RedReplicant photostream on Flickr: “God the Father fishing for Leviathan”, 12th Century: Herrad of Landsberg’s Hortus deliciarum: 19th C reproduction drawings. In the Public Domain.

This is a very unusual depiction of God the Father using Christ, who is strung on a line of Old Testament prophets who predicted the messiah, as the hook to ensnare Satan or “Leviathan.” Herrad was a nun and scholar whose book interpreted the history of the world. It is more than likely that she illustrated the book in addition to authoring it.

“Hermes as Harpocrates, the God of mystical silence, portrayed as the mystagogue accompanying the souls on their return to the Monad. ‘Silentium deum cole - monas manet in se’; worship God through silence - the Oneness remains in itself.” (more)

“Achille Bocchi (Achilles Bocchius) (1488-1562) of Bologna was an Italian humanist writer, administrator and teacher of law at the University of Bologna. He is best known for his emblem book Symbolicarum quaestionum de universo genere from 1555, which “takes as its subject the whole of universal knowledge: physics, metaphysics, theology, dialectic, Love, Life and Death, packaging them under the veil of fables and myths.” (wikipedia)

From idsgn’s blog: “Scientists say not two snowflake are alike. Apparently, designers have their own opinion — The simplified snowflake can be traced back to German typographer Hermann Zapf. Working with the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1977, Zapf designed a collection of useful symbols, ornaments, and typographic elements, well known today as ITC Zapf Dingbats.

Spreading like frost in a blizzard, Zapf Dingbats became the de facto dingbat typeface over the following decades, giving typesetters access to commonly used symbols like arrows, pointing fingers, telephone icons, and (of course) snowflakes. […] In 1990 the snowflake was born again in Microsoft’s Wingdings typeface, with a nearly identical glyph to the one made popular in Zapf Dingbats.” (read more). Learn what’s a dingbat font.