The Legacy Scale · Founding · MMXXVI

The Legacy Scale

A society for those leaving a legacy of scale.

Each year, one hundred and fifty persons of scale from every part of the world are entered into the register. Their names are kept, their work is recorded, and their example is set before those who follow.


Entered by recognition · Never by application · Kept for good

I · The Measure

Five dimensions of scale.


Scale is not size, wealth or office. It is the reach of a life's work through the lives of others. The society measures it along five dimensions, and a person may be recognised in any one of them.

The First

Statecraft & Statute

Those who governed, legislated or judged in ways that outlast their tenure, and whose institutions still hold.

The Second

Discovery

Those who enlarged what humanity knows, in science, medicine and the understanding of the world.

The Third

Industry

Those who built enterprises and infrastructures that carry the work and welfare of millions.

The Fourth

Imagination

Those whose art, letters and ideas changed how an age sees itself, and how the next one will.

The Fifth

Bridging

Those who joined what was divided, between nations, peoples, disciplines and generations.


II · The Hundred and Fifty

Recognised once. Recognised for life.


Each year the society names one hundred and fifty persons of scale, drawn from every continent and every dimension of the measure. The recognition honours the whole of a life's contribution, not a season of it.

On Entry

There is no application, no candidacy and no campaign. One is recognised, or one is not.

On Duration

The recognition is conferred once and held for life. A name entered in the register is never removed.

On Purpose

The society exists to remember those who gave greatly to the world, and to move others to give greatly in turn.


III · The Canon & The Library

One register. One book. One shelf, growing.


When the year's one hundred and fifty gather, their names are entered into the canon of the society, read aloud and inscribed in sequence, as they will remain.

The Canon · Volume I · MMXXVI · One Hundred and Fifty Names

Each year the society publishes a single book: the lives, the work and the measure of that year's persons of scale, together with the drawings made at the assemblies. The volume is placed in the library of the society, where the shelf lengthens by one book a year, and by no other means.


IV · The Assemblies

Five gatherings. Five continents. No cameras.


The society convenes five assemblies each year, one upon each continent, so that the register is gathered where its people live and work. No assembly is filmed. An illustrator attends, as in a courtroom, and the only record of the evening is drawn, in the palette of the society.

Europe·The Spring Assembly
Asia·The Early Summer Assembly
The Americas·The Late Summer Assembly
Africa·The Autumn Assembly
Oceania·The Closing Assembly
Drawn at the assembly · The only record kept