Comunicación epistolar y colaboración científica entre especialistas alemanes en Sudamérica a fines del siglo XIX. Un estudio de la correspondencia entre Rodolfo Lenz y Robert Lehmann-Nitsche

The following paper undertakes the presentation and subsequent analysis of the initial section of an extended, although only partially preserved letter exchange between two salient German scholars settled in Argentina and Chile from the end of the 19th century on, and during the first decades of the 20th century: Rudolf Lenz, trained in linguistics and Romance languages at the renowned Romanistik School of Bonn, who worked at the Instituto Pedagógico in Santiago de Chile, and Robert Lehmann-Nitsche, a Prussian physician and anthropologist who was in charge of the Anthropological Section of a brand new modern Museum in Argentina’s recently founded city of La Plata. The letter exchange between them lasted from 1897 until 1928 and the analysis of its initial pieces (1897–1898) allows us to see how personal and scientific networks were constructed, and how German science and sociability managed to settle down in such distant locations and still remain connected with its system of origin.

Paul as a Character in Early Christian Narratives

The apostle Paul is featured as a character in a wide variety of early Christian narratives. This chapter considers first how Paul is portrayed in a number of different story-style narratives, including the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of Thecla, the Ephesus Act, and two different accounts of Paul’s martyrdom. Attention is drawn to the creative energy storytellers poured into telling tales about the famous apostle. The chapter argues that many storytellers seem to have felt free to shape their stories according to their own ingenuity and interests, rather than being preoccupied with producing ‘historically accurate’ accounts. It also highlights a range of factors that may have influenced how Paul is portrayed in any given narrative, including plot concerns, pre-existing traditions about other characters with whom Paul shares the stage, and recourse to stock motifs and story templates. In addition to this exploration of story-style narratives, the chapter examines how Paul functions as an authoritative voice in two narratives of slightly different genres, a fictional letter exchange known as 3 Corinthians or the Corinthian Correspondence, and a tour of the afterlife known as the Apocalypse of Paul.

Astronomical causes of climate change. Milanković–Bacsák cycle and the last ice age

György Bacsák, a Hungarian polyhistor, was born 150 years ago and died 50 years ago. He played an important role in refining and further developing the Milanković cycle. Milanković's theory describes the effect of changes in Earth's movements on the climate. The theory came from its creator, Milutin Milanković, a Serbian geophysicist and astronomer. The Serbian scientist was imprisoned in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy during World War I as a citizen of a hostile state. He developed his theory in the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Understanding the essence of the theory, György Bacsák enjoyed the theoretical support of Milanković in the form of regular correspondence between 1938 and 1955. In total, György Bacsák wrote 56 letters to Milutin Milanković, while the Serbian scholar wrote 10 letters, all of which can be found in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The language of the letters was German, since both Bacsák and Milanković spoke German fluently. Three articles from György Bacsák, from the year 1940, were published in the Magazine “Weather” and a part of his book “Earth’s history of the last 600,000 years” was published in 1944 both of them were based on this letter exchange.

The Letter Exchange on the Romanian Front during the First World War

Letters, unusual postcards, censored, illustrate the mood on the front, conveyed by two participants to the world’s first conflagration. The first letter, dated October 26, 1916, belongs to Lieutenant D. Stoica, commander of the Second Section Telegraph. A simple letter, which expresses much optimism, sent to his wife Ionela, two months after Romania’s entry into the national reunification war, accompanied by his portrait. The second letter, dated 1918, is more intense in terms of experiences, sent to a lady named Marie Ionescu, by a Romanian wounded during the battles. The letter, from the stamp that only marks the year 1918, could be dated approximately after November this year. The militant was in convalescence in a camp hospital, waiting to be resent on the front.

ESP Learner Motivations and Perceptions towards International Online Letter Exchange Program

The Online Letter Exchange Program (OLEP) was an online collaborative learning program hosted by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Miyazaki, Japan. It has collaborated with the Faculty of Agriculture in one of the private universities in Malang. The program is designed to encourage students’ written communication skills and facilitate students with intensive real-life English communication experience with other students around Asia. The participant countries are from Japan, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia. One of its uniqueness lies in the policy that the participants share their specific fields, including agriculture and related fields. This study sought to investigate the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and perception of the students towards the OLEP as it was supplementary activity. The perception included the topic, the platform, and interaction. The data were gained from questionnaires and interviews and were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The result showed that extrinsic motivation was dominant in completing the task in OLEP. The positive and negative perception of the three aspects would be a valuable source for those who attempt a similar online letter exchange program

Letters and Communication Networks in Merovingian Gaul

While some letters from Merovingian-era Gaul are well known—for example, Remigius’s letters to Clovis or Radegund’s letters founding her monastery—the scale and scope of extant and attested letters tell us more about the period than the sum of data from individual documents. The cumulative range of known epistolary communications indicates that Merovingian Gaul, like the late Roman Empire of the previous centuries, hosted multiple, entangled networks of social and political interconnections. This chapter considers how we can set about contemplating both the limitations and value of the evidence we have. Comparison with contemporary Egypt, from which letters are preserved both in manuscript tradition (as with Gaul) and as papyri originals, evokes the possibility of envisaging Merovingian Gaul quite differently from our received image. The extant evidence for letters is surveyed, including “literary” collections of letters, letters preserved in other types of texts, and the extensive number of descriptions of letter exchange in narrative texts. The chapter includes the first checklist of more than 500 extant letters and a list of narrative sources, including the first complete list of references to letters in the works of Gregory of Tours.

Leonhardi Euleri Opera Omnia IVA/7: Commercium Epistolicum (Euler – French speaking scientists from Switzerland). Editors: S. Bodenmann, V. Hug, M. Ilić, A. Kleinert. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2017, XII+621 pages – A volume overview

We give an overview of the seventh volume of series IVA of the Birkhäuser edition of Leonhard Euler’s complete works and correspondence. This volume contains Euler’s correspondence in French with ten of his Swiss countrymen: Louis Bertrand, Charles Bonnet, Marc-Michel Bousquet, Jean de Castillon, Gabriel Cramer, Philibert Cramer, Gaspard Cuentz, Albrecht von Haller, Georges-Louis Lesage and Johan Caspar Wettstein. A letter of the German Johann Michael von Loën to Euler, mentioned in the Euler-Bertrand letter exchange is also included as well as the recently rediscovered first letter of Euler to Jean le Rond d’Alembert in supplement. The letters cover a large range of topics also outside Euler’s mathematical and physical interests giving a new insight into his non-scientific activities, and thus casting also a new light on this great scientist as a person.