Palenie ksiąg w starożytnym Rzymie jako przejaw autorytarnego ograniczania republikańskiej wolności słowa

Transition from republic to principate brought a meaningful alteration in the area of conceiving freedom of speech. Republican standards in this matter were not apt for the new regime as it was too fragile to withstand the republican dissidence. New restrictions and ad hoc measures needed to be applied. Among them burning of books was of particular importance. The article deals with incidents of book burning in the times of Augustus (cases of Titus Labienus and Cassius Severus) and Tiberius (those of Mamercus Scaurus and Cremutius Cordus), which, although not numerous, were of high significance for freedom of speech within the new regime. On the basis of analysis of selected ancient sources and scientific literature on the matter, an answer to the question about their political meaning is sought. Accordingly, the socio-political background of change in the area of freedom of speech in the context of passing from a republic to the authoritarian regime of a principate needs to be taken into account. Unfortunately, historical sources regarding the matter are deeply unequivocal and scientific interpretations seem strongly conditioned by tendencies to discern crimen maiestatis in every case of book burning from the times of early empire, even if it is not plainly attested by ancient authors. It appears that the subsequent popularity of maiestas charges could have influenced the erroneous interpretation of previous incidents, which appear to have been — at least formally — distant from the law of injured majesty, being ad hoc measures at least in the times of the reign of Augustus. However, the essential point of analysis concerns the grounds of the incidents of burning books that took place under August and Tiberius, showing a step-by-step process of supressing the republican freedom of speech. Although rare, book burnings reflect a common tendency in new authoritarian rulers’ politics, which at first tend to deal with opponents unpopular among the aristocracy, only to move on to managing adversaries originating from the Roman élite. Nevertheless, the undertaken measures were not suitable for annihilating the books in question, contributing to their growth in popularity. The answer to the core question about the aims of book burnings under Augustus and Tiberius seems to boil down to mere propaganda, showing that dissident books would not be tolerated, no matter the social status of their authors.

Ephemeral/Material

This piece examines the transfer of Barbara Hammer's archive to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The archivist working with the collection highlights the complex emotions involved with this process and reflects on how her own archival work was influenced by Hammer.

Justice in the miniatures of Brunetto Latini's art of rhetoric: Columbia Library, Plimpton MS 281

This article presents the miniatures in the art of rhetoric of a fifteenth-century French manuscript, Plimpton MS 281 (Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library). The text is Brunetto Latini’s Tresor, a thirteenth-century compilation written in Old French on the art of government. The iconography of Plimpton MS 281 seems to be new with regard to the art of rhetoric and to be intended for a legal milieu. By studying the images from the point of view of the history of the text, the aim is to understand what might have caused a change in the iconography of the art of rhetoric.

Pelestarian Koleksi Langka Berbasis Flipbook di Perpustakaan Umum

Introduction. Currently, the office limits access to collections of rare books for users to preserve the physical collection. Users who want to access the display will only get a synopsis. However, this policy makes users challenging to access the full-text content. The collection of rare books has also not received proper preservation and creates some rare book collections to be damaged. This study aims to determine the process of digitizing the rare book collections at the Archives and Library Office of Banjarnegara Regency based on Flipbook.Methodology. This study is a qualitative descriptive study. The selection of informants in this study is a purposive sampling technique. The data collection in this study is observation, interview, and literature study.Result and discussion. This study shows that digitizing the rare book collections includes selection, scanning, editing, flipbook making, and uploading on the OPAC INLISLite application 3.1. Users can access rare book collections in the form of flipbooks or interesting digital books. The obstacles found in digitizing rare book collections are the absence of SOPs of digitizing, inadequate digitization facilities and infrastructures, the absence of Human Resources (HR). Nevertheless, they master the digitization of collections and the lack of budget allocations for digitizing the collection.Conclusion. The impact of digitization with Flipbook is that users have full access to a collection of rare books needed by users and become an alternative to the preservation and empowerment of libraries and users that are more attractive and safe.

SEMANTICS OF OBJECT AND NON-OBJECT VERBS (BASED ON “DEVONI LUGOTIT TURK”)

This article discusses the semantic groups of verbs and gives examples of verbs from Mahmud Kashgari’s “Devoni Lugotit-Turk”. It is known that this work is one of the largest and most important sources on the history of Turkic languages, a rare book that describes the development, status, distribution, differences and similarities of Turkic languages in the X-XI centuries. As for the semantic groups of verbs, this topic has been studied for many years. Each linguist is divided into groups based on their point of view. We first adopted the patterns of semantic analysis from Russian linguistics, and then divided them into smaller groups, depending on the degree to which a person participates or not, and also into subgroups depending on the function of the verbs. It is in this article that non-object verbs are divided into semantic groups and analyzed for a number of reasons.

Book Collections of European Military Libraries of the 18th — 19th Centuries in the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences

It is known that the history of book collections of past centuries’ libraries, including military ones, is tragic: for many reasons, they are often either scattered or preserved in small fragments. Today, when libraries intensively work to digitize their holdings and search out historical book collections, it is very important to identify and attribute books from foreign, as well as from Russian military libraries.For the first time, the article describes the work carried out to identify publications of foreign (and partly Russian) military libraries from the rare books collection of the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article considers the publications as a source of information about scientific knowledge (military libraries were aimed to acquaint their readers with the basics of military art and the latest achievements in military science). There is shown that the content of such libraries’ collections did not exclude thematic diversity, targeted to comprehensively form the officer’s personality: professional, moral and cultural. The article examines the books of the 18th—19th centuries from military libraries of Europe, currently stored in the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the book marks in them proving the publications’ belonging to specific military libraries. There is highlighted the importance of book marks for the attribution of collections (and libraries) that existed in the past, but turned out to be scattered. The results obtained show that the publications and book marks of military book collections are a strong and reliable source in studying the history of military affairs, military science, and the history of military libraries, and confirm the need for further serious work with the library’s rare book collection.

Richard Bradley’s A Short Historical Account of Coffee (1715) and The Virtue and Use of Coffee (1721)

Richard Bradley published A Short Historical Account of Coffee in 1715, an extremely rare book of which only three copies are known. A revised version of the book, entitled The Virtue and Use of Coffee, was published in 1721. Bradley’s 1714 trip to the Physic Garden in Amsterdam, where he examined two coffee trees, led to his two coffee books, whose similarities and differences, including the evolution of the two different coffee engravings, are discussed in detail. This article reveals insights into the milieu in which Bradley lived, his interactions with other members of the Royal Society, and the reasons why his 1715 book is so rare. The various introductions of coffee plants to England in the late 17th and early 18th century are discussed, as well as Bradley’s skirmish with James Douglas, who was critical of Bradley’s coffee work.

Application of Multispectral Imaging and Portable Spectroscopic Instruments to the Analysis of an Ancient Persian Illuminated Manuscript

Illuminated manuscripts are, in general, the final products of a wise and complex interaction of different competencies. In particular, each manuscript reflects uses and techniques rooted in the historical and geographical traditions of the area of realization. Defining the characteristics and the materials in these valuable artefacts is an essential element to reconstruct their history and allow a more precise collocation and a possible comparison with other works in similar periods and areas. Non-invasive methods, mainly using portable instruments, offer undoubtedly good support in these studies. Recent analyses of an ancient Persian illuminated manuscript, combining multispectral imaging and spectroscopic measurements made with portable instruments (XRF, FORS, micro-Raman, IR-ATR) on selected points, provided new data for an improved understanding of this rare book. This study details the possibilities offered by combining these non-invasive methods for an in-depth understanding of the techniques and practices behind the realization of Middle Eastern illuminated manuscripts and provided new perspectives for multidisciplinary approaches to research in this field.