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Summaries/Samenvattingen
Cara Janssen - The almanacs of Jan Franco Sr. and the promotion of a Habsburg-Catholic identity in the Southern Netherlands (1598-1621)
The Dutch Revolt (1566-1648) was a dramatic episode in the history of the early modern Netherlands. Many inhabitants tried to explain the misfortunes that struck their homeland. Consequently, different printed media in the Southern Netherlands carried out the message that the Revolt was a divine punishment and fortune could only be reversed by a revived enthusiasm for the word of God. Also the prognostications of the almanac writer Jan Franco Sr., frequently published in the city of Antwerp between 1598 and 1621, promoted that relationship between religious sin and the troubles of the Revolt. As upon closer analysis, his almanacs seem to have transmitted a contradictory relationship between religion and astrology. Jan Franco Sr. used exactly the conjunctions of the planets and the stars to confront his readers with their spiritual misbehavior. But according to Franco there was also hope. The marriage between Albert, archduke of Austria and Isabella of Spain in 1598 would again bring peace and a renewed Catholic piety to the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands. In fact, these prognostications echoed the official religious and political discourse of the Archdukes whereas one of their main goals was indeed to promote a revived Catholic unity in the battle against the various Protestant denominations in the Southern Netherlands.
Almanac producers thus seemed to be very aware of the commercial advantages of that specific message in order to make it worth buying those booklets. Furthermore, in my opinion astrologic predictions, as those cited above, affected society more than historians have acknowledged up to now, especially in times of political and religious insecurity. In this article I shall focus on the almanacs of Ian Franco Sr. in order to present a general picture of the commercial and politico-religious motivations of those involved in the almanac circuit. Firstly, I shall analyze how the various stakeholders determined the production process of the almanacs. Furthermore I shall evaluate the content of the almanacs of Jan Franco Sr. in order to get a better understanding of the different political and religious expectations and motivations of almanac authors, printers and their readers.
Annelies Noordhof - The paper child. Nationalisation as the end of the local students' almanach?
In the historiography of the modern university the almanac of the students' corps is a subject of research with various possibilities. The data of students in the almanacs have been used to illustrate shifts in student population of the universities in the nineteenth century. Furthermore the (evolvement in) prose and poetry of students in the almanacs are a rich source for studying the cultural history of the university. In this article the almanac of the students' corps is stud- | |
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ied in a different manner, namely, as an (annual) student periodical. And more specifically, its relation to the other student periodical that emerged in the nineteenth century: the monthly or weekly student newspaper. The reciprocal relation between these both periodicals (as a periodical of local interest and a periodical of national interest respectively) reveals the (extent of) nationalization of the Dutch community of students in the nineteenth century.
The first student almanacs were inspired by the Almanak der Akademie van Groningen, voor 't jaar 1813 (Almanac of the Academy of Groningen for the year 1813), initiated by Th. van Swinderen (secretary of the board of the academy). This almanac contained a lot of information; ranging from the history of the university to useful information for students. The students of the academy of Leiden published an almanac in 1815. The other academy cities followed (Utrecht 1822; Groningen 1829). The almanacs became the formal annual of the students' corps (which emerged in the first half of the nineteenth century). It was a handy yearbook which provided the student with every necessary information for daily student life; ranging from the timetable listing all classes and names of the professors to information concerning the senate of the students, the clubs, and the names and addresses of the students. On top of that the almanac was an important symbol - an object of prestige - for the students' corps. It was supposed to reflect the so-called ‘corpsgeest’ (spirit of the students' corps). Therefore the yearly appearance of the almanac was a crucial event.
After the emergence of the almanacs, students started to publish student newspapers for the first time in 1825. These newspapers written by and for students were - at first - tiny, short-lived papers, mostly of local interest. But they transformed in the second half of the nineteenth century into important, weekly national newspapers: Vox Studiosorum (1864), Vox Studiosorum. Studenten Weekblad (1875) and Minerva (1876). In these newspapers students published articles and news concerning the academies, student life, but also news about developments in higher education. Students no longer only felt a close relationship with their own academy, but also felt interconnected with students elsewhere in the Netherlands. This concept of being part of a nation was tocally in accordance with the nationalization of the Netherlands in this period.
For some students it seemed obvious and natural to publish the prose and poetry of students (which had so far almost exclusively appeared in the almanacs of the students' corps) in these national student newspapers. They believed that the advance of a frequently appearing national newspaper was apparent. It offered students the opportunity of their work to be noticed and critiziced by non-studencs, i.e. scholars (something which hardly ever happened with contributions published in an almanac). These reviews were a requisite, since studying in the nineteenth century also encompassed the ideal of Bildung. In 1867 some students from the academy of Utrecht published Noord en Zuid. Tijdschrift voor de beoefening der fraaie letteren (North and Souch. Magazine for practicing the belles-lettres). They strived for a national journal for the belles-lettres of the Dutch students (since Vox Studiosorum failed to do so).
It soon became clear why Vox Studiosorum failed to publish the prose and poetry of students. It was for the same reason why Noord en Zuid did not succeed. And also why all the initiatives to publish a national journal for student prose and poetry (for example Vrije Arbeid. Geïllustreerd Maandblad in 1884), failed to prevail. The students' corps considered these national journals for literature as a direct rival for the local almanac. Therefore they (successfully) called upon the students to refrain from all contributions to these journals. Meanwhile the non-literary national journals (Vox Studiusorum/Studenten Weekblad and Minerva) published extensive reviews of the almanacs, which actually increased the status of the almanacs. The almanacs had become a status symbol for the corps who wanted to underscore their dominant position and to distinguish themselves from the other local corps (precisely because of the nationalization). The corps also seized the almanac as an object of tradition in changing times (at the end of the nineteenth century the corps lost their dominant positing in the community of students). In short, the difficult relation between the local almanac and the national journal for belles-lettres demonstrates the tension that is always the result of nationalization.
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Goran Proot - Woordbreuk. Typografische discontinuïteit op titelpagina's van vroegmoderne boeken uit de Zuidelijke Nederlanden (1500-1700)
De vroegste met de hand gedrukte boeken in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden hadden nog geen titelpagina. Spoedig na de introductie daarvan beginnen drukkers daarop verschillende typografische elementen te combineren. In een titel worden sommige onderdelen uit een groter lettertype gezet dan andere onderdelen. Op sommige titelpagina's worden verschillende kleuren inkt gebruikt (zwart afgewisseld met rood). Vanaf het begin van de zestiende eeuw, wanneer naast het gotische lettertype de romein zijn intrede doet, worden beide lettersoorten steeds vaker gecombineerd. Deze trend zet zich eveneens door wanneer nog andere letters beschikbaar worden, zoals cursief of civilité.
De overgang van het ene typografische kenmerk naar het andere - een andere lettergrootte, een andere letterfamilie, een andere kleur, of een combinatie daarvan - manifesteert zich soms in het midden van een zinsdeel (in grammaticale termen: een constituent) of soms ook in het midden van een woord. Wanneer woorden op het eind van een regel gesplitst worden, kan het eerste deel bijvoorbeeld in een gotisch lettertype gedrukt zijn, terwijl het tweede deel op de volgende regel in romein verschijnt. Dit verschijnsel noem ik typografische discontinuïteit en vormt het onderwerp van dit artikel. Vrijwel iedereen die met vroegmoderne boeken omgaat, kent dit fenomeen, maar tot nu toe bleef het in de vakliteratuur onbestudeerd.
Typografische discontinuïteit is een soort van breuk of overgang in de vormgeving binnenin een informatie-eenheid. Het fenomeen heeft met andere woorden tegelijk betrekking op de vorm als op de inhoud, en het kan op elke plaats binnen het boek optreden. Wanneer het ene deel van een stukje informatie formeel gezien op de ene manier wordt gepresenteerd, en het andere deel op een andere manier, dan is dat in moderne ogen vreemd. In onze huidige cultuur worden formele overgangen binnen informatie-eenheden niet als logisch ervaren, maar in de zestiende eeuw zijn ze op titelpagina's van gedrukte boeken alom tegenwoordig. Dat geeft aan dat typografische vormgeving steeds binnen een cultureel en maatschappelijk kader functioneert en dat de kennis daarvan noodzakelijk is om typografie correct te interpreteren.
Om methodologische redenen vormt het typografisch gebroken woord op titelpagina's het uitgangspunt van dit onderzoek. Anders dan bij zinsdelen kan er immers geen twijfel bestaan over de typografische overgang binnen het woord als informatie-eenheid. Ik onderzocht daarbij enkel woorden die aan het eind van een regel worden gesplitst en noteerde daarbij of er een wijziging optrad in de vormgeving op het vlak van grootte, lettertype (soort, familie) en kleur.
In het totaal onderzocht ik 1.709 titelpagina's van gedateerde of goed dateerbare handgedrukte boeken die in de periode 1500-1700 in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden werden gepubliceerd. De resultaten zijn per decennium gegroepeerd en worden op grafieken gepresenteerd.
De resultaten voor de drie bestudeerde kenmerken zijn eenduidig. Vanaf het begin van de zestiende eeuw treedt typografische discontinuïteit steeds vaker op. In de periode 1521-1550 is het fenomeen op zijn hoogtepunt. In de decennia die volgen neemt de frequentie geleidelijk aan af, tot het op het eind van de zeventiende eeuw zo goed als verdwenen is. Hoewel de intensiteit voor elk van de drie kenmerken verschilt, zijn de trends gelijklopend. De resultaten op het niveau van de constituent stemmen in grote lijnen overeen met die op woord-niveau. In vergelijking met Latijnse titelpagina's verdwijnt het verschijnsel van de typografische discontinuïteit op Nederlandstalige titelpagina's met enkele decennia vertraging. Dit bevestigt de bevindingen over andere typografische trends waarover ik eerder heb gepubliceerd. Het is de vraag of we hier (louter) te maken hebben een voorbeeld van zinkend cultuurgoed (‘gesunkenes Kulturgut’, Hans Naumann), en of er daarnaast (nog) andere factoren in het spel zijn.
De kwantitatieve gegevens waarop deze bevindingen zijn gebaseerd tonen aan dat de massale aanwezigheid van typografische discontinuïteit in de vroege zestiende eeuw geenszins op toeval berust, en dat het geleidelijke verdwijnen ervan gedurende de daarop volgende 150 jaar evenmin toevallig gebeurde. Ik schuif de hypothese naar voor dat de omslag van een vroegmoderne typografische vormgeving naar een moderne typografie plaatsgrijpt onder invloed van veranderende culturele en sociale normen. Terwijl de laat vijftiende-eeuwse en vroeg zestiende-eeuwse vormgeving de primauteit aan de
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vorm verleent, wordt dat gaandeweg steeds minder vanzelfsprekend, tot het in de tweede helft van de zeventiende eeuw niet langer als een aanvaardbare praktijk wordt ervaren. In het begin van de hier bestudeerde periode wordt een eerste lijn tekst doorgaans uit een groter lettertype gezet en gebruiken typografen voor de volgende lijn tekst vaak een kleiner lettertype, ongeacht of dat formele verschil ook met de inhoud samenvalt. Dit gebruik gaat terug op een eeuwenoud gebruik om in handschriften het incipit van een werk, een deel of een hoofdstuk formeel te markeren door een grotere letter. In de loop van de zestiende eeuw wordt de eigenlijke inhoud van de weergegeven tekst echter steeds belangrijker en ontstaat er een verlangen om informatie-eenheden steeds meer op een coherente manier vorm te geven. Vanaf dat ogenblik wordt wat inhoudelijk belangrijk is met typografische middelen benadrukt. De traditionele norm die grote waarde hecht aan een puur formele presentatie van de tekst maakt plaats voor een nieuwe, meer analytische benadering die grotere waarde hecht aan de inhoud. Deze beweging staat niet op zichzelf, maar kan ook op vele andere niveaus in het boek worden waargenomen.
Met Willem Heijting stellen we eens te meer vast dat het boek als medium in dialoog treedt met de maatschappij. Veranderingen in typografische vormgeving staan nooit op zichzelf, maar reflecteren veranderende culturele en sociale normen en oefenen daar op hun beurt invloed op uit. Uiteraard staan deze veranderingen die we voor de Zuidelijke Nederlanden hebben waargenomen niet op zichzelf. Er is nood aan een breder onderzoek om te begrijpen waar deze processen hun oorsprong vinden, hoe ze zich in verschillende culturen ontwikkelen, en welke transformaties ze ondergaan wanneer ze van de ene cultuur naar de andere migreren. Paradoxaal genoeg heeft het boek - het medium bij uitstek voor de overdracht van kennis en wijsheid - nog steeds niet alle geheimen van zijn typografische code prijsgegeven.
Cora Zwart - Religious literature in lay hands. The ‘book legacy’ of Elisabeth De Grutere († Ghent, 1500) as an example of late medieval religious book ownership and book use by urban lay people
This article focuses on a small, rather unknown, and undated late medieval manuscript in Middle Dutch, of the book legacy of Elisabeth De Grutere to the beguinage of Onze Lieve Vrouw Ter Hooie or Klein Begijnhof (Small Beguinage) in Ghent. The manuscript includes an introduction and the list of seventy religious books in vernacular Elisabeth donated, of which seemingly none has survived. Elisabeth belonged to a distinguished Ghent family and was the widow of Simon Borluut (†1488), city leader of Ghent and member of the powerful Borluut family.
This manuscript is studied for the first time in its entirety, to find out more about the religious book use of late medieval urban lay readers in the Low Countries, a rather new subject for research. The leading questions are: can Elisabeth be perceived as an active reader, and do the beneficiaries of her legacy function as her community of interpretation? Elisabeth's personal book use, her intentions as a book donator, and the use of her books after her death are points of focus. Examination of the historical context and the codicological and paleographical details, the identification of the type of this source, the analysis of the themes and topics, and close reading of the text, provide a definite dating of the manuscript in 1500 and new insights.
In particular the identification of the type and the function of this manuscript reveals a lot. It is not a will, but a copy of a will, made by the scriverigghe of the beguinage for the keeper of the books after Elisabeth had died. This book keeper used the copy as a ‘register’, as it is called on the reverse of the cover. He or she was also responsible for the preserving and lending of the books following the specific conditions set by Elisabeth. Her intentions and conditions precede the book list. Only her friends and the friends of her late husband were allowed to borrow her books, and only when they handed over a note with their names. These ‘friends’ consisted of their relatives and the families they were related to by marriages (basically all Ghent's urban authorial families), beguines as well as urban lay people. Codicological research shows that the manuscript has actually been used as a lending catalogue. The pages are smudged. Small pricking holes next to the book titles, most likely from attaching notes with the names of the borrowers, prove that books were borrowed, some books several times, some once, some never. To whom and when, however, is unknown.
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Only a part of the active readership of Elisabeth becomes visible. Whether she wrote or copied books herself, or what she thought about their individual contents, is unknown. However, the composition of her collection of seventy religious books shows which books she considered important enough to donate. Her choice for the Klein Begijnhof as the beneficiary, her conditions on the legacy, and her choice of books, indicate that she aimed at the salvation of her own soul, but also that of the readers of her books. She probably already lent these out during her life.
The common theme of the booklist is ‘the right way of living, heading for Christ and the salvation of the soul’. Within this theme four topics, as four stages, are present: instruction on basic religious rules and ecclesiastic regulations, the ‘Imitatio Christi’, the Life and Passion of Christ, and growth of the believer focused on spiritual unification with Christ. By studying the books lay readers could work on their personal religious life at any level, in a way Elisabeth thought fit. In her book selection she emphasised the fourth and most difficult and mystical stage of religious life, by leaving many books on this, e.g. a sermon written by Alijt Bake.
The community of interpretation consisted of the well to do friends of Elisabeth and her late husband who borrowed her books in the Klein Begijnhof. The contents of her books however, became known to more people because of the reading practices in the beguinage and in the city of Ghent. Although the names of these people are not known, at least a community of relatives of Elisabeth and Simon from inside and outside the beguinage can be perceived, borrowing, discussing and spreading the texts of her books, focused on the right way of living as a lay person, in imitatio Christi.
Saskia van Bergen - The medieval manuscript in the age of digital reproduction
For each discipline in which connoisseurship plays a role, the availability of source material is a prerequisite. To date, not many manuscripts have extensive catalog descriptions and due to the high costs of printing illustrations, only a small portion is provided with images. Therefore, manuscript researchers must work with source material that is largely unpublished. The last decades an increasing number of digitised manuscripts is made available online in open access. This allows both the general public and the specialized scientist to study these manuscripts anywhere, anytime, and to download, share, and reuse the scans. When digitising rare and unique material, it is important to preserve and recreate as much as possible the look and feel of the original object. This article deals with three questions; firstly, how can users of a digital facsimile judge the quality of the scans; secondly, how can the physical contact with the original object be matched as close as possible and lastly, how should a medieval manuscript be digitised to ensure the best possible use in research?
From the moment reproductions of medieval manuscripts were made, their reliability has been criticised by researchers. For aesthetic, scientific, or political-nationalistic reasons, printed reproductions were often manipulated. Because few researchers saw the original manuscripts themselves, it was difficult to judge their quality. Although photographic reproductions brought a greater degree of reliability and were indispensable for many art historians and palaeographers in their daily work, their use as substitutes was questioned as well. Since then, researchers have seen large developments in reproductive techniques, from slides and black and white microfilms, to cds and digital images. But however useful the digital facsimile are, they are poorly able to present all physical characteristics of a manuscript.
If researchers cannot rely on the objectivity of a digital facsimile, the question is whether they can use it. But how can a user judge whether the quality is good enough? Three factors play an important role: quality of individual scans, the presentation of the digital facsimile as a whole and the usability of the entire dataset.
During the process in which a raw scan is converted into tif a number of adjustments are carried out, such as sharpening, noise reduction and other corrections. For presentation on the web derivative formats are produced, such as jpg. These files are very often corrected as well. Ideally users are informed about the technical aspects of the digitisation process: how and when was the material digitised, which camera or scanner is used, which technical guidelines are followed. But in most websites this information is omitted or the topic only briefly addressed.
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The first digital facsimiles consisted of no more than a set of scans, but thanks to developments in digital technology it is now possible to browse through manuscripts virtually, to zoom and rotate, download and share digital images. But most digital facsimile are still poorly able to convey material aspects of a medieval manuscript, such as size, format, quality of materials. Simple tools can help a user to get a better idea of the physical aspects of a medieval manuscripts, like a ruler, or a thumbnail presentation that shows the complete manuscript at once. It can also be helpful to offer both the presentation of single scans and complete openings with the verso and recto. Digitisation can be used to reconstruct manuscripts and libraries and new techniques make it possible to display aspects of a medieval manuscript that are not visible with the naked eye. But for many users this is even not enough. They want to be able to access the data and scans as a batch, and use them for research, web applications and other services.
The structure of the worldwide web provides opportunities to create one-to-many or even many-to-many relationships between physical manuscripts, digital facsimiles and metadata. The digital catalog of the future can present relationships between manuscripts on various levels, not only within a single website, but on the internet as a whole.
Bart Jaski - Reproducties van het Utrechts Psalter: handgeschreven, gedrukt en digitaal
In de decennia rond 1850 werd het Utrechts Psalter herontdekt in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht, en dit bracht een toenemende vraag om reproducties van het handschrift met zich mee. Eerst waren dit handgemaakte kopieën, later gedrukt. Omdat er werd gedacht dat het handschrift de vroegste tekstgetuige van het Credo van Athanasius (Quicumque vult) was, en die tekst in de Anglicaanse liturgie ter discussie stond, werd het Utrechts Psalter in 1873 naar Londen gehaald om daar te worden bestudeerd. Dit leidde tot veel publieke bekendheid, de eerste belangrijke fotografische facsimile van een middeleeuws handschrift en de oprichting van de Palaeographical Society, de eerste in zijn soort ter wereld.
De facsimile bracht kunsthistorici op het spoor van de herkomst van het psalter - in of nabij Reims, rond 830 - en onderzoek toonde aan hoe zelfs in die tijd de iconografie van het Utrechts Psalter werd gereproduceerd in andere handschriften en artefacten. Hetzelfde gebeurde in Canterbury in de elfde en twaalfde eeuw toen het Utrechts Psalter daar verbleef. Maar het palter is zelf ook ten dele weer een reproductie, gezien de invloeden van Laat Romeinse en Byzantijnse kunst.
De nauwe relatie tussen de tekst van elke van de 150 psalmen en zestien cantica enerzijds en de 166 afbeeldingen anderzijds zorgde aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw tot opeenvolgende pogingen om deze te analyseren. Dit mondde uit in de (gedeeltelijke) facsimile uitgave van DeWald (Princeton) in 1932. Het kleurenfacsimile met commentaarband uit 1982 en 1984, destijds uniek in Nederland, waren schatplichtig aan deze opzet. Die werd daarna digitaal voortgezet in de innovatieve cd-rom uit 1996, waarin een visuele link werd gelegd tussen de tekst van de psalm en zijn illustratie. Deze presentatie werd in 2002 op het internet gezet, maar door de snelle ontwikkelingen voldeed ze na een decennium al niet meer aan de geldende standaarden. In 2011 werd het Utrechts Psalter opnieuw gedigitaliseerd en eerst alleen bladerhaar gepresenteerd. In 2014 volgde een aparte website, met daarin een geannoteerde editie die voortbouwt op de cd-rom van 1996, maar meer mogelijkheden en kwaliteit biedt.
Als geen ander handschrift is de geschiedenis van het Utrechts Psalter verweven met de vervaardiging van zijn eigen reproducties, van de tijd van zijn ontstaan tot aan vandaag de dag. Maar ook al zijn reproducties en websites in feite maar surrogaten, hun vervaardiging is het werk van experts die daarvoor erkenning verdienen.
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Bart Besamusca - The history of Alexander the Great in four early editions
In this article, four printed editions of the Middle Dutch Historie van Alexander are studied. Gheraert Leeu published the earliest edition in Gouda in 1477, using the Alexander episode in the so-called ‘Bible Translation of 1360’ as his source text. Leeu's text closely resembles the text which is preserved in the Utrecht manuscript of the Bible translation, but this codex did not serve as the printer's setting copy. The 1477 edition of the Historie van Alexander, which does not include a title page, woodcut illustrations or a table of contents, was apparently a success. This is suggested by the second edition of the Historie van Alexander, which was published two years later, in 1479, by Jacob Jacobszoon van der Meer and Mauricius Yemantszoon in Delft. Textual analysis shows that they had Leeu's source text at their disposal, which they used as their printer's copy instead of his 1477 edition. Easy access to the text of this second edition was provided by a table of contents. In 1488, Christiaen Snellaert brought out the third edition of the Historie van Alexander. Using Leeu's 1477 edition as printer's copy, Snellaert changed the succession of narrative events in order to present a chronological version of the story. He added, moreover, a title page and ordered a series of woodcut illustrations to enhance the text. Three years later, in 1491, Snellaert produced the fourth edition of the Historie van Alexander. Although this edition is almost identical to its source, Snellaert's 1488 edition, it preserves a better reading in a number of passages. These four incunabula show, it is argued, that early printers applied various strategies to increase the attractiveness of their editions. To this end, they adapted their source texts, and accommodated the audience by providing title pages, woodcut illustrations and tables of contents. Leeu's fortunate decision to print the story of Alexander suggests that late
fifteenth-century readers favoured narratives which claimed to be grounded on historical facts. This preference may have sealed the fate of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances in the early period of print. They were, in contrast to Charlemagne romances, ignored by printers, who had no commercial trust in stories which were not, or not enough, linked to the past.
Jos van Heel - The image of the Antique tekst. Printed facsimiles of text from Classical Antiquity from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century
The written legacy of Classical Antiquity has come down to us through manuscripts of an often much later date, by way of papyri mainly found in Egypt and by way of inscriptions. Soon after the invention of printing classical texts were published. After a few decades editions appeared in which an attempt was made to do justice to the material aspects of the carriers of the text. The earliest example is the Epigrammata antiquae urbis by Mazochius from 1521, where the contours of the monuments and the texts are reproduced in woodcuts and type respectively. In this way, an impression could be given of the form of the monument and the line division of the text, but not of the form of the letters.
De castrametatione, a work traditionally ascribed to Hyginus Gromaticus, was first edited by Petrus Scriverius in 1603. For the second edition (1660), Radboud Herman Schele used the same sixth-century codex that Scriverius used, but he added a typographical facsimile of the manuscript. In print, the precise text, the scriptura continua, the word divisions and the abbreviations of the original were shown, but, due to the chosen technique, not the script type and the natural irregularities of a written line.
With the development of textual criticism, paleography, codicology and stemmatology, the awareness grew that it was important to reproduce the antique codices in full. In 1741, a typographical reproduction was published of a Virgil manuscript from the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence that dates form before 494 and is known as the Vergilius Mediceus. The editor was Pietro Francesco Foggini and the type was adapted especially for this work. Corrections in the manuscript were made recognisable by using red ink. Another example is the facsimile of the Codex Bezae, a Greek-Latin Bible manuscript with the text of the Gospels and Acts, published by Thomas Kipling in 1793. For this edition, a Greek and Latin uncial were cut in two sizes. Typographical facsimiles from this period, however, are not based on a thorough
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examination of the peculiarities of the manuscript (for instance, the different scribes), and for that reason they cannot be used for text critical study.
Of equal importance in this respect is the monumental De re diplomatica published by Mabillon in 1681, the groundbreaking work for the study of charters, codicology and paleography. Mabillon added engraved script specimens to his sketch of the development of Latin script, among others from a number of antique Virgil codices, such as the Vergilius Mediceus and the fifth-century Vergilius Romanus. In 1671, Pietro Santi Bartoli had already published engravings of miniatures and one script sample from the Vergilius Romanus. In spite of his openly professed antiquarian orientation, Bartoli had no problem with retouching and correcting his examples.
Only seven leaves are extant of a third Virgil manuscript, written in the fourth century in the monumental capitalis quadrata. In Mabillon's time there was an eighth leaf, the first four lines of which were reproduced in the appendix to the second edition of De re diplomatica of 1709.
In the spectacular edition from 1822 of the text Cicero's De re publica that was hidden as a palimpsest under a copy of Augustine's commentary on the Psalms, the publisher Angelo Mai added a folding engraving showing how Cicero's text was positioned under Augustine's. The engraving shows interesting fragments, but fails to make clear the way Cicero's text is in two columns under the single column of Augustine's.
An entire corpus of unknown antique texts appeared in the charred library of Herculaneum which was discovered in 1752. The texts, which are usually very difficult to read, were copied and engraved. On the whole, the drawings are more accurate than the engravings. In addition, two series of drawn copies are extant of some of the papyri (in Naples and Oxford). However, because the daughtsmen were paid according to the number of words they drew, some of them were tempted to fill empty or illegible parts after their own discretion in order to enhance their income. Although it can be proved in some cases, in others it cannot, because the originals have been lost.
A problem in these papyri are the sovraposti and sottoposti: fragments of the layers above or under the papyrus that stick to the surface, and that are not easily recognisable as such. Not a trace of them can be found in the drawings and engravings. The facsimiles of the Herculaneum papyri cannot be used for study purposes, even though sometimes they are the only source.
In the facsimiles discussed here, philology was the most important line of approach and motive. The objective was to establish reliable texts. The interest in the book as an artifact and the insight that material aspects of the book are also important to understand the history and nature of a text, had not developed yet.
Nelleke Moser - Concealed letters, competent readers. Trompe l'oeil books expressing Enlightenment views on education
This article studies eighteenth century trompe l'oeil books, handwritten books that not only offer a meticulous imitation of a printed book, but also pretend to include loose, smaller leaves with printed images, songs or texts. The books are designed in such a way that the handwritten page and the image that seems to be painted over it are one inseparable whole. The effect is that the text on the pages is concealed by the images and thus rendered illegible. The book becomes a self-consuming artefact, in the sense that it undermines the very goal that it seems to serve, which is to be read. They might also be considered as early modern artist's books. It may be challenging to explain the intentions of the author, but it is possible to investigate how such an artefact works as a book.
The focus is on one booklet owned by the University Library of Leiden. It was made in 1779 by an Amsterdam writing master, Cryn van Zuyderhoudt. He presents the reader with a double illusion. In the first place, he wants the observer to believe that his book is a printed alphabet book. It contains all elements of a traditional alphabet book printed in black type, including a title page with an illustration of a schoolroom where a class is conducted, an image of a cockerel with a poem that incites pupils to wake up and go to school, an overview of alphabets in Gothic, Roman and Italic type,
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an overview of vowels, consonants and syllables, and a series of religious texts and prayers as a means to practise reading. Zuyderhoudt also includes quire signatures and catchwords at the bottom of the page. Just as in printed schoolbooks, the majority of the texts are in Gothic lettering, apart from a number of headings that are in Roman letters. In the second place, Zuyderhoudt created the suggestion of loose images lying between the pages of the book. He sometimes allows a glimpse of the text that is concealed by the image, by using the effect of transparent paper or by painting a hole in the cover paper. An example is a page that seems to be ripped from a psalm book with a hole in it that allows the reader to decipher the word ‘enlighten’ in the text underneath. Some of the images are compatible with the text they conceal. For example, the Lord's Prayer as written in the alphabet book is covered by an image of Christ holding a bible with the text of the Lord's Prayer, only in this instance it is written in miniature lettering and in Roman instead of Gothic letters. Other images undermine the religious message of the underlying text by representing worldly matter.
At all times, Zuyderhoudt favors Roman type over Gothic type, he challenges the reader to interpret images as well as texts (and the connections between them), and he warns the observer to watch attentively, for example by including a painted pair of glasses at the beginning of the book. For this reason it is argued that Zuyderhoudt's book ties in with innovative ideas on how to teach reading and writing at the end of the eighteenth century. This approach is inspired by Dror Wahrman's interpretation of Edward Collier's trompe l'oeil paintings as a response to the print revolution at the end of the seventeenth century, when large quantities of cheap ephemeral print such as newspapers and almanacs were produced. It also builds on research on early modern media literacy by Feike Dietz. Zuyderhoudt's alphabet book was never intended to be used by young children learning how to read. Instead, he directs his message at advanced readers, who needed to be able to read all kinds of letters (traditional and modern), and who needed to be able to read images as well as texts, and deal with contradictory meanings. This fits in with the Enlightenment idea that learning how to read is paired with learning how to reason.
Zuyderhoudt's creation is compared with two other Dutch trompe l'oeil books, each of which shares certain characteristics with his book. One was made in Amsterdam in 1735 by the painter Josua Huneveldt, the other in Middelburg in 1782 by an anonymous writer. Like Zuyderhoudt's booklet, the Middelburg copy wants the observer to believe that it is a printed alphabet book. It includes the same traditional components, however, it differs drastically from Zuyderhoudt's book because the text is not concealed by images. This book does not question traditional reading methods. On the other hand, the book by Huneveldt works in a similar way to Zuyderhoudt's alphabet book. It presents three traditional folk songs in black type, covered with images of geometrical shapes and flowers. One of the images shows a magic square of vowels in Roman type, turned upside down. This might be interpreted as a criticism of traditional reading methods, just like Zuyderhoudt's book. By concealing traditional texts in traditional lettering and offering Roman letters and images instead, the trompe l'oeil books by Zuyderhoudt and Huneveldt can be seen as an exercise in media literacy to make truly competent readers.
Robert Verhoogt - Nieuwe reproducties: Verouderd en gebarsten! Kunstreproductie en de digitale revolutie
De reproductie van kunstwerken kent een lange en interessante geschiedenis. De introductie van digitale media is wellicht de grootste verandering in die geschiedenis sinds de uitvinding van de boekdrukkunst. Vanuit kunsthistorisch perspectief richt ik me op de kunstreproductie van vandaag: nieuwe (digitale) reproductietechnieken, de presentatie en het gebruik van moderne kunstreproducties. We stuiten daarbij op interessante paralellen met ideeën en tradities uit het verleden zoals aan bod komt in mijn bijdrage New Reproductions: Aged and Cracked! Art Reproduction and the Digital Turn.
In januari 2012 dreigde het faillissement voor de beroemde firma Kodak. Het einde van de Kodak werd beschouwd als het einde van een tijdperk, symbool voor het einde van de traditionele analoge fotografie. De ondergang van Kodak werd betreurd zoals aan het einde van de negentiende eeuw de ondergang van de traditionele gravuretechniek werd
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beklaagd. Destijds raakte de eeuwenoude gravuretechniek in onbruik dankzij de introductie van nieuwe technieken als fotografie, door onder andere diezelfde firma Kodak. Inmiddels is de analoge fotografie van Kodak- en Polaroid - verdrongen door de opkomst van de digitale media. Met name na 2004 bleek digitale fotografie een groot succes dankzij de spectaculaire opkomst van telefoons met camerafunctie waarmee men bovendien permanent foto's kan delen via internet en sociale media als Facebook en Flickr.
Moderne kunstreproductie is in staat om het origineel beter dan ooit te benaderen. De ambitie om originele werken zo nauwkeurig mogelijk te reproduceren past in een traditie die terug grijpt op de ontwikkeling van het facsimile concept in de achttiende eeuw. Sindsdien kunnen we de geschiedenis van de facsimile traceren in de achttiende-eeuwse stippelgravures, negentiende-eeuwse lithografie en fotografie tot en met de hoge resolutie digitale reproducties van vandaag, al of niet geprint op drie dimensionaal formaat.
De resultaten van de moderne kunstreproductie zijn tegenwoordig alom aanwezig, bijvoorbeeld via uiteenlopende tentoonstellingen. De recente succesvolle exposities met reproducties van het werk van Rembrandt of Van Gogh passen in een traditie die terug gaat tot in de negentiende eeuw. Daarnaast bieden digitale media nieuwe gebruiksmogelijkheden aan het publiek van vandaag. Websites van Google Art en Rijks Studio nodigen daarbij bezoekers actief uit om zelf aan de slag te gaan met het verzamelen, bewerken en verspreiden van reproducties van hun favoriete kunstwerken uit de collecties.
Het maakt nieuwsgierig naar de wijze waarop de moderne bezoekers van de website en het museum de reproducties en de originele werken ervaren. Hierbij kan onderscheid gemaakt worden tussen het bekijken van de reproductie voorafgaand aan het origineel, gelijktijdig met het origineel, en na het origineel. Ervaring van de reproductie kan daarbij de indruk van het origineel beïnvloeden, en vice versa. Kijkend naar originele werken en de reproducties ervan kunnen we verschillende lagen van authenticiteit onderscheiden, van de afbeelding, van het object, de functie en de context waarin we het werk zien. Voor het ervaren van het unieke object, moeten we uiteraard het kunstwerk zelf bekijken, maar ons tegelijkertijd realiseren dat ook het bewonderde origineel vaak al ver verwijderd is van de originele context en functie. De moderne beschouwer moet zodoende voortdurend alert zijn op wat hij of zij ziet, of wil zien, vooral als reproducties en originele werken door elkaar heen worden getoond. Hoe dan ook is het interessant en relevant om bewust te zijn van zowel het ‘aura’ van het originele werk en de reproductie ervan met zijn specifieke kwaliteit, kwantiteit en plaats in de geschiedenis van de visuele cultuur. Of zoals de kunstpedagoog H.P. Bremmer ooit stelde over reproducties: als je goed kijkt, kun je meer zien.
Djoeke van Netten - Propaganda, publiek en pamfletten in de Gouden Eeuw
In dit recensie-artikel worden vijf recente (handelsedities van) proefschriften en twee bundels besproken die gaan over propaganda, publieke opinie en politiek in de Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden in de Gouden Eeuw: Harms, Pamfletten en publieke opinie (2011), Vroomen, Taal van de Republiek (2012), Stensland, Habsburg communication in the Dutch Revolt (2012), Reinders, Printed pandemonium (2013), Deen, Publiek debat en propaganda in Amsterdam tijdens de Nederlandse Opstand (2015), Deen, Onnekink en Reinders (ed.), Pamphlets and politics in the Dutch Republic (2011) en Harms, Raymond en Salman (ed.), Not dead things (2013).
Veel van deze studies hebben pamfletten als belangrijkste bron, maar ook andere vormen van gedrukte en geschreven communicatie komen aan bod. Deze boeken bieden nieuwe inzichten over politieke communicatie op verschillende niveaus, hoewel er op de geclaimde innovativiteit ook wel iets af te dingen valt. De historiografie over pamfletten kent een bescheiden, maar respectabele traditie. Een sluitende definitie van ‘pamflet’ blijft daarin een terugkerend probleem. In ieder geval blijkt functie (becommentariëren, overtuigen) een belangrijker criterium dan vorm. Een aantal concepten komt telkens terug, wordt geproblematiseerd, aan de kant geschoven en/of vervangen: Habermas' publieke sfeer, propa- | |
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ganda en publieke opinie. Wat betreft methodologie wordt contextualiseren, een antropologische ‘thick description’-benadering of het gebruik van case studies (crises) als zodanig gepresenteerd.
Er zitten vele boekhistorische perspectieven aan dit onderwerp, bijvoorbeeld betreffende de productie en de verspreiding van pamfletten. Het is verrassend hoe weinig bibliografische analyse wordt toegepast. De huidige digitaliseringsontwikkelingen zouden het toch gemakkelijker moeten maken om meer over productieprocessen, vorm en discours van pamfletten te onderzoeken.
Concluderend laten deze recente studies zien hoe politiek en publieke opinie elkaar in de vroegmoderne tijd wederzijds beïnvloedden. Het publiek blijkt verre van passief en pamfletten en andere media konden zelf uitgroeien tot politieke actoren. Een multimediale benadering met oog voor de vele verschillende mogelijkheden van communicatie levert vervolgens de meest interessante conclusies. Toch blijven er nog vele vragen over, in het bijzonder de gebieden buiten de Hollandse steden en de periodes van relatieve rust zijn nog nauwelijks onderzocht. Nog vele minder bekende en onbekende pamfletten en andere gedrukte en geschreven propaganda-uitingen wachten nog op nieuw (boekhistorisch) onderzoek.
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