The goal of this newsletter is simple — rediscover the beauty of our past. The topics will vary, but the guiding philosophy is fixed:
Beauty is an ultimate value, something that we pursue for its own sake, and for the pursuit of which no further reason need be given — Sir Roger Scruton
We started posting on X / Twitter because we felt there wasn’t enough educational content on the topics that interested us: like architecture, visual arts, or cultural and religious history.
We wanted to present these topics in a visually-gripping way, communicating what we think should get everyone excited about them — regardless of one’s background. Everything from the delights of vernacular architecture to the perplexing mysteries of Mont-Saint-Michel.
To paraphrase Thomas Aquinas, “wonder is the desire for knowledge.” We wanted to take the beauty and wonder of the old world, and explore how it might relate to modern life.
X remains the best place to do this in a short-form context, but we started a newsletter to expand to longer formats. The mission: deliver an engaging, 5-minute “inbox cleanser” to readers’ mailboxes every week.
Now, we’ve joined Substack to go further even and build a community around these ideas that we’re collectively passionate about.
And we’ve started a brand new podcast exclusively on Substack — interviewing some of the greatest writers, historians and thinkers to bring their unfiltered ideas directly to you.
Support the Mission
Since January, we’ve published one article every Wednesday.
On Saturdays, we go deeper for premium readers, breaking apart history’s greatest art, literature and philosophy, and exposing what it has to offer our modern minds.
We’ve done everything from breaking down Dante’s 9 levels of Purgatory to interviewing the personal architect of King Charles.
The Wednesday emails will always be free. But if you want to help keep them free for everyone, please support the mission with an upgrade.
We are an almost entirely reader-supported publication.
For a few dollars a month, you’ll get access to our premium articles every week, and full-length video interviews with some of the world’s brightest minds…
