Eschaton is consumation of the collective history of humankind and the urskrament is the German word for sacrament. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the sacraments as "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions." The catechism included in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." In the image the subject is sitting on a chair. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The first five cards provide documentation of this project that deal with line drawings of "Wakest" creatures on the recto with a two word caption on the verso. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The black and white photograph on the cover depicts grazing sheep with a portion of a black sail on the horizon. The poem reads, "He comes to Little Sparta." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This depicts 10 line drawn, picture poems printed in red and black, one to a page that involve a war theme. A complete reprinting of this book appeared as a section of the catalog for Finlay's exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery (1977). Unable to locate an entry for this book, which was printed by the Stellar Press, in the Finlay bibliographies. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

There is no reference made to this book in the various Finlay bibliographies but the the same images printed on identical paper are bound into the exhibition catalog, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1977, a book also held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The covers depict a self-portrait of the artist and the integrated caption, "I am Thick with Poems Today." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Each page consists of a simple line drawing and a caption, e.g., melancolia underneath a hand drawn circle, mountain and reflection underneath a diamond. The meanings of these picture poems often are obstruse. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The collaged card depicts a photograph of Vittore and an unknown man seated and reading books. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Stephan Bann provides an explanation of the poem in the accompanying leaflet as follows. Thermidor was the month in the French Revolutionary calendar when the summer heat was its most intense, and the grain at its ripest. It was also the month, in 1794, when Robespierre and his followers met their deaths at the guillotine. In the image of this poem, the abrupt cleavage of the word, THER MIDOR, and of the figured sheaf of flowers, suggest the termination of the revolution in its Jacobian sense. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Thermodor indicates a name of the month during the French Republican calendar. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Each poem consists of a drawing by Laurie Clark and a caption by Finlay dealing with the Republican calendar (France 1793-1805) during the first week of the revolution in 1794 in which the Robespierrists were executed. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This book was reproduced from a sketchbook of Pettibon that dates from 1986-1987 as evidenced by some of the pages that reproduce dated school notes on the verso of the drawings. The latter consist of silhouettes of one or more mostly erect, black penises with different dimensions that appear on each page along with brief captions of written and printed text. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This card was mailed to the Sackners by Finlay. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.