perhaps the best night to crack it open. And if not, go get you something suitably saintly (St. Bernardus seems like a good choice). St. Augustine himself, though he would certainly recommend a healthy dose of moderation, may be there at your side raising a toast with you: Cheers to the printers! Huzzah to the brewers! May the good St. Augustine bless us all.

 

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