Last year's post is here, and it includes six images of him painting the Virgin, either sitting for her portrait or appearing to him in a vision.

Here is a portion of Trent's decree:

[T]he bishops shall carefully teach this,-that, by means of the histories of the mysteries of our Redemption, portrayed by paintings or other representations, the people is instructed, and confirmed in (the habit of) remembering, and continually revolving in mind the articles of faith; as also that great profit is derived from all sacred images, not only because the people are thereby admonished of the benefits and gifts bestowed upon them by Christ, but also because the miracles which God has performed by means of the saints, and their salutary examples, are set before the eyes of the faithful; that so they may give God thanks for those things; may order their own lives and manners in imitation of the saints; and may be excited to adore and love God, and to cultivate piety. But if any one shall teach, or entertain sentiments, contrary to these decrees; let him be anathema.

Two links:

• Mozart Tower, via the digg posting, and
• the location of the BitTorrent feed of 180 CDs (not a typo, it's 44 Gigabytes).

Many more torrents are available at mininova.org.

Last year's post is here. The images are from Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in the church of San Francesco, Montefalco, Italy, and Ghirlandaio's Obsequies of St Francis. The text is Lessons iv v and vi from the Breviary.

The fellow at North Western Winds, in his post Big Ideas, mentioned some lectures available for downloading, to listen during his commute. Because I'm on the road for a few hours every day, I'm always looking for new podcasts.

TV Ontario's 'Big Ideas' selection mostly didn't interest me, though there was one on Foucalt I enjoyed. The past episodes pages unhelpfully and uncomprehendingly only provide dates and the lecturers' names, not the subject or title.

The 12 Byzantine Rulers podcasts he mentions are here, including an RSS feed. They are worth a listen.

Brandon has an interesting post on evening knowledge and morning knowledge, or vespertinal and matutinal knowledge, at Evening and Morning.

Msgr John F. McCarthy discusses St Augustine on Genesis 1, at A Neo-Patristic Return to the First Four Days of Creation, Part III - The Days of Creation Aaccording to St Augustine.