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Summaries
Jan Bos & J.A. Gruys, Forty Years STCN 1969-2009
The history of the Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands, the Dutch national bibliography up to 1800, is a long one. The preliminary discussions and initiatives for a stcn-project date from 1969. Many years were needed to define its scope, procedures and cataloguing rules, but above all to convince policy makers and to establish a sound financial and organizational basis. The actual cataloguing work started in August 1982.
Over the years the collections of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, many University Libraries, several municipal libraries and other special and foreign libraries were processed resulting in a complete overview of the Dutch book production of this period. Incunabula and post-incunabula records were derived from other bibliographies and Dutch language books printed in Flanders were provided by the stcv. All other descriptions were made by stcn-staff with the book in hand. The total number of described editions is almost 200.000, the number of copies more than half a million.
Originally, the outcome of the project was envisaged as a printed catalogue. In the course of its production the perspective shifted to an online retrieval system. Thanks to its extended searching facilities the stcn-database now serves as an important, reliable and freely available tool for all sorts of historical research. The stcn will also be used as the backbone for digitization programmes.
The end of the stcn-project will not be the end of the development of the stcn database. In principle, a national bibliography is never complete. It is estimated that 90 percent of all regular books printed before 1800 can now be found in the stcn and 60 percent of books in ephemeral categories. Further completion is necessary and projected, but it requires different strategies. The results after forty years stcn show that the Dutch Republic was rightfully named ‘the bookshop of the world’.
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Rémi Mathis, The STCN in a Global Perspective
Though the need for extensive bibliographies appeared very early on, none were realized before the beginning of the 20th century, due to the huge amount of books that called for bibliographic description. This was the time, however, that choices were made and limits were fixed in order to define projects, organizations of work, and ways in which books would be described. Heterogeneous scholarly productions were generated, among which the stcn is quite original since it has decided to use its own team, independent
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of the libraries in which the books to be described were held - an option that fostered greater accuracy in the descriptions. This paper aims to compare the stcn with other contemporary bibliographies, in a global scope.
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Piet Verkruijsse, Wash-lists and wish lists. Black holes in the Dutch retrospective bibliography
The statement on the stcn's website that the retrospective national bibliography will be finished in 2009, is of course inaccurate. All reconstructions of publishers' lists from the period before 1800 that are based on systematic bibliographical research show that the stcn is far from complete. The ‘completion’ of the stcn has to do with the very much diminished funding for this project. Completion of the stcn is attainable even with fewer staff if the requirement of autopsy is discarded, allowing for real bibliographical work: adding titles to the database from existing bibliographies and catalogues, and enabling scholars to make available their bibliographical data to the stcn.
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Marja Smolenaars, Sources across the border. What can the STCN and (national) bibliographies learn from each other?
In 1651, Gisbertus Voetius argued for the collection of all editions of a given work in order to study the textual changes in the course of time, especially those forced upon the text by critical authorities or careless editors. In order to ensure that as many editions as possible are entered into the stcn-database, it is essential to change the method of working from what has hitherto been the case; that is: from entering all books in a collection, regardless of how many copies of an edition have already been seen, to locating specific items that are still missing from the database. This can be achieved by looking for relevant material in other national bibliographies, in specialised collections, in catalogues and in secondary reference works. To fulfil its aim of being a research instrument, the stcn should aim for a near 100 percent coverage. Researchers should be able to rely on the stcn to give them a full list of titles of whatever author, title, printer or bibliographical aspect they are interested in. The stcn should therefore aim for descriptions in the database of all editions of Dutch material, just as Gisbertus Voetius had advocated.
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Marieke van Delft, Quantitative research based on the STCN: possibilities and points for attention
The stcn (Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands) includes more than 170.000 descriptions in 420.000 editons of books, published in the Netherlands before 1800. The database also includes the Thesaurus, with information on printers and publishers, based on imprints of these books. Such a mass of information can give important information about the book world in early modern times. This article describes the possibilities and pitfalls of the use of these data. First is dealt with the use of the biographical data of printers and publishers in the Thesaurus and what information can be extracted on the relative importance of the different Dutch cities. Next is shown, how one can search the stcn and how the results can be interpreted. According to the number of titles that have been published in the different cities, a shift can be seen in the successive importance of the cities. In the 15th century, the most titles were published in Delft, Leiden was
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on top in the 16th century and from then on, Amsterdam printers and publishers published the greatest number of titles.
A more detailed look on these results shows, how these are influenced by the definitions of the stcn of bibliographical entities and seperate titels. With the fingerprint, it is possible to determine if a text is reset. Next is discussed that the number of printed sheets is more accurate when comparing the work done by typesetters, printers and publishers, than the number of titles printed.
Another important issue that should be kept in mind when using the stcn as a quantitative tool, is the fact that it is impossible to guarantee that all titles ever published are included. On the one hand, because some books got lost, on the other hand because every new collection includes new titles. Keeping these pitfalls in mind, the stcn is an excellent quantitative tool that offers new information and research possibilities about the book world of the Low Countries in early modern times.
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Maarten Asscher, The Emperor's Old Clothes. On the Future Perspectives for Books and Bookselling
The author, who is a bookseller and a writer, as well as a former publisher, shows on the basis of current Dutch statistics that different sources give widely different figures about the number of bookshops in the Netherlands. This illustrates how economic, technological and cultural developments are blurring the traditionally clear-cut role of the bookseller and thus the relationship between the production and the distribution of books, more specifically between publishers, wholesalers and booksellers and between different types of retailers. The whole chain by which an author's manuscript eventually gets into the hands of readers in the form of a published book is increasingly affected by these changes. However, the author contends that these changes offer important opportunities to the bookseller, especially in the field of trade books. Whereas information-based books in higher and secondary education will gradually melt away in electronic learning environments, the academic book in the world of the humanities and the printed fiction and non-fiction book for a general readership are very well suited to profit from the internet revolution and from new production techniques such as printing on demand. For this advantage to materialise the bookseller should look upon authors as his principal clients, should invest as much as possible in establishing a strong (physical and virtual) community with readers and in forging networks with for example universities, libraries, museums and other cultural institutions. A bookseller should ensure that his bookshop can be regarded by all concerned as a cultural ‘hot spot’ of some standing. With a law safeguarding fixed price maintenance, as is the case in The Netherlands, and using the well-organised Dutch system of collective book distribution, such a cultural vision, the author concludes, is the best ticket for a bookseller to profit from and to prosper economically in the ongoing digital
revolution in (parts of) the media industry, and this without subsidies or other government intervention.
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Werner J.C.M. Gelderblom, The copy for the first impression of the poems of Janus Secundus (1511-1536)
The subject of this contribution is the first edition (Utrecht, Van Borculo, 1541) of the poetry written by the famous Neo-Latin poet Johannes Secundus (1511-1536). The printer's copy of this edition is still preserved (Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms. Rawl. G 154). The contribution aims at reconstructing part of the printing process of this edition by closely studying the printer's copy and its relation to the edition. After a short
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introduction to the genesis of the manuscript that served as the printer's copy, and to the edition itself, it discusses the visible remains of the acts that made the manuscript into a printer's copy. It appears that most of these acts, viz. changing the orthography, adding punctuation, and in one occasion altering the lay-out of a poem, are executed by the client of the edition (Secundus' brother Marius), and not, as expected, by the printer. The remainder of this contribution focuses on a comparison between the text in the manuscript and that in one print of the edition. Deviations from the manuscript are relatively scarce. Most deviations must be interpreted as conscious choices by the printer, who, apparently, disagreed with Marius on a few orthographic and lay-out matters. When every detail is taken into account, it appears that, in the creation of the edition, client (Marius) and printer (Van Borculo) worked together in close cooperation until and including the very last stadium, the correction of the proof. In conclusion, this article supposes that Van Borculo was actively participating in the printing process, and that he was not a mere manager, like a printer in larger printing offices. Finally, the apparent respect for the manuscript, shown by Secundus' brothers and the printer, is being discussed. This respect, rather unfamiliar in this period, but explainable from the early dead of this promising poet, is the reason that this interesting printer's copy has survived and that the reconstruction of the printing process of the important first edition of Secundus' complete poetry could be made.
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Dirk Imhof, The Plantin publishing firm under Balthasar II Moretus (1641-1674). A comparison with the publisher's list of his grandfather Jan I Moretus (1589-1610)
In 1641 Balthasar Moretus ii succeeded his uncle Balthasar Moretus i as head of the Plantin Press in Antwerp. Between 1641 and his death in 1674, the Press published at least 490 editions. In this article I compare Balthasar Moretus ii's editions with those of his grandfather Jan Moretus i, who ran the Press after the death of Christopher Plantin from 1589 till 1610. In my dissertation I examined Jan Moretus's editorial strategies. This research offered a useful method for the examination of the editions of Balthasar Moretus ii.
When Balthasar Moretus ii became the head of the Plantin Press, his cousin, Franciscus Raphelengius ii who had managed the Plantin Press in Leiden for several decades, advised him to continue to publish liturgical editions to make a profit, but also to include other texts among his publications to improve the reputation of his Press. Initially, Balthasar Moretus ii seems to have followed this advice and published a significant number of historical and literary texts. At the end of his life, however, the production of liturgical editions dominated Moretuses' production completely and only religious editions were published. The lucrative export of liturgical books to Spain and its colonies played an important role in this evolution. When compared with the smaller percentage of religious editions published by Jan Moretus i this clearly illustrates the very different policies of both managers of the Plantin Press. Earning profits from liturgical books became Balthasar Moretus ii primary goal.
A comparison of the editions of Jan I and of Balthasar Moretus ii also reveals other differences. In this article two formal aspects of their editions are analyzed in greater detail: the format of the editions and their illustrations. The dominance of the octavo format among Jan Moretus' editions changed into a more equal distribution of the editions over several formats. While both woodcuts and copper plates were used by Jan Moretus i to illustrate his books, almost all of Balthasar ii's were illustrated with engravings. When more information about the editions of other seventeenth-century Antwerp publishers becomes available, it will be possible to compare the production of the Plantin Press with that of other publishers.
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Diederik Lanoye, The Malines printing press before 1800
In 2007-2008 bibliographical descriptions of several hundred editions printed in Mechelen before 1800 from the book collections of the city of Mechelen, were added to the database of the Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen. In this article, this information is used to take a closer look at printing and book production in this town before 1800. Except for a few years during the Calvinist Republic (1580-1585), Mechelen lacked a local press during the 16th century. Only in 1611 did the English immigrant Henry Jaye found the first enduring printing house in the city. Jaye, his sons and grandsons dominated the local book production in the 17th century. After the decline of the house, three generations of the family Vander Elst took over in the 18th century. Competitors were little successful until Pierre Joseph Hanicq broke the Vander Elst domination in the last decades of the century.
Starting from the hypothesis that the Mechelen printing houses were unable to compete with the large firms in the surrounding cities of Antwerp, Brussels and Louvain and therefore mainly produced ‘modest’ editions for the local market, a corpus of 829 Mechelen editions was analyzed.
Over time, the number of editions rose, especially after 1725, but the editions became smaller in size. The average number of leafs needed per copy dropped spectacularly and books were printed in smaller formats. The content of these editions covered a wide variety of genres and became more and more related to the specific local context of Mechelen. The rise of the number of French editions at the end of the 18th century probably also corresponds with the growing knowledge of this language among the population of Mechelen. Printers who started a printing shop in Mechelen quickly adapted their production to answer to the local demands. Pierre Joseph Hanicq was an exception to this rule. He did not yield to this ‘local logic’ but continued printing books which - because of their general content and improved printing quality -could and did appeal to a larger public in the Netherlands and abroad.
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Ad Leerintveld, Ex libris: ‘Constanter’. Books from the Library of Constantijn Huygens
Building on an earlier article on Huygens' library, this contribution is devoted to copies of books that Constantijn Huygens (1596-1684) added to his library. An earlier list of 69 books bearing Huygens' handwritten ‘Constanter’ on the title page has now been expanded and doubled in length. The list is appended to the article and may be consulted on the Jaarboek website (www.boekgeschiedenis.nl).
In the article, the ‘Constanter’ motto that Huygens used as ex libris is explained and the housing of the library in the Huygens house on the Plein in The Hague is discussed. Next, a tour is made through the library using the order in the catalogue of its auction (1688). Books from a variety of subjects are discussed: theology, law, mathematics, physics, optics, architecture, philosophy, literature, history and music. Special attention is paid to the English books that Huygens acquired, such as the First Folio edition (1623) of Shakespeare's works.
The article ends with notes on the use of provenance research and the light that the newly found copies and their additional data shed on the person of Huygens as a networker, many-sided man of letters and learned art connaisseur.
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Marius van Melle, Publishing without borders. Van Ditmar's book importation 1935-1951
In 1948 began the Amsterdam firm Van Ditmar's Boekenimport, specialised in importing and publishing of books, to explore the international market with the production of artbooks. The Intercontinental Publishing Company was established, with paticipation of the Swedisch publisher Arne Sohlman and the Amsterdam booktrader Jan de Slegte, and contracts were signed by renowned publishing houses as Longmans Green in London, George G. Harrap & Co in New York and Flammarion in Paris to produce those books for publishing with their own imprint.
The intitiator of this project was M.L. Bodlaender (1899-1968), directing manager of Van Ditmar's Boekenimport, who was appointed in 1935 but replaced during the war by a nazi as he was a German Jew who had lost his job at the publishing house of Ullstein because of racial motives. Already before the war Bodlaender had token the initiative to publish artbooks. After the years that the firm was become a tool of nazi-propaganda, Bodlaeander reestablished the firm and began also a publishing house of literary books, led by Hein Kohn. The import of fastselling cheep paperbound books of the American publisher Pocket Inc. was so succesfull that the Dutch word for paperback became pocket.
The Intercontinental Publishing Company suffered from the beginning from lack of capital, because of the huge investments wich were needed. A loan of a bank, guaranteed by the firm Van Ditmar, was not enough, so De Slegte offered cash to invest in the project. By this act he was in a position to replace Bodlaender as manager by a person who proved to be corrupt. That shocked the confidence in the company, at the time that the outbreak of the Korea Crisis enhanced the costs and deminished the willingness of the public to buy artbooks. Because it was impossible to get more loans of the bank to invest in an already started ambitious project, the only possibility in 1952 was to liquidate the company. The consequences of this failure were serious for Van Ditmar's Boekenimport. The publishing activities of Kohn had to be stopped, for example.
This article is a description of the rise and fall of this international publishing project, but also of Van Ditmar's Boekenimport, the firm that initiated the company, in the period after the arrival of Bodlaender as managing director.
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Kathryn M. Rudy, Het Trivulzio-getijdenboek, het Gentse Altaarstuk en de Mis als devotioneel onderwerp
Dit artikel is gewijd aan de miniaturen in het Tivulzio-getijdenboek dat de Koninklijke Bibliotheek te Den Haag in 2001 ten geschenke kreeg van een anonieme gever. Dit getijdenboek is voorzien van een uitgebreide groep voorstellingen van kerkelijke ceremonies en Heilige Missen die zelden in getijdenboeken worden afgebeeld. Het Trivulzio-handschrift dat via de website van de kb: www.kb.nl/galerie/trivulzio te bekijken is, bevat de getijden voor elke dag van de week, voorafgegaan door een miniatuur met een H. Mis voor die dag.
In dit artikel wordt aannemelijk gemaakt dat de miniaturist Lieven van Laethem zich voor de miniatuur die voorafgaat aan de Getijden van de H. Geest heeft geïnspireerd op het Gentse altaarstuk Het Lam Gods van Jan van Eyck. Vervolgens wordt de context besproken waarin het Lam Gods functioneert in het Trivulzio-getijdenboek. Hierbij wordt aandacht geschonken aan de op de miniaturen zichtbare gotische bouwstijl en aan het interieur, met name de Vijd-Borluutkapel en de altaren, van de St.-Janskerk te Gent (nu St.-Baafskathedraal geheten). Duidelijk wordt gemaakt dat de miniaturist in de miniaturen de
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hoogtepunten van de H. Mis heeft weergegeven. De overname van het centrale motief uit Van Eycks altaarstuk duidt op een bepaalde interpretatie van dit veelluik. Lieven van Laethem laat zien dat de centrale figuur op het altaarstuk de H. Drieëenheid is, Vader, Zoon en H. Geest.
Vergelijking van Van Laethems miniaturen voor het Trivulzio-getijdenboek met die door dezelfde meester in het getijdenboek voor Karel de Stoute (Getty Museum, ms. 37) wijst in de richting van een vroegere datering van het Trivulzio-handschrift. Het handschrift voor Karel de Stoute lijkt terug te grijpen op het Trivulzio-handschrift. Dit is reden om het Trivulzio-getijdenboek te dateren rond 1470 of iets eerder, in plaats van rond 1475.
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