For several weeks now, I have been facing a slightly exaggerated, yet captivatingly beautiful reproduction of a contemporary engraving: a map drawn with strong contours on browned tracing paper, Le Golfe de Venise. As its story resonates within me in multiple voices, I ponder the sufferings, sorrows, and at times, the affectations of the male animal, as far as this is possible; I sit at my desk and weep as I read this: “Count Solari sat at his desk and wrote.”