Invitation to the funeral of Michiel de Ruyter 1677

Curator: Well, that's stark. And incredibly moving. There’s such directness in its design...almost urgent. Like a message slipped under the door. Editor: I see it less romantically, more as a pragmatic object. This is "Invitation to the funeral of Michiel de Ruyter," a print from 1677. A broadside, really, pure information design: typography on paper, announcing the death of a national hero. Curator: Hero. Yes. You feel it in the scale of the text, don't you? His name rendered larger than life. It speaks to a collective grief, a desire to honor him publicly. "Duke, Knight &c. Admiral General." Such titles... it reads almost like a poem of power. Editor: Absolutely. Think about the production: the laborious typesetting, the printing itself. Each character meticulously placed. It suggests a wider print run, many impressions, a carefully managed distribution network. Curator: Managed grief, almost? Do you think the crisp typography flattens the experience of the human heart that is inevitably broken when reading this paper? Editor: Not really flattened, no, just... organized. Think about the economy of paper, the logistics involved, the labor involved in commemorating someone with a limited resource. That speaks volumes about De Ruyter's status and about the cultural values the printing serves, here. And the act of printing and distributing, after all, is not value neutral. Curator: I hadn't quite considered the materiality of grief until now, you know? I suppose loss must always be translated into material action – a notice printed, a grave dug, flowers laid. A collective response expressed on something so flimsy as this, yet made solid by the ink. It is just… bittersweet. Editor: Indeed. We began by thinking about form and now we are ending talking about essence... all channeled via print and paper in 1677. A tangible reminder of lives both celebrated and mourned, both the hero and the ones the hero impacted. Curator: So the ephemeral takes on a lasting quality through process, yes. Thank you.