Societas Signeti

*Cartouche* e tectorio a Petro LaRose, artifice heraldico, primum anno 1902 factum; anno 2014 a Marco Hruby renovatum.

Societas Signeti^[1] (Anglice Signet Society) Universitatis Harvardianae anno 1870 a scholasticis doctrinae studiosis classis anni 1871 condita est, Carolo Iosepho Bonaparte praeside. Primum operibus litterarum dicata est, disceptatione et theatro exclusis. Apud The Harvard Book legitur:^[2]

Conditoribus videbatur mundum collegianum aliam sodalitatem sibi accommodare posse, quae se ad opus litterarum dicaret melius quam inter multos fieri potest; paucos itaque sodales elegerunt, poscentes novos sodales, sicut fieri posse, "homines usitatos," et saltem quinque in primo eorum classis dimidio esse.^[3]

Societas, post nonnullos annos in aedificio in rebus soli universitatis, se ad locum proprium in 46 via Dunsterana movit.

Propositum societatis

Societas litteras, musicam, artes oculorum, theatrum, aliasque artes celebrat. Multi socii sodalitatis publicationibus scholasticis intersunt. Multi praeterea sunt socii aliorum artium litterarumque sodalitatum Harvardianarum, inter quas Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Harvard Lampoon, Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club, et publicationes Harvard Advocate (magazina litteraria) et Harvard Crimson (diarium quotidie editum). Societas viros feminasque sine praeiudicio admittit, sodaliciis finalibus dissimilis.

Aedes Societatis Signeti, 46 via Dunsterana: domicilium modo coloniali anno 1820 exstructa, Victoriana sodalicii domus anno 1880, tum in structuram neofoederalisticam a Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson anno 1902 conversa.

Debita pecuniaria requiruntur, sed per Harvardianas auxilii ad aerarium pertinentis rationes pro rata computantur, ut omnes participes in communitate universitatis sodales deligi possint. Professores administratoresque fuerunt et sunt magistratus, socii, et sodales.

Exordium minutarum sodalitatis aiunt: "Vespere diei Martis, 1 Novembris 1870, congressus in 10 Grays Hall habitus est antequam societas seniorum ordinari potuit, quae societas certum consuetudinis iucundae modum numero selecto inter se praebitura erat, qui modus ex illiberali societatis gerendae ratione solius societatis honestae exstantis inexspectatus erat.^[4] Quae verba "gerendae ratio" ad sodalicia finalia et contemptionem eorum attinebant. Conditores ergo normas electionis enumeraverunt ad exsuperanda certamina optimatum quae in ratione sodaliciorum finalium dominari videbantur.

Ut Signetum (ut vulgo appellatur) ab aliis societatibus propriis distingueretur, constitutionis diploma sodales ob "meritum et res gestas"^[5] eligi dixit. Quae normae hodie in societatis legibus manent, sodales "ingenio rebusque gestis mentis, litteratis, artificibus eligi" affirmantes.^[6] Hae normae in ratione electionis iam magni momenti sunt, sed indoles personalis etiam consideratur.

Architectura

Barocum societatis signum a facie neofoederali discrepat.

Duglassius Shand-Tucci, historicus architecturae, in eius historia campi Harvardiani de aedificio Signeti late disserit, mirum narrans quod societas commercialis in Redintegratione Gothica praestans conducta fuisse ad domicilium coloniale annorum 1820 (in domum sodalicii Victorianum anno 1880 iam conversum) in structuram neofoederalem cui sunt singula baroca renovandum. De quibus singulis propriis, Shand-Tucci scribit:

Est in sensu ferociter baroco (edepol!) exoptatum impudentiae indicium in re quae aliter domus modestior fuerit. . . . Graphica frontispicii architectorum Cram & Goodhue et sodalis LaRose qualitas re vera designationem librorum memorat (ne Palladianismus nonnullorum aedium in Ordine Toriana nominetur), et media pars est Ionicus binorum tabulationum papilio insigne Signeti ostentans. . . . Notio designationis—satis insolens, sed prosperrima—alium habitum historice novum in architectura Harvardiana enuntiat: ad domum reficiendam, non ut primum erat, sed verbis LaRosianis, "ut fuisse deberet." Ergo architecturalis binorum ordinum pergulae soloecismus—columnarum Doricarum et parastaticarum Ionicarum—retinebatur.^[7]

Res a posteris traditae

Ut mos in multis societatibus academicis amicisque est, Societati Signeti sunt nonnullae traditiones. Signum Signeti olim erat “anulus signatorius urticam includens,”^[8] anulus unitatem, urtica aequitatem significans. Insigne supra ostium apes alveumque monstrat, cum titulo Graeco: μουσικήν ποίει και εργάζου (‘artem crea et cole’). Alia sodalitatis sententia Vergilio tribuitur: Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes. E quo venit recens sodalitatis traditio, qua sodales scholastici fuci (apes mares) festive appellantur.

Signetus ritus initiationis vulgares qui sodalicorum finalium societatisque Lampoon proprii sunt vitat, inductioni faventes, cum quisque sodalis novus rubrum rosarum florem accipit, quae siccata ad societatem redditura est cum sodalis primum opus maius publicet. Societas bibliographiam horum operum tenet, quae olim errant litterata, sed nunc programmata amplectuntur vel alia artificial quae exempla musicae, pellicularum, operum visualium exponunt. Rosae siccae in formis positae atque in parietibus societatis prope opera quae reditum excusaverunt monstrantur. Rosa saepe dicta est illa T. S. Eliot poetae, quae iuxta eius epistolam electionis in forma pendet.

Societas ex anno 1910 annuas habet epulas, quae poetas,auctores, musicos, commentatores sociales honorat.

Societas coniunctione cum Sodalicio Elizabethano Universitatis Yalensis diu utitur. Quae societates certamen croquet una habent, cui poculum argenteum ansatum caelatumque in capsa ex ligno swieteniano effectum est tropaeum.

Corporatio alumnorum dotationem, proprietatem, operariosque administrat. Ex anno 2010, sodalitas artifices habitantes in conclave in altera aedificii tabulatione habet.^[9]

Nonnulli socii notabiles^[10]

Artes et litterae

Iacobus Agee (AB 1932), scriptor mythistoriarum, scriptor scaenicus, poeta, auctor
Conradus Aiken (AB 1911), poeta, auctor
Ioannes Ashbery (AB 1949), poeta, scriptor
Ioannes Berendt (AB 1961), scriptor
Derek Bok, praeses universitatis
Andreas Borowitz, scriptor, comoedus, histrio
Leonardus Bernstein (AB 1939), compositor, conductor
Alexander Calder (ArtD 1966, socius 1961), sculptor
T. S. Eliot (AB 1910), poeta, auctor
Robertus Frost (classis 1901, socius), poeta
Petrus J. Gomes, praedicator, theologus, auctor
Donaldus Hall (AB 1951), poeta
Mason Hammond (AB 1925), rerum classicarum peritus
Seamus Heaney, poeta
Gustavus Holst (socius 1932), compositor
Leo Kirchner (AM hon. 1961), compositor
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (AB 1877), praeses universitatis, historicus
Robertus Lowell (A.B. 1939), poeta
Yo-Yo Ma^[11] (AB 1976), musicus
Archibaldus MacLeish (LLB 1919), poeta, professor
Normannus Mailer (AB 1943), scriptor
Samuel Eliot Morison (AB 1908), auctor, educator, historicus maritimus, classis subpraefectus
Carolus Eliot Norton (AB 1846), eruditus, professor
Georgius Plimpton (AB 1948), scriptor, diurnarius, editor
Neil Rudenstine (PhD 1964, socius 1965), praeses universitatis
Georgius Santayana (AB 1996), philosophus, poeta, scriptor mythistoriarum
Arturus Meier Schlesinger, Jr. (AB 1938), historicus
Inguarus Stravinskij (socius, 1939–40), compositor
Wallace Stevens (AB 1901), poeta
Randall Thompson (AB 1920), compositor
Ioannes Updike (AB 1954), scriptor, poeta
Ioannes Hall Wheelock (AB 1908), poeta
Alfredus North Whitehead (socius 1926), philosophus

Ars diurnaria

Jill Abramson, editor ad administrationem pertinens, New York Times
Adam Gopnik, scriptor, The New Yorker
Henricus Hertzberg (AB 1965), editor The New Yorker
Gualterius Isaacson, scriptor actorum, auctor
Franciscus Hart Rich (AB 1971), criticus, scriptor
Fareed Zakaria, editor, auctor, commentator

Media et oblectatio

Amy Brenneman, actrix
Thomas Lee Jones (AB 1969), histrio
Rashida Jones, actrix
Ioannes Lithgow (AB 1967), histrio
Donal Logue, histrio
Conan O'Brien, hospes spectaculi colloquiorum
Natalia Portman, actrix
Iacobus "Toofer" Spurlock, persona ficta in 30 Rock spectaculi televisifici
Whit Stillman, scriptor, director
Thomas Werner, productor, possessor Tibialium Rubrorum

Scientiae

Iacobus Bryant Conant (AB 1914), praeses universitatis, chemicus
Carolus W. Eliot (AB 1853), praeses universitatis, chemicus, mathematicus
Owen Gingerich, astronomus
Gulielmus White Howells (AB 1930), anthropologus
Gulielmus James (MD 1869), psychologus, philosophus
Thomas Kuhn (AB 1944), philosophus
Andreas Weil (AB 1963), auctor, medicus

Diplomatia et securitas nationalis

Carolus Iosephus Bonaparte (AB 1871), nepos Hieronymi Bonaparte (fratris minimi natu Napoleonis imperatoris), socius consilii ministrorum Civitatum Foederatarum, primus Societatis Signeti praeses
Henricus Brüning (AM hon 1942, socius), cancellarius Germaniae
Christianus Herter (AB 1915), secretarius rerum externarum Civitatum Foederatarum
Franklinus D. Roosevelt (AB 1904), praeses Civitatum Foederatarum
Theodorus Roosevelt (AB 1880), praeses Civitatum Foederatarum
Caspar Weinberger (AB 1938), secretarius defensionis^?
Benazir Bhutto (AB 1973), primus minister Pakistaniae

Civilitas

Carolus Ellis Schumer, Senator Civitatum Foederatarum e Novo Eboraco
Ioannes Davison Rockefeller IV (AB 1958), gubernator Virginiae Occidentalis, senator Civitatum Foederatarum
Gulielmus Floyd Weld (AB 1966), gubernator Massachusettae

Notae

↑ Harry Parker Ward, Some American College Bookplates: A Presentation of Plates Old and New (Columbi Ohii: Champlin Printing Co., 1915), 127.
↑ The Harvard book: a series of historical, biographical, and descriptive sketches (Signet Society, 1875).
↑ Anglice: "It seemed to the founders that there was room in the College world for another association that should devote itself more exclusively to literary work than is possible with large numbers. Accordingly, they confined the membership to a few, and required that new members shall be, so far as possible, ‘representative men,’ and that at least five should be in the first half of their class."
↑ Anglice: "On Tuesday evening, November 1, 1870, a meeting was held at 10 Grays Hall preliminary to the organization of a senior society, which was to afford to a select number a pleasant means of intercourse with each other, not to be expected from the illiberal policy of the only society of reputation existing."
↑ Anglice "merit and accomplishment."
↑ Anglice "shall be chosen with regard to their intellectual, literary and artistic ability and achievements."
↑ Anglice "It is in feeling wildly Baroque (of all things)—a welcome touch of flamboyance for what would otherwise have been a rather staid clubhouse. . . . The graphic quality of Cram & Goodhue’s and LaRose’s new frontispiece is actually rather reminiscent of book design (not to mention the Palladianism of several Tory Row mansions), and centers on a two story pedimented Ionic pavilion displaying the Signet arms. . . . The design concept—cavalier enough, but very successful—discloses another guise of history-making in Harvard architecture: to restore the house, not as it originally was, but in LaRose’s words, as it "ought to have been." Thus the architectural solecism of the two orders of the porch—the Doric columns and Ionic pilasters—was retained. The Campus Guide: Harvard University (Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1-56898-280-1), 92.
↑ "A signet-ring inclosing a nettle."
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131203115946/http://www.signetsociety.org/fall-2012-ben-cosgrove/.
↑ Nonnulla nomina ex pagina societatis ipsius, et Shiverick 1970.
↑ Secundum Conversations with Mark Hruby, Volume I (The Signet Society, 2016), unus ex societatis "erroribus perversissime factis" (Anglice "gravest mistakes") fuit Yo-Yo Ma reiectus cum scholasticus in universitate esset; anno autem 1991 in societatem cooptatus est cum insigne societis ei concessum est.

Bibliographia

Birnbach, Lisa, ed. 1980. The Official Preppy Handbook. Conceptum Jonathan Roberts; scriptores Lisa Birnbach et al.; photographemata Robin Holland; illustrationes Oliver Williams. Novi Eboraci: Workman Publishing. ISBN 0894801406.
Shiverick, Nathan C.. 1970. The Signet: A Centennial Catalogue: 1870–1970. Cantabrigiae Massachusettae: The Signet Society.

Nexus externi

Situs interretialis Societatis Signeti proprius.
Res ad organizationem et agitationes Elizabethan Club Yalensis pertinentes, inter quas epistulae, nonnullae Latine scriptae, cum Societate Signeti. Manuscripts and Archives Collection Universitatis Yalensis

[1] Harry Parker Ward, Some American College Bookplates: A Presentation of Plates Old and New (Columbi Ohii: Champlin Printing Co., 1915), 127.

[2] The Harvard book: a series of historical, biographical, and descriptive sketches (Signet Society, 1875).

[3] Anglice: "It seemed to the founders that there was room in the College world for another association that should devote itself more exclusively to literary work than is possible with large numbers. Accordingly, they confined the membership to a few, and required that new members shall be, so far as possible, ‘representative men,’ and that at least five should be in the first half of their class."

[4] Anglice: "On Tuesday evening, November 1, 1870, a meeting was held at 10 Grays Hall preliminary to the organization of a senior society, which was to afford to a select number a pleasant means of intercourse with each other, not to be expected from the illiberal policy of the only society of reputation existing."

[5] Anglice "merit and accomplishment."

[6] Anglice "shall be chosen with regard to their intellectual, literary and artistic ability and achievements."

[7] Anglice "It is in feeling wildly Baroque (of all things)—a welcome touch of flamboyance for what would otherwise have been a rather staid clubhouse. . . . The graphic quality of Cram & Goodhue’s and LaRose’s new frontispiece is actually rather reminiscent of book design (not to mention the Palladianism of several Tory Row mansions), and centers on a two story pedimented Ionic pavilion displaying the Signet arms. . . . The design concept—cavalier enough, but very successful—discloses another guise of history-making in Harvard architecture: to restore the house, not as it originally was, but in LaRose’s words, as it "ought to have been." Thus the architectural solecism of the two orders of the porch—the Doric columns and Ionic pilasters—was retained. The Campus Guide: Harvard University (Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1-56898-280-1), 92.

[8] "A signet-ring inclosing a nettle."

[9] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20131203115946/http://www.signetsociety.org/fall-2012-ben-cosgrove/.

[10] Nonnulla nomina ex pagina societatis ipsius, et Shiverick 1970.

[11] Secundum Conversations with Mark Hruby, Volume I (The Signet Society, 2016), unus ex societatis "erroribus perversissime factis" (Anglice "gravest mistakes") fuit Yo-Yo Ma reiectus cum scholasticus in universitate esset; anno autem 1991 in societatem cooptatus est cum insigne societis ei concessum est.

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