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Documentary atlas · Folio 000

Documentary atlas · The First Silence

The world
behind the novel

The surviving texts, places, objects, and works of art that stand behind Michael J. Morris's novel.

The novel and advance praise →
The Tower of Babel, anonymous, about 1490Plate 01BabelAn unfinished tower and the search for a first languageOpen field noteIona Abbey seen across the island landscapePlate 02IonaBooks, relics, and memory carried across the seaOpen field noteA Dead Sea Scroll fragment photographed in infrared by NASAPlate 03The Dead Sea ScrollsAncient texts concerned with protection and the unseen worldOpen field note
An Ogham-inscribed stone displayed at the British MuseumPlate 04OghamThe earliest written form of Irish, cut along the edge of stoneField note in preparation
A Hungarian reliquary made about 1500Plate 05ReliquariesWhat these containers held and why their form matteredField note in preparation
Dossier 06The Watchers1 Enoch and forbidden knowledge · Read the article →
Dossier 07The Vatican Apostolic ArchiveWhat its shelves preserve, who may enter, and where fiction begins.In preparation
Cover of The First Silence: The Reliquary of IonaReading shelfLewis · Dostoevsky · EcoThree books in conversation with the novel
The Tower of Babel, anonymous, c. 1490. Rijksmuseum, public domain ↗Iona Abbey, Libasstref. CC0 ↗Dead Sea Scroll fragment, NASA infrared image. U.S. public domain ↗Reliquary, Hungarian, c. 1500. The Met, Open Access ↗Ogham stone at the British Museum, photograph by BabelStone. CC0 ↗

On the bookshelf

A reading shelf beside the novel

  1. 01

    The Monk

    Matthew Gregory Lewis

    Gothic terror, religious life, temptation, and corruption.

  2. 02

    The Brothers Karamazov

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Faith, doubt, guilt, freedom, and the consequences of belief.

  3. 03

    The Name of the Rose

    Umberto Eco

    Monastic learning, forbidden texts, interpretation, and murder.

The complete index

Every open field note

Readers who prefer a conventional list can open every published article below.

  1. Folio 004
    The Watchers: The Angels Who Taught Humanity Too Much →

    Genesis devotes four difficult verses to the sons of God and the Nephilim. The Book of Watchers develops that episode into an account of rebellion, illicit teaching, violence, and judgment.

    5 minute read
  2. Folio 001
    Iona: An Island of Books, Relics, and Dangerous Memory →

    Why a small Hebridean island became one of the most consequential centers of faith, learning, pilgrimage, and manuscript culture in the medieval world.

    7 minute read
  3. Folio 002
    Babel: What If the First Language Was Broken on Purpose? →

    From the language of Eden to the ambition of Babel: Genesis, the Watchers and Augustine open a question at the heart of The First Silence.

    6 minute read
  4. Folio 003
    Demons, Protection, and the Dead Sea Scrolls →

    The ancient response to evil was not limited to expelling a demon after attack. Some texts sought protection before the danger arrived.

    7 minute read
  5. Folio 005
    Before Exorcism: The Ancient Art of Warding Off Evil →

    Exorcism responds after evil has arrived. Apotropaism asks an earlier question: how might danger be turned away before it takes hold?

    5 minute read

The launch register

Continue into The First Silence.

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